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  She’d known looking up Jake would be trouble. After spending less than two days around him, he’d somehow managed to throw her entire world off-balance. She didn’t know how that was possible, but going on a date definitely wouldn’t have helped, so it was good that he’d canceled.

  Navigating Sunday-night traffic, Lexie focused on the case, which needed her attention more than Jake did, anyway. Her meeting with Nate had been a disaster. Big surprise. He’d railed at her when she told him she’d been “casually keeping an eye” on Courtney Stapleton. And then he’d flat-out rejected her request for a full surveillance team.

  Lexie’s phone chimed in the cup holder. Jake.

  “Hey, what’s up?” she said, trying to sound blasé.

  “You get my message?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sorry about dinner.”

  “No problem.” As she neared her neighborhood, she surveyed the area for anything unusual. She hadn’t seen the black pickup at all today.

  “Lucas and his brother scored Lakers tickets,” Jake said, “and I’ve still got Scout, so the sushi place is out.”

  “It’s fine. No big deal.”

  “How’d it go at your office?” he asked.

  She gave him the nutshell version, leaving out all the expletives to describe her meeting with Nate.

  “You sound frustrated,” he said.

  “I am.”

  “Well, here’s some good news. Lance came through with an ID on the black pickup.”

  “How did he do that?”

  “I gave him the license plate, and—”

  “How did you get the license plate? I thought you crashed and burned.”

  “He cut through a gas station, and I went back and talked to the manager. She agreed to let me take a look at their surveillance footage.”

  Lexie didn’t say anything. She could just picture Jake sweet-talking the gas station manager into letting him take a look at whatever he wanted.

  “You’re very resourceful,” she said.

  “I hear sarcasm.”

  “Not at all. What did Lance come up with?”

  “The truck is registered to a John Ocampo in—get this—Nogales, Arizona.”

  “You’re kidding. Nogales? That means he’s probably linked to Jerome. What if they’re both part of this sleeper cell we think is operating in Southern California? I knew that truck was related somehow!”

  “You sound excited.”

  “I am. It’s a good lead. Text me the info, and I’ll have someone at my office run this guy. Maybe he has a sheet.”

  “He doesn’t. My friend already checked.”

  “Yes, well, your friend doesn’t have the same resources we do. Send me the info.”

  “I can send you his name and driver’s license photo.”

  Lexie neared her house, buzzing with excitement now about this new lead. Since the moment she’d first spotted that pickup behind her, she’d suspected it was connected to her current case. How had he found her? The most logical explanation was that he’d seen her surveilling Courtney Stapleton’s house and followed her from there. But what was his goal? To intimidate her? That didn’t make sense. Maybe his goal was to figure out what she knew by following her around to see what leads she pursued. And if that was the case, he must know that she knew his friend had talked to Mario about some weapons.

  “How do you feel about pizza?” Jake asked.

  “You mean tonight?” Lexie turned into her carport, scanning the shadows.

  “I know a place in Hermosa Beach that has a patio, and they don’t mind dogs.”

  A warm rush went through her. She grabbed the bag off her front seat and got out. Opening her gate, she searched her patio for anything suspicious.

  “You there?”

  “I picked up some dinner on my way home,” she told him. “How about my place? We can share a steak.”

  She unlocked the door and tapped in her alarm code.

  “You don’t mind Scout?” he asked.

  “Of course not. But I’ve got nothing for her to eat, so—”

  “I’ll take care of it. Be there in twenty.”

  And that was it. Date back on.

  A text landed on her phone as she deposited her groceries in the kitchen. It was the info on John Ocampo. She knew Brian was still at the office, so she forwarded everything to him, along with an explanation and a request to get in touch ASAP if he turned up anything important.

