“Tactical Arms,” the header read.
A vast selection of military-grade guns available now. Handguns, rifles, shotguns, semiautomatics, automatics, and multi-role weapons. Other weapons upon request. All untraceable.
Leland clicked on the button that said “Enter Site Here.”
A menu of destruction popped up before his eyes—the website had not exaggerated in its claim to having a vast array of guns. The photos were clear and the guns gleamed with deadly craftsmanship. He clicked on a few categories and was stunned by the quantities the seller was offering. A small army could be outfitted from this one website.
When he navigated to the payment page, he was not surprised to find that prices were calculated in cryptocurrency. There was also a cash-on-delivery option, which he suspected was popular with drug dealers. He just wouldn’t want to be the deliveryman.
The whole presentation was impressive and appeared to be well established. The question was whether the website was a scam. The fact that it seemed to be accessed through the gym’s router made him wonder. Because it was a stretch to think someone at the gym was involved in arms dealing.
He could maybe wrap his mind around Ramón fixing fights or Vicky selling stolen credit card information or even Chad running an illegal sports-betting service, but this disturbing arsenal seemed out of their league. It was not meant for collectors or hobbyists. It was aimed at buyers who had a desire or need to kill people. Many people.
He needed to get Tully involved with this. He was in over his head and, even worse, Dawn was right there with him. Why the hell had he allowed her to come with him to Ramón’s office? Because he’d expected this to be some minor fraud.
You’d think he would have learned a lesson after Derek and Alice’s dangerous encounter with a crazy hacker. Even white-collar crime could turn deadly. He should have kept Dawn far, far away from this project.
Shoving his chair back, he stalked out of the room and down the hallway toward Tully’s office. His partner probably wasn’t there, but Leland needed to channel his tension into movement. Sure enough, the big corner room was empty and showed no signs of its owner just strolling away from his desk momentarily.
Leland ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He didn’t want to tell Dawn anything until he figured out how to proceed. Time for a swim to straighten out his thinking.
He had just hit the perfect rhythm in his stroke, freeing his mind to focus on the Tactical Arms problem, when he caught a glimpse of someone standing beside the pool as he turned his head to breathe. Surprise and irritation jerked him out of his hard-won zone.
On Sundays no one else ever used the pool so he hadn’t bothered to lock the elevator door in privacy mode. Since KRG had paid for installation of the pool, the partners had the right to control access to it. Leland didn’t often take advantage of that perk because his powers of concentration were substantial. He just hadn’t been prepared for the possibility of company today.
Ignoring the intruder, he hit the wall and executed a flip turn, staying underwater as long as his breath held out before surfacing to start his stroke again. He’d already decided that the first thing he’d do when he finished his swim was to call Tully, even though it was a Sunday. Criminals didn’t respect weekends, and it was likely that the website would change its address in the near future. That was how the dark web worked to ensure anonymity and to avoid law enforcement. The only way he’d be able to find Tactical Arms again would be to pose as a major gun buyer and try to find it through boards where the dark website links were listed in plain text through anonymous postings. That would be a bear of a search.
He was deep in thought as he approached the pool wall, so he didn’t see the bare feet dangling in the water until he was about to touch them.
He slammed his hand against the wall beside the feet and jerked his head up out of the water. “What the h—?” It was a woman with her jeans rolled up to the knees. “Dawn?!”
“Yup. Natalie and I were helping Alice design her wedding gown at her apartment.” She looked a little uncertain before she smiled. “I figured I was in the neighborhood so I’d stop by.” She flicked a small splash of water with her toe, hitting him in the face and making him sputter.
The mischief in her smile made him react in a way that proved he had lost his mind. He reached up to where she had her hands braced on the side of the pool, grabbed her wrists, and tipped her into the pool, catching her against his chest as she fell.
She shrieked and slammed her hands against the surface of the water to send a deluge into his face this time. He didn’t care because his arms were filled with her sweet, tempting body. Her hard nipples were pressed against his bare chest with nothing but wet silk and lace between them.
“You are going to pay for this, buster.” But she wound her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer. “In fact, you may have to pay for this blouse because I borrowed it from Alice and I’m pretty sure it’s one of those dry-clean-only garments.”
“It was worth every penny to see the expression on your face when you started to fall.”
She gave him a sideways smile. “I didn’t think a proper southern gentleman would do such a thing. Although it’s better than throwing me out.”
Something twisted in his chest. “Is that what you thought I would do?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure. You told me you had a lot of work to get through.” She stroked her palm over his shoulder, sending a thrill of sensation across his skin. “I’m glad you don’t mind that I’m here.”
He was still stunned by the idea that she’d thought he wouldn’t want her to be there. What did that say about him? Had he really become that kind of person? He tightened his arms around her. “Your appearance here is the best thing that’s happened to me all day. Well, except for this morning before I left your bed.”
He skimmed down to grab the inviting curves of her denim-covered butt. When she made a delicious little mewing noise and rocked her pelvis, he shifted his hands lower to grip her legs, opening them and lifting her so that his erection pushed at the juncture of her thighs. All he could think of was how it would feel to ease himself inside her as the water lapped around them.
