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  BLOWN AWAY

  Stephanie Julian

  Blown Away

  Stephanie Julian

  Published by Stephanie Julian

  Copyright 2012. Stephanie Julian.

  Cover by Melyssa Najouks

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon and purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [email protected].

  All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.

  Chapter One

  The bleating phone woke Jimmy DeMarco out of a deep sleep.

  He snapped upright, banged his head on the gooseneck lamp on his desk, then swatted the phone off the desk in his attempt to answer it. Amazingly, he caught it just before it hit the ground.

  “Hello.”

  “Mal? Mal, is that you?” A giggle and a hiccup followed. “I’m not sure I dialed the right number. But that can’t be right. I’m a genius with numbers. Everyone says so.”

  Jimmy’s eyes snapped open, his brain a little slower to follow. The voice was female and familiar. It wasn’t his sister, Janey, and it wasn’t her best friend, Andrea. That left about twenty female cousins but since he heard no trace of a South Philly accent, it had to be…

  “Merrianne?”

  She snorted. “Of course it’s me. Let me in, Mal. I need to talk to Janey.”

  Jimmy glanced at his watch, swearing when he saw it was almost two a.m. “Merri, it’s Jimmy. Mal’s not here. Do you know what time it is?”

  “Whadya mean he’s not here? He works here. I know he works here. I’ve seen him. Let me in, Mal. I’ve got to talk to Janey.”

  Jimmy heard it then, a faint thumping. Merrianne Simmons, a former coworker of his sister’s fiancé, Mal, was outside banging on the front door.

  Shit. The cops would be here in minutes because she was going to set off the security alarm. Clutching the phone in one hand, he took the stairs two at a time, making his way from the basement lab to the first floor of DeMarco Investigations.

  Sprinting for the front entrance, he got there in seconds, remembering just in time to disengage the security system.

  When he swung open the door, Merri smacked him on the chest with her free hand, hard enough to knock him back a step.

  The girl might look like a creampuff, but she packed one hell of a punch.

  “Oh, crap. I’m sorry.” She cocked her head to the side, cat-green eyes trying to dissect him. Or, more likely, bring him into focus. “Wait. You’re not Mal.”

  Swaying on unsteady legs, she reached out with one hand, two slender fingers extended to poke him in the chest.

  Gasping, she drew her fingers back as if she’d been burned. “Jimmy?”

  He grinned at the stunned amazement on her face. “In the flesh.” He grabbed her hand before she could back away and pulled her through the door. “Oh no you don’t. Come on and get in here before the police show up.”

  He had to tug hard because she kept retreating.

  “Jimmy?” Shock made her eyes widen even more and her pretty mouth rounded. “No, no, no. You’re not supposed to be here. I mean, Janey says you’re always here. She says you need to get a life. She told me that too and apparently she’s not the only one who thinks so. But I didn’t think I’d actually see you. You never come out of the basement.”

  Keeping a firm grip on her, he continued pulling until she was through the door. He didn’t think she even noticed as she rambled.

  And slurred her words. She was drunk. He could smell the alcohol now, sweetly enticing. Completely at odds with the Merri he… Well, he couldn’t say knew, because he didn’t really know her all that well.

  An NSA code-lab team leader, Merri was Mal’s former coworker. She’d been up to visit Janey and Mal several times in the past few months since they’d gotten engaged, but Jimmy hadn’t spent that much time with her.

  He’d been busy.

  You’re always busy.

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So sue him. He didn’t take vacations because his brain never stopped long enough for him to really relax. The only time he actually shut off was when he ran.

  But he had noticed Merri. And lusted after her.

  Now his brain came to a full stop as he stared at her.

  She had such a pretty face. She looked like the All-American girl next door, from the pretty green eyes to the pale skin dusted with freckles and gorgeous strawberry-blonde corkscrew curls. His fingers actually twitched with the desire to sink into them.

  And that mouth…

  An image of wrapping those curls around his fingers and pulling her close so he could kiss those full lips rose to the top of his brain and refused to leave.

  Too bad she was too drunk to realize how badly he wanted her.

  She blinked up at him, eyes huge. He didn’t kid himself that she just couldn’t take her eyes off him. She was probably too drunk to see straight. Or realize she was staring.

  Each time they’d met before, she’d seemed extremely shy, barely meeting his eyes when they spoke. And he’d forced himself not to ogle her because he didn’t want her to think he was a jerk.

  But now, he realized pretty wasn’t strong enough to describe her.

  Beautiful. Sweetly sexy and—

  Swaying on her feet.

  “Merri, how long have you been drinking?”

  Her nose crinkled and he could practically see the gears working in her brain. “Is that a trick question? Do you mean when did I actually have my first taste of alcohol or when did I have my first drink today?” She hiccupped. “Or is it yesterday? I don’t even really like alcohol although I just discovered raspberry schnapps. That is so very…yummy.”

  Jimmy sighed but couldn’t fight his grin. Her expression was priceless. The girl had an IQ to rival Einstein’s but the look on her face right now said she wouldn’t be able to add two and two.

