Page 47 of Target Acquired

A chuckle rumbled under her ear, tickling her eardrum. “That would be a negative. I have to say, this is a first.” His laughter faded and he pulled back a fraction to look down at her. She lifted her chin to meet his gaze and the action brought their lips in close proximity.

Very. Close. Proximity.

She froze and so did Cole.

He cleared his throat and she tilted her head down, hoping against hope he couldn’t feel her runaway pulse pounding like . . . like . . . well, like it never pounded. Ever.

“Your side okay?” he asked, his voice a little more husky than normal.

What side? Oh. Ahem. “Yes, it’s fine.” Well, it hurt, but she didn’t want to move, so . . .

She should move. She really should. “Cole?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m confused.”

“I know. I am too.”

“Well, as long as it’s both of us . . .”

“We’ll figure it out, Kenzie. For now, let me try to answer your question.”

She had a question? Well, yes, she had a lot of questions, but this . . . whatever this was . . . was the biggest question she’d ever faced.

“So,” he said, “when all the applicants for your position with SWAT were reviewed, it was easy to discard a lot of them. Most of them. But there were some really, really good applicants.”

“I’m sure.”

“We narrowed it down to five. Then three. Then two.”

“Me and . . .”

“Yes.”

“You’re not going to tell me who the other one was.”

“No. If he wants you to know, he’ll tell you.”

She reared back and gasped at the shaft of pain that shot through her wound. Then ignored it. “It wasn’t Butler, was it?”

“No, he didn’t apply.”

Kenzie knew her jaw was swinging, but couldn’t seem to do anything about it. He tapped it shut, but she didn’t return to his comfortable, very nice, rock-solid, Shemar Moore chest. No, no. Not yet anyway. “B-but, I thought that was why he was being so . . . antagonistic about me being on the team.”

“No, Butler’s just a jerk.”

“So, it really is a gender thing.” She didn’t know why she was so shocked about that.

“Yeah, I think so. I can’t think of any other reason. Now, can I finish?”

“Oh, right. You were answering my question. Go on.”

“Anyway, most everyone knows I’m friends with Logan, and I didn’t want that to influence the decision, so I stayed out of it.”

“And the guys know that.”

“They know. And I think they’re not happy with me for that decision. So, I’ve tried to stay neutral. Keep you at arm’s length, as you put it, and not show any favoritism.”