Midnight Kiss

by Lisa Marie Rice

  “Hope, please.”

  Douglas Kowalski had a voice like God. God wouldn’t address her as Ms. Ellis.

  The man dipped his head slightly. It was as if he were in the room, looking her right in the eyes. She was glad she was on his good side because he looked fierce enough to eat her for breakfast if she were his enemy.

  “Hope. Judging by the noises Felicity here is making —” he nodded his head at Felicity. She could see a slice of Felicity’s intent face, staring at her computer. “That program is something else. Can we buy it off you? Or at least pay you for the use? I understand it protects against —” He side-eyed Felicity.

  “DDoSs.” Her voice was preoccupied. She didn’t look away from the screen.

  The Senior nodded. “What she said.”

  “God no!” Hope held her hands up. “We’ve gone over this before. You and your company are helping me figure out what’s going on, probably saving my life. You’re under attack now because of me. You’re welcome to anything I’ve developed. Now and ever will develop. To the end of time.”

  He hung his head for a moment, jaws working. As if he were chewing on a problem. He lifted his head suddenly and seemingly looked her straight in the eyes. “Well, how about this? Can we offer you a job?”

  Hope’s jaw fell open. “A what?”

  “A job,” he replied. “You know. You work for us and we pay you. Felicity here says that you are super smart and a hard worker. Coming from her, that’s incredible praise. And she said that already the two programs you’ve sent are worth a lot of money. From what I understand, you didn’t like the job you had. Felicity will tell you what working with us is like.” Suddenly a slender hand appeared on the screen next to his cheek, with a thumb up. Something like a smile appeared on his face. “Our conditions are good and Felicity needs a hand. Not only now but after her twins are born. She’s got too big a work load as it is. We’d love to have you.”

  A sudden elbow in her ribs nearly knocked her to the floor. Luke, turning to her with a fierce expression, bright blue eyes nearly glowing. “Say yes!” he urged. “You’ll love it at ASI. Say yes!”

  She couldn’t tear her gaze away from him.

  “Yes,” he prompted, nudging her with his shoulder.

  “Ahm … yes?” she answered.

  Luke fist-pumped and the Senior’s mouth twitched, which Hope interpreted as a smile. She had long experience interpreting nerd body language. Soldier body language was different but sort of the same. She suspected they had issues expressing their emotions as much as nerds did.

  “Excellent,” the Senior said. “Felicity’s carrying too heavy a load right now so I’m glad that she has someone as good as she is to help carry it.”

  “Almost as good as she is,” Hope corrected with a smile.

  “I heard that! No way!” Felicity’s voice floated in the background. “As good as or better.”

  Hope rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “Either way we’re looking forward to welcoming you to ASI, Hope,” the Senior said. “You already had our attention and the full resources of the company at your disposal, so that doesn’t change. I understand that as soon as your present troubles are over, you’ll need to relocate and that will take time, but consider yourself on our payroll as of right now.”

  Hope’s eyes rounded. “Wait! That’s not …”

  But he’d disappeared and all she saw was Felicity’s pretty face. She was pale but had an ironic smile on her face. “That’s the Senior. He and Midnight are the closest things to God on this earth. Welcome aboard the Good Ship ASI. It’s great here.”

  Her voice was light, but looking closer Hope could see the lines of fatigue on her face. She was too pale and though she was halfway through a difficult pregnancy, she looked like she’d lost weight, not put any on. Luke had said that though she felt sick, she insisted on working just as hard as she could. If she couldn’t come in to work, she worked from home. She’d clearly gone in to work early this morning.

  Hope imagined she’d welcome a hand and was very happy to give it. Happy to take some of the load off. Felicity had always been a good friend to her and now it was time to pay that back.

  Plus — a new job. With new challenges. And, um, working with Luke.

  Yeah, that.

  Luke encouraged her to take it but who knew what he was thinking?

  But … working with Luke.

