She didn’t hear from Jace that night. The longer her cell stayed silent, the more pain lanced through Ally’s gut. She should have been investigating Kenna, but instead the next day, she stayed inside with the curtains drawn, and had an orgy with the two men who had never let her down—Ben and Jerry. No amount of motivational self-help would work in this situation, so she put her faith in ice-cream until she couldn’t stomach any more and dumped the half-eaten second carton back into the freezer before returning to the sofa.

There was something strangely comforting about old Star Trek reruns. Maybe because her mom had always had a bit of a thing for Captain Kirk—which made sense; he was the ultimate playboy, and maybe because Ally’d admired Spock’s cold, controlled reliance on logic. Oh heck, maybe it was just the costumes. And the aliens. Whatever it was, being curled up on the sofa in a pair of pajamas splurging on a Star Trek marathon was working. For now anyway.

When the doorbell rang at ten, she stared at the door in shock. Across the path, her landlord’s lights had flicked off hours ago. There was only one person who could be ringing it. And that person had spent last night in Crystal’s bed.

She crept to the door, and peeked through the glass button embedded in the wood to view visitors.

Jace stood on the doorstep.

“I know you’re there. I can see your shadow at the bottom of the door.”

Shit. She automatically took a step back.

“Open the door, Ally.”

“She can’t take it, Captain!” from the TV, as if Scotty could see her predicament.

“Come on. I won’t bite.”

There’s no way her instinctive reaction to that statement should have been disappointment.

Ally sighed. Stroked a hand down the front of her pajama top. She’d brushed her hair after a shower, but hadn’t reapplied makeup, so she looked a complete mess. Maybe that was for the best.

She shot the bolt, and opened the door.

“Hi.” The man looked sinfully delicious. Black jeans, black shirt. Fresh shave. “I’ve missed you.” Without hesitation, he stepped in, snuck an arm around her waist and pulled her straight against his hard body. “You look gorgeous.” Okay, now the man was definitely delusional. “I bet you taste that way too.” Before she had a chance to respond, he brought his mouth down onto hers, teasing along the seam of her lips and invading her mouth with his tongue.

And god, it was everything.

“You’re pushing her too hard, Captain!” Scotty shouted.

“You taste of ice-cream.”

She put her hands on his rock-hard chest, and pushed. “Get off me.”

“I should have called yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

“You stayed over?” Shit, she sounded like a scorned wife. Or a suspicious woman. I sound like one of my clients.

“No, I drove back last night. I took some time to think about things.”

A blast of photon torpedoes from the TV.

“Star Trek, huh?” Jace’s hand was under the pajama top, stroking her back. “Kinky.” He backed her up to the sofa, and with a smile, pushed gently so she tumbled onto it. “Crystal and I are over. I’m all yours.”

Was he lying? Did it matter? She was through with second-guessing. Through with denying herself what she wanted. And she wanted. Everything. “It’s over?”

“It’s over.” He started to unbutton his shirt, keeping eye contact even as his fingers moved. “I came here tonight to take you dancing. But you’re not dressed for it, so…”

“I could change.”

“I could help you.” His shirt was unfastened now, and he tugged it from his jeans. “Or we could just celebrate in a different way.”

Oh god. Throwing caution to the wind, Ally grabbed the bottom of her pajama top and pulled it off. Then she curled a finger at him and gestured ‘come.'

“You’re beautiful.” There was an indefinable tension in the way he looked at her. A desperation. As if he was warring with himself, and losing. Then Jace removed his shirt, and knelt on the floor before her. “I’ve wanted you for so damn long.” His fingers hooked into the waistband of her pajama bottoms, and in one quick pull they were discarded too. He placed one hand on her chest and eased her back against the cushions, then pushed her legs apart.

Exposed to his eyes. Exposed. Inside and out. Her heart was hammering so fast and hard it was in danger of springing out of her chest or stopping altogether.

“It’s not logical, Jim.”

