“After my morning workout, I’ll call Dimitri and fill him in on these new developments. We need to adjust our strategy if we’re looking for two very different men.”
“What time are you heading out in the morning?”
“I’ll try to be out of here by a quarter past four. I’ll be back before eight.”
“Don’t rush.” Winn gathered up the photos. “She’s in good hands, Kelly. We’re taking good care of her for you.”
“I appreciate it.” Feeling guilty, he awkwardly added, “I realize this situation isn’t ideal—”
“Kelly, there isn’t a man on the duty roster at LSG who hasn’t had to step into that gray world you’re in right now. We’ve all been there—and some of us have done much worse than fight in an underground tournament.”
He wondered what Winn might have done that put that haunted look on his face, but he didn’t ask. Something told him it wasn’t a story he would enjoy hearing or Winn would like to tell.
After draining the bottle of sports drink and tossing it into the recycling bin, he grabbed his bag and made the trek to the master suite. When he stepped inside, he discovered Bee sprawled on her side, fast asleep. She had two laptops opened on the bed and the TV blaring in the background. Her cell phone rested on the pillow next to her. Two empty soda cans and a bag of half-eaten crunchy cheese puffs sat on the bedside table.
Normally, that sort of untidiness would drive him crazy, but Bee had a way of making it seem cute. He’d watched her work on numerous occasions. She seemed to disappear into her own world where nothing and no one could reach her.
Here, in the safety of the penthouse, it was perfectly fine for her to get lost in her lines of code. How easy would it be for her stalker to sneak up on her in a coffee shop or restaurant while she worked? He shuddered at the idea of how many times that exact scenario might have already happened.
Leaning over her, he stroked her soft cheek and pressed a tender kiss to her temple. He closed her two laptops and placed them in a chair before moving her phone to the bedside table. He picked up the trash and carried it into the bathroom.
By the time he’d brushed his teeth and stripped down to his boxer briefs, Kelly was dead on his feet. He flipped off the lamps and slipped into bed next to Bee. The movement woke her, and she bolted upright. Reaching out, he dragged her against his chest and patted her hip. “Easy, sweetheart. It’s me.”
Curling up against him, she pressed featherlight kisses against his jaw and idly caressed his chest. “I tried to wait up for you, but I guess I was more tired than I thought.”
“You’ve had a rough couple of days.”
“So have you,” she murmured against his neck. “How was your training session?”
“Brutal. How is Hadley?”
“She’s having the time of her life, apparently. She’s in China now. Beijing,” she said. “The pictures are so incredible.”
He detected the hint of envy in her voice. Wanting her to know that he considered their fledging relationship a long-term thing, he threaded his fingers through her hair and said, “Why don’t we go on vacation after this whole thing settles down?”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“I’d like that.” Her hand moved gently along his stomach to the very top of his underwear before gliding back up his chest. She seemed oblivious to the effect her touch had on him. After their afternoon of heavy petting, he’d whetted his appetite for Bee. His dick ached to be buried in her snug, wet pussy but he didn’t think they were ready for that step—yet. Even so, he couldn’t turn off the biological signals that were diverting blood to his throbbing cock.
“I keep a dream vacation folder in my desk filled with photos and brochures.”
He tried to think of anything but the way her fingertips felt as they grazed the sensitive patch of skin just below his navel. “That’s very analog of you.”
“Even a girl in the digital world needs a break from a computer screen once in a while.”
As if feeling adventurous, Bee let her hand slide lower. He held his breath, but there was no way to stop the automatic twitch of his cock as her hand drifted dangerously close to the hard-on straining against his boxer briefs. He knew the moment she felt the evidence of his arousal. Her breathing hitched, and she gave him a playful squeeze.
“Looks like one of us isn’t that tired,” she teased.
Kelly laughed softly. “Sugar, I could be knocking on death’s door, and your touch would make me hard.”
“Just my touch?” She peppered ticklish kisses down his chest while sneaking her hand under the elastic band of his of his boxer-briefs. When she wrapped her fingers around his shaft, Kelly didn’t even try to stifle his groan of enjoyment. Her silky, warm digits felt so fucking good as they stroked up and down his hard length.
She flipped back the covers and kissed her way down his chest and abdomen. Tugging on the waistband, she freed his cock and shocked him by placing a kiss right on the tip of it. Before she could proceed, he shielded himself with his hand. “You don’t have to—”
“I want to,” she said, almost breathlessly. “Please? I’ve been thinking about it since you left. I want to try. With you.”
Hearing her practically beg to suck his cock snapped his control. Voice husky with need, he commanded, “Turn on the light. I want to see you.”
She happily complied and was back at his side before he’d even adjusted to the sudden brightness in the room. Grasping the bottom of her camisole, he pulled it over her head and threw it aside. His hands moved over naked skin, memorizing the feel of her perky breasts and the smooth plane of her belly. He jerked on her tiny shorts and dragged them down her thighs. “Take these off.”
She followed his gruff order, falling to her side and wiggling out of them before kicking them off to the floor. He smiled at her eagerness and gave her plump bottom a playful smack. “Come here, sugar.”
