She dropped her chin to her chest. “I am more than capable of looking after myself.
I know how to defend myself in an attack and I know how to use a laser gun.”
Ben’s head fell back onto the pillow. He seemed to consider what she’d said.
Unfortunately, the serious turn of their conversation was taking a toll on his arousal.
When his cock twitched and softened ever so slightly, she knew she would have to resurrect their passion quickly.
The feather saved her. Taking the tip, Jenna touched the tip to his balls, causing his hips to immediately buck.
“Shit,” he groaned loudly.
“We need to keep things moving along, Mr. Hawthorn. And I believe we were talking about trust. You have a problem trusting others.”
She circled his balls twice before caressing the sides of his cock, which was now more erect than before. Jenna watched as his shaft thickened before her eyes, pulsing with the rush of his blood.
“Trust means being willing to place your fate into another person’s hands.” She flicked the feather over the mushroom tip of his purple cock. “It means knowing that no matter how bad things look, that person will do everything in their power to support you. To help you get what you need.”
Ben wrapped his fingers around his restraints and squeezed as he pulled. His body began to quiver from strain.
“Trust goes beyond rational thought and lives in your gut. That is what I mean when I say you don’t trust me. I’m not sure if you trust anyone.”
She was thankful she’d put her hair into a ponytail earlier. When she leaned over him and took his cock in her mouth, there was nothing to give her away. Ben cried out 87
when she ran her tongue over his head. When he tried to buck his hips to drive the rhythm, she pulled back.
“See, you don’t trust me. I’m in charge, Mr. Hawthorn. You need to know that I’ll look after you.”
“Jenna, you’re killing me.”
“No, I’m helping you. It’s important you realize you don’t need to be in control all the time.”
Dropping the feather to the floor, she grabbed the next item from her present—a bottle of massage oil. She poured a generous amount onto her hands and hoped it wouldn’t be too cold. Jenna tipped her hand, letting the oil drip onto his chest to roll over his muscles. She could feel his labored breathing as she worked the oil into his skin. Small circles became larger as she moved to massage his arms and neck. She’d used over half the bottle before she reached his cock.
Jenna held herself back for a moment, letting his anticipation fill her bedroom. His shaft twitched and pulsed and Ben shifted his hips, thrusting into the air in a silent plea.
Who was she to keep a man waiting? A quick squeeze of the bottle and the palm of her hand filled with the scented oil. Careful not to spill any before she was ready, Jenna positioned her hand an inch above his tip.
Ben moaned when the oil spilled over his cock and wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop his own release.
She was driving him fucking nuts!
It was bad enough he couldn’t see what she was doing, but he could barely hear her, she’d gotten so quiet.
“Jenna?” he asked when she didn’t move.
“It’s fascinating to watch the oil roll down your cock.”
Gods!
He couldn’t handle it when Jenna, proper little professor that she was, talked dirty to him. He bucked his hips in the air again and prayed she’d touch him soon before he embarrassed himself. And that would be a first.
When her long finger caressed the side of his shaft, he bit out another moan. She didn’t stop—over and over she ran a single fingertip up the length of him. With each touch, his blood pulsed, stretching him to a width he’d never experienced before.
“Jenna, I need you now. Can’t take much more of this.”
“Are you saying I brought the all-powerful Ben Hawthorn to his knees? Me?” she cooed against his stomach as she placed a kiss above his bellybutton.
“Jenna,” he wanted to sound menacing, but only sounded desperate.
“Did I?” She sounded amused. Aroused, but amused.
“Yes, fuck!”
He sighed when she wrapped her fingers around his cock, but she didn’t move. He pushed up and into her hand, increasing the pressure. It wouldn’t take much to push him over.
“Not yet,” she scolded him with a chuckle. “I want to you to say it. Tell me what you want me to do.”
88
Ben’s mind raced with the thousands of things he wanted to experience with her.
Currently, there was only one thing he needed.
“I want to you climb on top of me and ride me hard.”
