Damn, damn, damn.
Chapter Five
~Deidre~
Brocklyn was delicious to look at, especially when he was ass-up, bending over in the fridge. If I wasn’t hungry, I was now. The loaf of bread, lunch meat and any other ingredients he was transferring to the island without looking could wait until later. After I sampled the prime specimen in my focal point… which I was not going to do, but I had to do something before shit got out of hand with my sex drive.
The main problem was he seemed unmoved by my allure like it might lack height, width, at times, brains. Like me. There was nothing to be done about it. So, I closed my eyes, shutting him out along with squeezing my thighs together. Smothering the pounding rhythm of desire building within them, I silently pled for strength and tried to recall the conversation. Oh, electricity. Yes, we needed to plug shit up. And he just shot that down in flames if he wasn’t going to unplug the fridge.
Well then, my being here was a moot point. Growing angry at being essentially sent on a duck-run, my eyes shot open and I was going to let loose my wrath on his backside stuck up in the air and tight enough to bounce a quarter off of. I would have bounced one, if I had one, and we had to talk about the latest developments.
“Granted, Brocklyn, I should’ve asked more questions about there being enough power before coming here. Excuse me for presuming modernization had reached everywhere. My fault, but you guys should’ve said this place had limited resources before asking me to come here. If I can’t make use of the generator, which I guess is what’s causing the humming I heard outside, then I can’t help you. That means I should get gone before daylight leaves too.”
Misery built skyward at having to leave him, no, just leave so soon. It did me no good to think of staying with him. That was never a choice, but it had been years since I left Louisville. Though there was no point, I wanted to stay.
For the wrong damn reasons.
Okay, yes, for the wrong damn reasons and… What am I thinking? I just earned a hundred large for almost doing nothing. Their loss, my gain plus a pound or two lost after unplanned cardio. Except for a missed winter fling, I had nothing to be mad about… until realizing getting home was going to be a bitch.
Better get to stepping then!
Brocklyn switched from horizontal to vertical in the blink of an eye, releasing an armload of items on the island.
Don’t look at his muscles moving, Deidre. Just go.
Avoiding eye contact with him because no sex would come of doing otherwise, I straightened up to leave, noticed the backpack and mentally groaned. The orange atrocity rested on the floor, propped up on the island’s side. It should’ve been able to stand up on its own as heavy as it was. It couldn’t. I was going to have to take that big bitch with me. I’d leave it and let DeAngelo come get his own crap, but my crap was in there too.
Fuck!
I approached the pack. Brocklyn rounded the island.
“Deidre,” he started.
“Save it, Brocklyn. I’m can’t work like this.” I reached downward for the pack’s closest strap.
So did he, grasping my hand in his midair. “Where are you going?” The pleading in his tone was unmistakable.
Acknowledging him was the worst decision I could’ve made. I couldn’t not acknowledge him neither. The man was like the north pole and I was the needle on a compass. His worried expression dragged me in so fast my head spun. An unbalanced equilibrium was the least of my concerns. Lightning bolts were streaking though my fingers connected to his, making a beeline for my sex and electrocuting me nonstop. He was too damn close.
Yet, not close enough once again.
“Deidre,” he murmured, cradling my shoulder with his free hand to propel me upright. “Why are you leaving?”
“I…” I couldn’t think when staring in his eyes.
Blink then, stupid.
I blinked and it helped. “Because I’m going home. There’s ah…” I knew what I wanted to say, but it wanted to stay in my throat. “I can’t use my equipment, I can’t stay.”
“No, you can’t leave,” he appealed to my lips. His eyes had long left my eyes, and was it me or was he sending crazy mixed signals about why I shouldn’t go? “I didn’t say you couldn’t use your equipment, I was trying to say we have to be frugal about using the jenny not that you can’t use it period. And you don’t have to move anything to get to a plug. Whatever you need, I got you. Do you really think I’d have you come all the way out here by yourself just for the company after admitting why I needed you here?”
Oh, big boy, a whorish part of me really wished you said you wanted me for company, and fucked me already.
He didn’t say it, so why was he staring at my mouth as if he wanted to? Seemingly, I didn’t know how to take either Devereaux brother. I wasn’t going to make the first move with this one, potentially making a fool of myself.
Brocklyn was going to have to say the magic words. Until then, I’d pine for him and try to clear his handsome, oozing sexuality, walked off the pages of an underwear ad name. No, that didn’t make sense because first, I had to help myself find some good sense. His touch stripped me of it, so I stepped back, reclaiming my hand and shoulder from him.
“Okay, Brocklyn, frugal works and no, I don’t think that you’d ask me out here just to spend time with you.”
His eyebrows arched as if he didn’t understand why I backed off or anything I said, the biggest hint a woman could lob at a man. If he didn’t agree with me, he should say.
He didn’t say anything, slow on the uptake I guessed.
~Brocklyn~
Deidre was going to drive me completely nuts. Simple as that. I desired her more than my next breath, but she didn’t seem to like my touch without clothes between us. Real skittish around me all of a sudden. I mimicked her backtracking, giving her space.
