“Ava, stop. Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you were serious. You’re just not . . . I mean, shit, you really want to drive a bike?”

She nodded, thinking it didn’t really matter anyway. There was no way he was going to teach her.

He expelled a loud sigh, before dropping his hands. “You know Mac’s going to fucking kill me, right?”

Surprised, she looked up at him, trying not to react to the mention of Mac. Was he saying . . . ? He narrowed his eyes as he studied her until she started shifting uncomfortably. Finally, a smile curved the corners of his mouth as he shook his head. “Well, well . . . sure. It looks like I’m your guy. How about we take a ride after work this evening so you can get a feel for things?”

She gave him a hesitant smile in return. She had the feeling that he knew exactly what she was up to. Either that or he was trying to pick her up. Whatever the reason, he was suddenly friendlier than she had ever imagined. She half expected him to pat her on the ass on the way out the door. Sadly, it would have been one of the bigger thrills in her life recently.

*   *   *

Mac walked in the door of East Coast Security after dropping off a coffee to Gwen. As always, he noticed Ava’s white BMW in its usual space in the parking garage. She usually arrived early and left late. In truth, he would rather have taken a coffee to her and chatted for a few moments, but that wasn’t his routine anymore. Now he had a girl he dated. He couldn’t bring himself to label Gwen as his girlfriend yet. He was too old for that anyway. He smiled at their receptionist, Melissa, and stopped to chat before heading back to the security monitors where Dominic was sitting. Their other partner, Gage, was out on a new job this morning and wouldn’t be in the office until that afternoon. They were all three ex-military and coexisted within their company in a way that only brothers could do. They might not be related by blood, but their bonds were just as strong if not stronger. “Hey, man,” Dominic muttered as he settled in a chair next to him.

“Everything tight?” Mac asked, knowing that Dominic would have called already had there been any problems.

“Yeah, it’s all good. Just zipping through the feeds from last night before filing them away.” It was their daily routine to do a quick check of the security feeds for the previous twenty-four hours each morning even if no problems were reported just to ensure that nothing was missed and that their employees were doing their jobs. In this business, your reputation was all you had, and they depended on it to acquire new clients.

Mac was half watching the monitor while flipping through his e-mail when the sight of a familiar blond head caught his attention. He looked at the monitor before Dominic could run it forward. The time stamp showed just an hour ago. “Did Ava come by here this morning?” It was a stupid question because the camera clearly showed her standing in the reception area with Dominic. Was it his imagination or was Dominic smirking at him?

When the other man simply said, “She did,” without saying anything further, he gritted his teeth.

“Was she looking for me?”

“Nope.” Dominic continued running through the security feeds without saying a word. Most of the time Mac loved that he, Dominic, and Gage were able to communicate with only a few words or a look. He was a firm believer in the motto “less is more,” but today he was finding it as annoying as hell.

“Why. Did. She. Come. By?” Surely to God, he could get an answer now. How much clearer could he be?

Dominic rocked back in his chair, before throwing his feet up on the desk in front of him. Was the fucker actually laughing at him? “Well, Mac, she followed me in from the parking garage to talk. She didn’t really mention you.”

Mac felt a wave of jealousy that he had no right feeling. He was dating Gwen, so he didn’t have a say in who Ava chose to talk to. It was probably just a perfectly innocent, friendly conversation between them anyway. Still, it was unlike Ava to seek out someone she barely knew, especially a man. But he’d be damned if he would ask Dominic any more questions, because the smug look the other man was giving him let him know that he was enjoying watching Mac squirm. Bastard. Instead he tried to act as if he didn’t care as he made an excuse to walk toward his office. It galled him more than he cared to admit that Ava had been to his office space earlier with no intention of seeing him.

Chapter Five

Ava handed Emma some folders and said, “I need to go to the mall during lunch for some jeans and leather stuff. Can you go with me?” When there was no reply, she looked up from the e-mail she was composing to see Emma staring at her with a bewildered expression on her face. “What?”

“You can’t just drop stuff like that on me and not expect that I’m going to have questions. The jeans, yeah, I get why you need those, but what kind of leather stuff are we talking here?”

Ava knew it was hopeless to think that she could get Emma on board without telling her everything. The girl was like a bulldog with a bone when she wanted to be. Rather than going into a long explanation¸ she picked her purse up and pulled out the notes she had made last night from various magazines. She handed them over to Emma, who gave her a questioning look before she started reading. After a few minutes, the other woman looked up at her with a huge grin. “I have no idea where you got all this, but does this mean what I think it does?”

“And what do you think?” Ava hedged.

“You’re going after Mac, aren’t you? You’re taking your man back. Finally! I can totally help you with this. Well, everything except the second page where it says ‘have a threesome with your best friend.’ I don’t think Brant would be into me getting it on with you and Mac.”

Ava handed her a pen. “Mark that one out. I shouldn’t have included it. The thought of a twosome sends me into a panic, so an orgy is definitely out.”

Seeming genuinely happy, Emma said, “This is great, Ava. I know how you feel about Mac, but I was afraid that you were just going to let him go, and I know you’d never get over that. Okay, enough of the serious stuff! I need to ask, though, why the leather? Are we talking some bondage stuff here? Don’t you think that’s a bit ambitious for a beginner?”

“No! That’s not what I want.” She couldn’t contain her giggle at the other woman’s serious expression. Good grief, did she think she had suddenly turned into a closet dominatrix? “I need some clothing to wear on a motorcycle. Don’t you usually wear some kind of leather for that? Maybe a jacket?”