He heard the sharp intake of her breath. For a second, he didn’t think she would do it, until the bed depressed under her weight and her legs straddled his hips. She held herself far enough away that he couldn’t enter her. In a single motion, Ben felt her wet pussy swallow the tip of his cock whole as she slowly lowered her body onto his.
Thankfully, she held still for a moment or else he would have lost it there and then.
Jenna moaned, her body shuddering against him before she pulled up and quickly impaled herself again. Ben felt his balls tighten and hoped he could hold off long for Jenna to find her release.
Over and over, she thrust herself on him, grinding her clit against his pubic bone.
He could feel her juices pour out of her, her inner muscles clenching around him. Her taut nipples grazed his chest as she rubbed her body up and down the length of him.
She was so close, he could feel it.
“Fuck, I need to see you,” he said and groaned as she increased the tempo. “I want to watch you come.”
Nothing for a moment, but then, thankfully, her fingers were at his face, pushing the blindfold up an inch. Not enough for him to see everything, only Jenna.
A flush covered her cheeks and traveled down to her breasts. Her eyes were closed, a look of concentration and raw desire etched on her face. Ben yanked hard against the restraints, desperate to touch her.
Fucking things!
He wanted to beg her to release him, but she didn’t look like she’d be able to stop.
Gods, she was so close.
“Ben,” Jenna gasped as she curled her fingers around his shoulder.
Her pussy tightened around his cock as she cried out. Over and over she drove herself madly down on him. He couldn’t hold out anymore. He thrust into her one final time, calling her name as he felt the rush of cum shoot deep. His orgasm blasted through him, charging every muscle and sensitizing his skin.
Finally, Jenna collapsed on top of his chest. Their frantic breathing slowly synchronizing into a steady rhythm. Ben couldn’t move, couldn’t think, his entire focus was on Jenna’s limp body and how she made him feel.
“That was incredible,” he managed to say after a few minutes.
“It was, wasn’t it?” she said and chuckled softly. “Who knew?”
“Think you could untie me now?”
Jenna lifted her head to look into Ben’s eyes. “So anxious to escape my clutches, Mr.
Hawthorn?”
For the first time in his life, Ben wasn’t in a hurry to get away from a woman. That didn’t mean he wanted to be at her mercy all night long either.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere. But if you don’t untie me soon, I’ll be forced to take drastic measures.”
89
Jenna raised an eyebrow in question.
Gods, he loved it when she did that.
She managed to look sexy and smart at the same time.
“I’ll be forced to beg, Miss Robins. It really is a sad sight to see. I’d hate to inflict that on you.”
She giggled, but reached up and began to fumble with the knots. It took longer than he’d hoped to free himself, especially when Jenna abandoned him once his arms were free to go take a shower.
“You don’t expect me to do everything for you now?” she teased as she wiggled her ass on her way past him to the bathroom. “I think I need to get cleaned up again. I’m all sticky from the oil.”
By the time he was free of the silk scarves and able to slip off the bed, Jenna was humming away under her shower. Ben chuckled, tempted to join her. They’d never get out of her place if he did that. With nothing else to do, Ben explored her room. The woman needed a maid. He’d have to look into that for her once things settled down.
Maybe even look at bringing her over to CalCorp from the university. Ben smiled at the idea of seeing Jenna every day at the office. He’d never get any work done.
As he passed by Jenna’s dresser, a dark blue cover screen of a contract datapad caught his attention. Without thinking, Ben flicked the document on and began to read.
He got three-quarters of the way through the cover sheet when he realized what this was. An offer of employment. Quickly, he scanned through to the end and sighed with relief. No signature. Not yet anyway.
“What are you doing?”
Ben turned to see Jenna standing in the doorway, towel wrapped around her hair.
He didn’t miss the look of guilt on her face.
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he said and tossed the datapad back on her dresser.
“
That
is private correspondence. Why the hell are you going through my things anyway?”
Ben crossed his arms across his naked chest. “It was out in the open. Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this?”