  Lexie set her phone on the counter and blew out a sigh. What a roller-coaster day. And now her date was back on. Although it wasn’t a date, really. But if not, why did she suddenly feel this heady mix of nerves and anticipation? She hurried upstairs to jump in the shower. She had a full day’s worth of stress clinging to her, not to mention the residual ickiness from her morning trash dive. She scrubbed her skin with a loofa, washed her hair, then quickly dried off and rubbed on her favorite lotion. Did she have time for a blowout? She brushed her hair and was reaching for the hair dryer when the doorbell rang.

  “Crap.”

  She rushed into her bedroom and started to dress, grabbing a pair of jeans off a chair. Then she stopped. Stepping over to her closet, she surveyed the contents with a racing heart. What was more casual than dinner at home? Jeans were perfect. Or even shorts.

  But this was Jake. The first man she’d been attracted to in a long time.

  “Screw it,” she muttered, grabbing a short denim skirt. She slipped into it, then put on a pink lace bralette and a loose white sweater. She glanced in the mirror. Perfect. She looked casual but feminine. She definitely did not look like a workaholic FBI agent.

  So was she going to sleep with him? She’d washed her hair and shaved and moisturized her skin until it was silky smooth. But she hadn’t made a real decision yet. She was keeping her options open. If the moment was right, she’d know.

  She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and went downstairs.

  Jake stood on her doorstep with Scout at his side. She went straight for Lexie, and Lexie reached down to scratch her ears.

  “Sorry we’re late. We had to stop,” he said.

  “No problem.”

  Scout darted for the living room, where she started sniffing around the coffee table.

  Lexie ushered Jake inside and looked him over. He wore jeans and a new T-shirt—black this time—and he’d traded his sneakers for the scarred work boots she’d noticed yesterday. Like the jeans, the boots looked like he’d had them a long time.

  “So.” She smiled. “Want some wine? I’ve got merlot.”

  “Sure.”

  She led him into the kitchen and took a cereal bowl down from a cabinet. She filled it with water for Scout and placed it on the floor by the back door. Scout walked over and lapped up a few sips, then returned the living room.

  “Not interested,” Lexie said.

  “She’s full. I got her a burger on the way over.”

  Lexie got down two wineglasses and took out a corkscrew.

  “Want me to do that?” he asked.

  “I got it.”

  She felt Jake’s eyes on her as she opened the wine.

  “You don’t mind sharing a steak?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “I have some salad, too.” She looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  She poured his glass. When she glanced up, the simmering look in his eyes gave her a warm rush of nerves.

  “What’s that look?”

  He shook his head. “I’m kicking myself for what I said earlier.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The platonic hands-free friend date.”

  He held her gaze. The air between them felt charged.

  She stepped closer, looking up into those ocean-blue eyes that she’d tried not to think about for six long months. The warmth inside her spread, and her heart started to pound. She’d known what she wanted when she invited him over tonight.

  “What if . . . I want your han
ds on me?”

  Heat flared in his eyes. “Is that a trick question?”

  “No.” She stepped closer and reached down to take his hand. She turned it over and stroked her thumb over the rough calluses on his fingers. “I happen to like your hands.”

  She went up on tiptoes and kissed him. His stubble rasped against her chin, and he tasted like she remembered—sharp and male and musky. She thought of yesterday in her bathroom, and the heat was back times ten, only this time she’d kissed him. She’d invited him here, knowing exactly where this could lead. But was that what she wanted?

  Lexie pulled away and looked up at him. Her heart was racing. She knew his was, too, and she knew her answer. She wanted this. Even though it was reckless, even though she was setting herself up for a world of hurt when he left, she wanted this. She’d wanted it since that moment on the beach when he’d stood there in the moonlight, looking out over the waves. She’d felt a deep longing that trumped logic and caution and everything else that always guided her decisions.

  He smiled slightly as she gazed up at him. “What?” he asked, clearly oblivious to the momentous decision she’d just made.

  Without a word, she turned and led him by the hand through the living room and the foyer, then up the carpeted staircase. She felt him behind her, but she didn’t look at him as she pulled him into her bedroom. The air still felt warm from her shower, and she grabbed her towel off the floor and tossed it onto a chair.