Bee fell into his waiting arms and let him kiss her until she was moaning and arching into him. When he tried to take the aggressor’s role, she shoved him down and wagged a finger in his face. “This is my turn to play.”
“I have a better idea.” He sat up and nipped at her lower lip. “Let’s both play.”
She eyed him almost warily. “What do you have in mind?”
“Straddle me,” he ordered, “but face my feet.”
She considered his instruction. “But then my…you know…would be…”
He grinned wolfishly and claimed her mouth in a sensual, promising kiss. “Exactly. Now—come here.”
She giggled as he manhandled her, pulling her onto him and twisting her around into just the right position. He could feel her trembling with excitement and nervousness as he hauled her parted thighs higher up on his chest. Nuzzling his face between them, he sought out the pink bud hidden there and flicked his tongue against it.
“Oh. My. God.” Bee tried to wriggle out of his grasp but he held firmly to her hips and kept her right where he wanted her. Her short nails scratched at his legs when he lapped at her clit. “Kelly!”
He chuckled against her sweet pussy and continued his sensual assault on the most sensitive part of her. She recovered from the shock of his tongue fluttering over her swollen clitoris and began to explore his cock. She painted his shaft with saliva before sucking just the crown of him into her mouth. He groaned at the amazing sensation and fought the urge to pump up into at that hot, wet alcove.
Balls buzzing and gut clenching, he relished the velvety rasp of her tongue against his cock. What she lacked in skill, she more than made up for in enthusiasm. She drove him fucking wild with her passionate moans. The humming vibrations rattled through his shaft and amplified the wicked sensation of her tight lips.
Loving the taste of her, Kelly attacked her clit with a steady circling rhythm. He could feel her thighs clenching, her knees digging into his sides as she chased her climax. Gripping her hips, he craned his neck and attacked her pussy. Hell bent on maki
ng her come first, he suckled her clit, drawing on the pink pearl and fluttering his tongue over it until she pulled away from his cock with a muffled howl.
“Yes!” She came hard, rocking and thrusting back against his mouth. “Oh! Oh!”
He loved the way she let loose with him. He wanted her to feel free to explore the sensual side of herself, to enjoy the blossoming eroticism that their time together was awakening.
She was still shaking with the aftershocks of her climax when she wrapped her lips around him again and began sucking him in earnest. Lazily tonguing her, he let go of the stranglehold on his own release. Just as his groin tightened and those electric jolts began, he tried to pull free from her mouth. “Wait. Bee, you don’t need to—oh, fuck! Fuck!”
She stunned him by swallowing him as deep as she could and hungrily groaning. There was no way he could hold back now. The top of his head felt as if it might blow off. At the first blast of his semen against her tongue, she made a surprised sound but didn’t pull back. She responded with enthusiasm and drank him down with such eagerness.
Totally spent, he sagged against the mattress while she licked him clean. Overcome with exhaustion, Kelly watched her flick off the lamp. He grasped her hand as she cuddled up against him. They shared a few passionate, sleepy kisses before settling down to sleep.
Despite his tiredness, Kelly managed to stay awake longer than Bee. Stroking her arm and petting her silky hair, he allowed himself to dream about the future. For so many years, he’d been living day to day, maybe week to week. Holding Bee, Kelly wondered what it would be like to have her in his arms every night.
Once they caught her stalkers—and they would—he would have to make a decision. He could get used to this. Going back into the field wouldn’t be an option. How could he guard a protectee when he would be constantly thinking of Bee?
He was still mulling over thoughts of his future when he finally succumbed to the lull of sleep. Sometime later, the most annoying ringtone ripped him out of his dreams. He sat up and glanced around the dark room to get his bearings. It was just before four. His alarm would go off soon, but it wasn’t his phone ringing.
Reaching over, he gently shook Bee. “Sugar, it’s your phone.”
She mumbled something and slapped at his hand. He gave her another shake. “Bee. Wake up. Your phone.”
Groaning, she rolled over and smacked at the bedside table until she located her phone. Answering groggily, she greeted, “Hello? Hari? Do you know what time it—what? When? Shit. Okay. Okay. Call everyone and get them in as quickly as possible. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
Instantly alert, Kelly braced for the worst as she hung up, flicked on the lamp and scrambled from bed. “What’s wrong, baby?”
Rubbing her face, she said, “Someone has attacked the site. It’s very bad.” Rushing to the bathroom, she grumbled, “I’m in deep shit.”
Exhaling roughly, Kelly threw his legs over the edge of the mattress and shoved into a standing position. His instincts told him this day was only going to get worse.
Chapter Eight
“How bad is it?”
I glanced up from the lines of code on my computer screen to see Yuri standing in the doorway of my office. Sighing, I flopped back in my chair and gestured for him to come in and sit with me. Not that he needed the invitation, of course. He owned the building and merely leased me this space.
“It’s bad, but we had certain failsafe protocols in place. We estimate approximately twenty percent of our users were hacked.”
Yuri settled into the chair. “Lena said this attack was exchanging certain words in your users’ blogs with profanity and racist remarks. Is that it?”
