If they hadn't been on a stake out, Keegan would have stretched Nikki out on the soft leaves right then and there and shown her exactly what he would have under his wet suit, were he wearing one and all. The air around them crackled with electricity as he held her gaze, wanting nothing more than to hold her. Unable to stop himself, he reached for Nikki, pulling her close enough that their lips were mere centimeters from each other.

"It really drove me wild to see my cousin flirting with you," Keegan whispered so only she could hear it.

"I'm sorry about that."

"Why? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I know. He's too wild and carefree for me. I need someone in my life who's solid and driven."

"Solid and driven, huh?" Keegan's tongue slipped out and dampened his suddenly dry lips. "I am very driven to kiss you right now. Does that count?"

"Oh, yeah," she breathed.

Keegan didn't need any more invitation than that. He crushed his lips to hers, his hunger for Nikki rivaling that of a starving man for a hot meal. She parted her lips slightly and Keegan seized the opportunity to slip his tongue in to her mouth and deepen the kiss. Nikki responded in kind, their tongues battling for control. He couldn't help but wonder if she would meet him the same way in the bedroom. The thought made his entire body grow hard.

Nikki slid her hands up his arms and wrapped them around his neck. It was all the encouragement he needed to pull her into his lap, the kiss never breaking. His hands rubbed her back, up her sides and across the bottoms of her breasts. The breast contact was accidental but even that minimal amount of contact shot pure fire through his veins.

"Nikki," he moaned as his lips travelled along her jawline and discovered the softness of her earlobe.

"Oh, yes. You can just keep on doing that," Nikki replied in a raspy voice.

"It would be my pleasure." His fingers fisted into her hair, tangling it. The softness of it was almost erotic.

She slid her hands to his shoulders and then her fingertips traced the ridges of his muscles as she continued down his chest to the place where his shirt tucked into his jeans. Those jeans were suddenly so tight he groaned in agonized desire.

"I thought we were on a stakeout here?" Will's voice cut through the haze that had taken over his brain and he nearly dropped Nikki to the ground in his haste to get a little distance between them.

"I figured you had things covered for a bit." Keegan ignored the huskiness of his voice as he settled Nikki back beside him trying not to notice the way her hair had gotten messed by his fingers being all wrapped up in it. She must have sensed it though, the way women did, because she reached up and smoothed the strands back into place as much as she could.

"Maybe I should take over here and you two should just get a room?" Will was teasing but for some reason it pushed all the wrong buttons with Keegan.

"Why are you like that?" Keegan demanded.

"Like what?" Will actually looked genuinely confused.

"I don't know, a jerk?"

"I leave you two here to cover me while we are staking out a dump site for illegal firearms and I return to find the two of you making out like a couple of teenagers and I'm the jerk?"

When he put it like that, the fight died inside Keegan. Nikki remained quiet as he studied his cousin for brief moment. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"I'm not. You need a little—attention—in your life. It might loosen you up some."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Right now, though, we got a job to do."

Her color finally back to normal, Nikki asked, "Did you get some good pics?"

Will settled on the log beside her. "Yeah. I sent them off to the agency. I'm dying to get a look at the guys who brought them here. Maybe run some pics through facial recognition software so we can see who we are dealing with. If this is international like you say it might be, there are some big rings out there I'd love to bust up."

"I don't think any of the top guys are going to show up here," Keegan said.

"No, but if we can follow them, see where they go, that might get us somewhere."

"We aren’t going to exactly be inconspicuous in my truck."

"True. I hadn’t thought of that." Will pulled out his phone and punched in a text. "I just sent my partner the address to your place. He will be here in half an hour. He drives a Prius or some earthy crunchy car like that. No one will suspect him of a thing."

"So, we sit and wait."

"Nothing else we can do. Unless you two want to play a little more tonsil hockey. I'm gonna take a walk, get the lay of the land." Will got up and started walking away from them. "I'll be back in ten minutes, cousin, so you better pull out all your best moves."

Neither of them said anything as Will disappeared into the trees. Keegan had no idea what to do. Well, he knew what he wanted to do but was afraid Nikki would slug him for doing it so he sat quietly.

