Chapter Nineteen
When she heard his truck rumble away, Jess wandered into the living room and sat on the couch. Spike jumped up beside her and curled into the indentation he’d left in the once perfect couch. She didn’t have the heart to kick him off.
“You are a bad dog,” she said affectionately. After clicking on the TV, she quickly passed over a couple of reality shows and settled for a rerun of The Princess Bride. “You’re gonna love this movie, Spike.”
Westley had just left Buttercup behind on the farm to seek his fortune when a shadow passed outside the front living room window. Startled, Jess jumped off the couch and ran for her pistol.
She flicked off the lights, then moved slowly to the front door. A minute later, the soft sound of footsteps and a floorboard creak could be heard outside. She waited until they passed, then slowly opened the door, her gun raised, and stepped onto the porch and into the lamplight.
“Stop where you are!” Perfect. She sounded intimidating. The glowing figure of a naked man stopped at the end of the porch and turned. “Calvin?”
“Hey, Jess.”
She lowered her weapon. “What are you doing here? I thought Wheeler ran you off?”
Calvin walked back, his winky swaying. Jess was 90 percent certain she heard appreciative female sighs when he stepped into the porch light, his blinding beauty almost too much to handle without high-powered sunglasses. Glancing out, she saw only darkness from that direction.
“He did. I’m back.”
So much for Westley and Buttercup. “You can’t stay here. Sam likes peace and quiet. You wandering around naked is disrupting the neighborhood.” She raised her voice. “I’m pretty sure there are some women who should be home tucking their children into bed.”
Low giggles followed the footsteps heading off.
“I can’t go. You need protection and my brother is counting on me.” Calvin shrugged. “Besides, I have nowhere to go. My horoscope says that it’s not a good time for me to travel. The stars are not aligned correctly.”
There was something sweetly innocent about Calvin that she hadn’t noticed earlier. Probably because his, um, body was so distracting. Still, she already had an overly alpha bodyguard in Wheeler. She didn’t need another.
“Alvin can take you in. He’s your brother.”
The long blond hair danced around his defined shoulders as he shook his perfectly formed head. “He’s dating someone at work. She sleeps over a lot.”
This was news. “Who?” She failed to keep the excitement out of her voice. “Lynn from accounting? Harriet from housekeeping?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t seen her. He’s keeping her under wraps.”
Alvin was swimming in the company pool? What kind of PI was she? She hadn’t noticed anything going on.
Had Calvin not been loitering in the buff on the porch and causing a traffic back-up on the street, she would have run inside for a three-way Skype with Taryn and Summer.
She jerked him inside.
Spike sniffed him indecently as dogs like to do. Calvin gently pushed him back and scratched under his chin.
“Nice dog.”
“Thanks.” She had to do something. Calvin had to go. “Excuse me for a second.” She grabbed her cell off the end table, slipped upstairs, and dialed.
“What?”
“Alvin, your brother is here.” Why make small talk when he was the reason she had Naked Ken downstairs? “You have to take him. Sam doesn’t want him around and the neighborhood women are in a lather.”
“I can’t watch you. He’s free.”
Irritation prickled her nerve endings. “I. Do. Not. Need. A Babysitter.” There was no being clearer than that. “I’m going to find him some clothes and drive him over.”
“You can’t.” A voice on a PA broadcasted a call for a doctor. “He can’t be seen in public. He could be arrested.”
“Of course he’ll be arrested,” she snapped. “He’s naked.” Jess wasn’t up on the Ann Arbor codes for such things, but was pretty sure public decency was enforced every day other than the University of Michigan Naked Mile annual run through campus.
Alvin sighed. “He’s wanted in seven countries for protesting everything from saving the dung beetle to stopping the English sheep toss. He’s the Naked Protester. Look him up.”
Good grief. As if she hadn’t seen enough of Calvin already.
“Have I expressed my extreme dislike for you lately?” she asked, having lost this one.
“At least once a week.”
He hung up and she was stuck. Yes, she could run Calvin off at the business end of her gun, but he wasn’t a bad guy. The issue was how to spin his presence to Sam to get him to agree to another house guest.
He was going to bust a gasket.
* * *
“No.
“Please.”
“Is ‘oh, hell, no’ any clearer?” Sam said as he tried to ignore Calvin sitting on a towel on his couch. Spike had his head in the man’s lap. They were watching something called The Princess Bride. “He is not staying here.”
Sam had left her alone for a few hours and naked guy was back in his house. He’d hate to find out what would happen if he was gone for a whole day. She’d probably keep the theme going and turn his house into a shelter for homeless strippers.
Jess took his hand and dragged him into the kitchen. After planting a beer bribe in his hand and ignoring the frown that creased a line between his brows, she faced him.
“I know this is not what either of us wants, but I hope that, as a friend, you’ll be willing to compromise. Calvin needs direction and Alvin swears he isn’t dangerous.”
“When did we become friends?” He popped the can open.
“When you took Spike and me into your beautiful home and promised to protect me from harm.” She smiled brightly. He took a long gulp, looked at her, and took another.
“You sure do know how to shovel the bullshit, tough girl.”
“It’s my job.” How did she always smell so good? He’d come home from his outing sweating like he’d run a marathon, exhausted to find an intruder in his house, and she still managed to hit all his senses in a positive way.
“Look, he promised to patrol the perimeter of the house only at night to keep the gawker count down, and he plans to pop up a tent in the backyard,” she said. “Except for meals and bathroom breaks, you won’t even know he’s here.”
He sent her “the look.” “You don’t really buy that?”
Reaching out, she took the can, took a big swallow, and handed it back. “You’ve said from the start that I need protection from the sniper. With Calvin keeping watch outside, you’ll be free to continue to go out at night patrolling the streets of Ann Arbor in your Batmobile, Batman, without worrying about me.”
When he made the motion of shoveling with his hands, she knew she had him. He could tell by her expressive eyes.
How and when had he drifted over the line from being a hard ass cop to letting one exasperating and pushy PI get away with everything short of murder?
“You owe me big time,” he said and waited for a smug smirk. Instead, she cast him a sidelong glance as she walked out of the kitchen to give Naked Guy the good news.
“I can’t wait,” she said softly and left him to contemplate the possibilities of those three words.