Leaning into his chest, she nodded. “I know. I just want this over with,” she said.
For long minutes, he was quiet. “That bad with me around, is it?” He didn’t sound like he was teasing.
“What?” she said tipping her head up to look at him. “No, Trent, that’s not what I meant. I like having you here, a lot. Likely more than I should, honestly, since we just met. I just hate the idea of someone out there, lurking in the shadows, and waiting to hurt me for that damned hunk of hardware.”
He was staring into her eyes and, after a moment, smiled. “So you like having me around do you?”
Figures that would be the part he’d hear. Rolling her eyes, Mallory smacked his rock hard abs and put her cheek back on his chest. “Too much,” she muttered.
His chuckle was deep and made her smile. “How much is too much?”
She could have played it out, made him sweat, but it felt wrong. Sitting forward, she set her pop down on the coffee table and turned to look at him. He must have caught her serious mood, because he set his bottle of beer aside as well.
“Mallory?” he said, the question there in his voice.
“It’s silly,” she whispered. “We just met, barely know each other, and yet it all feels right. But I know with us getting this drive and working at figuring out what’s on it and therefore who’s behind coming after me...” She had to stop and swallow hard around the lump building in her throat. “You’ll be going back to your own life soon,” she said, her voice cracking toward the end.
She felt him moving on the couch. His hands cupped her cheeks a moment later and tipped her face up. He didn’t say anything, instead he just leaned in and kissed her softly. Oh, so softly.
Whimpering, she leaned into the kiss and let him pull her into his arms, and onto his lap, as she wrapped herself around him. Holding onto him, she poured everything she couldn’t seem to make a coherent thought about into the kiss.
She wanted him, needed him and was desperate for him. Fisting her fingers in his short hair, she pressed closer.
He drew her in even tighter to his body. The ridge of his hard cock pressed to the seam of her jeans with the perfect amount of friction. Rocking her hips slightly, she let out a moan that perfectly melded with the groan he let loose.
“Mallory,” he said as they parted, both sucking in air. He thrust his hands into her hair and held her still as he stared into her eyes.
She could see need in his gaze, want, desire and so much heat it was a miracle she wasn’t melting away into a puddle right there.
“I want you,” she whispered. “So much. I’ve wanted you from the moment you showed up on my doorstep. I’ve been fighting the urge to tear your clothes off every other minute.”
“You really should have just given into the urge,” he said with a smile.
Chewing on her lip, she smiled a little. “I was afraid you might not feel the same. Or that you just viewed this as a job. You know, do the job and at the end walk away without a backward glance.”
That had him frowning at her. “You are not and never were just a job. You are amazing, Mallory, and a woman I want to know more about. A woman I want to have in my life and to also be a part of your life. I don’t know where this might go, I don’t know if it will last, but damn it, I really want to give a shot. So, just for the record, I don’t plan on going anywhere when the job is over unless you tell me to go. Even then, I will put up a struggle, kick and scream a little and fight you over it, hard.”
“Promise?” she asked, hope blossoming inside her chest.
“Absolutely,” he said with a firm nod. He lifted a hand and ran a finger lightly down her cheek, a shiver creeping over her body from the gentleness of the touch. “I’m not going anywhere, Mallory.”
Feeling an exorbitant amount of relief, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders tight and hugged him. Burying her face in his neck, she let out a shuddering breath and closed her eyes.
“I’ve just found you, too, Mallory,” he whispered softly, his arms closing around her.
Chapter Twelve
For the last hour, they’d been sitting, wrapped around one another. Trent was fighting to behave, when all he really wanted to do was get naked with her. He was attempting to behave himself, hard as it and his damn cock were, since she seemed to want just to be held. Trent honestly didn’t care. He’d sit there with her for the rest of time if he could.
But Mallory lifted her head up and looked at him. “I think I should make dinner.” She peeked at him before her gaze darted away.
He didn’t know what to make of her. But he also knew he couldn’t push too hard. She was coming to terms, he figured. With him and with what she felt for him. Trent, on the other hand, knew just how he felt for her. He wanted her, bad.
He wanted her under him naked for hours upon hours. He wanted to lock them into a room, and the rest of the world out. Not exactly practical, but he truly didn’t care one iota.
“I’d offer to help, but you tend to get twitchy when I do,” he said with a grin.
She made a face and pushed her hair back off her face. “I know I’m a control freak about my kitchen. I can’t help it. Even those I work with know my quirks and know better than to mess with my space when I’m doing my job.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I could totally get used to be waited on by you.” His grin got bigger at the look that got him.
She smacked his chest and slid off his lap. Not exactly what he wanted, but he let her go. “Seriously, though,” he said. “Do you want a hand with anything? I may not be up to your standards, maybe I could manage to be mildly helpful?”
For a moment, he was absolutely sure she’d refuse. But she gave a nod after a moment more. “Yeah, you can help,” she said. “I’ll even try not to be my normal controlling bitch of a self, too.”
Grabbing her hand to stop her as she turned to walk away, Trent stood up and tugged her back to him. “Who said that to you?” he asked. He didn’t know how he knew it, but the words had obviously hurt her.