  Felicity was staring into the camera, head slightly cocked. There was only one thing Hope could say.

  “Glad to be on board, honey. As soon as we —” She drew in a deep breath, searching for the right words. “As soon as we sort all of this out, we’ll be up there and I’ll pick up the slack.”

  Felicity blew out a breath. Her face relaxed and she almost looked like her old self. “The company keeps a studio apartment for new hires until they can find something they want. So you’ll have a place to stay.”

  Hope blinked. She’d changed jobs and cities twice and no new employer had showed even the slightest interest in where she lived or if she had trouble finding an apartment.

  “Wow. That’s ah —”

  “Yeah.” Felicity gave her a blinding smile and there was some real relief in there. She was happy Hope was coming but clearly she was also happy that there was someone she could offload some of the work to. “It’s a great place to work. You’ll love it.” She suddenly turned sheet white. “Whoa. Sorry. Gotta run.”

  Hope didn’t have a chance to say goodbye, the screen simply blackened.

  “She went to barf,” Luke said sadly. “She’s been doing a lot of that. Metal just hates it but he’s helpless to stop it.”

  Poor poor Felicity. Hope herself had always been really healthy and had thrown up exactly twice in her life. The experience had been worse than horrible. Vomiting several times a day? For months? No, thanks.

  Luke bent and gave her a quick kiss. Lifted his mouth and frowned. Bent and gave her a longer kiss and everything just melted away. All her troubles, the mysteries surrounding the past, the DNA — all of it gone. Up in smoke. It was impossible to remember fear and anxiety while in his arms. The only thing she could perceive was his soft lips surrounded by wiry stubble that gave her that tingle of contrasting textures. His tongue was soft, the hands holding her were hard.

  He was hard all over. Holding him never got old. Her mind simply disappeared as she turned into a creature of skin and blood and hormones. Heat and desire.

  He was infinitely dangerous. A bomb could have gone off in the room and she wouldn’t have noticed.

  Luke lifted his head and frowned down at her. “You’re dangerous, woman.”

  Hope laughed and pushed at his shoulders. “I was just thinking the same thing about you. That you’re dangerous.”

  “Yeah?” That had him smiling. “I definitely am. I’m a really good shot.”

  “Not dangerous that way. My whole life is upended. I am maybe related to a criminal. Someone who wants me dead, anyway. I’m definitely not who I thought I was. I seem to have just accepted a job across the country from my home on the basis of maybe a two-minute interview. And all I could think about was you.”

  He was holding her upper arms, which was probably a good thing because her instinct was to just lean forward and rest her head on those luscious pecs. Just let it all go. Relinquish any attempt at control. Let him take care of everything. Which was the most un-Hope-like thought she’d ever had. She was used to taking care of herself, had been doing it for as long as she could remember. She never put her troubles in anyone’s hands.

  Except, apparently, now.

  He was looking down at her and managed to both smile and scowl at the same time.

  “What?”

  He bent to kiss the tip of her nose. Which no one had ever done. Hope wasn’t used to being cuddled.

  “So I guess we’ll be colleagues now.”

  “Mm.”

  “And fraternization and flirting on the job are frowned on.”

&
nbsp; Her eyes widened. This was the very first time she’d ever been faced with the idea of a romantic work relationship. Or was it a romantic relationship at work? Work romance? Whatever the hell they were called.

  Man. She’d just found Luke and was now expected to treat him like some remote relative? That was going to hurt.

  “Okay.”

  “Unless …” he said.

  Unless … Hope was running alternatives through her processor and wasn’t finding any. “Unless?”

  “Unless we go in as a couple. Already established, that way no one could say anything. Like Felicity and Metal. They just started like that and no one questioned it.”

  Her mind whirred emptily. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? He couldn’t be, could he?

  Luke reached out a long finger and gently closed her jaw, which had dropped. “For a smart lady, you’re looking really clueless.”