“Porn.” I cringed at the thought of some of the hardcore filth popping up on unsuspecting users’ screens. “The program switched out photographs users had posted with some really awful stuff.”
Yuri stretched out his legs. “Lena is coming to see you in half an hour or so. She’s bringing Ty with her. You know him, yes?”
“I do.” As far as anyone knew, we were merely acquaintances who ran in the same social circles, but that wasn’t the real extent of our relationship. Of course, that was a secret I’d sworn to keep and one I wasn’t about to reveal to Yuri.
“It’s important that you get out in front of this in a meaningful way. Lena and Ty are very good at crisis PR. They’ll find a way to spin this positively. Insight is still vetting your company before they make their final offer and you need to be seen taking this seriously.”
“Do you think they will still make an offer after something like this?”
Yuri shrugged. “You said yourself that it only affected twenty percent of your users. The fact that you had safeguards in place to protect the other eighty percent speaks highly of your security capabilities. Do you know how these hackers were able to manipulate your platform?”
“It’s someone with knowledge of our inner workings. It’s definitely personal.”
“Your stalker?”
“That’s a complicated issue. Kelly and my guards now think I may have two stalkers. One of them thinks I’m, like, his girlfriend or something. The other one seems to be motivated by anger toward me.”
“Because you fired him?”
“Maybe?” I toyed with the notepad on my desk. “There were a couple of guys early on in the business that I had to let go under less than amicable circumstances.”
“Yes,” he growled. “Richard and Trevor.” With a shake of his head, he murmured, “We never know what ghosts from our past may return to haunt us, Beatrice.”
Was he thinking of the crazy personal assistant and bodyguard who had tried to kill him and Lena?
“How is Kelly?”
His change of topic caught me off guard. “Okay, I guess. He should be back from his morning training session any minute now.”
“So he’s really going through with it?” Yuri’s displeasure was evident.
“I offered him money, but he refused it. He and his brothers had some sort of Connolly family powwow where they decided it was more honorable to let Kelly risk his life than to take my money.”
Yuri stared at me for a moment. “Do you love him?”
“You know I do.” I was pretty sure Yuri had figured that out the first time he saw us together.
“I love my Yelena more than anything in the world—but my God—that woman can be maddeningly stubborn sometimes. It’s easier to act first and ask penance later.”
“What are you saying, Yuri? Are you suggesting I go behind his back?”
“I’m suggesting you think long and hard about what you want with Kelly and what you’re willing to do to protect him. You can’t build a life together if he’s killed on some filthy warehouse floor.”
“Do men really die in those fights?”
“Yes. I haven’t seen one go that far in years, not since Moscow, but it’s not uncommon. When Ivan fought, he always showed restraint. He was always careful to only put down his opponent but not injure him irrevocably. He fought with honor. His man—Sergei—will fight with honor. The others?” Yuri inhaled slowly. “I do not know.”
If he was trying to frighten me, he succeeded. “He’ll never forgive me.”
“If he loves you, he will.” Yuri rose from the chair and buttoned his suit jacket. “Let me know how the meeting with Lena and Ty goes. If you need anything from me, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thanks.”
No sooner had Yuri left my office than Amita Chatterjee, programmer extraordinaire and the woman who taught me everything I knew about coding, popped her head into my office. “I found something you need to see.”
Her tone told me it was something I wasn’t going to like. As I left my office, Sully shadowed me. Just as I’d expected, he had been flirting up a storm with every single woman on the floor. Not that any of them seemed to mind receiving attention from the wickedly sexy former Delta operator.
“What did you find?” I followed her around the
desk and leaned forward on my elbows.
“Does this look familiar?” Amita tapped her screen.
I read the lines of code she had isolated. “Son. Of. A. Bitch.”
“Yep. I was digging through the malicious code, and the moment I saw his signature, I knew this was all about ReadIt.”
I dropped my head into my hands and smothered the scream of frustration threatening to erupt from my throat. “You know, I should have listened to you about hiring Trevor. You were so right.”
“You know what they say, kid. Age and wisdom and all that.”
“Thanks for not rubbing it in, Amita.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She patted my back. “What do you want me to do?”
“We’ll have the site cleaned up by midnight, so would you mind digging out all these little signed bits of code for me? Knowing Trevor, he’s left me some pernicious message.”
Amita laughed. “Pernicious, huh? Is that our word of the day?”
Smiling, I pushed off her desk. “I’m taking a meeting with Lena and Ty soon. Would you like to join us?”
“Sure.”
“Great. I’ll call you when they get here.”
Crossing the wide open office floor, I caught sight of Kelly and Ron coming through the main entrance. The sight of the two men took me by surprise. Seeing the delivery boxes filled with piping hot coffee and pastries they both carried, I nearly did cartwheels. Hands on hips, I admitted, “I can’t decide who I’m happier to see.”
Kelly leaned forward and pecked my cheek. His lips brushed my ear, and he whispered naughtily, “I’ll have to remind you who put that big smile on your face last night.”
“Behave. We’re in public.” I patted his hard chest. “Did you arrange this?”
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