“Leland, what if someone else comes to swim?” she said, but she wrapped her legs around his waist.
“They won’t, but if you’re worried, I can lock the elevator door so no one else has access. However, you have to promise me you’ll stay here while I do it.”
“I was thinking I might take off these wet clothes.”
He hesitated, half wanting to peel them off her himself. Then he imagined her floating naked in the water with her hair swirling around her like a mermaid when he returned. “That’s an offer I can agree to.”
He vaulted out of the pool, water streaming off him as he strode to the elevator door. He punched in the lockout code at lightning speed before turning to head back to the pool, anticipation hardening his cock so it tented his swim trunks. Without thinking, he stopped and shucked the trunks off, tossing them aside to land with a wet splat before he continued.
“You read my mind. That’s exactly how I wanted to see you,” he said as he got to the edge of the pool. Dawn floated on her back, her bare body wet and glistening, her hair swirling around her head and shoulders.
Her gaze drifted down his torso to stop at his groin and she smiled. “And you read mine. We’re psychic.”
“No, we’re horny.” He did a shallow racing dive and came up beside her.
“That too.”
She started to stand but he slid his hands under her back and butt to keep her floating. “Wait. I want to look at you.”
“You’re doing more than looking so I won’t complain.” She wiggled her bottom against his hand. He curled his fingers into the cushion of her flesh to hold her still.
“You’re the world’s sexiest mermaid,” he said, letting his eyes rove over the tight buds of her nipples, the sweep of wet satin skin across her taut belly,
and the beckoning triangle of dark hair between her thighs. He wanted to touch her everywhere, to suck at her breasts, to plunge his tongue into her mouth and then between her legs, to bury himself deep inside her.
“Okay, enough with the looking,” she said, squirming again. “You’re making me feel weird.”
“I can’t decide what to touch first.”
“Let me help you with that.” She flipped in his arms and wrapped her hand around his cock, sending a jolt of sensation through his body. At the same time, he realized that her shift in position put his hand under one of her breasts, so he found the nipple and squeezed lightly.
“Yes-s-s-s!” Dawn arched into his hand while she gave his cock a slow stroke, the water allowing her fingers to glide smoothly. “Decision made.”
His cock jerked as she hit the base, pleasure spreading upward to the tip.
A realization banged into his brain. His jeans were in the locker room. “I need to get a condom.”
Her lips curved into a seductive smile. “If you don’t have one, we can do other things to make each other happy.”
“I want to move with you in the water,” he said, dropping his voice to a purr. “It’s very . . . erotic.”
“Well, I didn’t expect to see you this afternoon, so I didn’t bring one.” She released his cock and twisted away so she could flip herself upright. She locked her dark eyes with his. “I’m on the pill and I have a clean bill of health.”
His lungs stopped functioning for a moment as he absorbed her message. The generosity of it walloped him in the gut, but he never had unprotected sex. His mother had drummed that into him from before he’d even considered girls as something other than alien beings. Because his mother had gotten pregnant from just one bout of carelessness, born of infatuation—not love, she insisted—for a man who told her she could trust him.
She never called it a mistake, because it had given her Leland and he knew she loved him fiercely. But he also knew that his arrival had sent her life into a downward spiral, making her a single parent at age eighteen, repudiated by her own rigid parents and by Leland’s father and his family. Not that he would ever do that to a child he fathered, but wearing a condom seemed a small precaution to take to avoid such life-changing consequences. So he carried one with him always.
Still her breathtaking offer deserved an acknowledgment.
“I’m honored that you would trust me that way,” he said, pulling her back against him and brushing his lips against hers. “But I just have to get to my jeans in the locker room. Can you wait that long?”
She had lost her mind. She never had sex without a condom. It was a hard-and-fast rule for her for all kinds of reasons. But Leland, with his lean, muscled body and his brilliant perceptiveness, had destroyed her common sense.
It was the ticking clock of their relationship that drove her to desperation. She might never have another chance to make love with Leland in a private pool contained in a glass box perched high above the streets of Manhattan. Who turned down that opportunity for lack of a latex sheath?
So why didn’t she feel relieved when he told her he had a condom close by? Because it felt like her trust had been thrown back in her face. He didn’t reciprocate it.
“Sure,” she croaked. “I’ll be here.”
He searched her face before he said, “I’ll be back in two minutes flat.”
He leaped out of the pool as though gravity didn’t exist, rivulets of water glistening in the sun as they rolled down his muscles.
His beauty struck her like a dagger because she wanted him so badly. The hunger for him twisted in her gut.
She should be glad he had a condom. Glad that he wanted to protect her. That was what good, responsible men did.
Yet once she’d made the decision to trust him, she’d wanted him to be as irresponsible as she was. As though it would prove how much he desired her.
When he strode out of the locker room, she shoved away her irrational feelings and let the sight of his sculpted shoulders, ripped abs, long, powerful legs, and erect cock fan her arousal to full flame again.
He arced into the pool, swimming to her underwater. He wrapped his hands around her thighs and kissed her right at the juncture of her legs, the unexpected touch sending a sparkle of sensation fountaining up through her.