“Because it’s none of your damn business,” she snapped back.
Ben felt all his old paranoia come creeping back. This was Rick all over again, except Jenna was set to rip his heart out instead of scar his face. He turned his back on her and dressed quickly.
“Ben!”
“Matt will be by tomorrow morning to pick you up. No excuses.”
He walked past her and out the door, making sure to keep his emotions in check.
Why did he let himself get close to someone again?
90
Jenna climbed out of the limo, not bothering to wait for Matt. Despite having the best orgasm of her life, she’d barely slept last night. It completely sucked that the source of both her release and frustration were the same man. She looked around the front of the CalCorp building, but Mr. Annoying wasn’t there.
“Where is he?” she asked Matt, and gave her head a shake at the harshness of her tone. “Sorry, Matt.”
“Hey, no worries. He drives me nuts too,” Matt said and chuckled. “I’m just glad you’re around to keep him in line. Let me call upstairs.”
“Not necessary.”
Jenna spun around. Ben was standing there in his black leather jacket, dress shirt and pants. Feeling completely underdressed in her blouse and plain black pants, she tried to ignore the effect he was having on her body. She couldn’t quite manage it.
Despite her annoyance, Jenna found herself growing wet at the sight of him.
Gods, she
had to get control of herself.
His hazel eyes didn’t tell her anything about how he was feeling, which in itself proved he was still pissed off.
Good! So was she.
“I’m here as you commanded,” she said and gave him a mock salute.
Jenna knew she shouldn’t push him, but she couldn’t help it. Ben flinched, but didn’t take her bait.
“Matt, Jenna and I are going to be going for a walk. We shouldn’t need you, but stay close just in case.”
Jenna didn’t hear Matt’s answer, her mind was too busy racing. “Where are we going? I didn’t come here to play girlfriend.”
Ben slid his arm through hers and led her off down the street away from the limo.
Jenna struggled for a moment until she realized the futility of her situation. When she began to cooperate, she could feel the tension in him ease. Jenna tried to ignore the stares of the people as they walked by. What, hadn’t they seen two people walking together before?
Not when one of those people is Ben.
After they’d walked for a few minutes, Jenna finally looked up at Ben. “So now am I allowed to know where we’re going?”
“I didn’t want Matt to know. He’d insist on following us.”
This sounds interesting.
“And why don’t you want Matt to come along? If we’re going someplace dangerous, I’d think you’d want him around.”
Ben stopped walking and pulled Jenna to the side, allowing a couple behind them 91
by. She smiled weakly at the woman who winked at her as she passed and hoped she didn’t look ridiculous. For his part, Ben was looking only at her.
“I was thinking about the machine and what you said about Perfect Match. I think you’re right about there being a connection. We need to go back and see what we can find out about the place. That might lead us to the owner.”
Jenna couldn’t believe it. Ben trusted her to come along on one of his investigations.
“So why bring me and not Matt? I would think you’d want him around to watch your back.”
She watched a flash of something appear in his eyes. Jenna felt him move closer to her, the pull of his body powerful. She couldn’t take her eyes from his mouth and when his tongue slipped along his bottom lip, her body shuddered, remembering how it had felt lapping her most sensitive spots.
“I doubt very much that they will believe Matt is my perfect match. It made sense for you to come along.”
When he tried to pull away, she stopped him. She’d been with him long enough to know when he was hiding something.
“That’s not the only reason. You never go anywhere without Matt. Why now?” she said and hoped he’d hear the concern in her voice. She didn’t like it when he acted unexpectedly. Ben wasn’t like that.
Jenna didn’t expect what he did next. In one smooth motion, he pulled her tight against him so every inch of her body came in contact with his. The thin fabric of her shirt did nothing to stop the wave of heat pouring off him. Her nipples tightened as he lowered his head to her, hovering an inch away from her mouth.
“You wanted me to trust you. I’m trusting you now. Just like you need to trust that I know what I’m doing. We’re going to go inside Perfect Match and play the happy couple.”
