Dragon and the Dove (16 page)

“In my experience, it’s the other way
around, with women finding other people’s husbands especially
attractive.”

“Paul told me about Ian,” he said.

“I don’t want to talk about him with you.”
She set her chopsticks down and prepared herself for getting up and
leaving. They had already crossed the bounds of propriety and
professionalism, and if they talked about her ex-husband, they were
going to cross the bounds of civility.

Cooper’s hand on her arm stopped her getaway
before she had a chance to move.

“If he’s part of the barrier, he’s going to
get talked about.”

“Don’t try to analyze me, Cooper.” The edge
in her voice gave away more of her feelings than she had intended,
but it was too late for a flippant reply.

A heavy silence fell between them, and she
could swear she heard his jaw clench.

“I don’t want to analyze you,” he finally
said. “I want to make love with you, and believe me, I wouldn’t be
telling you that if I didn’t have a damn good reason for thinking
you wanted the same thing. I’m not a fool. I don’t go around
setting myself up for rejection, and I sure as hell don’t make a
pass at every woman who catches my eye. But you—” He stopped,
frustration getting the better of him. He was silent for a long
moment, and when he continued, his voice had softened to a pained
whisper. “But you make me forget, Jessie, and I want more.”

She was frozen in place by his words, her
heartbeat slowing to a dull throb. She ached for him, for what he’d
lost.

He swore, one succinct obscenity, and rolled
to his feet. Walking away, he swore again, the same harsh sound.
She turned on her pillow to follow him with her eyes. He stopped in
front of the window and raked his hands through his hair. The
sun-streaked layers slipped through his fingers like falling silk,
making her want to do the same, to touch him and feel the life of
him in her hands.

“We’ve only known each other a week,” she
said, her voice as unsure as she suddenly felt.

He looked over his shoulder at her, and
there was a resignation on his face, a sadness that reached out and
quietly broke her heart.

“It’s been a hell of a week,” he said, and
turned back to the view.

He needed love, physical love, but despite
the yearning she felt, Jessica knew she couldn’t be the one to give
it to him. The sacrifice was too great, the cost too high. He would
go on and either triumph over his nemesis or be killed, and the
odds were very high on him getting killed.

“You’re right,” she said. “It’s been a hell
of a week. I’ll do what I can with the Grand Cayman banker and
write up my recommendation.”

Cooper heard her move behind him, and with a
certainty that forced him into action, he knew he wasn’t ready to
let her go.

She finished rising from the floor and
brushed off her skirt. It was a floral cotton thing, kind of full,
but elegant rather than casual with its black background and
overblown cinnabar peonies. The matching blouse had a stand-up
collar and buttoned down one side. It was the loops around the
buttons that had made him think of taking her clothes off with his
mouth.

She was beautiful. She’d kissed him with
warmth and passion, and talking with her about making love had
smothered his last polite instinct.

She began walking toward the door, and he
swiftly crossed the room to cut her off.

“I think you should concentrate your efforts
on the herb shop,” he said. “The Chinese are very particular about
their herbs.”

“There’s not much there to concentrate
on.”

They both stopped at the door. Cooper put
his hand on the knob and wondered just how far he’d go to keep her
with him awhile longer. “I’ll send John this afternoon to check it
out.”

“Okay.” Her lashes lowered. He could tell by
the hesitation in her movements that she wanted to say something
else.

“What, Jessie?”

“Maybe when all this is over . . .” She
paused for a deep breath and lifted her eyes to meet his gaze.
“Maybe then we could see each other.”

“Why?” He asked the question softly, feeling
a rush of hope surge into his bloodstream. Quickly on hope’s heels
came another dose of frustration. He didn’t want to wait until
anything was over. When everything was over, he’d probably be over
too. God, if Baolian didn’t get him, another cutthroat probably
would. He’d pushed himself so far out on a limb, he couldn’t even
see the damn tree anymore. He’d called in favors and twisted arms
that were used to doing the twisting. He’d all but put his soul in
hock to people who wouldn’t hesitate to claim it if he didn’t come
through for them.

