McKenzie Cousins Box Set 3

“Fuck, Mallory,” he growls. “Stop thinking whatever you are otherwise I’m going to be embarrassing myself.”

I rapidly blink and realize my cheeks are burning. I watch what Joshua is doing as his hand slips into the waistband of his pants. He grunts and moves the thick bulge I can clearly see the shape of.

Closing my eyes, I turn my face toward the window and concentrate on breathing evenly. Up until the night in the club I’d done extremely well at keeping Joshua away from me—strictly professional. But after what we’d done, I can’t get him out of my mind. A huge part of me feels guilty because we had been working undercover and acted inappropriately. The other part of me wants to experience what I’d briefly felt in his arms again.

On my last large inhale, I slowly exhale and turn to Joshua who has also calmed down. “We need to discuss the plan.”

“You mean work?” he drawls, not looking happy, but resigned.

“For now.” I open the PDF file that Ritter’s secretary forwarded to Josh and me, and say, “It looks like we don’t get any free time together.” I frown. “If this is a couples retreat why don’t they give the couples some time to spend alone?”

“I agree. It doesn’t make sense.” Joshua takes my phone and scrolls up and down. “They want everyone to be together, and,” his frown deepens, “I think they might be offering—” his voice trails off.

“What? Don’t keep me in suspense.”

He gives me a side eye glance and that’s when I notice a blush on his cheeks. I’m tempted to tease, but needing to keep this professional, I raise a brow and wait.

He clears his throat. “I think they’re offering couples the chance to swap partners.”

Blinking a few times while I get my head around that, I ask, “Are you sure?”

“Not exactly, but on the agenda in the evening it says ‘swing’ and my head immediately went to swinger parties.” He shrugs. “I have a friend who got an assignment in Dallas. We met up a while back and he told me about a bizarre case he’d been working. It involved swingers.” He reads on. “It could be something else, but maybe our guy goes after the couples who indulge.”

“Partner swapping hasn’t come up in the investigation,” I add, feeling uncomfortable. “Perhaps we need to consider it though.”

“I don’t give a shit how we capture this guy, but I am not sharing you with anyone.” Joshua’s gaze blazes into mine with a furious possessive heat that I feel all the way down to my toes. “I figured you should know up front. No fucking sharing.”

I’m left floundering like a fish with his attitude as he passes my cell back. Josh sits back in his seat, plugs his ear buds in and ignores me for the rest of the flight.

My brain won’t allow me to rest because I have a feeling this next week is about to change my life in more ways than one.

32

Joshua

The resort is exactly how I expected it to be: surrounded by forestry, large log cabin type buildings, and hosts who look…normal. Tom and Lindsey Granger are in their late fifties and have built this small resort up from nothing. It’s on land left to Tom by his parents, and I have to say that I’m impressed with what they’ve done to the place. It had been four years ago when they’d transformed it. Pictures and all the information had been in the file sent by Ritter.

Guests stay in cabins spread throughout their own part of the forest, which wasn’t good. Anyone could be watching from outside with the occupants inside having no clue. It made me nervous because it wouldn’t be so easy to keep watch, then again, maybe the cover of the trees would be good for that. We could do the same as the hunter will be doing. We’ll just have to be more vigilant.

Mallory comes into my line of sight with room keys in her hand. Her long strides toward me, and the smile on her face, makes my heart beat hard in my chest. She’s a sight that I’ll never get tired of. Without so much as one thought, when she’s in reach, I wrap my arms around her shoulders and pull her in tightly against my body. She only hesitates for a moment and then I feel her arms around my waist. I bury my face into the curve of her neck and breathe deeply. My body goes hard with need at the scent and feel of this beautiful woman. She undoes me completely.

“Josh,” she whispers in a husky voice, the sound of my name on her lips going straight to my balls. Her fingernails dig into my ass and my cock throbs hard, releasing precum into my briefs.

Groaning, I slowly nuzzle into her and force myself to only briefly caress her lips with mine. Meeting her gaze, I realize it’s a mistake because her eyes tell me everything; she wants me as much as I want her.

“Cabin,” she whispers the words against my lips, her gaze briefly wavers to over my shoulder before it’s back on me. “Your friend doesn’t appear happy that I have my arms around you.”

“She isn’t my friend, Mallory.”

“Hmm,” she mumbles and slips her hands into the back of my pants and briefs. The feel of her fingers on my ass causes a shudder to ripple through me. “I love how your body reacts to my touch.”

“Any more reaction and I’m going to be inside of you.” I glance around and smirk. “The huge oak tree behind you is looking good. Should hide us from view.”

“You’re both great at acting,” Clarissa hisses.

Mallory grabs a chunk of each ass cheek in her hands and briefly squeezes before she removes her hands from my pants. I know my face is flushed with arousal and I’m so damn thankful that Mallory stays close to hide what’s going on in my pants.

“You,” she snaps at the woman, “are going to blow everything that Ritter has put in place.”