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“What?” When she lifted her head again, she faced the bed and found her back balanced against the dresser. She didn’t even remember moving.
His fingers traced the dip of the neckline of her T-shirt, skimmed over her collarbone and down to the tip of the shadow between her breasts. “I was kind of hoping you weren’t tired.”
Yeah, well, she was wide-awake now. “Subtle.”
With a small tug, he lowered the shirt and slipped his thumb underneath. “I’m not sure I was trying to be.”
His finger stroked over her nipple, making her gasp. “I bet I can be persuaded on this point.”
“Oh, I will try very hard to convince you.” Then he dropped his head and licked his tongue over the straining top of her breast. “Put every ounce of my energy into the task.”
She forgot about guilt and fear. She forgot about everything but him.
Her hand went to the back of his head and she held him close. “Yes.”
“We’re never going to make it to the bed.”
She didn’t think they’d make it to the floor.
Chapter Twelve
Gary sat with his elbows balanced on the desk and his fingers steepled in front of his mouth. All of his focus stayed on the man across from him. The same one fidgeting as if he would jump out of his skin at any minute. Colin shifted and tugged on his pants. Even glanced around. None of it broke Gary’s concentration.
They’d been back in the office for hours. The sun dipped and the night fell, and still they reviewed today’s disastrous plan. The outcome cried out for punishment, but Gary refused to end Colin’s torture that easily by killing him.
Gary sat and waited. He glanced at the clock on the wall and calculated the time since he last spoke.
Eleven minutes.
Colin crossed and uncrossed his legs, sending the chair into a symphony of creaking. When he opened his mouth, Gary broke in first. “I’m starting to believe Ms. Raine has some sort of power over men. Makes them stupid and sloppy.”
“She brought the entire Corcoran Team to the bank with her.”
“Not quite.”
Gary had done his homework, or tried to at least. Finding information on the team had proved difficult. They had no website, and the internet appeared to be scrubbed clean of any reference to the business being involved in any project anywhere. He could find only a general reference to the general work they did.
Yet, their doors remained open, which meant paying clients. The leader’s name, Connor, showed up now and then with veiled references about corporate risk assessments but without any real definition of what that meant.
The only clue was Ben Tanner. There was a name even the best hacker could not make disappear. Turned on his boss, took down the upper levels of NCIS. Yes, Ben had been a busy boy and now he’d appointed himself Jocelyn Raine’s protector.
It wouldn’t be hard to make him disappear and shift the blame to any number of disgruntled military types. Gary smiled at the thought. Tanner was the type of man who could experience an accident and no one would be surprised. Media coverage would likely include a “what did he expect would happen?” quote from anonymous sources. The fingers would point in a lot of directions, but not in Gary’s, and the police would quietly close the case because that was what they did with snitches.
“No one expected a gun battle today. It was a simple snatch job. The men were to make it look like a robbery gone bad without being obvious about taking one woman,” Colin said.
Gary saw the comments as further proof of his employee’s incompetence. “You should have known this could go sideways. I did and I warned you. The men protecting her are not amateurs.”
“And neither were the ones I hired.”
“Your mistake was in thinking you would be able to control the situation when your dealings with this woman suggest anything but.”
“You think the Corcoran Team knows about the data-and-funds exchange?”
There was no other explanation. They protected for a living and they were currently protecting her. Had been from that first night at her apartment.
Protecting her meant making his life difficult, and Gary was just about done with that nonsense. “It’s beginning to look that way.”
“What about Detective Willoughby? He’s on every crime scene.”
Gary lowered his hands to the desk. “I’m not worried about him.”
“Really?”
Colin refused to learn. The last thing Gary wanted was a challenge to his authority. When Colin paid for his failures in this matter, Gary would lead with that one.