Jace grinned. “He’s right, you know.” He reached for the remote and turned the TV off. “It’s not logical. But god, it feels right.” He stroked his thumb over her clit.

Ally groaned. Her head tilted back, and her eyes closed.

“Look at me.”

She did as directed.

“Watch me taste you.” His hand moved to her chest, playing lazily with her nipple. Then he licked the inside of her thigh, grabbed the back of her knees and pulled her to the edge of the sofa, to his waiting mouth.

The sight of him, blue eyes blazing as his tongue sucked her clit, as his fingers moved inside her, sent a wave of tingling aftershocks from her stomach to her pussy. She couldn’t keep still, wriggling closer, lifting her legs to drape them over his shoulders.

He made a noise deep in his throat, of pure masculine enjoyment.

It was impossible not to press her legs together, to bracket his head with her thighs. Squeezing. Holding him in place. The moment he closed his eyes, she arched, and threw her head back.

“Let it happen.”

As if she needed any encouragement. There was no damn way she wasn’t having an orgasm, and the quivering shocks of sensation flooded through her, taking her over within minutes. Jace licked her, and hooked a finger up, searching and finding a hidden spot deep inside.

“Oh, god.”

His fingers, his mouth, her nipples being twisted and teased, all combined into a deliciously arousing moment impossible to resist.

“I want you inside me.”

He didn’t stop. Didn’t change his position, just kept pushing her closer and closer to the edge. Until her toes pointed, and her grip tightened on the sofa covers, bunching them up in her hands. She panted, felt the rush from the top of her head to her toes, as her orgasm surged and crashed, taking all reason with it.

* * *

She was magnificent. He hadn’t come to the house with the intention of having sex, but the moment she opened the door wearing those ridiculous pajamas, with her face scrubbed of makeup, and the look of surprise on her face, he’d been overcome with the urge to kiss her.

Once they’d started, there was no damn way of stopping. And why should he deny them what they both wanted? No-strings sex. No emotions, just naked bodies colliding.

Now she lay against the cushions on the sofa. Stripped bare. Deplete.

His hard-on was pressed against his zipper. Demanding release.

“Come lie next to me.”

“There isn’t enough room for a cat to lie next to you, never mind a man.” His fingers caressed the bare skin of her inner thigh.

For months after that fateful night, he thought about making love to her again, and taking her on this threadbare sofa wouldn’t be part of anyone’s fantasy. “Where’s the bedroom?”

“Upstairs.” She grinned.

He stood, grasped her hand, and pulled her to her feet. He speared urgent hands through her hair, plundered her mouth, and lost himself in her taste.

Warm breasts pressed against his bare chest. Arms snaked around to tug him closer. Then she pulled away a fraction, grabbed his hand, and led him from the room.

The bedroom drapes were open, flooding the room with light. Ally ripped back the cover on the bed, in seconds his remaining clothes were off, and they were tumbling in each other’s arms, skin to skin.

His mouth pressed to her neck, licking, nipping every delicious inch. He cupped her breasts, squeezing them, rubbing his thumbs over the hard buds of her nipples. When his head lowered to suck one into his mouth, she convulsed, arching her back.

She was so responsive. Out of control. Her legs parted, then wrapped around him, bringing her hot, wet pussy into contact with his cock. With a wicked undulation of her hips, she slid up and down, balls to tip, coating him with her wetness. His body’s demand to surge into her might have been overwhelming if he hadn’t dealt with an unexpected pregnancy before. Now, no matter how desperate, he’d never screw without a condom.

Her eyes were open, staring into his, her expression open, without guile.

Would she tell him—now the assignment was over—would she tell him what she was really doing in Shepherd’s Crook?

“Jace?” She traced fingers down his chest. Looked up at him with questions he wasn’t prepared to answer in her eyes. Who the hell cared, anyway? She wanted sex—sex he was more than willing to provide. A dead feeling, cold detachment, threatened to kill the mood.

“Protection.”

