by C. J. Miller
He could understand her not wanting to return to that life of isolation, but what choice did she have? The West Company was working to shut down Incognito, but until they did, Kit’s options were limited and she was a target. “Tell me about your plans. We can make them work regardless of what you’re doing for the government.”
She held out her hand and ticked items off. “My family needs to know I’m alive.”
“I’ll talk to Connor about that.”
“I need a boyfriend.”
He did not care for that idea. He’d already told her that thinking of her with another man drove him to distraction. But Connor had asked Griffin to convince her to agree to work on the Locker again. “You’ll be at a military base. Men are there.”
“Men like Lawrence?” she asked dryly.
“He was a traitor.”
“A traitor who rejected me for Zoya,” Kit said.
“You misinterpreted the situation.”
She set her hands on the edges of her chair. “Which I do a lot. You’re attracted to me. I believe that you want to have sex with me.”
She was correct on all counts. “We’ve had that conversation.”
“I’ll go to the military base if you sleep with me.”
Griffin’s jaw went slack. “That’s ridiculous. We’ve been over this.”
“You admitted you were attracted to me. You want me like I want you. Stop fighting this.”
“I won’t sleep with you. You deserve more.”
“So you’ve said. Maybe I deserve a night of great sex before I’m locked away for another year of my life.”
It wasn’t right for him to sleep with her. She thought she wanted it, but she would see differently when she met someone who could promise her forever. Griffin didn’t want to be a regret. “It might not be what you expect. You make it sound like I’m the only man...”
“You have been the only man. The only man I want to sleep with. The only man who makes me understand the word hot. You’re doing what you love every day. You could walk into a bar and snap your fingers and ten women would take off their clothes and beg you to take them home. I can’t spend another year alone, locked in a military base, working.”
He grunted in frustration. “Why can’t you have another online relationship?”
“Because after last night, I can’t go back to something less. Make your decision and I will make mine,” she said.
“I want you to go to the military base, but I won’t be blackmailed.”
She frowned. “Will you at least agree it’s on the table?”
She was relentless, but no harm in being open to possibilities. “It’s on the table. Will you come with me to work on the Locker?”
She nodded her head, but Griffin didn’t feel victorious. He felt like they were agreeing to more than either of them could understand.
* * *
After a five-hour flight, the helicopter transport took two hours. Kit couldn’t have guessed where they were. It was warm and humid and dark when they arrived. Somewhere tropical? The last place she had worked on the Locker had been dry and cold.
She was given a computer not yet available on the open market. She had heard whispers about it. Holding it her hands was a thrill. She felt old enthusiasm for her work creeping higher. That was likely the government’s intent in giving her this computer. Fan the embers of her passion for computers and security. It had never gone away, but now she wanted her world to be more than just online.
To her chagrin, she hadn’t been told more about the Locker. It was the same as when she had worked on the Locker the first time. Every scrap of information was need-to-know. No one knew everything, and most people knew almost nothing.
Upon their arrival, she and Griffin were escorted to a lab.
“He stays outside,” a military guard said.
Her anxiety was too high to be left alone in a strange place. “He is my bodyguard. He comes with me.”
Griffin seemed proud of her. When he stepped forward, the guard moved away.
The lab was state-of-the-art. After exploring some of the equipment, Kit worked for a few hours on the new laptop. She had blocked out the work she had done years ago on the Locker. Once she was again working on the code, details flooded back to her.
Griffin remained close, watching over her. His face was calm, but she sensed the turmoil inside him. She had caused part of it by pressing him to sleep with her. It was the right course of action, and she wouldn’t be swayed.
She couldn’t grow another year older and remain a virgin. When she finally found a boyfriend, a real, flesh-and-blood man, how would she explain to him her lack of experience? It wasn’t a religious or cultural belief. It was a sad part of her social life that made her feel pathetic.
Would she have wanted to lose her virginity in the back of someone’s truck in high school? No. Would she be willing to lose it to Griffin anytime, anyplace? An adamant yes. She needed to know she could go through with it and carry that confidence with her. She would seduce him tonight.
She turned in her chair and faced him. A hot shower and then she would find time alone with him. The benefit of being on this base was that while she had nothing to do when she wasn’t working, neither did he. They just had each other.
“Why didn’t you sign the confidentiality agreement?” Griffin asked.
“They need me. I don’t need them. I don’t need to agree to do more. I’m giving this a chance, but I’m not signing away my life.” She had learned her lesson about that from the last time.
“I like this side of you. You’ve been bolder.”
“Experience. I’ve been down this road. I know that I have some power. And on that note, I’m done for tonight. I need a break.”
She and Griffin were escorted to their two-bedroom apartment, and Kit was pleased the dinners she had requested were on the table in their small kitchen.
Griffin sat, but he seemed distracted.