“Doesn’t matter,” she muttered.
“Hey, yes it does. Especially since it hurt you,” he said. Dipping his chin, he brushed a kiss to her cheek. “Tell me, Mallory.”
“Why? You planning on going over there and beating him up?”
“Not a bad plan, actually,” he said with total sincerity.
Her chin jerked up to look at him, obviously trying to gauge if he was messing with her or not. “Trent, no,” she said, stepping in closer. Mallory pressed her hand to his chest and shook her head. “It was a long time ago and doesn’t even matter anymore.”
“It obviously does if you’re still saying it, sweetheart.”
A stubborn look settled on her face and she shook her head again. “No.”
He’d get it out of her eventually. What he’d do about it he honestly didn’t know. But he wanted to know who would hurt her. She was the sweetest woman he’d ever met. To say something like that to her was unforgivable. Grunting, Trent let out a slow breath. “Fine, I’ll drop it,” he said. “For now,” he added when she went to step back.
Looking up at him, she squeezed his hand and didn’t push for more. Mallory was learning. She did tug on his hand, though, and led him into the kitchen.
He got out of her way as she went to the fridge and bent over to dig around. His eyes dropped to her sweet ass and he smiled. That was a view he could get used to, preferably with her naked, but it was still a stunning sight.
“Here.” She held out some vegetables to him. Moving in, he took them and set them on the counter as she continued to root around. More things were held out until she straightened and turned to face him.
Looking at the assortment of items he frowned. “What exactly are we making?” he asked curiously.
“Not a clue,” she told him with a grin.
“Oh, good,” he said. “So glad that one of us knows just what we’re doing.”
Mallory laughed and gave his arm a ligh
t punch. “Have a little faith. I do this for a living, you know. Besides, some of the best things can come out of throwing a few pieces together in a pot.”
“Yeah, that’s never worked well in my experience,” he told her.
“Ah, but I know what I’m doing. I know what flavors work well together and complement one another. Just because I’m not sure what it’s going to be in the end, doesn’t mean that it won’t taste good,” she said. “Besides, I do have a vague idea, just not sure if I want it to go there or not.”
He was confused, so he just gave up. “All right, lead forth then. What do you want me to do?”
She grabbed a knife and cutting board and handed them to him. “I need you to chop up an onion, a pepper, three stalks of celery and dice up the tomatoes. Big chunks for the hard items, about the size of the pad of your thumb, little chunks for the tomatoes that end up about the size of the pad of my pinky.” She held the finger up to show him the size.
“Hard items first and then the tomatoes last,” she continued. “I’ll do up the other items and get the meat browning at the same time.”
Figuring he’d asked for this by offering, he moved down the counter to a clear spot and got to work as instructed. As he chopped he could feel her watching him from time to time. But he wasn’t anywhere near as skilled with a blade, for cooking anyway, as she was, so he kept his eyes on his fingers. He did kind of want to keep them all attached.
Every now and again she’d come collect whatever he’d chopped up and then went to the stove with it. Whatever she was making was starting to smell really good.
When he finished, Trent washed his hands and rinsed the board and knife off. He was tempted to peek into the pots she had going, but resisted. He didn’t know what she’d do if he did, so he leaned a hip to the counter to watch her instead.
“You’re staring,” she said with a smile.
“Yup, I am.” He chuckled.
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“Trent?” she muttered, shooting him a look.
“You’re damned sexy,” he said in a low, intimate tone. “I like watching you while doing your thing. It’s hot.”
She rolled her eyes at him as she stirred the one pot. Stepping back, she looked to the clock. “Dinner should be ready in about fifteen.”
Nodding, he reached out to pull her into his arms. Wrapping her up, he lowered his head to nibble on her lips. “Whatever should we do to occupy ourselves?” he asked her.
“I don’t think we have time for that, ” she said with a laugh. “At least, I hope it won’t only take fifteen minutes.”
It took him a second to catch up with her thought process, but he reared back to glare at her when it finally clicked. “It will damn well take more than fifteen minutes,” he promised. “I intend on having you at my mercy for hours, at the very least.”
“Hours, huh? Didn’t think it was possible,” she teased, wrinkling her nose up slightly.
“Listen here, woman,” he said, before laughing. “Damn, but you’re horrible for my ego.” Hugging her close, Trent rested his chin on her hair.
“Just trying to keep you honest is all,” she told him, slipping her arms around his waist.
He liked the idea of her keeping him, period. A lot.
Chapter Thirteen
“We have a problem, sir.” Those were not the words the man wanted to hear and they weren’t the words he’d expected upon answering the call.
“What do you mean, we have a problem?”
“The device has been found, and not by us.”
A cold wash of fear and dread slid down his spine. Turning so his wife didn’t notice, he pressed a hand to his forehead. “Who?” he asked.
“A security group by the name of C&M Security. We’re not sure who located it exactly or where, but C&M has it in their offices. Newton saw a man leaving Thompson’s apartment with the drive in hand. He followed him, figuring it was the wiser option over remaining on watch. The man went in to C&M Security. When he came out twenty minutes later he no longer had it. Newton remained to watch the building and called me in to watch the back doors. I got Richard doing some digging on the company and found out that the man, Vincent Bradley, is on the payroll as a bodyguard. We also discovered that Thompson’s boyfriend is actually one of their bodyguards.”