"Do you think he's gone?" Nikki asked, still looking at the trees.

"Yeah. He might be a joker but he knows he has a job to do and he's doing it."

"Makes me feel kind of bad since I know we have a job to do to but instead of doing it, I'm going to do this." Nikki rose from the log and stepped in front of him. Straddling his legs, she settled on his lap and pressed her lips to his. "So, do like the man said and show me all your best moves."

Keegan wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. "If you insist."

He crushed his lips to hers, wasting no time picking up where they had left off. After Margot, he never expected to get so turned on by a woman again but what Nikki's touch did to him blew Margot out of the water. Her hands kept wandering everywhere. His chest, shoulders, back and now his abdomen. She was dangerously close to where he craved her touch the most when he stopped her, lacing his fingers with hers.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing," he replied. "I just don’t want my cousin coming back and getting an eye full."

"I'm sorry," she said, trying to stand up but Keegan didn't allow her to move. "I don't know—"

"Nope, you don't get away that fast," he whispered against her ear.

"I thought—" He cut her words off with another kiss, this one a thorough assault on both of their senses. Keegan just couldn't seem to get enough of Nikki. Fortunately, the feeling seemed mutual.

"I'm kind of glad I'm working this case," Nikki sad when she finally pulled back to catch her breath. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were shining.

"Why is that?" Keegan asked, pretty much knowing the answer all ready.

"I'm not sure we would have met otherwise."

"Um, what about you tackling me to the sand the other morning?" Unable to resist, he reached up and smoothed her dark hair back from her face and pressed a little kiss to the tip of her nose. "Seems to me that was our bit of fate looking out for us."

She laughed. "Yeah, I sort of tried to forget about that."

"Why?"

"Let’s see, because I made a total fool of myself?"

"That's not how I remember it," Keegan said, bringing his lips to her jaw line. "What I remember is you so desperate to meet me, you tackled me so I couldn't get away."

Nikki slugged him in the shoulder. "Full of ourselves are we now?"

Keegan couldn't help himself as he continued to tease her. "I can see it clear as day. There I was walking along the water, minding my own business, when you tried to get my attention. When I didn't stop to talk you took matters into your own hands by tackling me to the sand. Who knows what you would have tried to do to me if there hadn't been people around."

"Are you kidding me?" Nikki jumped to her feet, ignoring his attempts to keep her close.

Keegan kept his stare blank. "Well, no. That’s exactly what happened."

"Like hell it was!" Nikki glared at him making Keegan lose his neutral expression and reach for her again

"I'm just teasing you. Come here."

"No, I think I better get my mind back in the game now. One of us has to keep this thing straight since you seem to be operating from some altered state of reality."

"Aw, come on, I was just joking with you. I know it was an accident. An amazing accident but still I know you didn't do it on purpose. Even if you had been spying on me earlier that day."

"Ugh! You are one infuriating man! I told you, I was working! I wasn't intentionally spying!"

"So you say now, but you did think I was involved in the case. How do I know you didn't follow me to the beach?" The look on her face told him she hadn't but really, now that he had asked the question how could he be totally sure? What had started as a joke had him wondering just how close to the truth he was.

"Seriously?"

He nodded. "Seriously."

"It's no wonder you're still single! Your mother couldn't even find you a date!"

"That's a low blow. You don't know anything about my life or my dates."

"Yeah? What happened with Margot?"

"That's none of your damn business."

"You probably drove her crazy with your perfectionism and your cockiness."

"My perfectionism? What are you talking about?"

"Just look at you." Nikki motioned to the length of him. "Every hair's in place. Your jeans have ironed creases in them and I had no idea a shirt could be that wrinkle free ever. Your truck is perfect, your house will one day perfect. I bet you have a schedule for everything."

Her words cut straight to the heart. Not so much because she was wrong but because she was right. One of Margot's biggest complaints was the way he tried to schedule her all the time. Margot was a free spirit, like Nikki, only Margot had let him get out of hand without ever telling him how much she resented his behavior. Here Nikki was calling him out on it now, before they had a chance to get all wrapped up in any kind of relationship and damn it all if it didn't make him want her more.