“We don’t need any. I’m on the pill.” Her voice was no louder than a whisper. A deep, sexy whisper.

She was prepared, which meant she was having sex with someone else often enough to justify being on the pill. It shouldn’t have meant anything, but how far did she go with her other marks? Did she get paid extra to provide proof of men’s infidelity?

He pulled away. “Fuck.”

Her eyes widened. “Yes, that’s the plan.”

He climbed out of bed, and pulled on his jeans. “I can’t do this.” His body demanded relief, but there was no way he could go through with it while thoughts of other men fucking her—for her job—tormented him.

* * *

“Jace.”

He didn’t turn, didn’t stop, just stalked from the room, and seconds later the sound of his footfalls was heavy on the stairs.

What the hell just happened? Minutes ago, he’d given her an awesome orgasm; they’d been swept up in a sexual whirlwind so powerful it threatened to obliterate everything in its path. Then he looked into her eyes, and everything changed. His expression had shuttered, and the charming, open man she’d let into her house disappeared.

Ally climbed out of bed, and pulled on a robe. Fuck that.

She found him in the sitting room, buttoning up his shirt. “You’re leaving?”

His head jerked up, gaze blazing. “I should never have come here.”

“I don’t understand. What’s the problem?” She bit back ‘what’s your problem’ because she wanted an answer and if she antagonized him she was pretty sure he’d leave without offering one.

“I thought we could fuck, and I wouldn’t give a shit about any of the other stuff.” His jaw clenched. “I was wrong.” He took a step toward the door.

Crystal. He had been lying about breaking up with Crystal. The truth made her heart ache, but only a little, barely discernable over the rage coursing through her body. “So you and Crystal are still together.”

“Crystal and I are history. But you’ve been lying from the moment you drove into this town. You’re not who you say you are. You came in here with a hidden agenda, to screw me in more ways than one.”

He knows.

Ally’s legs shook. She sank onto the sofa, and lowered her head into her hands.

“I work for Crystal.”

“You work for Crystal.” He sat down in the armchair opposite. “You try to get men to cheat on their partners. As your fucking job. Fucking job. That’s pretty apt, isn’t it? When you said you were on the pill, I woke up. Screwing is just part of your job.”

Her head whipped up. “Screwing is not part of my job. I don’t…”

“You don’t sleep with all your marks? That makes me feel so special.” He ground out the last words, bitter and hard.

“I have never slept with anyone I’m investigating. I’ve never even kissed a target.”

“Let’s call it what it is. Honeytrapping. You meet to cheat.” Disdain, disgust, were in his every word. “Target. Jesus. I was your target?”

She pulled in a ragged breath. “Yes. You were my target. Crystal sent me to Shepherd’s Crook to see if you were the type of person who would cheat, given the opportunity. I had no idea you were the man she loved. If I had, I never would have taken the assignment. The moment I realized the truth, I called her and said I couldn’t do it because we had a history.”

“But you didn’t leave.”

She shook her head. “Crystal wanted me to continue.” There was little point in explaining Crystal’s threats of ruining her career. He wasn’t listening. Didn’t want to hear and wouldn’t believe that she’d made up her mind to just climb aboard this roller coaster and see where this crazy ride took them.

“I wasn’t brave enough to tell you.” She tilted her chin up a fraction, and curled her hands into fists in her lap. “I couldn’t tell you your girlfriend didn’t trust you. You told me you’d broken up, but she told me different—”

“I know what she told you. I was there when she made the call.”

She winced. What a bitch. “When you came here tonight, I wanted to believe you rather than her. I wanted you. I know what you think of me, of my job, but I always walk once a man has shown his intent to cheat. I don’t kiss. I don’t let anyone touch me. I’m not a whore.”

“You asked Crystal for a few days’ grace. To deal with unfinished business.” He pointed at his chest.

He’d been unfinished business since the night they met. But there was no way she was admitting it.

“I found Sophia. And I’m not leaving till we make sure she’s safe.”