by C. J. Miller
Swift might not be her favorite person, but he was talented. He could help counter Incognito’s attempts at taking control of the Locker.
Griffin glanced over at Swift. “If you don’t want to talk to him, then forget it. Plenty of other recruits in this hotel.”
Swift’s computer security countermeasures were legendary. “Swift has the skills to help us. He’s the best at what he does.” That had to take priority over her personal feelings and insecurities.
Griffin set his hand on her lower back. “I’m right behind you.”
Swift knew she was Orchid, but she had never confided in him about her work with the Locker or her former persona, Lotus.
Though having Griffin close would have felt good, she wanted to do this alone. She had to prove to herself she had grown from the experience. “You can hang back. I can do this.” Swift might think Griffin was a fed and get spooked.
Taking a deep breath and wishing she was a little drunk for this, she strolled to see him. When he caught her eye, she waved. He glanced at her, turned to the guys on either side of him and said something to them. They snickered, and her confidence took a bullet to the heart. She almost lost her nerve, but she gritted her teeth, lifted her chin and pinned back her shoulders. Griffin was watching. She would not turn and run.
Swift sauntered to her, hands shoved in his front jeans pockets. His orange hoodie was baggy, and he leaned forward, hunching his shoulders.
This was a simple conversation, and to botch this would be humiliating. If she were rejected by the people she considered acquaintances and associates, who else did she have in her life?
“Hey, Swift.” She tried to hide the nervous shaking in her hands. She adjusted her mask so he could see her face.
His eyes lit. “Kit. You look good.” He moved her wig’s bangs to the side.
When his fingers brushed her forehead, she leaned away.
She didn’t return the compliment. Though his appearance was something she dug, since meeting Griffin, she decided something—and someone—else interested her. This was about a job, and her previous attraction to Swift was irrelevant.
“I need to talk with you about something,” Kit said. She wished she had a better opening line than that.
He folded his arms over his chest. “If this is about what happened between us, I don’t want to have a big fight in public over it. It was years ago. It’s over. I’ve moved on.”
His words stung more than they should have. “It’s not about our past,” she said, feeling embarrassed and then mad at herself for feeling embarrassed. Why should she feel bad? She wasn’t the one who had cheated. “I wanted to talk to you about a job.”
“I don’t give security consults without signing a contract first and being put on retainer,” he said.
This could be the biggest job of his career. “Not even for an old friend?”
“Friends? Is that your way of trying to pin me down? I’m dating a lot of women. I don’t want to settle down,” he said and patted her on the shoulder.
“I’m not asking you to date me,” she said.
“You want to go somewhere and have cybersex?” He laughed. “Because I need a woman who will do more than talk about sex.”
Heat flamed up her neck.
Why was Swift being a jerk to her?
Kit felt hot tears coming to her eyes. He was humiliating her. People were walking by and looking at them. She hated feeling this way. This was a prime example of why she preferred online life. Online, she was quick-witted, and she could sign off and walk away from her computer. Here, she had nowhere to go, and her tongue felt too big for her mouth. Quick retorts weren’t spilling out. Running away was pathetic, and while it was unlikely that anyone would remember the woman in the rainbow wig, similar to dozens of others, she felt on display. And he was making a mockery of her.
“I’m only interested in talking with you about a job,” she said. She gave herself credit for getting that much out and staying calm and collected. She hadn’t stuttered and she had maintained her professionalism, even if what he deserved was a kick in the shins.
“Unless it’s a blow job, I’m not interested.”
Kit could not believe he was being such a colossal jerk to her. “Why are you acting like this?” Her face was hot and her hands were trembling. No chance of hiding it.
“I’m not acting like anything. I’m trying to make it clear I’m not interested. You’re not getting the message. I’ve got other women. Until you can learn to interact with men and do more than talk about sex, you’ll be alone. It’s pathetic that you came here looking for me and pretending you have some job to offer. Why are you really here? To get back at me?”
Kit swallowed. She’d walk away. Wasting time with Swift wasn’t getting her anywhere, and she didn’t know if she could work with him. Other people at the conference had the skills to help her. Maybe they weren’t as notorious or experienced, but she couldn’t stand working with Swift if this was his attitude toward her.
“Just forget I said anything,” Kit said.
Swift rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. If you want, I’ll let you give me a hand job behind the display. Although I would prefer if you’d use that mouth. Tell me, do you feel like taking an oral exam?”
Kit shook her head to clear the angry thoughts running through it. His ego was in need of validation, and she wouldn’t stand here and let him use her to get it.
Griffin was at her side, moving so quietly and quickly she hadn’t heard him approach. He slipped his arm around her shoulders, and where his skin brushed hers, she would have sworn she was on fire.
“Hey, baby, what’s taking so long?” He pivoted her toward him and delivered the most life-altering, soul-shaking kiss. She melted against him, and thank God his strong arms were banded around her waist, because she would have crumpled to the floor. His mouth opened hers and she was his, willing and ready. He could have stripped off her clothes and she wouldn’t have protested.
