Jenna couldn't believe the man who walked through the door was the same slimeball who'd leered at her and her friends at Perfect Match. Gone was the greasy mustache, replace with a smooth-shaven face. His stringy brown hair had been washed and cut short so it accentuated his strong jaw and rich brown eyes.

105.

The man was gorgeous!

"Sure am. You must be the muscle. Wanna frisk me?" Kyle said in a laughing tone.

One that Matt didn't appreciate.

"As a matter of fact, spread them."

"You've got to be...hey!"

Matt threw Kyle against the wall and began to pat him down. Jenna shot Ben a look, but he merely shrugged. And Roger looked as if he were watching an episode of Mars' Most Wanted.

"My ID is in my back pocket. You can run the ID number in the system if you don't believe me."

Matt snatched the black ID case out of the pocket and walked away. "I intend to."

"I would apologize for Matt's behavior," Ben said in a voice loud enough to get everyone's attention. "But I don't really trust you myself. Drink?"

Jenna immediately felt sorry for Kyle and walked over to where he stood.

"Hi, Kyle. You'll have to forgive their manners, they've been living under a rock for years. You cut your hair?"

The strain on Kyle's face instantly melted and he let Jenna lead him over to the bar.

"Since I had to break cover thanks to your arrival at Perfect Match, I thought it was about time I cleaned myself up. I burned that shirt I was wearing too. Ick."

Jenna chuckled. "It was pretty gross. Were your superiors upset about your leaving Rick?"

"They weren't very happy that I threw two years of investigation out the window.

But after I filled them in on what you told me, they backed my decision."

"I'm sorry if we ruined things for you," she frowned. She hadn't considered how things would be handled by the authorities. Not that she suspected they were in any legal trouble, but one never knew when it came to the Martian authorities.

"Hey, I'm glad to be out of there. Rick is a psycho. I'd kill for a Scotch if you have one."

Ben poured a glass and handed him the drink. Kyle took an appreciative sniff of the contents and let loose a small moan of pleasure before taking a deep sip.

"Shit, that's good."

Ben smiled and she could tell it gave him pleasure to be able to share these things with people. For not the first time, she wondered what his life had been like as a child.

Growing up with everything except other people to share the experience with.

They made brief introductions and finally sat around the large stone table near the window. Jenna had been amazed by the view when she'd first arrived. Ben's condo overlooked most of Serenity proper. The capital city was buzzing this time of night and Jenna could see the steady movement of lights as people moved below. Why Ben didn't spend more time here was beyond her.

106.

"Can we get this thing going? I have tests to run back at the site," Roger said and immediately tapped his fingers on the table's edge.

"Gareth's there. Everything is fine," she said quietly to him.

"Exactly! He'll have things so screwed up by the time I get back I'll have to spend hours undoing it."

"Then we better get started," Ben interjected. "Let's start with what we know."

For the next hour, they waded through everything they knew about Rick Jennings'

organization. Kyle proved to be very helpful, filling them in on details of his organization for the past two years.

"I was originally brought into the organization to see how far he'd managed to work his way into the government. He has several of the municipal councilors on his payroll, the odd building and health inspector, but nothing too deep." Kyle wrote out a list of names and slid the datapad over to Ben, who quickly read it over.

"This doesn't surprise me. Rick's about how much he can get away with, how much money he can make. Power is only a nice side effect." Ben tossed the datapad aside and scratched his fingers through his hair. "But this doesn't tell us what he plans to do with the device."

Jenna's head was sore from all this. Nothing made sense. "Okay, so he has a device that can pull different components together to make a perfect combination. We've seen this work on basic elements and on people with the Perfect Match program. What would Rick get from being able to do this?"

"Money," Matt offered.

"How?" she asked.

"Well, if the two people he brings together are married, there could be blackmail involved. He could use it as a bomb, threaten to set things off if he's not paid. Gods know he has enough influence with the government they would convince the others to pay up."

"This is ridiculous!" Roger stood, his chair falling to the floor with his sudden motion. "None of you have foggiest idea of what you're talking about. I'm out of here."