Just keep it light, Brocklyn, so you can go home too. I just don’t want her to go without me… Wait. What?
That home truth froze me to the spot. I had no idea where it came from. Oh yes, I did; the bottom half of me and I had to be extremely vigilant that my little head’s yearnings didn’t turn into actions.
I rubbed my hands together, feeling the chill in the air more than ever after the loss of Deidre’s heat. “Now that we have that understanding in place…” About the generator at least. “…sit down at the table and tell me what you want on your sandwich. That’s one of my specialties by the way, and I’ll tell you whether I have what you want or not. Probably not, but you won’t starve. I’ll bring the pack to the table afterwards, so you can unload it while I start a fire or you will freeze off your ass.” A delectable, biteable ass.
Breathing out heavily as if frustrated, for what I had no clue, Deidre nodded then advanced on the six-chair dinette set to her right like she was about to attack it. Course set for the other side of the table, she took off her coat along the way. Her long-sleeved, scooped neck casual shirt nearly did me in, revealing the tops of full breasts that I had faced off with, literally, and lost my breath to. Twice now.
Since I hadn’t persuaded her to let me take her breath away, I stuck my head and hands in the cabinetry, relieving them of dinnerware and firing questions about her choices for sustenance. After getting a series of one-syllable replies, a few minutes later, I prepared a ham sandwich with most of all the trimmings that were available.
“Hold the pickles,” was the most she said at one time since sitting down, and she liked them better on the side with plain potato chips and a Pepsi. I arranged it all for her then moved the pack to the vacant section of the table for easy access. Then, we were back on one syllable terms. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” I issued as I went to get the fire started then took my seat with the friendliest smile ever.
She didn’t see it, multitasking filling her belly, emptying the pack and ignoring my existence. I couldn’t stand that we were losing the connection from earlier… and I missed it. I shouldn’t have. The
me I knew only missed his brother. She and I needed common ground to re-bond on. I had to be connected to her in some way, just as much as I wanted my life back. Right then, I knew I was in over my head, didn’t see a way to change that or fight it.
I didn’t want to, so I rolled with it.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
Sincerely hoping that was true, I took a big bite of turkey on rye with a little of everything and pointed at a black box laying beside her plate. “What is that for?”
Deidre followed the direction of my pinkie finger. Her grin livened up her face as if someone hit a light switch, and could’ve outshone the sun.
Common ground found, I gloated in my head.
She held up the box not much bigger than her GPS, and then, she made sizzling eye contact. Someone liked to talk about her hobbies. I’d let her and if I hadn’t believed I’d look like a fucking idiot, I’d have pumped my fists in the air. Instead, I bit my sandwich to hide my big ass smile while she enlightened me.
“It’s a transmitter, adapter, signal decoder, receiver, and antenna in one that…” Delaying, a sign that information I didn’t want to hear was incoming. “…an exe created.”
Nope, I didn’t want to hear anything about her exe.
She rushed on, “It takes radio waves, creating Wi-Fi. I can go online, receive and send information like a router would let me do. This box however is free, invisible, would piss off the government and internet tycoons if they knew I had it, so I won’t tell the greedy corporations I have it.”
I scoffed, “I’d think not. Our secret. Tell me, would you charge me an arm and a leg to lease it from you too?”
Her face pinching up as if thinking it over preceded a nonchalant quirk of her shoulders and incline on one side of her mouth. “For you, you can get it for free.”
That was the wrong thing to say on her end. I didn’t think my little head—I’ve got to stop calling it that dumb ass name—would’ve hardened because she said ‘get it for free’. She could’ve been talking about anything. The thing in my pants had no brains.
Naïve to the havoc she caused, she lifted up an iPad along with the black box. “You know what this is, right?”
I sipped some juice and longed for looser jeans. “Yeah, what makes the iPad special though?” I won’t even admit how psyched I was to just hear her voice, and I swore a sandwich never tasted so good.
Must be the company.
Deidre launched into an explanation. “It has a program that can attack or defend information gateways. I’ll be doing a bit of both. First, I need to get in both firm’s computer systems and find the hacker’s rootkit.” A what?
I swallowed a hunk of tomato too fast and had to choke it down. “What the hell is a rootkit? Sounds like something that cleans teeth or you use teeth to clean. Jesus, the names people come up with these days.”
Deidre tipped her head to the side adorably and giggled. “Actually, you have the right idea, except it’s the rootkit that needs to be cleaned away. It’s a bunch of software with different purposes that is rooted as in hidden, usually very well, in systems by a hijacker who’s hijacked the computer. They hide their malware, which is their kit or tool of their trade, but it’s just software that’s used—”
“Maliciously,” I jumped in.
“Yes!” she squealed proudly.
Inwardly, I preened like a peacock. “I confess I chose that word as it fits the person who put me in this situation and its letters can be slapped in front of malware. I went with it. But, why hide it? I don’t know shit about computers. No more than the average joe anyway. Even learning to type wasn’t easy for me.”
Perhaps because you spent class time daydreaming about high school cheerleaders, Brocklyn.
Perhaps.