She carried the silver plate toppers to the sink. “Want to talk about it?” The sight and smell of the food should have tempted him. Grilled steak, sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli sat on their plates. He hadn’t picked up his fork.
“About what?” he asked.
Why did he want to play dumb? Something was on his mind. “Are you upset that I want to sleep with you?”
“No.”
Despite what he said, she heard the “yes” in his voice. An attack of conscience? Marissa had told her that men liked to eat and then have sex. Should she wait for Griffin to eat before she advanced on him?
Would he resist?
Fearing she would lose her cool or be struck by an attack of nerves if she waited, she strode to him and kissed him. His mouth opened under hers slowly, and he tipped his head back, getting a deeper angle on her mouth. She pulled away. “I’m planning to seduce you.”
He lifted a brow. “You don’t have to tell me. Your actions are clear.”
Kit wouldn’t let him make this into a joke. She knew what she wanted. With trembling hands, she removed her shirt and tossed it to the floor. Then she removed her pants and let them drop. She stepped out of them.
“Come with me,” she said, and wiggled a finger at him, beckoning for him to follow her.
He stood. She pulled away the comforter and blankets and patted the bed next to her.
Griffin sat. Now what? He was allowing her to take the lead, but it would ease her anxiety if he would make this happen. They both wanted it, so why wait? She leaned forward to kiss him again and shivered when his hand went to her shoulder, stopping her.
“Don’t make me say no to you. Let’s eat,” he said.
The sting of his rejection burned through her. She didn’t want to eat, so she went for broke. “I am tired of being untouched.” After what Gr
iffin had done to her, she couldn’t claim she was untouched. It seemed a silly distinction. They had crossed the line. Might as well stay over it and have some fun.
Griffin’s eyes swerved from her face to her body. He swore under his breath. “Have you lost it?”
“Please touch me.”
He stood from the bed and crossed the room in two long strides. “Kit, I have been thinking about touching you since the moment we met. Where your waist dips in makes me crazy. I want to fit my hands there and hold you.”
“Then kiss me,” she said. She was completely aroused. She wanted this. “Kiss me or I will find someone who will. I’d guess there are plenty of men here who would love the company of a woman for the night.” A low blow, but she wasn’t pulling punches.
He narrowed his gaze. “You wouldn’t do that.”
“Sure I would. You have no idea how desperate I’ve become. It’s you I want, but if what’s holding you back is my virginity, then I’ll get rid of it.”
He seemed livid. “Get rid of it? Kit, you are being unreasonable.”
She shook her head. “I know what I want, Griffin. I want you.”
He swore and then rushed to her. They came together in a tangle of arms and legs. As they tumbled onto the bed, his mouth moved seductively over hers in a slow, drugging kiss. She had made the right decision.
“I’m going to make you come until you can’t breathe. You know I want you, and I am not a man who sits around and lets another have what’s his.” He tugged her panties down her legs and lowered himself between her thighs. He took her into his mouth. His tongue stroked and probed. The sensations were shocking, and Kit couldn’t do anything except feel.
His five-o’clock shadow brushed the inside of her thighs, the gruffness in contrast with the softness of his tongue.
He alternated using his mouth and his hands. She was on the edge of another release when he stopped. She let out a whimper.
She was naked and turned on, and she wanted him. “Please.”
“Say the words,” he said, lowering his mouth again, pressing a kiss to her thigh and then blowing a breath of air where she wanted his mouth and his hands.
“I want to come.”
He grinned and continued his caress of her body. Within minutes, he had her writhing against his mouth and at the point of rapture. Rhythmic cries shook her, and her body convulsed.
She rode the wave and felt every bone in her body relax even as her nerves tingled. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
He lay next to her, and she set her head on his chest. His erection was pressing at the leg of his pants. She rolled toward it and kissed him through the material.
He twitched, but stopped her. She shook her head. “I want more.”
“Let’s take our time, okay?”
“We’re not leaving this room until we talk. I can sense you holding back.”
“I’m trying to protect you, and I don’t see the need to rush.”
She ran her hand down his chest. “Don’t protect me. Not here, in this space. Just kiss me and make love to me.”
Griffin wrapped his arms around her and did just as she asked. “I can do that in a hundred different ways. Let me show you.”
* * *
Griffin had outlived his usefulness on this mission. They had been at the base for a week. He made Kit feel safe, but with security tight, he didn’t need to be here. What was he supposed to do? Escort Kit to and from their apartment? Wait while she worked in the lab?
He needed to have a difficult conversation with Connor. Once he got clearance to fly home, he would talk to Kit about it. She would understand.
She had agreed to accompany him to the gym after work and then on a run around the area. He was curious to see what he could find and perhaps figure out where they were.
He stretched his arms, trying not to stare at her in the mirror as she climbed onto the bicycle. Lifting weights felt good. He hadn’t had much time in the gym recently, and he liked staying in shape.