His lips massaged hers, and his tongue stroked against hers in an erotically charged manner. Griffin pulled her hips to his. Tucked against him, she felt divine. If this was a precursor to sex, she had waited far too long to try it out.
The kiss was over in seconds, and he kept his arm around her possessively. Kit couldn’t engage her brain. Her lips were burning and her body tingled. She wanted more of what he had delivered.
“You must be Sniff,” Griffin said.
When she finally tore her eyes away from Griffin’s beautiful face and lips, she leaned against him, partly because she was into her role of his lover and partly because it felt amazing to be with him. Had Griffin felt the soul-shaking energy, too? Was every kiss that amazing?
“Swift,” he corrected Griffin, narrowing his eyes. “Who are you?”
“Her boyfriend who is tired of waiting. If you want to tell him about the job at the law firm, tell him. Then come on.” He swiveled his hips into her, and a ripple of anticipation ripped through her. “I have things I want to do before you rush off to another seminar.”
Griffin was warning her off from telling Swift about the reason for her approach and giving her a simple exit. Dashing off for sex was a great way to end the conversation. She didn’t have to pretend she was into the idea. Sex with Griffin would be an explosive, mind-altering way to spend an hour.
The cherry on top of that fantasy was, of course, Swift believing she had moved on and had a hot, attentive boyfriend with whom she had wild sex.
“Never mind. It’s not work that interests him,” Kit said.
Swift held up his hand. “Wait, I didn’t say I wasn’t interested.”
It was exactly what he’d said.
Griffin’s thumb rubbed her hip. “I’m not crazy about you working with a man, anyway. If you work exclusively with me, we can work nake
d. Much more fun.”
Swift looked between them. “You two are a couple? How? Are you using her for her computer skills?”
Griffin laughed. “I love her computer skills. But I don’t choose my lovers based on their ability to type on a machine. I have a more strenuous and detailed selection process.”
Swift folded his arms over his chest. “Dude, do you realize she prefers cybersex to sex?”
Griffin gave Swift a thin smile and then kissed Kit on the cheek. “I haven’t found that to be the case. She is fantastic and smart and beautiful.”
Swift sent Kit an appraising look.
Griffin steered her away. “Later, Swiss.”
Chapter 7
They left Swift standing slack jawed. Kit was struck by gratitude, lust and excitement. For her ex to believe she was hot in bed, and hot in bed with a man like Griffin, was the best revenge. As they walked away, Griffin’s hand moved to her rear end. “He’s still watching us,” he said as if she required an explanation.
“Why did you say that to him?” Kit asked.
“He’s a smug little prick, and he was taking joy in talking down to you. I would have hit him, but it seemed wiser if I assumed the role of satisfied and hungry lover as opposed to jealous psycho.”
“Why lovers at all?” Kit asked.
“Because a man and woman traveling together and staying in the same hotel room are likely lovers and that supports our cover. The other reason is far more petty. I wanted him to know he had lost you, and I wanted him to be insanely covetous.”
“Why did you kiss me?” she asked, touching her lips.
“I wanted to infuriate him to the point that he took a swing at me so I could swing back, but no luck.”
“He wouldn’t hit you. He’d be crazy,” Kit said. Standing side by side, Griffin had at least five inches on Swift and a few dozen pounds of lean muscle mass. He was almost twice as wide, shoulder to shoulder.
Griffin’s kiss had been unexpected. She was still reeling. Her libido was running rampant, devising a plan to coerce him to do it again. She was assigning a lot of meaning to it because it had been significant to her. “That was my first kiss.”
He faced her, and he seemed confused. “With me? I know.”
“With anyone.” It had bothered her for a long time to lag behind her peers in sexual experiences, but after a while, she rationalized that someone had to be on the bell curve to the far, far left in the completely inexperienced zone. She shared the space with nuns and eunuchs.
“It was a great kiss,” he said.
Griffin had taken possession of her mouth, and she had loved every second of it. “I want you to kiss me again.” Bold, hungry words. Would he comply?
“He’s not watching us,” Griffin said.
They were a distance from the sales displays, standing near lines of empty tables, likely set up for an event later in the day.
She didn’t want this kiss to be about Swift. It was about Griffin. “I don’t care about him.”
Griffin drew her close. “I can’t kiss you again. Sex in the field is a great release, but it’s a mistake.”
“One brief moment won’t change anything,” Kit said, rubbing her body against his. She increased the pressure. If she moved just right, could she seduce him? Being this turned on without an outlet had to damage her brain. She couldn’t think about anything except Griffin and his hands and lips on her.
Griffin ran his hand down her cheek. “It can’t lead anywhere, and that’s where the trouble starts. My role in your life is to protect you, and I don’t know how temporary that role is.”
She set her hands on his hips, not wanting him to turn away or change his mind. “You are protecting me. If you don’t kiss me, I’ll kiss you.”