  He couldn’t believe she’d managed to get from Maryland to Philadelphia, much less at two in the morning and in one piece, as drunk as she seemed to be. He let his gaze roam over her until it snagged on a tear in her jeans, just above her knee.

  “Damn, Merri. What happened? Are you hurt?” He went to his knees to check the wound and found it still bleeding. Careful, not wanting to hurt her, he picked at her jeans just above the tear and tried to ease it away from the gash on her thigh.

  From above, he heard her draw in a sharp breath then felt her warm hand grasp his shoulder, as if she’d become unsteady.

  When he looked up, she wore an expression he couldn’t decipher. He didn’t have Janey’s ability to read people, so he stuck with what he knew. Problem solving. He stood and she pulled back her hand as if she’d been burned.

  He took one step back and held up his hands. He didn’t want to scare her, but he did kind of tower over her by at least half a foot. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. Just tell me what happened.”

  She swallowed audibly. “N-Nothing. Really. I caught it on a loose screw on the train.”

  His eyebrows lifted. “You took the train? This late at night?”

  The face she made at him perfectly expressed her disdain for his question. And made him bite his lips to keep from laughing at her. “I may be a girl but I am not incapable of taking care of myself.” As if to prove her point, she took a step away from him. And nearly tripped over her feet.

  Jimmy grabbed her arm before sh
e could go down, smothering another smile. “Yeah, I can see that. Why don’t we find you somewhere to sit down for a few minutes?”

  “No, don’t wanna sit. I’ll just get a cab over to Janey’s.”

  She pouted and heat flared in his gut. Whoa. Definitely not the time for that. He pushed the thought away with difficulty.

  “No can do, sweetheart. They’re in New York on a case.”

  “Really?” She blinked several times and he watched her process that information for several seconds before her expression began to crumble and she sniffled. “Oh. Well…”

  Aw hell, she was going to cry.

  He froze, which didn’t make a damn bit of sense. Yes, he was a card-carrying geek, complete with the requisite love of comic books, superheroes, and an overachieving IQ.

  But even his family acknowledged that he had a way with females. He could coax smiles from crying baby cousins and sullen teenagers, and he never had a problem picking up single women looking for a night of no-commitment fun.

  Of course, that last part hadn’t happened in… Huh, he couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d gone out with his best friend, Caz. They’d both been too busy to grab more than a few minutes for a beer a couple times a month lately.

  But this girl… Something was different about this one, something he couldn’t put his finger on.

  With a sigh, Merri did a little shimmy with her shoulders and her backpack dropped to the floor. Then she folded her legs under her and followed the pack down until she sat with her chin on her hands, long curls hanging over her shoulders and nearly to the floor.

  “Well, this day just sucks, doesn’t it?” She sounded forlorn, so absolutely desolate, as if she’d just lost her last friend. It yanked at his gut. “God, what else can go wrong?”

  Jimmy lowered himself to sit next to her. “Wanna tell me what’s going on?”

  She sighed and he heard tears lurking again.

  Oh please God, no tears.

  She shook her head, her expression covered by all that beautiful hair. “Not really, no. It’s embarrassing.”

  He wanted to reach over and take her hand, but that heat still simmered in his gut. If he touched her… Shit. He really wanted to touch her. “What’s embarrassing?”

  “My stupidity.”

  He barked out a laugh. “Now I know that’s not true. According to Mal, you’re one of the smartest people he knows and, coming from Mal, that’s straight-up fact. Come on, Merri. Why don’t you just tell me what happened?”

  She shook her head. “My mom was right. I don’t have the common sense God gave a mule. You know, I can decipher code that’d make Bill Gates cry uncle. Any other woman would’ve been able to see what the guy was up to.” Finally she turned that teary gaze on him and he felt his spine weaken. “I’m damn good at my job and now they won’t even let me do that.”

  Okay, that gave him a little something to work with. “Did you—”

  “A vacation, he said. Like I need a vacation.” She snorted again and shook her head, making those ringlet curls bounce.

  He clenched his hands into fists so he didn’t sink them into that hair. He’d always been partial to blondes and curls. He wondered if they felt as soft as they looked.

  Not helping the problem solving.

  Forcing his gaze back to her face, he saw she was crying now, fat tears rolling silently down her cheeks. Oh man. His gut clenched.

  “Everything’s all wrong.” Her hands came up to wipe angrily at her cheeks. “And I don’t know how to fix it.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me what the problem is? Maybe I can help.”

  “No. You’re a guy, you wouldn’t understand.”

  Well, that might be true. But she looked like she needed a friend. And he wanted to be that friend. Desperately. He wanted her to spill her guts as they sat here in the dark together. He wanted to ease some of that despair in her voice. And he really wanted to wrap his hands around those curls…

  Instead, he placed his fingers under her pointed chin and tipped her face up. “Try me.”

  Their gazes met and held. Those green eyes swam with tears, making them shine even brighter in the low light. Her lips parted and his gaze dropped to watch the tip of her tongue emerge to wet them.

  He moved closer—

  And she blinked and looked away with a sniffle. “I think I’ll just go home. This was a mistake.”

  Jimmy knew he couldn’t let her do that. She was drunk and, judging by the sag in her eyelids, dead on her feet. No, he’d have to take her back to his house and let her sleep it off.