  “Stay,” Jake commanded.

  She turned around to see Scout standing in the doorway, looking forlorn.

  “She’s fine.”

  Scout understood the words and happily entered the room to start sniffing around the bed.

  Lexie looked at Jake, and she felt another flutter of nerves. He was in her bedroom. She was really doing this, after months and months of telling herself to resist him.

  She turned away and opened a dresser drawer. She found some matches and lit a scented candle. Heart pounding, she dimmed the lights.

  She turned around, and he was crouched beside her sliding glass door.

  “You need a brace here.” He glanced up at her, and the intent look on his face made her smile. “I’m not kidding. It’s a problem.”

  “Always the security specialist.”

  He stood up and towered over her. She traced her finger over the edge of his T-shirt, then trailed it up his arm.

  “How’s your back?” she asked.

  “Fine.”

  She eased around him, trailing her fingers over the waist of his jeans. Standing behind him, she slid her hands under the shirt and carefully lifted it.

  She sucked in a breath. “God, Jake.” His raw skin had scabbed over, but it looked horrible.

  “It’s fine.”

  She traced her fingertip over his shoulder and down to his hip, then carefully pressed a kiss against his warm skin.

  He pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it onto a chair. Then he turned around, and she was confronted by his beautifully sculpted chest. Lexie’s heart squeezed. She knew about all the weight training and beach runs and ocean swims and that SEALs spent a ton of time working to stay in peak condition. She knew all that, but still, seeing the evidence right in front of her was striking.

  He cupped his hand against the side of her face, combing his fingers into her damp hair, and she felt another flood of nerves.

  He leaned down and kissed her, and soon the nerves vanished, and she was back to that hungry, needy place she remembered from yesterday. She ran her fingers into his hair, tugging his head down as she pressed her body against him, and she felt his warm hands sliding under her sweater. He tugged it up, over her head, and tossed it onto the chair with his shirt.

  Then his hands slid down her sides and came to rest at her hips. The candlelight flickered off his irises as he looked at her, and she felt the heat in his gaze all the way to her core.

  “You are so freaking beautiful.” He traced his hand up, dipping his finger under the lace of her bra as he bent his head down to kiss her neck. His lips glided over her skin, sending warm ripples of desire through her. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, savoring the rasp of his beard against her soft skin as his mouth trailed over the edge of the lace. He slid his hand behind her and undid the clasp, and she felt a cool rush of air over her skin as the bra fell away. His hands trailed over her body, making her shiver as they slid around and expertly undid her skirt’s hook and zipper, which were on the side. An instant later, her skirt was on the floor at her feet.

  “You’re very efficient,” she said, settling her hands on his shoulders.

  “I pay attention.”

  His hands slid down her sides and rested on the thin straps at her hips as he bent down to kiss her.

  This time, it was hotter and more urgent, and she felt him easing her back onto the bed. He rested his knee on the mattress, and it creaked with his weight as he leaned over her.

  “Lie back,” he said.

  She scooted back on the bed and propped herself up on her elbows, watching him. Holding her gaze, he traced his finger over her breast. When her nipple hardened, he dipped his head down and kissed it.

  Lexie closed her eyes. She tried not to squirm. But the hot pull of his mouth, along with the feather-light stroke of his hand over her skin, made her antsy. His fingertips brushed the juncture between her legs but kept going, sending warm shivers through her body. He kissed her, alternating between pulling and teasing her with his tongue, and she couldn’t help but shift restlessly. He looked up at her, laving her breast with his tongue as his fingertips trailed lightly over her thigh, her hip, her knee.

  “Jake.”

  “Hmm?”

  She eased her legs apart. But he continued just what he was doing, setting fire to her erogenous zones but never quite touching her where she most wanted to be touched.

  Finally, she got impatient and pulled his head up, taking his mouth with a hungry kiss, and he shifted his weight onto her. She hooked her leg around his hip, grinding herself against his erection.