“Are we?” she whispered, her eyes fixed on his mouth.
“I will be as soon as I kiss you.”
With no barriers between them this time, Jenna was shocked at the intensity of his touch. His hands began to roam along her back until they came to rest on her ass, squeezing firmly as he pulled her even closer against his groin.
Jenna felt his cock straining against his pants. She needed to touch him. Without any thought to where they were, she slid her hand down his chest until she was able to wrap her fingers around his shaft. Ben groaned into her mouth and nipped her bottom lip.
“Minx.”
“You started this.”
Ben pulled back as someone from across the street whistled at them, but didn’t release her completely.
“I think we’re providing that crew a bit of a show,” he said as a smile spread across 92
his full lips. “We should move along to our objective.”
It took her a second to clue in the objective wasn’t finding an empty alley so she could have him throw her up against a wall again.
“Right, the company.” She looked around to try to get her bearings. “We’re only a few blocks south.”
She slipped her arm through his and managed to make their way down the street without mauling each other. Looking up at the neon sign that covered half the store, Jenna was amazed Ben had ever considered putting his name in with the company.
“It looks different online,” he muttered.
“Oh, wait until you get inside. The host is a peach.”
Jenna dropped Ben’s arm and pushed the door open. The familiar smell of plastic and what she could only describe as lubricant hit her. The last time she was here, she’d almost gagged. At least she was ready for it this time.
At the sound of the door chime, the host popped his head out from the side room.
When he saw Jenna, a wide grin split his face.
“Well, well, well. I didn’t think I’d see your sweet face in here again,” he said, practically leering at her. “Did things not go well and you’re taking me up on my consolation prize offer?”
“No, she isn’t,” Ben’s voice filled the small front room as he came in.
Jenna smiled and leaned back against Ben when he wrapped his arm around her waist. The look on the host’s face was priceless. It was too bad Rhonda wasn’t here to enjoy it.
“I don’t think you had a chance to meet, Ben. Mr…I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name?” Jenna put her best pout on and hoped it would work. She really didn’t give a rat’s ass what his name was, but that wasn’t going to get them very far.
“Kyle. Just plain old Kyle,” he grinned, though not as smugly as before. “What can I do for the happy couple?”
Jenna stepped up to the counter and leaned against it, giving Kyle a perfect shot of her cleavage. “We wanted to stop by and thank you for matching us up. Things really have gone very well and we wanted to show our appreciation.”
Kyle’s eyes flicked from her chest to Ben and back. Jenna smiled as she reached out and patted his hand. She wanted to laugh as a look of panic flashed on his face.
“Ah, look, I’m glad things worked out, but I really had nothing to do with it. I just man the desk.”
“You don’t want us to show our appreciation?” she pouted again, but this time she ran her tongue over her bottom lip.
Kyle watched her tongue and his gaze flicked back over her shoulder to Ben who was now only half a pace behind her.
“Look. I’m happy you’re happy, but I don’t do threesomes unless it’s two women, if 93
you catch my drift. No offense, buddy.”
“I think you misunderstood,” Ben said and gave Jenna a tap on her ass with his hand. “Do you know who I am?”
Kyle’s eyes narrowed and he ran a hand through his greasy hair. “I think I’d be an idiot not to.”
“Then you know that I am a very wealthy man. I’m impressed with the quality of the matches, if not the store itself.” Ben leaned in over Jenna’s shoulder and lowered his voice. “Is there someplace private we can talk?”
Kyle hesitated, giving Jenna another quick once-over before motioning for them to come around to the back office. Jenna let her frown slip for a moment as she turned to face Ben.
“You touch my ass like that again and I’m going to kick yours.”
Ben smiled as he tipped her face back and placed a kiss on the end of her nose.
“Stay in character,
darling
.”
“Of course,
sweetheart
.”
Arm in arm, they made their way into the small office and took a seat. Kyle hesitated for a moment before flicking the invisible privacy barrier. As Ben opened his mouth to say something, Kyle held a finger to his lips before pointing to the computer monitor on his desk. He took out a small wireless jammer and set it on the desk in front of them.