  She nodded. Yep. Anything she said could be completely wrong if she was reading this the wrong way.

  “I am suggesting that we become a couple. Like — a real one. That people know about.” He frowned. “Fuck. That sounded really awkward. But I think you know what I mean.”

  She nodded. Continued to stare up at him.

  “So, ahm, how about it?”

  She just looked at him, without even blinking.

  “Hope?” He waved a hand in front of her face. “Are you in there?”

  She was, she was. She was just frozen. He was proposing — what? She couldn’t even picture it. Hope hadn’t ever been part of a couple, not for anything more than a week, if that. And to be a couple inside a group of people who were friends, well …

  For a moment, a strange feeling shot through her, zipping along her nerves, so intense she felt it skimming over her skin, thrumming through her entire body.

  Happiness. Pure, radiant joy. She never thought much about the future but in that instant she had a vision of herself working with Felicity, a good friend, with Luke, her whatever-he-was-to-her. With the rest of the gang that Felicity said was really great. A whole building of friends. Plus Luke.

  Maybe going out in the evenings, together. Or seeing them on the weekend.

  Plus Luke.

  To belong. To him, to that life.

  It was a vision of her own future better than any she’d ever had before and it was almost scary how much she wanted it. Terrifying, because once she’d seen her future — or at least that future — nothing else would do. Anything else seemed cold and barren and lifeless.

  She’d gone ahead and projected her desires on a blank canvas, something she never did. She made a point of not wanting things so she wouldn’t be disappointed. It always worked, but somehow that mechanism suddenly broke. Shattered into a million pieces.

  She wanted this. She wanted it fiercely.

  This was so freaking scary.

  “Hey.” Luke pulled her to him and it was exactly what she needed, that sense of sinking into him, fitting in beneath his skin. Reassured by the feel of his heart beating beneath her ear, strong and steady. A beat a second. “Is this about us being a couple? I’m pretty easy to get on with, promise. Are you scared?”

  “No.” Whether it worked or not, she suddenly realized she wanted a shot at coupledom. With Luke and no one else.

  “Good,” he grunted and held her more tightly. They stood there until her own heartbeat slowed, matched his.

  He kissed her hair. “About the job. It’ll be fine. Promise. You’ll be treated like a princess.”

  She smiled against his shirt. “They already treat Felicity like a queen.”

  He bent his head until his chin rested on the top of hers. “They do. Rightly. Whatever perks you had in your previous job, they’ll top them. The Senior and Midnight have been looking for someone to help Felicity for a while. And now that they’ve found her — you — they’ll make sure you want to stay. And trust me when I say no one will harass you. Ever.”

  Her jobs had all been high powered and interesting but the human element had always been missing. This sounded like the job of her dreams. Nobody could chase her away.

  But he thought she needed convincing and tightened his arms around her. “And like I said, they pay well. Really well.”

  She sighed, her chest lifting and falling. “I don’t care.”

  It was true. They could pay her a dollar a year and she’d still take the job. There were a lot of things to worry about, including someone trying to kill her, but money wasn’t one of them.

  He sighed and she followed the movements of that magnificent chest. He should sigh more often while she was holding him. Just sigh all the time, his chest expanding under her arms. “You might not care now but money is useful. As a matter of fact —” He pulled away and looked down at her. “This might be a good moment to confess that I don’t have any.”

  Oh god, he was just so handsome, like a fierce Viking that could turn unexpectedly tender.

  “What? Any what?”

  “Money.” He smiled at her. Her mind completely disengaged and for a moment she forgot what money was even for. He gave a crooked smile. “I don’t have any. The lawyers ate everything I had and all my dad’s savings. All I have is a little trust fund my grandmother left me and that my dad refused to touch and refused to allow me to touch. But it’s ok. Like I said, ASI pays really well and I’ll be back on my feet by the end of the year. Don’t worry about it.”