  He pushed up on his hands, hovering over her with a sly smile on his face as she moved against him. He kissed her deeply, and she reached for the button of his jeans.

  “Wait,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Because. I want this to be good for you.” He eased away from her, dipping his head down to kiss her breasts again as she groaned with frustration. He moved down her body, tickling her skin with his beard as he slid down, down, down. He hooked his fingers into her panties and eased them down her legs and moved up to kiss her navel, and she thought she was going to scream with impatience as he hovered over her.

  “Jake.”

  And then his mouth was on her, hot and avid, kissing her and exploring her as his hands settled on her thighs. She closed her eyes, letting the world fall away, letting everything disappear except the absolute perfection of his mouth.

  She slid her fingers into his hair, gasping as the need inside her built and built.

  “Come here,” she said.

  But he kept doing what he was doing. The world started to spin, and she felt her control slipping.

  “Now. Please.”

  Maybe it was the magic word, or maybe he knew how desperate she was, but he moved up her body, and she dipped her hand into his jeans.

  “Do you have something?”

  “Yeah.”

  He got up and quickly got rid of his jeans, then grabbed a condom from the bedside table. She had no idea how it had come to be there, but she just wanted it on him, and he seemed to read the look on her face, because he got it on and moved over her, pushing her thighs apart with his.

  She kissed him, desperate for his mouth again. And he eased back to look at her. She rested her hand on the taut muscle of his shoulder, and his gaze met hers as he pushed hard inside her.

  She gasped.

  “You all right?”

  The intense look on his face sent another rush of need thr
ough her, and she grabbed his hips.

  “Lex?”

  “Yes.”

  She moved with him, faster and faster, as the need built and built until she couldn’t breathe or think, and there was nothing but Jake moving over her, and his hot skin, and the impossible intensity of their bodies moving together. And just when she thought it couldn’t get any more intense, he shifted her body, hooking his arm under her leg, and she made a slight squeak.

  “Jake. Oh my God.” She gripped him, digging her nails into his skin and pressing her face against his shoulder.

  “Tell me.”

  Now, she wanted to say. Now, now, now. But she couldn’t talk, couldn’t think.

  “Alexa.”

  And that was it. The sound of him saying her name sent her over the edge and tore a scream from her throat, and in a blazing, white-hot moment, she shattered and came. He stayed with her, pumping into her and clutching her body through the aftershocks, and then, with an earth-moving thrust, he came, too.

  Lexie lay there, decimated. Her hands slipped from his shoulders and flopped onto the bed. She opened her eyes.

  Jake gazed down at her with a look she couldn’t read.

  “You okay?”

  She nodded and unhooked her leg from his hip. His skin was slick, and he was breathing hard.

  He eased out and rolled onto his back.

  Lexie’s heart hammered. Her skin felt hot. She turned and looked at Jake beside her, his chest heaving.

  He sat up, and one look at his raw back snapped her to reality. God, had she scratched him? She hadn’t even been thinking about his injury when she gripped his shoulders and dug her nails into his skin.

  He got up and went into the bathroom, giving her a brief view of his powerful body in all its glory. Moments later, he returned and sprawled beside her on his back, dropping his arm over his face.

  She turned onto her side. “How’s your back?”

  He moved his arm and looked at her. “Fine. Why?”

  “I’m worried I scratched you.”

  He turned onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow. “You didn’t.” He traced his hand over her nipple. Then his gaze met hers, and those blue eyes hit her with their full force. Jake Heath was stretched out in her bed. His skin looked gold in the candlelight, and everything about the moment seemed surreal. She’d pictured this. Now that he was here, she could admit that to herself, and she felt a flurry of anxiety over what that meant. He held her gaze, and it felt like some sort of moment of reckoning between them. No more walls. No more games. Emotions swirled inside her, but she didn’t want to utter a word for fear she’d say something too light or too serious.