"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.

Chapter Ten.

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?"