Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(30)

“I’ll take over from here,” Robert assured him. “Now that she understands we’re a couple, I can go over tomorrow and thank her for helping keep you calm. I’ll tell her I was worried because you can be claustrophobic.”

“Did she keep you calm?” Sasha had a knowing look on his face.

Fucker. “She ain’t going to buy that we’re gay, Robert.”

“Of course she will. Don’t stereotype. We can be manly and gay,” Robert said with a prim quality to his voice.

“Yeah, well, gay blokes don’t usually fuck a lady in the lift.” There. It was better to just shove it right out there.

The whole room went silent and then Sasha laughed.

“I told you,” he doubled over. “I knew it the minute he walked in the door. Pay up.”

Dante shook his head and pulled out his wallet. “Asshole texted me a couple of minutes ago. Last time I take a bet from him without investigating myself.”

Wankers.

“You did what?” Ezra had stood up. He might have been more intimidating had he not been covered in dog hair. The man liked to wear black, and now his all-dark look was covered in white fur.

“It wouldn’t have worked,” Owen started.

“It obviously worked, if we’re talking about your dick,” Robert shot back.

His dick had totally worked. It wanted to work again. “She was attracted to me.”

“A lot of women are attracted to you, asshole.” Robert started pacing like a caged tiger ready to pounce. “Then they actually get to know you and they run the other fucking way.”

“Robert,” Tucker began.

Robert wasn’t having it. “Do you understand that you’ve fucked this whole op up? Are you so arrogant that you had to have this one? Ian had reasons for shifting this to me.”

Before he could say a word, Robert was off again, explaining in minute detail every single way Owen had screwed up and put the team at risk. He was worked up in a froth, his face going red.

The man was going to have a heart attack. He bet Becca could handle that. She worked with brains, but she probably knew a lot about hearts, too. She would be pretty when she did CPR. Her breasts would bounce while she did the compressions. And her sweet mouth would come down on his while she tried to breathe life into him.

Not Robert. If Robert had a heart attack, Tucker could save him. He wasn’t letting the bastard watch Becca’s breasts bounce.

“Have you heard a single word I’ve said?” Robert asked.

“Of course. I’m a right bastard and I fucked everything up.” He didn’t have to listen to a ten-minute rant to know that. “But it wouldn’t have worked. If I had played things the way we talked about, she would have run the other way the minute the lift doors opened because she wanted me. She might have been friendly, but we wouldn’t have gotten her to spend time with us. She’s not a masochist and she wouldn’t have willingly spent time with a man she wanted and could never have.”

“You think pretty highly of yourself.” Robert had his hands on his hips, challenging him.

And Owen felt a growl start in the back of his throat. He had no idea where it was coming from. He was the quiet one, the one who sat back and didn’t give anyone hell because he was never sure of his place in the group. The alpha was challenging him, telling him to back down, and bugger all he wasn’t going to do it. “Well, I am the one who fucked the lady a few hours after I met her, so I think I might have just become the expert here.”

“Good for Becca,” Jax was saying. “She seems really stressed.”

“She isn’t stressed now,” Sasha said, still laughing.

“How exactly are we going to explain my presence?” Robert asked, his eyes still steely.

Shite. He’d taken Robert’s op. Owen took a deep breath and tried to soften his expression. “It wouldn’t have worked, mate. I’m sorry you feel like I screwed everything up, but I had to make a call and I was alone with her. Two seconds into meeting her and she was flirting with me.”

Robert shook his head with a long sigh of frustration. “That doesn’t mean she wants you to fuck her.”

“No, but her asking me to kiss her and clawing at my shirt to get it off sent me a real fine signal. You want to see the marks she left on my back?” Robert needed to see that the original plan wouldn’t have worked. “If I’d turned her down, she would have walked the other way the next time she saw me. She would have been embarrassed.”

“And you think she won’t be now?” Robert asked, but his tone had changed to something close to a grudging acceptance.

“Becca is pretty confident,” Jax said. “At least that’s how she comes off. I watched her trip over her own feet on the street and she just got up and bowed like she’d meant to do it. I also think if Owen had turned her down, she would have walked away and not looked back. I don’t know her well, but I think I have a pretty good read on her.”

“We have a way in. Do we need to fight about it because it wasn’t the one we thought it would be?” Tucker moved in, obviously willing to play the peacemaker. “If Owen is dating her, we’ll have a lot of access. Jax and River can play the friendship role. Sasha, Dante, and I will operate from the Huisman Foundation building. This still works.”