She faltered for a second, obviously caught
off guard by his directness. Then she surprised him.

“Because you fascinate me,” she answered,
“and every time you kiss me, I feel something I’ve never felt
before. I want to find out what it is.”

He hadn’t expected such honesty.

“Part of it is lust,” he said, feeling
compelled to match her honesty with his own.

“And the rest of it?” she asked.

“Part loneliness,” he admitted, knowing that
particular truth didn’t put either of them in a very noble
light.

“There’s still something more.” She sounded
convinced, and he didn’t dissuade her. He believed it too.

“Yes. There’s something more, and I’m no
more sure of what it is than you are. But I—”

He was interrupted by someone’s noisy
entrance into the reception area. Their eyes held for a second,
then he moved a panel hidden in the elaborate carving of the dragon
door and looked through a secret peephole.

“Chow Sheng has arrived with two of his
guards,” he told her. “Stay here until he leaves. I don’t want him
getting any more ideas about you.”

Jessica stepped back and watched him leave,
realizing she’d just made a fatal error. She’d told him the truth
about her feelings. The enormity of her stupidity made her
groan.

* * *

Jessica kept a vigil at the dragon door for
over half an hour before she left her post to put together a snack
off their lunch table and to pull a chair to the door so she could
get off her feet. The conversation had alternated between English
and Cantonese, with enough of her mother tongue used for her to
have learned the reason for Chow’s imperious disregard for Cooper’s
privacy and time.

Cooper owed him money. Lots of money. Chow
had come to suggest Cooper reconsider Baolian’s offer, using the
threat of calling his loan as an incentive for Cooper’s
cooperation.

Cooper had countered with a threat of his
own: to tell Fang Baolian that her lackey dog had given money to
the enemy, to pad the enemy’s war chest against his mistress.

Chow had blanched at Cooper’s words, and
made it very clear that he and Baolian were nothing more than
business associates, for only a mad monkey-dog would enter the jade
gate of a dragon whore, which, it was said, had more teeth than a
jackal. Chow had said all of this in English, wanting to make sure,
Jessica surmised, that Cooper understood every single word.

As to Cooper’s threat, Chow had been
unimpressed. Fang Baolian preferred her business associates to have
power over her enemies, he’d told Cooper, and it had been such a
worthless amount of money. Even Cooper must be able to see that
Chow had not endangered the empress of the South China Sea. If
anything, he had done her a favor by indenturing her enemy to
himself with the loan.

Jessica’s heart and hopes had sunk with
every revelation. Cooper’s ship was taking on water at an alarming
rate. He was sure to go down.

But he hadn’t taken Chow’s offer. Baolian
had doubled her payoff, and still Cooper had held firm. Jessica had
always thought she admired men with principles, but she was afraid
watching a man die for his principles would greatly change her
appreciation for the art of compromise.

“Damn you, Cooper.” She picked up a shrimp,
then let it fall back onto her plate when the phone rang, startling
her. Before she could make a move to answer it, the ringing
stopped. She checked the outer office and saw Cooper speaking into
the receiver.

Thinking how awkward it might be for him if
the caller was delivering vital information, she debated if she
should get on the other line, then decided he could handle the
situation without her resorting to possible rudeness. She reached
for the shrimp again. Again she returned it to the plate. Her
stomach was growling, but it was in a tangle of knots that
precluded eating.

Tucking her feet under her on the chair, she
leaned on the padded arm and looked back through the peephole, only
to discover things had changed in the other room—dramatically. Her
body stiffened and the plate slipped to the floor unnoticed.

John Liu and Cao Bo were just returning, and
their entrance sent instantaneous shock waves through the reception
area. A moment’s more dallying with the shrimp, and Jessica would
have missed the most important exchange she’d seen since she
started working for Daniels, Ltd.