“This is still rapture talking,” Griffin said.
“It isn’t. You kissed me and you touched me and you started something.”
Capitulation in his eyes. Her heart lit up, knowing he wanted to kiss her. A man like Griffin didn’t do anything without wanting to.
Griffin kissed her again, softly this time, as if she were something to be cherished. Kit closed her eyes and let the sensations of his lips on hers arouse every nerve in her body. She didn’t fight it. Diving deep into the kiss, she heard a moan. It took her a moment to realize it was she making the noise.
Griffin broke the kiss. “Kit, if you keep doing that, you will not like where this leads.”
Doing what? She opened her eyes. “We were kissing.”
“Yes, but you were moaning. Loudly. Which I was enjoying too much. We need boundaries. Someone might see us.”
“We’re undercover as lovers. Let’s go deep undercover. So deep that we live the lie.” Kit touched the side of his face, because she had wanted to for so long and didn’t know if she would have another chance. She had imagined what her first kiss would be like. The second was more what she’d pictured.
With Griffin, a kiss could escalate into sex in a split second. They could have skipped a hundred incremental touches in between and she would have gone over the summit with him. “Thank you for what you did with Swift. Thank you for kissing me like that.”
Griffin’s shoulders lowered a few centimeters. “You don’t have to thank me. I enjoyed it.”
Had he? Which part? Putting Swift in his place or the kiss? Kit was too nervous to ask.
* * *
“According to Kate West, Lawrence is clean. His service record and his security file indicate no problems. No sanctions against him, and he has never been accused of crimes against the United States. He has no known associations with any hackers except for his fiancée, Zoya,” Griffin said. “Zoya has a few gray areas on her record. She worked for a technology terrorist group when she was in her twenties. She built viruses and sold them to the highest bidder through an underground hacker auction site.”
Kit had known about Zoya’s ties to a hacker group that operated within the United States. Zoya’s father had been a founding member, and Kit had the impression Zoya hadn’t been totally on board with the family pastime. She had been cleared to work on the Locker, having passed the security, psychological and intellectual tests. One bad decision didn’t mean she should be blacklisted.
“Did you want Shade to find something bad about Lawrence?” Kit asked.
“No.”
He wasn’t telling her something. “You sound annoyed.”
“He’s a security risk,” Griffin said.
Griffin’s constant concern. “Lawrence and Zoya are safe.”
“How would you describe your relationship with them?” Griffin asked.
“We are friendly.” She added the -ly because she wouldn’t call them friends. They weren’t close. They didn’t trade texts and emails. After going their separate ways at the end of the Locker project, they had followed their debriefing instructions and hadn’t located or contacted each other.
“Lawrence asked you to dinner. That implies a friendship,” Griffin said.
Kit wasn’t sure how to respond. “We have a rocky past.”
“A dangerous past?”
Kit shook her head. “I misinterpreted something.”
“What does that mean?”
She didn’t want to tell this embarrassing story, but if she didn’t, Griffin wouldn’t relent and allow the dinner. “I thought Lawrence and I were friends, maybe more, but he made it clear he did not think of me in those terms.” It wasn’t the first time and it likely wouldn’t be the last time a man rejected her.
“You must hang out with half-wits,” he said.
Kit jolted. “Are you making fun of me?”
“I’m making fun of the men in your life who don’t see who you are. They see the computer expertise and not the package it comes in.”
Exce
pt for keeping her safe so she could help with the Locker project, Griffin didn’t seem to care about what she knew about cybersecurity.
Griffin glanced at the clock on the table and frowned. “Let’s go now.”
“It’s too early.”
“We set the timeline. If anyone overheard our plans, they could be waiting for you. If someone hacked Lawrence’s calendar and knows you’re arriving, we’ll be ambushed.”
“Lawrence knows how to handle security.”
Griffin stood and nodded toward the door. “We’ll go now. I let you make the calls about computer security. You let me make the calls about physical security.”
Kit and Griffin took the elevator to Lawrence’s room, stopping a few floors above and taking the stairs the rest of the way. Lawrence and Zoya were staying on the floor comprised of executive suites. Lawrence liked fine things, good wine, luxury travel and great clothes. Kit had admired his good taste, until he’d told her of his plans to use his vacation time to travel to an all-inclusive resort with a civilian he had been dating. Kit had thought he was interested in her. She had misread him completely.
His casual conversation about his plans had stung more because she hadn’t been allowed to take a vacation. She had been confined to the base for the duration of the Locker project.
The hall was quiet. Conference attendees were socializing or eating in one of the hotel’s eight restaurants.
Griffin gestured for her to stand to the side of the door. Griffin tapped on the door once.
The door opened, and Lawrence swung a gun into his face.
* * *
Griffin was trained to react to a threat. He grabbed the gun, pushing it up and away from him and Kit. Griffin tore the gun from Lawrence’s hands and leveled it at him.
Lawrence held up his hands and backed away. “Just being careful.”