“How did this happen?” he asked in a harsh voice.
“Unknown sir,” the man said. “We didn’t even realize they were on the case. We do know they do a lot of work with the SFPD. Best guess is they were called in because of manpower shortages and budget cuts.
“Son of a bitch,” he snapped out. Glancing around, he checked to ensure no one had heard his outburst. He didn’t need any of these people thinking he was on edge or losing it, even though he was. “This is a disaster, Dave. We need it back before they get anything off of it.”
“Understood, sir. I have a team assembled and we’re just going over the blueprints for C&M now. We should be in motion within the next hour. We will get it back and eliminate anyone that may have viewed it. The hope is that we’ll be in and out while everyone’s home in their beds.”
“Good, do it, I don’t care what has to happen. Get that fucking thing back and into my hands by tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
The line went dead. Turning off his phone, he slid it into his pocket and took a moment to calm himself. When he was sure none of the stress that call had created showed, he went back to schmoozing with the big boys.
****
Mallory, with a bit of reluctance, left Trent to clean up after dinner. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, she did, completely and fully. It was that he was in her kitchen. It was very nerve wracking for the control freak inside of her.
But he had promised to behave and he wouldn’t put anything away. He was just going to clean up and dry everything.
She could live with that. Probably. Maybe. Making a face in the mirror, she turned to watch the water filling the bathtub.
She had plans for tonight. No matter what, she was going to get Trent in her bed, naked and damn it she was going to see about reigniting that fire from earlier. Which was why she was taking a bath. She’d shaved everything in need of a shave and now it was all about getting ready to seduce the man.
Not that she was all that worried she couldn’t. She was nervous though, very nervous. Mallory had never been one to initiate a sexual encounter with a man before. She wasn’t the sort to demand what she wanted, either. But, with Trent, she felt like she could explore that part of her personality.
It wasn’t like she couldn’t be commanding. She did it every day at work, but the bedroom was a whole other scenario. Fuck. What if she was making a huge mistake? What if all she did was embarrass herself?
“So be it,” she muttered. So what if she embarrassed herself. If it got her the best night of sex she’d ever had, which she knew it would be, then she could survive some embarrassment.
Shaking herself out of her reverie, she dumped in the bubbles and let the water run another couple of minutes. Slipping into the warm water, she slid down into the tub and let out a breath.
She could do this. It couldn’t be that hard, right? After all, the man was already interested in her. He’d told her that and his body had definitely given proof. That had to make this all easier in the end. Right?
“I’m going to drive myself insane at this rate.” Pressing her hands to her face, Mallory groaned. She had to be over thinking it. What she needed to do was calm down, find her happy place, and just let it all happen. It would happen.
When she got out of the tub fifteen minutes later, she dried off and then pulled on her robe. Slipping out the door, she went to look for Trent.
Mallory found him in the living room staring out the balcony windows, his back to her and the room. Taking a moment, she looked her fill. The broad shoulders, lean waist and hips leading to an ass that screamed for her to take a bite. Down his legs and then back up over him she
looked.
He must have heard her, or maybe seen her reflection, because he glanced her way. The look he leveled her had her knees going weak and her pussy clenching.
“Feeling better?” Trent slipped his hands into his pockets.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
Apparently, that was all he needed to hear, because he started moving toward her. Slowly. His every movement seemed measured as he stalked toward her.
When he got close enough, Mallory’s body reacted to everything about him. A low hum began in her belly as her nipples tightened. Licking her lips slowly, she saw his eyes flick down to watch.
When he stood close enough, Trent put his hands on her waist and pulled her closer to him.
Mallory was having trouble catching her breath. Pressing her hands to his chest, she stared up at him in anticipation. She didn’t know exactly what was coming next, but she didn’t care. He was there, she was there and together they were going to do whatever felt right. Of course, it would be nice if he did something other than stare at her. It was really more than a bit unnerving.
“You are so beautiful,” he said.
Mallory felt her cheeks warm in embarrassment. She didn’t do compliments well, never had, but from him it felt like so much more. “Thank you. But you don’t have to do that.”
“Do what?” he asked.
“Compliment me.”
“What if I like complimenting you? Because I do. You get this hint of pink in your cheeks and that’s just sexier than hell,” he said softly. Lowering his head, Trent brushed his lips over her hot cheeks. “I like throwing you off balance, Mallory. Makes me feel like I’ve got a chance.”
“What?” She whispered the question.
“Come on, Mal, you know what I mean,” he said lifting his head to look at her. When she shook her head in confusion, he lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “I’ve seen how men look at you. You don’t even notice but, honey, if you even gave them half a second of attention, you’d have them piling up at your feet in droves.”
She wanted to call him out on that, to say he was pulling her leg, but she could see the truth in his eyes. He wasn’t lying to her. “I never noticed,” she admitted. “But, Trent—” Pushing up to her toes, she brushed her lips to his. “The only one I see and the only one I want is you.”
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