If Chow Sheng had blanched at the mention of
Baolian as his mistress, he turned absolutely bloodless when Cao Bo
walked into the room. His dark, slanted eyes widened into perfect
O’s
, and his long-nailed fingers fluttered over his heart,
as if he could contain the shock that organ had just received. As
quickly as he’d fallen apart, he pulled himself together, turning
his face aside and speaking to one of his guards.

For her part, Cao Bo dropped her cloak of
shy insecurity. When she saw whom she’d walked in on, her immediate
reaction of fear was eclipsed by defiance. Her slight shoulders
drew back and a challenge glittered in her amber eyes.

The whole exchange happened within the space
of a breath, before Cooper could turn from the telephone, before
John got all the way in the door, but the impact of it stunned
Jessica. She swore softly, a word she’d never used but appreciated
now for its earthiness.

In the reception area, much dissembling was
taking place. Chow Sheng sedately informed his adversary of a prior
appointment, assuring Cooper that their negotiations would be
continued at a later date. No introductions were made, but John had
drawn Bo close, as if she were a girl he was seeing and happened to
bring with him to drop in on his boss. Yuxi inconspicuously placed
himself in front of the couple and spoke in rapid-fire Cantonese,
drawing all the attention in the room to himself.

Cooper looked disgusted with the unexpected
turn of events and did his best to smooth things over and get Chow
out of his office. The older man did not need any encouraging. He
left in a flurry of silk robes and bodyguards, as if he hoped a
speedy escape would absolve him of any repercussions from the
chance meeting. That was the way Jessica read the situation, and
she considered herself damn good at reading situations.

Her questions about Cao Bo tripled in the
time it took for the outer doors to close behind the last
bodyguard. Jessica understood the young woman’s initial fear. The
defiance was a different animal altogether. Defiance implied
enmity, and enmity implied acquaintance. Chow Sheng and Cao Bo knew
each other, and while Cao Bo may have been afraid of every other
person she’d met in the last few days, she was not afraid of Chow
Sheng. Quite the opposite, in fact. Chow Sheng was afraid of the
young woman.

He was also afraid of Fang Baolian. The
coincidence was not lost on Jessica.

The minute Chow Sheng was out the door,
Jessica went into action. She ducked her head into the reception
area and started giving orders.

“Yuxi, lock the door, please. John, will you
come and secure the elevator? Make sure it won’t move, then come
back here to wait with Yuxi and Bo. Cooper, I need to see you in
your office—alone.” She ducked her head back behind the dragon
doors, then popped it out again with a last question. “Does anybody
have a firearm?”

All three men had turned toward her, and
they nodded in unison. It was more backup than Jessica had
expected, especially in the office. When Bo added her hesitant nod,
she didn’t know whether to feel additional relief or to give in to
a stronger surge of dismay.

Dismay won. A glance at Cooper showed him
having the same reaction. John was quicker than both of them,
swinging the woman around and flattening her against the wall for a
brief but thorough frisking. He came up with the handgun out of her
tunic and gave Cooper an apologetic smile tinged with
self-recrimination.

“Pretty women,” he said with a shrug, as if
there was no understanding them and he should have known better
than to trust one.

Cooper agreed with both sentiments with a
slight lifting of his brows.

Yuxi stayed with Bo as the rest of them went
into Cooper’s office. After securing the elevator, John returned to
the reception area, leaving the two of them alone.

“General Langston, I presume?” Cooper said
dryly, striding toward the table and the half-empty wineglass he’d
left there.

Jessica ignored the sarcasm. She was too
concerned with how to approach him with what she thought she
knew.

“Nice little disaster we just had out
there,” he said, the idleness of the comment belied by the
tightness of his jaw. He picked up his glass and tossed off the
contents in one swallow.

“That wasn’t a disaster, Cooper. That was a
godsend,” she said.

His gaze narrowed on her. “You’ve never
struck me as the overly optimistic type. Do you want to explain
your definition of a godsend?”

She wasn’t sure just yet, and her
uncertainty showed in her hesitation. “First I want . . . no. First
I need to know what you’re going to do with Fang Baolian.”

“I thought that was apparent. I’m going to
destroy her.”