  She blinked. “Money? I’m not worried about it. As a matter of fact —” she stopped, embarrassed.

  He heard the change in tone and pulled his head back. “As a matter of fact …?”

  This was just one more tile in the mosaic of befuddlement that formed part of her life. Before she told him, she held on to his forearms. Maybe in an attempt to read him, feel his reaction. Under her fingers the muscles were clear and defined, like an anatomy text.

  Maybe she could read his emotions, too.

  Tilting her head back, she watched his face carefully. “As a matter of fact, I’m —” her throat tightened and she coughed to loosen it up. “I’m rich.”

  If she was expecting some big reaction, she was disappointed. His eyebrows rose. That was it. “You’re rich? Good for you.”

  “Unexpectedly rich. I’ve been living off my earnings for years, since my first job. When my — my parents died, I received a notice in the mail that there were two bank accounts in my name at a bank based in Luxembourg that had a branch office in Boston.”

  Now he was scowling. “That’s weird.”

  “Thank you. It is, isn’t it? What was even more weird was the amounts. Ten million dollars in one account and about half a million in the other. And the names. The accounts had names. The ten million dollar account was in my name, only it was Hope Catherine Ellis.”

  “I don’t think that’s so weird. You have to assign an identifying name to accounts, so I guess your parents just put your name on the account.”

  “Well, that’s the thing. That’s not my name.”

  He frowned. “Hope Ellis isn’t your name?”

  “Yes, it is. But my name isn’t Hope Catherine Ellis. I’m like Jack Reacher with no middle name. Hope No Middle Name Ellis. I don’t know where the Catherine comes in. But it’s not my name.”

  “Does that make a difference? I mean, you could call an account Numbnuts and it wouldn’t matter. If it’s yours, it’s yours. Right?”

  She nodded.

  “What’s the other one called?”

  “Something really weird.” Hope pulled away from him, a little unsettled. Talking about this just reminded her of all the question marks in her life that looked like they would never be answered. She hated it that these bank accounts, popping up out of nowhere, messed so much with her head. She didn’t need the money, she didn’t want the money. Her needs were fairly modest and her skills were such that she’d always earn more than she needed. In the past couple of years alone, she’d socked away over 200K. She didn’t like having too many clothes because it
just made her decision tree longer and harder every morning. She totally got Zuckerberg with his hundred identical gray tees. A bigger apartment just meant more to clean. The things she loved — dinners with her few friends, movies and books and brand new tech — she could easily afford and she didn’t want things she couldn’t afford.

  She could tell Luke was the same way. Not once had he mentioned money in connection to himself. He’d been wiped out financially, but the man clearly had serious skills and was confident he’d be okay by the end of the year. Because that was what he was, what they both were — survivors. He didn’t have expensive clothes, was comfortable in his skin. She was sure he was exactly the same whether he had ten dollars or ten million dollars in the bank.

  That was massively attractive. The few non-nerds she’d dated had been climbers, fascinated by money. A couple of lawyers and three men in banking. One of the men in banking had been an analyst and they’d met on the job, both fascinated by numbers. Only to her, the flow of data itself had been what she was interested in, not particularly what the data represented. He was fascinated by the money. All of them ate money, slept money, breathed money. And it was essentially all they could talk about.

  It had stopped her from sleeping with any of them. In most cases, it stopped her from accepting a second date.

  In Hope’s humble opinion, money was just about the most boring thing on the face of the earth, besides sports. You could only eat so much, only wear one set of clothes at a time.

  Which was why she was more puzzled than delighted when she found out her parents — who at this point weren’t her parents at all — had left her millions. She didn’t need that much money. What she needed were answers.

  Luke nudged her shoulder. He didn’t seem to be put out when she disappeared inside her own head, which was an enormous mark in his favor. “Weird?”

  “Huh?”

  He smiled down at her. “You said the other bank account’s name was weird. Or weirder than having it called by a name that is your name, only not.”