Ostentatious. Whoever dogged them had a need to flaunt their wealth.

Or else the car was stolen and would be abandoned soon in favor of a different vehicle.

When Alani started to open her purse to pay the clerk, he caught her wrist and frowned at her. “Don’t even think it.” While the young cashier popped gum and looked between them, Jackson pulled a credit card from his own wallet.

Alani leaned over his hands to read the name on the card, and her right eyebrow lifted.

Trusting her not to question the alias listed on all his IDs, he ran the card, got the receipt and lifted the bags into the cart. Voice low, he said, “Stay to my left and slightly behind me.”

“You’re expecting trouble?”

“Nah. But I always prepare for it anyway.” Luckily, they got to her car without a glitch and with no sense of being watched. Hazy waves of heat emanated from the blacktop lot. He felt his T-shirt stick to his spine and noticed that enticing glow on Alani’s face again.

“Go ahead and get settled while I load the bags into the back.”

She went one further and opened the driver’s door to let out some of the accumulated heat.

“Thanks.” After kicking up the air-conditioning, he put the car in Drive and continued to scan the area even as he drove from the lot.

Alani watched him. “Do you need me to be quiet so you can concentrate?”

Cute. And thoughtful. “Nah, it’s fine, but thanks.” He looked over at her just long enough to smile at the sincerity on her face.

“You’re sure? I don’t want to be the cause of distracting you.”

“I can multitask.” And good thing, since she’d been distracting him from the day he met her. There were times when he almost couldn’t think of anything else. “Luckily, my instincts take over when necessary.”

“So can I ask you something?”

Too late, Jackson realized that he might have avoided the inquisition if he’d let her believe he had to concentrate. Warily, he said, “Uh…sure,” as he pulled back onto the main road.

Passing back the same way they’d come, he noted the recent tire burns where, thanks to the silver BMW, others had been forced to brake hard to avoid colliding. He saw the gouge in the grassy area, left by his tires when he’d gone off the road. He saw gravel spit everywhere across the roadway.

At no point had he felt out of control with the car, but it pissed him off that anyone had put Alani in harm’s way. When he found the one responsible, there’d be hell to pay.

“How did you hook up with Dare and Trace?”

Uh-oh. Not exactly the type of question he’d been expecting. To buy himself a moment to think, Jackson pulled up behind a red light and said, “What’s that?”

Her look said she recognized his ploy. “I know Trace doesn’t recruit. That’d require advertising, and naturally, as a very private mercenary for hire, he can’t do that. You guys had to meet somehow, but I’ve never heard how it came about. So tell me—”

“Did you swallow?”

They stared at each other, Jackson with an inner wince, Alani with incomprehension at that dropped-in, out-of-the-blue question.

Jesus. He’d been desperate to derail her line of questioning, but he hadn’t meant to toss that out there like that. Course, it was something uppermost on his mind, eating at him, making it difficult to keep desire stomped down.

Only problem, she didn’t seem to understand. She shook her head in confusion. “Swallow what?”

So he had to spell it out? Well, at least he’d gotten her on another topic. He cleared his throat. “You know…me.”

Her brows rose, her lips parted.

The traffic light turned green. Jackson divided his attention between driving, surveying the area and studying Alani’s dawning awareness.

His breathing deepened. His voice thickened. “Did you?”

She licked her lips. “You didn’t give me a chance.”

He reached for her hand and brought it to his thigh, holding it there with his own. The contrast maddened him, how small and delicate her hand felt under his, how it affected him for her to touch him at all, even on top of his thigh through his jeans. “Tell me how that all came about, will ya?”

Her fingers curled, biting into his muscle. “I was…kissing you. There.” She nodded at his lap.

And damned but he felt it. “With you so far.”

“You…you had a hand on my…” To show him, she reached up with her free hand to the back of her neck. “You were sort of guiding me, I guess.”

“Yeah?” His dick twitched with the visual. “Like this?” He reached out for her nape, closing his big hand around her, kneading her, his fingers tangled in her silky hair.

“Yes.”

“We were in the bed?”

“No. That is, you were. You sat on the side of the mattress, but I was…on the floor. In front of you.”

Hell, yeah. Semi-erect now, he couldn’t stop tormenting himself. “On your knees?”

Nodding, she licked her lips again. “You were making these rough, sexy sounds, like… I don’t know. Low groans. Almost like you were in pain, but liked it.”

“Yeah.” A delicious pain. He was back there again, hurting for her.

Her hand on his thigh slid higher, the edge of her fingers nudging against his testicles. He hadn’t come in his pants since middle school, but if he didn’t cool things down, it could be a possibility.