Page 35 of Fire and Ice

Shit.

***

Maia stepped out of the elevator and pulled the lever down to slide the bookcases away. She stepped through into Jack's study and pulled the lever up to set the bookcases back into place.

Jack was half-sitting, half leaning on his desk, arms across his chest, ankles crossed nonchalantly. He was looking at her. His slate-blue eyes had an exotic glint and he looked predatory. He was fresh from a shower, his jet-black hair curling slightly, still damp. He was wearing drawstring pajama bottoms and a worn-out grey t-shirt and was bare foot. His lean muscles rippled across his chest and his upper arms were bunched in restrained power.

Maia's breath hitched. Jack McCord was the finest male specimen she had come across in a long time, perhaps ever.

"All done reporting back to your virtual babysitter?" Jack asked, raising a dark brow.

"Viktor is hardly a babysitter," Maia said, grinning at the idea of Viktor and the word baby together in a sentence. "Why are you still up? I thought you had a rough week?"

Jack pushed back and walked towards her. Maia did her best to stand her ground and not shuffle back. There was raw carnality oozing from every fiber of his being and her body—damn her—couldn't help reacting, her nipples tightened.

He held out his hand to her and said, "The smell of apple pie is all over the house, I don't think I can wait until tomorrow morning."

She thought Jack was going to kiss her, and couldn't understand why she was relieved and disappointed at the same time. This man stirred up such conflicting emotions in her, it was so unsettling.

Maia threaded her hand in his as she followed him out of the study. "Well, I did try to procure vanilla ice cream, but my mission was foiled by the Russian mafia."

Jack threw back his head and laughed.

"Now this is the best apple pie, I've ever had." Jack smacked his lips as he forked the last bite into his mouth. "You have to marry me now."

"Or I can just teach Grace to make it, that'd be a simpler proposition," Maia replied dryly as she finished her own slice. "That vanilla ice cream would have been the kicker though."

Jack brows knitted together as he scrutinized her under the bright kitchen light. "There's a bruise forming on your cheekbone." Then realization hit him and he asked furiously, "Did those bastards hit you?"

"Correction. I let them hit me. I needed to get them complacent," Maia said in satisfaction.

"Damn it Maia! You play a dangerous game!"

"I had it under control," she replied calmly.

Jack looked like he wanted to argue more but he reached out and touched her gently on the face where the bruise was forming, then sighed. "You'll be the death of me. So how did you take them down?"

Maia told him.

Jack stared at her. "Remind me not to get on your bad side. Do you know who they were?"

"They're working to hide the leftover drugs from Vergara."

That caught Jack by surprise and his eyes widened. "You're shitting me."

Maia shook her head. "It gets better. The Russian guy who has me on his hit list, appears to be moving in on Vergara's turf."

"Do you know where he is?"

"Sorry, Jack I can't tell you more than that," she said. "I just thought you'd find it interesting how everything was intertwined."

"You know where he is."

Maia sighed. "Viktor has a plan to draw him out."

Jack's eyes sparked dangerously. "And you're the bait," he said flatly.

Maia shrugged. "It's a brilliant plan."

---