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Right before he could say something, she collected her jangling nerves and forced out a question. “And why do I need these gun skills?”
Connor broke in. “He needs you to be ready.”
Okay. That didn’t answer anything. “For what?”
Ben’s hand hit the back of her chair and he spun her so that she faced him. “Anything.”
* * *
TWO HOURS LATER Ben watched Jocelyn massage her palm with her opposite thumb. She’d followed every direction without arguing or passing out. When he first mentioned the guns, he thought she’d slide right under the conference-room table. Not now.
No way was he going to resist kissing her. Seemed wrong what with everything brewing around them and her obvious distress, but the need started backing up on him and he wanted a release.
“You’re pretty amazing.”
She glanced up at him. Her bright smile came a beat later. “You’re not bad yourself.”
He put the last of the guns in the locked cabinet and closed the false wall. When he leaned back against the workbench, she stepped right into the space between his legs. It was as if the woman was made for him.
He curled a piece of her soft auburn hair around his index finger. “Strong, beautiful, smart.”
“You are a sweet-talking man.” Her fingers fiddled with the buttons on his shirt. She unbuttoned the top one and traced the collar of the white T-shirt underneath.
If they weren’t standing in the middle of a pile of weapons, he’d be stripping that sexy tank top off her right now. He settled for something more G-rated. “I’d rather be the man you’re kissing.”
Her hand slipped up his neck to the back of his head. “We can make that happen.”
With a gentle pressure, she brought his head down. Not that it took much to get him going. The start of an erection pressed against his fly and air hammered in his lungs. There wasn’t a moment he didn’t want her.
A loud beep came right before Joel’s voice broke into the heavy breathing. “How is it going?”
Ben’s head dropped right before their lips met. He looked up and shot his teammate a death glare. “Apparently it’s not going to happen this second.”
Joel smiled as he looked from Ben to Jocelyn. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No,” she said but she didn’t jump back or out of his arms.
That was the only thing keeping him from lunging across the room and strangling Joel. “Yes.”
She let her hands slide down Ben’s chest. When she turned around to face Joel, Ben caught her with one finger hooked through her belt loop. He was fine with her staying close. Plus, she hid a bulge that Joel would give him crap about for days if he saw it.
“What’s up?” she asked with the amusement still evident in her voice.
“A missing fourteen feet.”
Maybe it was a sign of what was going on when Joel burst in, but Ben couldn’t make sense of the comment. “Excuse me?”
“Checked the blueprints and compared to the photos I took inside the bank and the ones I have from outside on the street. Did a bunch of measurements—”
Ben smiled. “Of course you did.”
“—and there’s something between those two buildings, between the bank and Gary’s place.”
“Maybe the bank’s safe.” Jocelyn shifted as if she planned to step away.
With his hands on her hips, Ben pulled her back against him.
Joel shook his head. “No, this is on the second floor, above the safe.”
The beeping returned. Only this wasn’t one long squeal to signal the lock being disengaged. This was a motion detector.
She stiffened. “What is that?”
This time Ben let her pull away. The shot of adrenaline killed off the last of the sexual desire brewing inside him. It sputtered right out as he unlocked the cabinet behind him and grabbed the silencers and vests.
“We’ve got company,” he said as he turned her around and put the Kevlar on her. Then he opened her palm and put a small gun in it. “Good thing you’re a quick learner.”
She stared at the weapon where it lay in her hand. “All this because someone’s at the door of the house? Maybe just ratchet down the testosterone and tell whoever it is to go away.”
Ben hadn’t put up the garage windows. Metal shutters covered every entrance but the door. From the outside, they looked like part of the wall. Nothing out of the ordinary. From the inside, complete armored protection.
Joel reached under the cabinet at the far side of the four-berth garage and a monitor flashed on. Darkness had begun to fall but the security system found the heat signatures. The images adjusted, moving in click by click. The closest camera pinned them at the house’s back porch.