  He stomped down the inappropriate urge to pound his chest and concentrated on strategy. He’d have to outmaneuver her.

  Mal had told him this woman loved a good fight. But Jimmy, who hated confrontations only slightly less than full-cavity searches, might have a fighting chance given her level of inebriation.

  “So how ’bout I give you a ride to the train station. You really shouldn’t be walking alone this late at night.”

  She must have been drunker than he’d thought because she didn’t give him a hassle. “Okay. This day sucks. I’m tired.”

  She closed her eyes and slumped against him, fast asleep.

  *

  Merri woke with the mother of all headaches and a mouth that tasted like dirt mixed with…something really nasty.

  Groaning, not daring to open her eyes yet, she put a hand to the back of her head, trying to pull out the knife that felt like it had to be lodged there. No knife, but her fingers tangled in knots. She’d forgotten to braid her hair before bed. Oh God, that might be worse than the headache.

  “Hey, I thought I heard you moving around. How’re you feeling?”

  She froze, her lungs seizing until she thought she might actually suffocate.

  No, there was one thing worse than a hangover and forgetting to braid her hair.

  She cracked open her left eye and saw him standing in the doorway, one lean, denim-clad hip cocked against the jamb, a smile on his perfect mouth.

  Jimmy DeMarco, in the flesh. The only man who’d ever made her heart flutter like a stupid girl. And though she might be a girl, she was so not stupid.

  Although, those tiny little men jackhammering away at her skull from the inside tried to contradict that.

  With another groan, she pulled the covers back over her head, ignoring the forward pitch of her stomach as it nearly rolled into her throat.

  Maybe she’d get lucky and he’d go away and leave her to her misery. Because, God, was she ever miserable.

  She’d never drunk so much in her life. Why did people willingly do this to themselves? And then call it fun?

  Fun was… Well, at the moment, she couldn’t think of one fun thing but—

  The mattress dipped as Jimmy sat on the edge then gently but firmly pulled back the cover.

  Seemed her luck had run out yesterday and still hadn’t returned.

  “Come on, Merri.” He’d pitched his voice low and easy, and damn if it didn’t make her head hurt just a little less. Or maybe it was because her heart had picked up its rhythm. “Hangovers are a bitch. You’ve got to get some water in you or you’re going to feel even worse.”

  She didn’t think that was humanly possible but she couldn’t help retorting, “I do know that. I’m not stupid.”

  She peeked out from beneath her mostly closed eyelids and caught the grin he tried to hide. “Oh yeah? Then drink the water.”

  With a grimace, she took the glass he held and downed the whole thing. “Okay. Happy? You can go now. I’ll be out of your hair in a little while.”

  Wow, did she ever sound like a bitch. Her mom had taught her better, but she felt so awful lying here, having him staring at her. Why wouldn’t he just leave?

  When he didn’t, she took a few seconds to consider her situation.

  She was in a bedroom so she figured she was in his home, though, please God, not in his bed. It’d just be too damn pathetic if she’d finally manag
ed to end up exactly where she’d dreamed about being for months but didn’t remember how or what she’d done to get there.

  With a quick glance down, she saw she wore the same t-shirt she’d had on yesterday. But not her jeans. “Umm, this isn’t… I’m not in your room, am I?”

  He shook his head, grin still in place. “Spare room. Think you can handle something to eat? Toast or something?”

  She swallowed, the mere thought of food making her stomach revolt. “I think I’ll stick with water for a while.”

  Carefully, he rose from the bed so it didn’t jiggle. Much. “I’ll bring you a pitcher. Bathroom’s through that door.” He pointed to his left. “I’ll get your backpack. You might want to consider a shower.”

  Naked in Jimmy DeMarco’s shower? Be still, my heart.

  How often had she dreamed about that? Dreams she’d never told anyone, including Jimmy’s sister, Janey, the closest female friend she had. Janey would probably think she was crazy, lusting after Jimmy.

  But… She sighed as her gaze followed him out the door, caught on the cutest butt she’d ever seen on a geek. And she knew a lot of geeks.

  When he disappeared around the corner, she eased herself into a sitting position and checked out the rest of the room.

  She didn’t know what she’d been expecting—early-American bachelor pad maybe. But pale blue walls, cream Berber carpet, and antique oak furniture weren’t even close. The bed looked Victorian, covered in smooth blue cotton sheets and a colorful quilt. The chest on the far wall and the armoire to her left matched the bed.

  It was clean and bright and… Oh God, she hoped like hell he wasn’t gay.

  No. No way.

  Janey had once told her Jimmy had been in love and had almost married a woman soon after college. The wedding had never taken place and Janey had never explained what happened.

  “What the hell do you have in this backpack? It weighs a ton.” Jimmy walked back into the room, holding her pack in one hand and a huge bottle of water in the other.

  God, he was just gorgeous. Dark hair and blue eyes and the face of a male model with sharp cheekbones and a strong forehead and—

  She must look like road kill. At least she never wore makeup so she didn’t have raccoon eyes. Reaching up to smooth her hair, she sighed as she remembered the mass of tangles.