"Roger!" Jenna barely beat him to the door, blocking his escape. "Where are you going?"

"Back to the site. You don't need me here for anything."

Jenna couldn't believe the anger she heard in his voice. For the first time in the five years she'd known him, Jenna couldn't tell what was wrong.

"We need you. I don't know all the research data as well as you. Please stay."

For a moment she thought her plea worked. But Roger looked over her shoulder at the collection of men sitting at the table staring at them. He sneered as he jerked the door open. "You don't need me. Doubt you ever did, Jen."

Jenna stood looking after him for what felt like forever until Ben came up behind her.

107.

"He'll be fine," he said. Jenna welcomed the warmth of his touch on her arm and didn't fight it when he tugged her back against him.

"I'm not so sure."

"Well, I think our next plan of attack is for me to find out where our friend Rick is holed up for the moment. Once I do, we can bring a team in and haul his ass into the station. One where I can trust he's not going to make a quick escape," Kyle spoke up from behind them.

Jenna and Ben made their way back to the table. Despite Ben's words, she knew something was very wrong with Roger. When she saw him tomorrow, she'd have to talk to him.

"What evidence are you going to bring him in on? We haven't got anything that directly links him to anything illegal," Matt shook his head. "He's not stupid enough to incriminate himself."

"Then we need proof."

"We don't need to arrest him, we just need to get the device away from him. You can leave him for another day," Ben interjected.

The three men turned and looked at Jenna. She shrugged. "I'm probably the best one to get the device from him if that's all we're after."

"No," Ben said with quiet resolve.

"He'll talk to me. He knows I'm important to you and will wonder why I've come to him."

Ben ignored her and looked at the other two. "Get evidence on Rick if that's the angle you want to take. I don't care how, just find a way to get him away from the device so we can get it somewhere safe."

Kyle shot Matt a questioning look before the two of them stood.

"We're on it," Matt said and shot Jenna a small sympathetic smile. "Night."

"Been fun, thanks for the booze." Kyle saluted Ben with two fingers and fell into step behind Matt.

Jenna suddenly found herself alone with a very annoyed millionaire. Ben stalked over to the door and flicked the security lock in place. The finality of the lock sliding into place sent a chill through her. But not as much as the fierce look on Ben's face when he turned around.

"Are you insane?" Ben's voice filled the room. He stood by the door, hands on his hips, eyes fixed on her face. "To even suggest going after Rick...not another word of that."

"He'll smell Matt coming a mile away and Kyle's cover is gone. I doubt we could get Roger to speak civilly to the man, let alone try and find out what he's up to. And you said yourself we can't trust the authorities. That leaves me."

Jenna wanted to melt away as Ben moved towards her, but she didn't. If she couldn't stand up to him, she had no right suggesting she meet with Rick. There was no 108 doubting Ben's anger. When he got close enough to touch her, he grabbed her hand and brought it to his cheek.

"Rick did this. Not one of his men or someone he hired to take me out. Rick. He was toying with me, wanting to see if I'd break under the pain. He wanted to hurt me, not because he needed to, but because he's a sadistic fuck. He wouldn't hesitate to slice you to ribbons to torture me."

"Ben-"

"Not another word."

His eyes were closed for a second, but when he opened them, Jenna sucked in a breath. Tears had welled up, not quite to the point of spilling over, but there nonetheless.

"Promise me you won't go there alone. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you." His voice was barely a whisper, threatened to be swallowed up in the large room.

It felt like someone just ripped out her heart and shoved it back in upside down.

This was the indestructible Ben Hawthorn? The fearless leader who'd challenged most of the Mars government at one time or another? Her finger found the ridge Rick's knife had made as it had sliced its way through Ben's cheek. The skin had long healed, leaving smooth, pale scar tissue. Rick could have killed Ben, let the knife slip to his throat to cut it.

"I promise. I won't go near him."

Jenna went up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss on his lips. Ben didn't move, his body tensing under her touch. Her mind screamed at her, she was going to lose him just as she managed to break through. Her hands slid up his arms as she began to kiss his closed mouth again, trying desperately to coax him back to her.