He surfaced, blowing a spout of water into the air. “I wish I had gills so I could do more than just kiss you there.”
“A merman? I like you better as a human.”
“Right now I feel human in the finest of ways, darlin’,” he said with a hot smile.
Then he locked her against his body so his skin warmed her front with the water around her back cool by contrast. Her nipples were so tight that the pressure against his chest sent arousal streaking down between her legs. His mouth was hot against hers as he gave her a devouring kiss, turning the ache between her legs into a raving need.
She slid her hand down between them to stroke the hard, smooth length of his cock, and he tore his mouth away from hers, his head falling back as he groaned, the sound loud enough to echo off the glass walls.
Another stroke and he groaned again, louder, while his fingers dug into her waist. And then he tilted his head down to look at her, his eyes blazing with hunger. “I want you now. Is it too soon?”
Her answer was to hold out her hand. He tore the envelope open with his teeth and handed her the condom. “I’ve never tried to do this in water,” she said. “Maybe you could float on your back?”
“You’re a problem solver,” he said, tipping back to let the water lift his hips.
She took her time rolling the tight latex over his erection, savoring his moans. As soon as she hit the base of his cock, he flipped upright and hooked his hand under one of her thighs, lifting her leg to rest against his hip.
“Lean back and use the water’s buoyancy. I’ve got you,” he said, bringing her other leg to his waist as she allowed herself to tilt backward. His cock rubbed against her clit and she arched as pleasure shot through her. “Yes,” he said. “Like that. I’ll support you.”
His arms were around her, easing her down until she floated in the water. He shifted so he gripped her upper arms, and she reached down again to position the head of his cock.
He drove inside her in one long, fluid thrust.
The feel of him stretching and filling and moving within her ripped a spasm of pleasure from her body so that she arched again without thought of being in the water. But he kept her head above the wavelets they’d created, grinding his hips against her so that he hit her clit.
“Leland! More!” She fought off the orgasm.
He pulled back and then plunged into her again. The water stroked her sensitized skin, adding gentler sensation to the intensity of Leland’s cock impaling her. He towered over her, his face a mask of pure lust, yet she felt no fear because only the water and his hands cradled her body.
“This is perfect,” she whispered.
“You are perfect.” He withdrew and thrust again.
This time she couldn’t stop it. Her orgasm crashed through her entire body in a wave, her muscles contracting all the way down to her toes so that they curled into his butt. “Leland!” she shouted at the ceiling, her voice bouncing off the glass. Pleasure flooded her and she added to it by rolling her hips against him.
“Oh, Dawn, yes!” he yelled as his climax hit.
They convulsed together, their groans intertwined and echoing, the motion of one setting off an answering, amplifying response in the other. Until finally the last tiny ripple shivered through Dawn’s body, leaving her limp and drifting on the water. Leland softened inside her, his hands still cupping her shoulders while his head was bowed. She could see the rise and fall of his chest as he sucked in breath to replenish the oxygen he’d expended.
“I’ve never . . .” He shook his head. “That was . . .”
She gave a ghost of a laugh at his inability to describe the experience. “Yup. I agree.”
> He lifted his head enough to meet her eyes. “That was beyond the reach of mere words.”
His grip tightened on her shoulders as he pulled her up and against him. His cock slipped out of her, sending one more tiny shudder of sensation through her. He cocooned her in his arms, resting his cheek on top of her head. His heart beat against her breast, still rapid from his exertions.
She wanted to stay there in his embrace, despite the goose bumps rising on her skin as it cooled in the water.
But he ran his hands down to twine his fingers with hers and stepped back, pressing a quick kiss on her lips. “You’re getting cold. Let’s find you a towel.”
She was grateful for the buoyancy of the water because her knees were wobbly. Leland sent her up the ladder first, his hands cupping her butt to give her a boost out of the pool. He demonstrated the upper-body strength he’d developed from his years of swimming by bracing his hands on the side of the pool and rocketing upward to land on his feet without any need for a ladder.
“Show-off,” she said. But he looked like a sea god with water sluicing down the ridges and indentations of his muscles as he straightened.
“I’m sure you could do the same.” He grinned. “But I’m glad you didn’t because I enjoyed copping a feel.”
“Truth be told, my muscles are feeling a bit depleted after that orgasm.”
He bent to kiss her shoulder and spoke against her skin so his lips grazed it with each word. “That’s music to my ears.”
Leading her to a chaise longue, he said, “Sit and I’ll grab the towels.”
“I like the view,” she called as he walked away, his butt cheeks shifting with each stride.
“Are you ogling me?”
“Oh, yeah.”
He chuckled—a warm, rich sound of amusement. Even more, it sounded relaxed, almost carefree. That wasn’t a mood she associated with Leland.
He returned with a thick white towel wrapped around his waist and an armful of extras. Dropping the pile on the adjacent chaise longue, he shook out the oversize terry cloth and wrapped it snugly around Dawn’s upper body. “Lean back,” he commanded before he tucked another towel around her legs as she lay on the lounge.
The Hacker Page 15