James Unmasked

JC never let James far from his side. She represented the normalcy in his life. She was his daily dose of sunshine and at times humility. If she felt he was smothering her, she didn’t hesitate to nail him to the wall. He loved that about her. She was so natural and so strong...

“Wanna tell me about the girl you take everywhere now?” the deejay asked.

“My lady? My posse calls her Lady J – and yeah...that so fits her.” JC smiled at James through the window.

The man seemed surprised JC was so forth-coming. He had been known for being secretive and evasive about relationships. “How did you meet?”

“She was one of the group.” He shrugged. “We clicked. I wanted her with me. She agreed. We’ve been together ever since.”

Crap, he was telling the world, James thought to herself. The guy known for being QT decided she was the one not to be coy about. She gave him what she hoped was a nice smile. Well, at least he gave her a reason for dogging him – she was his little groupie.

“Smart, funny, all out there,” he was saying. “Real.”

“I imagine that can be tough with your notoriety.”

“Hey, she’s one of my favorite subjects, but I’m here to promote the single.” JC laughed, turning the talk from personal to professional.

“Lovely,” James muttered as JC stepped out of the studio to claim her in the crook of his arm.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he murmured against her hair. “I didn’t wanna lie. Guess I made you a target.”

That was the least of her worries – maybe it was even a good thing. Putting an arm around his waist, she gave him a squeeze. “It’s okay.” What wasn’t okay was the uncontrolled mob waiting for him.

James really didn’t like these impromptu autograph sessions. Too many people milling about aimlessly. It made her uneasy. JC didn’t seem to be bothered as long as his brawny bodyguard as with her. She had tried any number of times to shift his attention to JC, but the man stuck like glue.

During a lull, JC had found a quiet corner to steal a kiss and a cuddle with James. “What do you think? Get this over and spend the rest of the day alone – just the two of us.”

“Mmm...Sounds nice,” she purred as he nuzzled her neck.

“It does, doesn’t it, baby? You’ve been so cool about all this. I’m glad I danced with you that night.”

“We didn’t dance much,” she reminded him dryly.

“No, no we didn’t, did we?” He chuckled. He stroked her soft cheek. Her baby soft skin... “James...”

“Ready for some more, JC?” the DJ asked.

“Yeah, cool!” he answered. Pressing his lips to James’ forehead, he murmured, “Just a few more minutes, baby.”

“I’m fine.”

Grinning as he pulled away, he said, “You sure are.”

James scanned the latest crowd. Something was on her radar. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up uncomfortably. Damn! She hated these things. She moved towards JC when she heard a commotion. So focused on covering JC and the scuffle, she never saw the gun aimed at her.

“James!” JC screamed in terror as he heard the gunshot and saw her body jerk awkwardly on impact. His security closed around him, blocking his view. “James!”

In the pandemonium that followed, James tried to locate the shooter. Too many people scattering and screaming. She heard JC calling to her. She meant to tell him she was all right. She meant...

“James!” JC cried when she hit the ground, blood covering the front of her blue tee shirt. He shoved his way to her. Kneeling next to her, he touched her pale cheek. “Hang on, baby, just hang on.”

Her lashes fluttered open. “S’okay, Josh...”

The wail of sirens grew close.

“Kevin...” was the last thing she said.

Kevin?

JC found out Kevin was Kevin Kaplan from Kerns, Kaplan, and Deerfield. It seemed his James was Deerfield. Before the ambulance arrived, Kevin came out of the crowd and took charge. He knew the information to give the hospital – he even knew James’ blood type.

Her lover was shuffled helplessly into the background. It was like nothing he knew about James except what he had discovered on his own. She wasn’t much into revealing herself. What did he know? She had the softest skin...there was this spot just behind her left ear...she was a very agile, imaginative lover....

“It’s not life threatening, Chasez.” Kevin Kaplan sat across from JC in the waiting room. “She’s a tough chick.”

“Chick? James just got shot because of me!” JC reminded him, incredulous the man was so blasé.

“We miscalculated there. The crazy had never used a weapon before. I mean poison is one thing...”

“Poison!”

“Yeah, the first morning James was with...you...” Kevin realized James had kept JC in the dark.

“She tried to poison us?”

“Don’t think you would have died, but you’d been sick as hell. James saw the note...”

“What note?”

