“Greg Patterson.” The man was totally flabbergasted, his face pale beneath his tan. “We met the other day in your office.”

Jake leaned back, stretched his arm casually around Emma’s chair. His fingers found the nape of her neck, began a slow, intimate massage. “So who’s at home with the kids, baby?” He spoke to Emma but his eyes were measuring the width of Greg Patterson’s hands against the marks on her skin.

“Susan.” Involuntarily, Emma placed her hand over the smudges on her arm. Damn, the man saw everything. And his fingers were inducing a spreading heat in her body, one that she couldn’t possibly ignore.

“You think she’s old enough to handle them?” There was a soft intimacy in his voice, one that excluded all others and wrapped them together.

“She’s sixteen, Jake,” Emma reminded.

Jake rubbed his knuckles along her jaw before turning his attention to Greg. “Where’d you two go tonight?” Jake’s voice was perfectly pitched, friendly, interested, filled with urban sophistication. The golden eyes were merciless, slashing, a cold, bleak, brilliant challenge as they settled in an unblinking stare on Patterson’s face.

Patterson squirmed uncomfortably. “The movies.”

Jake threaded his fingers through Emma’s, brought her palm to the warmth of his mouth, his eyes meeting hers. “Did you enjoy it, honey? You know you never should have left the ranch unescorted.” With absolute deliberation he bit down into the center of the palm. His eyes dared her to make a scene. She gasped, but he refused to relinquish her hand when she tugged. Instead, his tongue swirled over the bite, soothing the sting.

Retaining possession of her hand, he tucked their laced fingers comfortably, intimately, under his chin, and turned his attention back to Patterson. “It isn’t safe for Emma to be out without a bodyguard. I have enemies and they know they can get to me through her.”

He rubbed her knuckles along his blue-shadowed jaw, back and forth, a lazy, sexy movement. Every now and then, he brought her hand to the warmth of his mouth to nibble almost seductively at her fingertips.

“Of course, I’d kill anyone who tried to take her away from me.” He made the statement matter-of-factly in a low, velvet-soft voice, looking Patterson directly in the eye, meaning every word.

Greg paled visibly and a shiver of apprehension went down Emma’s spine. Her gaze jumped to Jake’s face. He smiled at her but his eyes glittered with promise until she looked down.

“Don’t worry,” Emma murmured. “We weren’t exactly alone.” She could barely stammer the words out.

Jake was doing all kinds of things to her body with his absentminded ministrations. Although he was acting so seductive and loving, she knew he was angry with her. Jake was at his most dangerous, acting possessive and skimming far too close to the edge of his control. She’d never been on the receiving end of his anger. Her pulse had sky-rocketed and every nerve ending sizzled with heat. A little desperately, she tried to pull her hand away, but Jake didn’t seem to notice. If anything he tightened his hold. Her heart began to beat faster.

“We weren’t?” Greg sat up straight, aware he was in deadly peril. No one could call Bannaconni subtle, and he had the kind of power that could make men disappear.

“Drake and Joshua were seated two rows behind us. Joshua really enjoyed the film. That was him laughing his head off,” she explained to Greg, trying to ignore the way Jake’s fingers bit into her wrist.

“Emma’s very precious to me,” Jake murmured, nuzzling her hand again. “It’s nice to know I don’t have to commit murder tonight.”

Emma closed her eyes briefly. He was so angry. Had she deliberately set out to make him that way? She had a sinking feeling she might have.

Patterson cleared his throat. “Were you considering murder?” He tried to smile, make it a joke.

The golden eyes slashed at him. “Very seriously considering it.” There was nothing humorous in those glittering eyes.

“Jake.” Josiah Trent’s lawyer, Bernard, stood over them frowning at each one of them. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.” Jake barely glanced up.

“We haven’t got this thing settled,” Bernard objected.

“As far as I’m concerned we have,” Jake answered with deceptive laziness. His arm curled around Emma’s shoulders, his hand sliding down, his fingers absently playing with her hair. “I gave you an answer.”

“You didn’t listen to the proposal.”

“We’ll take it up again later.”

A swift look of annoyance crossed Bernard’s face. “This is so important?”

The golden eyes flickered over the lawyer. Jake brought Emma’s fingers to his mouth. “More important than anything else, Bernard. Now go away.” Deliberately, and quite rudely, he dismissed the lawyer.

Bernard Williams stalked angrily away.

Jake glanced at the gold watch on his wrist. “You finished with your coffee, baby? It’s getting late.” He stood up, one hand drawing her up with him, clamping her to his side, refusing to give her any other choice, the other hand extending to Greg. “It was a pleasure meeting you. I appreciate your taking Emma to the movies.” Carelessly he dropped several bills on the table, paying for the coffee and dessert they hadn’t touched. “We can’t be out late, Patterson. You never know when a little one is going to have nightmares. Right, honey?”