"I'm sorry. I was out of line. I know you were doing your job and I just happened to get in the way."

"That's it?"

"That's what?" he asked her, confused.

"You're just going to apologize without fighting with me or trying to make it my fault?"

"Well, yes."

"That's a first," she said, dropping to sit on the log beside him. "I didn't know guys actually apologized."

"Got a few relationship skeletons of your own?" He reached over and took her hand gently in his own, praying she wouldn't pull away.

"Yeah, I guess I do." She squeezed his hand and offered up a small smile. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have gone off on you like that. What we were doing before all this was a whole lot more fun."

Keegan laughed and pulled her toward him once more, placing a kiss to the top of her hair. "You're not like anyone I've ever met before. Not even my ex."

"Ha. I suppose I could say the same. Mine is a control freak with a personal issue where he thinks only he can be right about anything."

"Mine had two relationships going at once. One she planned to marry and the other she said was all about the fabulous sex."

"Which one were you?" Nikki asked.

"The fabulous sex, of course."

Nikki broke down into a fit of laughter. "Of course. I should have definitely known that."

"What are you two laughing at?" Will had entered the little clearing and was watching them suspiciously.

"Nothing important." Keegan winked at Nikki and sent his cousin a little smile.

"I guess it's better than finding the two of you lip locked again. My guys are here. I just got a text. I'm heading back to talk to them. You two keep watch here?"

"Sure thing," Keegan replied. "I'll text you if anything happens while you are gone."

"You still got my number?"

"Of course, I do."

"Good. I'll be back in a bit. Just want to bring them up to speed." Will disappeared once again and Keegan looked at Nikki.

"We good?"

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah, for now, anyway."

"That's all I can ask for, isn't it?"

Nikki nodded again but this time kissed him on the cheek. "We should spend a little time getting to know each other when this case is wrapped up."

"Do we have to wait?" Keegan licked his lips and leaned toward her.

Nikki deflected him with a gentle hand to his chest. "I can't do that anymore right now and still manage to keep my focus on this case."

Keegan sat back and nodded. "Okay, I can be patient."

They sat together in the now dark wooded area watching the old barn. Neither spoke for what felt like an eternity and finally Keegan couldn't deal with the silence any longer.

"Do you think they will be back tonight?"

"Yeah, I do," Nikki replied without looking over at him. "Why hasn't Will come back yet?"

"I'm right here," a voice answered from the dark.

"How long have you been standing there?" Keegan asked.

"I haven't. I just got back. The guys are all set. I had them pull down around that side street and park out of sight so they could watch to see if anyone headed our way. They will text me if they see anyone suspicious."

"Did you tell them they had to follow the guys too if they tried to take this stuff out of here?" Nikki asked.

"Of course." Will sat down on the log on the other side of Nikki. "Now, we wait."

"The best part of law enforcement. Hurry up and wait is the story of my life."

"You got somewhere else to be, Kee?" Will asked.

"I could think of many things I would rather be doing." Keegan passed Nikki a glance but she didn't meet his gaze.

"I bet you could." Will laughed. Just then his cell phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to read the text. "Show time, boys and girls."

The air filled with the sounds of a diesel engine. In seconds the old barn was illuminated by the headlights of a large pick-up truck. The truck pulled up as close as it could get to the barn before the passenger jumped out and ran over to push the doors open. The driver and two more guys climbed out of the cab and without a word started lugging boxes to the bed of the truck.

"I'm moving in closer to try and get some pics of the guys," Will whispered.

"Be careful," Nikki whispered back. Keegan just watched him go.

"Always am, darlin'. Always am."

They watched as the four men moved back and forth, moving the boxes.

"I wonder where they are taking them?" Nikki asked.

"I have no idea. This was as good a hiding spot as any until today."

Nikki slipped her hand across the surface of the log they sat on and wrapped her fingers around his. Keegan didn’t say anything, just gave her hand a little squeeze. They had some things to discuss when this night was over.