Deidre’s expression turned ominous. “Hackers hide it so the average joe doesn’t find it and they can keep control and remote access to your system. You’ll think your computer’s just acting up and buy a new device before you consider you’ve lost control over your system. By then, you’ve lost control of a lot of personal things. They have access to your finances, passwords, secrets or create so much traffic to your website, it crashes. In your case, your hijacker is your framer and moving money from one place to another is part of what they, hijackers, hackers, all the same, do.”
“This person didn’t keep the money,” I pointed out.
She set the devices down, dropping elbows on the tabletop to steeple her fingers. “Most do keep the money for themselves. Main goal for hacking is stealing. Sometimes, just because they can. You have a serious enemy, Brocklyn.”
That, I did. My appetite vanished. I set the sandwich down on my plate and wiped my hands and mouth. Rage began to creep in. “How do I… we catch this bastard?”
“Could be a bitch,” Deidre supplemented with a grin.
“If it were, you’d be proud, wouldn’t you?” I teased.
Just like that, my rage declined, not gone but having less of an impact on me. Deidre’s smile was more powerful.
Her grin widened as if she sensed my thoughts. “I plead the fifth, I will work day and night to find them by tracing the odd activities the malware’s directed to perform in your systems. That’ll eventually lead me to your hacker.”
I tsked. “I don’t like eventually. Now is better.”
She cackled dryly. “You didn’t think this was going to be easy, did you? Anything worth having or doing is usually good thus never simple and quick.”
“I bet the hacker doesn’t feel that way,” I griped.
“What the hacker is, is far from good. To do this to you, they have to be evil, which hardly ever encounters hurdles. It’s not fair when you think about it.”
That rage bloomed in my chest. “Oh, I’ve been thinking about it alright. I might kill whoever did this to me. What could I have done so badly to them that I deserve this?”
She hoisted her shoulders up in a confused fashion. “You’ll have to ask the evil bastard or bitch who did this. But, you’ll need an independent forensic scientist to corroborate my findings and report them to the FBI. This cabin is where I get on the ride and getting off. What I’m about to do for you is as illegal as what was done to you.”
Deidre had given me food for thought like ‘getting off’. My mind had taken those words and ran off to space with them. Luckily, I could think about them and where to go from here when she found what I needed to clear my name all I wanted during a mindless task like chopping wood. The pile on the other side of the house wasn’t low. I didn’t want it to get that way with her here.
I also should get out of Deidre’s way, to do what she came to do. I would be on standby, delivering her desires, all of them if she said so, her questions quelled. God willing, she’d hack my way back to my life and business. I’d take her out of these woods to a real paradise.
For now, I gesticulated with my head at her plate and drink. “Full or you want another one of each or just one?”
“I’m good,” she rebutted, her eyes plunging to my mouth then lingering there.
My lips tingled and curled upwards as if loving her rapt interest. I did too, was close to losing faith in her ever looking at me that way. You know, like she wanted me.
Huh, maybe she wasn’t skittish but cautious of crossing into foreign domain—mine—without an invite.
Making a cerebral memo to test that theory later, I got up, grabbing our dirty dishes and trash. “I’m gonna wash these real quick then we’ll tour upstairs. There’s nothing else to see down here. You get to pick a room or two to work and sleep in upstairs. There’s one bathroom, three bedrooms. The first room on the right is mine. The rest is untaken.”
She wobbled her head as if in a stupor, not really seeing me. When she communicated, “Okay,” she sounded a million miles away, off in her own head indeed. If she coveting images of me while she was locked in there, that would help me greatly. And she was, if the way she was gaping at my mouth was any indic
ation.
Wanting to stand still and let her watch me until her heart was content, I had to wash the damn dishes though. By hand. A sin that pushed the entire cabin to the top of my list for shit to be upgraded as soon as possible.
“Deidre, I’m just gonna go…” I glanced behind me at my destination.
She blinked then ducked her head fast enough to give herself whiplash and stammered, “Oh, ah, yeah, I should unpack the food DeAngelo sent.” Completely mortified to be caught checking me out, she started emptying the pack.
“Leave whatever on the table, I’ll get it.”
Her head popped up, eyes wide and syncing with mine again. “I can do it. I’m just sitting here. Just tell me where to put everything.” She could put her mouth on me and no, I wouldn’t say that now. Later, all bets were off.
I planted my feet, digging in. “Deidre, I want you to rest for a little bit. That hike was tiring even for me and DeAngelo as teenagers when the weather is cooperating. Then, you took off like a bat out of hell because I didn’t finish a second search of the property before you got here.” Probably shouldn’t have brought that back up. I kept talking before she honed in on my misstep. “Tomorrow, you can help me around here. Save your strength for figuring out where you like to sleep and work at best. I’ll run you a hot bubble bath tonight if you want. Okay?”
She sat frozen in place until her teeth bit into her bottom lip. So erotic my pants tented. Thanking God for tables, I called her name. She nodded, finally. Willing to pay for her thoughts but on a budget, I veered for the sink, hiding the jeans tent in front of me. That was useless when turning sideways at the sink where I glued my hips to the island.
Chapter Six
Cabin Fever Page 47