Ben parted his lips and moaned. Jenna felt his arms come around her waist and back, pulling her tight against his chest. Her heart began to race as Ben opened his mouth to her, their kiss deepening. There was something different, earnest intensity building between them. Jenna felt her entire awareness focusing in tightly on where their bodies touched. The pressure of his hands under her shirt and against her skin.

The way his tongue searched her mouth, tasting her. Her body began to mold against his, the juncture between her legs growing damp from wanting.

Jenna barely felt it when Ben lifted her into his arms and began to carry her out of the room. When he placed her on the king-size bed, Jenna's body reacted to the intimate gesture. Her nipples tightened into painful buds that ached for his touch. Chills of desire started at her neck and zinged down her back and through her body, stopping at her clit.

"Ben, I need you to touch me now before I explode."

He yanked his shirt over his head and threw it to the floor. Instead of removing the rest of his clothes, he lay down beside her and began to tug her buttons free. Jenna sucked in a breath as the cool air caressed her now-exposed skin. But the heat from 109 Ben's body quickly warmed her. With expert hands, he pushed her bra and shirt from her body. Next, he peeled off her pants and underwear, kissing every inch of skin as he exposed it.

"I never want to see anyone or anything hurt you," he said the words against her belly, placing a kiss above her bellybutton when he was done.

"You can't keep me safe from everything. I'm a grown woman."

She ran her fingers through his hair and flexed her fingers against his scalp when he began to run his tongue over the sensitive skin above her mound.

"We'll see about that."

Jenna cried out as he ran his tongue over her swollen clit. She had to fight her own body, forcing it to relax. It didn't matter and she cried out again when he sucked it into his mouth.

"I'm going to look after you from now on." He licked again. "You won't be able to stop me."

She couldn't think anymore to argue with him. Her body tensed as he pushed her thighs wide apart and slid a finger into her pussy. Her juices made her passage slick and he easily began to move in and out of her before adding a second finger. Jenna began to thrust her hips against his hand, mimicking what she wanted to be doing with his cock. She needed him inside her now.

"I want to come with you in me," she somehow managed to say.

Ben pulled back long enough to shed his pants before he pressed the full length of his body on her. Jenna opened her legs wide, pulling him deep inside her as quickly as she could. Ben stilled for a moment before he began to pump into her.

This wasn't like before in the limo. Ben clutched Jenna, pulling her close. But it wasn't close enough for her. She needed more, needed to let him know that she wasn't going to leave him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and devoured his lips with hers. Their bodies were pressed together so tightly their skin was slick as she rubbed against him.

The pressure against her clit was too much, her hard nipples rubbing against his chest, sending waves of desire through her body. She gasped and clutched his shoulders as he increased his tempo. Holding on desperately, Jenna couldn't stop the inevitable. She screamed seconds before Ben began to madly pound into her, his own cries of pleasure mixing with hers. The orgasm blasted through her so hard and so fast Jenna couldn't think. Her muscles tightened, shaking her entire body for one last second before she collapsed back onto the bed.

Ben continued thrusting over and over, filling her body and pulling every last ounce of pleasure from her. Finally, he thrust one final time before resting on her. Ben managed to roll to his side, taking Jenna with him. They lay on his bed, naked and panting, wrapped in each other's arms.

He brushed her hair from her face and gently kissed her temple. Jenna laid her head 110 on his chest and was almost lulled to sleep by the sound of his pounding heart. What the hell was she going to do?

"Ben?" she whispered.

"Hmm?"

"We need to talk. About us."

"I know. But not now."

She danced her fingers across his chest, twirling his chest hair with her fingertip.

"Okay. But soon."

"Soon."

She must have drifted to sleep because when her PCD rang, Jenna sat up with a start. A chill racked her body and her skin was cool to the touch. Ben was still snoring lightly when she slipped from his embrace and jogged naked across the room to her purse.

"Hello?" She looked back into the bedroom and prayed Ben didn't wake up.