Banan set aside his phone, and wasn’t sure what to say to Jane. He hadn’t planned the kiss. Nor had he planned the longing he felt for her.
It was baffling, bewildering. And absolutely amazing.
He was painfully hard, and all he could think about was taking off her red dress, exposing more of her satiny skin to see and caress. And kiss.
By all that was holy, he wanted to kiss every inch of her at least a thousand times.
Jane licked his lips, and he swallowed back the moan as he imagined those unbelievably plump lips wrapping around his cock.
“I didn’t find anything in Richard’s office that was out of the ordinary, or that had anything to do with Dreagan,” she said, her gaze frequently looking away from him.
This would never do. Her shyness was making him want to tug her back into his arms. He’d bend her backwards and run his hand over her breast, testing the weight of it before teasing her nipple.
Would she moan or cry out with pleasure?
Banan wanted to know, he had to know.
He gripped the counter to keep himself from reaching out to her. “Rhys found nothing in Arnold’s home either. This isna looking good.”
“He left his cell phone behind. The one he was on the day before? Well, I found the number of the person who called him.”
To his surprise, she handed him a piece of paper folded into a small square that fit perfectly in her palm. Banan unfolded it to discover the number she spoke of.
“Good work,” he said with a smile. “We can find out who this number belongs to.”
Jane ran her finger along the edge of the sink. “So, does that mean you no longer need to worry about Richard?”
“He’s still part of it. There’s no doubt of that now. How deep, is the question. Is he an integral part, or is this much bigger than him?”
“How are you going to find that out?”
Before he could answer her, there was a knock at her door. Banan stayed where he was as she kicked off her heels on the way to the door. He expected it to be Rhys, but one look at Jane’s face frozen in surprise, and Banan was at her side in a moment.
He narrowed his gaze at Richard Arnold. Just what was he doing at Jane’s flat?
“Mr. Arnold,” Jane said nervously. “What are you doing here?”
“That’s two days now you’ve left work on your desk,” Arnold said, barely masking his effort to peer inside Jane’s flat. “That’s not like you. I wanted to be sure everything was all right.”
“You could’ve called,” Banan said.
Arnold’s dark gaze rested on Banan. “I could have.”
“Do you make visiting your employees a habit?”
“Not usually.”
Jane cleared her throat. “I’m fine, Mr. Arnold. I had an appointment yesterday.”
“And today?” Arnold asked.
Banan was finding it increasingly difficult not to reach out and wrap his hand around Arnold’s throat and squeeze. “I came into town,” he said before Jane could.
After a stare-down, Arnold dropped his gaze to Jane. “If you can’t finish the work I give you, I might have to find a new personal assistant.”
With those words, he turned on his heel and walked off. Banan stepped into the hallway and made sure Arnold left the building.
“Shut and lock the door,” he told Jane before running after Arnold.
He stepped out onto the sidewalk just as Arnold’s car drove off. Banan debated on whether to follow him, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave Jane.
“What the bloody hell was he doing here?” Rhys said as he walked up.
Banan released a long breath and turned to Elena and Rhys. “He wanted to know why Jane hadna stayed late these last two days.”
“That’s not disturbing or anything,” Elena said sarcastically as she started up the steps.
Banan grabbed the door Elena opened and glanced behind him. “Where is Guy?”
“Doona ask,” Rhys said with a loud sigh. “He wasna happy at no’ being here.”
Elena lightly elbowed Rhys in the ribs. “Guy understands your reasoning for keeping his existence from Jane, but he wants you to know it should’ve been Rhys she didn’t know about.”
They walked up to Jane’s flat, and Banan couldn’t help but smile. “Well, Rhys was near to take care of Jane’s watcher, Guy wasna.”
Elena grinned. “No, Guy was otherwise…occupied.”
And Banan could well imagine how his friend had been occupied. It’s what he’d like to be doing with Jane. Slowly, leisurely he wanted to discover Jane’s body and bring them both pleasure in the process.
It baffled Banan that he’d never thought twice about relieving his body on a human before, but with Jane everything was different.
If the craving, the unimaginable hunger to have her weren’t so strong, he might find his growing…emotions…something to worry over. But he couldn’t even think about them, with his need so strong.
Never once in all the long eons of his life had he ever found a human so appealing. He’d seen beauty before, but nothing compared to Jane.
“Banan?”
He started and discovered they were standing in front of Jane’s door. Both Elena and Rhys were staring at him. “What?”
“You seem a wee different,” Rhys said, his aqua gaze narrowed.
Elena watched him carefully, almost as if she searched for something.
“I’m still wishing I’d wrapped my hands around Arnold’s neck,” Banan said before he rapped his knuckles on Jane’s door. “Jane. I’m back.”
He heard her unlock the door, and then it opened and she peeked her head around. Her thick, silky auburn strands of hair had fallen to the side as she leaned her head over. There was relief in her dark gaze when she saw him.
“I wasn’t sure you were coming back,” she said as she stepped aside and opened the door wider.
Banan let Elena inside the flat first. “I thought about it, but we can no’ allow Arnold to know we know what he’s done.”
“Right,” Rhys said. “We need to know all the players in this game first. And then we strike.”
Banan grinned at Rhys’s comment. Their strike would be quick, silent, and quite effective. Their very lives depended on it.