“Shit.” Kevin clamped his jaw shut.

“James has been...protecting me?”

“That’s what we were hired to do.”

“We? I never bargained on a girl.”

“James is no girl, Chasez. She’s one damn fine operative. There’s no one I’d rather have at my back.”

“She...she was with me...as part of a job?...” JC was disheartened. He had fallen in love with her – had toyed with asking her to marry him...It was all a lie...

“You’d have to ask James.”

“I will.”

JC let himself into James’ hospital room. She seemed to be peacefully resting, her dark hair spread over the pillow. How many times had he awakened at night just to look at her? And now he wasn’t sure if she had been his lover out of affection or as part of her cover. But she had taken a bullet because his stalker believed James meant something to him – the maniac was right. He loved James – still loved James.

As if sensing his presence, James opened her eyes. Seeing JC’s dear face hovering so close, she gave him a drowsy smile. “Hey.”

“Hey, baby.” He couldn’t help himself – he stroked a long finger down her cheek.

“This kinda spoiled our day alone, huh?”

He gave her a weak smile. “Kinda.”

“I’m okay, Joshua. It was a clean shot, went right through. Either she’s a lousy shot or she wasn’t aiming to kill.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better, James.”

“It’s the best I can do at the moment.”

“James, I...”

Her fingers reached up to press against his lips, wanting to halt whatever speech he was about to make. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Blame myself? I do. Wonder why you were with me? Damn, I sure as hell do! When you slept with me – every time we made love – was it a lie? Or was I just another job? You had to know how crazy I was about you. Geeze, I couldn’t keep my hands off you – and I was just a ‘job’!”

James decided it was probably best if he felt that way. He had a life to get back to when the stalker was caught – and she wouldn’t be part of that life. They had come together out of his desire to have someone close, not love. “It’s not the first time I’ve used sex to get what I needed,” she lied coolly.

“Am I really that naive? Hell, I guess I am. I thought you cared...”

“I’m sorry you were hurt...”

“Sorry? Well, at least, I got some mighty good fucking,” he retorted bitterly.

His wounding words left their mark but he would never know. “You gave some mighty good fucking, too,” she replied smartly.

“Good! At least that was real.”

“Jamie!” Kevin’s booming voice broke the spell. He’d seen Chasez come in and decided his partner would need an emotional rescue.

James smiled bitterly. Good ole Kevin. It was his cue. He knew she despised being called ‘Jamie.’ If she let him have it, he knew to back off. If she replied sweetly, she wanted his presence.

“Hey, Kev!”

The blonde man proceeded into the room. Standing opposite JC, he dropped a brief kiss on her lips.

JC was stunned. James and her partner?...How could the man bear the idea she’d come to JC’s bed as a truly ‘undercover’ body guard?

“I was told if I make you behave, they’ll release you tomorrow morning,” Kevin told James, all too aware of the daggers JC was shooting him.

“Behaving is no fun.” James pouted.

Kevin chuckled. “Well, you have to – for a few days anyway.”

“That will give us time to rework JC’s security.”

JC? James never called him JC. He was Joshua or sometimes Josh...She was pushing him away.

Kevin looked directly at JC. “We do have to discuss different security, Chasez. This was a direct attempt. This wacko means business.” He flicked a fond look to James. “I don’t much like people putting holes in my pretty partner.”

JC merely nodded. He was alone again. It didn’t matter. Nothing did at the moment. He made for the door.

“Where’re you going?” Kevin demanded.

“To the hotel...Back to the hotel.”

“See that’s where you go and stay there until we can get another KKD agent here.”

He didn’t much like taking orders, but then he didn’t feel much like arguing. “Sure. Whatever.”

His harsh words to James in the hospital had not helped his cause, JC realized. Lashing out in shock and fear, he had destroyed something between them. Whenever he sought her eyes, she had a closed look about her. He wanted nothing more than to hold her and apologize and plead for forgiveness. He wanted to beg her to tell him her being with him wasn’t a lie, she had come to his bed because she desired him, she had stayed in his bed because she cared. Instead, he merely watched her from across the room as Kevin Kaplan ran a security briefing.

“The stalker already knows James is with JC,” Kevin was saying.

Well, at least, he quit calling him Chasez...JC noted morosely.

“So, we are gonna use her as bait to lure her back out.”