“Sorry about that. My office has been bugged for a while now. Mr. Jennings doesn’t trust me,” he said with a grin.
“I can’t imagine why.” Jenna couldn’t stop herself and rolled her eyes.
Kyle chuckled. “I’m going to recommend you take your money elsewhere, Mr.
Hawthorn. Perfect Match isn’t the sound investment you think it might be.”
Jenna looked at Ben, who was frowning deeply.
“I find that hard to believe based on the number of participants who are in your database. If I could meet with your boss, I’m sure we could come to some sort of arrangement.” Ben kept his voice even, but there was no mistaking his seriousness.
Jenna looked out into the lobby and noticed there weren’t any customers, not like the first time she’d been here. Very strange.
“Mr. Hawthorn, if I thought for one second that my boss would be interested in taking your money, I’d let him know. But Mr. Jennings is quite happy with his profit margin from Perfect Match since its opening,” Kyle said, leaning forward. “Please, I think you should both leave now.”
Jenna couldn’t believe this was the same sleazy man who’d practically jumped over her and her friends the first time she was here. Something in his face changed, the way he held his body was different.
“What’s wrong? Why do you want us to leave so bad?” she asked and instinctively lowered her voice.
94
“Nothing at all.” He sat back and grinned again. “I just hate to see nice people like yourselves get hosed.”
“But maybe your boss will like our offer. I’m sure we can afford any price he names. We’re really interested in getting our hands on the device that makes it all work.”
As soon as the words left Jenna’s mouth, she knew she’d screwed up. Kyle leaned forward and braced his arms against the desk.
“What do you know about it? No one outside of a few people close to my boss has even heard of it.”
Ben shifted in his chair and leaned forward, matching Kyle’s pose.
“We found the other half at a university dig site. We think it might be dangerous.”
“How dangerous?”
Jenna’s heart began to pound in her chest. “It could take out a large portion of the city. Maybe even the enviro shield.”
Kyle looked from Jenna to Ben before closing his eyes and sighing. “My name is Kyle Regan. I’m an undercover protector on the Mars security task force.”
“Rick Jennings,” Ben nodded, seemingly understanding what was going on.
“If what you’re telling me is true, then we have a bigger problem on our hands than Rick buying off government officials. One I’ll need to tell my real boss about back at the task force.”
Jenna had to give her head a shake. “You mean you’ve been investigating Rick Jennings? How long have you been after him?”
Kyle ran his hand down his face and fell backward into his chair. “Look, I’ve already blown my cover trying to get you out of here, so listen up. Rick has been up to some nasty stuff, but we’ve never been able to prove his involvement. I’ve been working my way up in his organization for the past two years trying to find out all I can.”
“And you ended up running a dating service?” Jenna felt sorry for the poor bastard.
“I thought it was a crap assignment too, until your name made its way into the system.” Kyle gave Ben a good long stare. “My superiors thought it was odd a man of your reputation would enroll with a dating service.”
Jenna didn’t like where this was going. “Look, we haven’t done anything wrong here. We wanted to know who was running Perfect Match and you’ve given us that information.” Jenna stood up. “Ben, we should go.”
When he didn’t move, Jenna grabbed his arm and tugged hard. Ben wrapped his fingers about her hand and gave it a light squeeze. He didn’t take his eyes off Kyle.
“Let me make something perfectly clear,” he spoke in slow measured words. “I have no love for Rick Jennings. If your superiors want to try and catch this bastard, that’s fine. But I plan on taking him down. Don’t get in my way.”
95
Ben finally stood in one smooth motion. Jenna couldn’t contain her surprise at the anger in his stance and on his face.
“I wouldn’t suggest that.” Kyle stood, and for the first time Jenna got a true sense of who the real man was.
When she thought they were going to come to blows, Jenna threw up her hands.
“Do you two just want to take your dicks out and compare? I can wait outside.”