“Hell no!” JC jumped to his feet in protest. “I’m not putting her in harm’s way again.”

“Sit down, Joshua,” James muttered. “It’s what I’m paid to do.”

“No.”

“Josh...”

“No,” he repeated stubbornly.

“Excuse us.” James rose to her feet and went to where JC sat. “Come with me,” she said curtly.

The two went into the suite’s bedroom and James closed the door.

“Quit being so pigheaded,” she told him. “We want this person caught so you can get on with your life.”

“Not at the risk of you being hurt again.” He took in the sling that held her injured arm. “My heart stopped when I heard that shot, James.”

“It was a tactical error on my part. Nothing in her MO pointed towards her using a gun. A knife maybe...”

“It doesn’t matter. You were hurt.”

“I’m pretty tough.”

“You’re pretty soft,” he challenged quietly. “In all the right places.”

She would not melt, she told herself. She had to get back her professional perspective. “Knock it off, hot stuff,” she grumbled.

Which meant it bothered her...JC grinned

“Joshua, we want this one – particularly I want her since she left a hole in me. I had a record going – no scars in 6 years in the field.”

Her smooth, unblemished skin. He hadn’t had a clue she was an agent.

“Now, we won’t underestimate her. We’ll have our operatives in place. I’ll be safe,” she assured him.

JC shook his head. “I don’t like putting a bull’s-eye on your back, James.”

“It has to be me, don’t you see? I’ve stuck around. I’ve made her mad. She’s going to see there’s no getting rid of me and make a desperate move. Hopefully, the angrier she becomes the less careful she’ll be. If she slips up in little ways, we can catch her before she makes a move.”

“Get someone else...”

“There is no time for that. I’m it.”

He still didn’t like it.

“Please, Josh, let us do this. Let’s get your life back so you don’t have to keep looking over your shoulder,” James pleaded earnestly.

“On one condition. Say ‘no’ and Kerns, Kaplan, and Deerfield are history with me.” He looked very stern and set.

Why did she have a feeling she wasn’t going to like this? “And that is?”

“The sleeping arrangements don’t change?”

James’ mouth fell open in shock. “Kevin won’t go for it.”

“I’m not saying we have to be lovers – but if we stop sleeping together, that might tip our hand. She seems to know these things.”

That much was true. “Only if Kevin gets an adjoining room.”

JC’s mouth thinned. He didn’t like that idea at all.

“C’mon, Joshua. Status quo has changed,” she urged. She needed the sanity of Kevin in the next room if she continued sleeping with JC!

He considered it a moment. If they could catch the stalker quickly, he would be free to pursue a non-professional relationship with James. “Agreed.”

“Good. I’m glad you are being reasonable.”

“I don’t want to be reasonable,” he told her as she headed for the door.

James was glad to lay her head down that night. Her head ached and her shoulder throbbed. Her roommate had been very solicitous of her, a perfect gentleman – so much so she had to bite her tongue several times to keep from a waspish response. When she fumbled undressing, his hands were there to help her and assisted with the donning of her nightgown. Trying to open the childproof cap on her painkiller bottle proved difficult one-handed. JC took the bottle, opened it, and tapped out two white pills for her to swallow. He’d even fetched the water for her. Climbing into bed, he held the covers while she slipped into bed and smoothed them once she was comfortable.

The moment of truth.

JC shed his clothes and reached for the light pajama bottoms he would wear from now on. Out of her half-closed eyes, she saw he was semi-aroused. He really was trying to stick to his side of the bargain.

“Night, James,” he called as he lay down and turned out the light.

“Night, Joshua,” she sighed.

JC lay on his back staring at the ceiling. It was the second night since he and James met they were sleeping apart. Last night, she had been in the hospital. Tonight, she as only half a bed away, but she may as well have been across town. He missed her. Her sweet weight against him. Her head on his shoulder. Her warm breath on his skin. Her soft, kittenish sighs of contentment. Tears burned the back of his eyes. He’d lost James as surely as if the stalker had killed her.

“Josh, it hurts.”

James’ whimper woke JC. Immediately alert, he heard her soft sobs. In her sleep she was seeking him. He reached across the bed to bring her against him. Her head went immediately to its favorite resting place. With gentle fingers, he wiped away her tears and she smiled. He did too.

In her heart, James was still his. Now, he just had to wait until her brain realized it.