Once he was involved in his workout, moving and lifting distracted him from the elephant in the room. He wanted to sleep with Kit. She wanted to sleep with him. Usually, that was the green light.
Their arrangement was more complicated. She was his client. He had touched her and fooled around with her—every night since they’d arrived—and he shouldn’t have. He had let their relationship progress into a gray area.
If he told Connor that he’d had sexual contact with a client, he would be fired. At least, he assumed he would. His training with the West Company hadn’t covered sleeping with clients, but he knew about conflicts of interest and losing objectivity when emotions came into play.
How could they not? He had slept in Kit’s bed. He had made her come with his hands and his mouth. Possessiveness was inevitable. He did not like sharing a woman with another man, just as he did not sleep with more than one woman at a time. Looking for sex elsewhere was embarrassing, like admitting one woman wasn’t enough.
A few guys entered the gym. Griffin wiped down his machine and moved to one closer to Kit. Though every man and woman on this base was screened and cleared, Griffin didn’t trust easily.
The West Company didn’t know how far Incognito had penetrated the Locker and if they’d compromised the people who had worked with it. They had gotten to Lawrence and they could get to others, including the people who worked at this base.
The men were tossing Kit looks. Long looks. Interested looks. Kit had indicated she wanted a relationship, and Griffin had been clear he couldn’t provide it. When he wasn’t on the island any longer, would one of these men take his place?
The idea did not sit well with him.
Griffin strode to Kit’s bike. “Ready to run?” he asked.
“Outside?” she asked, not sounding enthusiastic about the idea.
“Yes.” He liked the fresh air, and working out in an air-conditioned gym wasn’t the same as facing the elements.
“We can try it. But if my lungs burst, you’ll have to carry me home.”
He was pleased by her choice of words. To anyone listening, they sounded like a couple. Let word get around base that she wasn’t available. The effect would be temporary. He had no doubt that once he left the island, she’d have her pick of men. That thought bothered him deeply. He wanted her to be happy, and he didn’t like knowing that her future happiness wouldn’t be with him.
Chapter 11
They left the gym, and Griffin slipped his arm across Kit’s shoulders.
She looked up at the sky, a mix of gray and white clouds. “I don’t run often. Maybe it will rain and save me the hassle.”
“Given the humidity and the weather we’ve had, storms roll through quickly. A light rain might feel good.”
She bent over and touched her toes, giving him a look at her shapely rear end. His body hardened, and hiding his attraction in gym shorts wasn’t easy.
They followed the paved path, and he let her set the pace. The position of the sun in the sky, the heat and the stickiness of the air spoke to a tropical climate. He hadn’t used his satellite phone to contact Connor yet, instead keeping his communication to approved means. He wasn’t sure if the satellite phone’s signal would be blacked out. “I want to get a message to Connor. I’d like to have an escape plan. If we need to get off this island, I want to know where I’m taking you for the fastest escape.”
Kit touched his hand. “A little slower,” she said between pants.
He’d thought she was leading. He slowed his pace and jogged beside her. In addition to his stride being twice hers, he was accustomed to running for lengthy periods of time.
“I can help you get a secure message out,” Kit said.
He’d bet she could. “Have you been sending secret messages already?”
/> “No,” she said. “I’ve been tempted. My family must be worried.”
“They’ve been contacted, and they know you’re safe.”
“Safe? That’s what this is?”
He tried not to take offense to her statement. “Do you feel secure with me?”
“I feel like I’ve committed a crime and am being punished. I’m not making any progress with securing the Locker or taking countermeasures against Incognito,” she said. “As long as I fail at those tasks and Incognito is still strong and pervasive around the world, I’ll be a target and, therefore, stuck here.”
She was too hard on herself, and her rose-colored glasses were losing their tint. “It’s day two. Don’t get upset. If it was easy, they wouldn’t need you.”
“The new team doesn’t know what they’re doing yet,” she said.
He had the sense he was more sounding board than advisor on this subject. “What makes you think that?”
“I was looking at some notes left on the message board by a teammate, and they were riddled with errors,” Kit said.
The Locker was a black box. It was impenetrable. Now that was working against them.
Kit stopped running and brought her hand to her head, the other to her hip. “What if I can’t fix it? What if I don’t want to fix it?”
“I am sure that you can.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t a one-person job.”
“I understand that. But the team is just catching up. There’s a learning curve.”
She looked on the verge of crying. “I am good with computers. I understand them better than I understand humans. But I don’t want to live here.”
“No one can force you.”
She said nothing to that. She started running again, and he stayed a stride behind.
They were a mile from the main facility, and Griffin heard a strange noise, like human grunting. He reached for Kit, drawing her close to him.
“What is that?” she whispered.
“I don’t know.” Griffin didn’t see anyone, but the unmistakable sound of grunting and flesh against flesh indicated either a fight or a sexual encounter. Griffin hoped not both. “Let me look around.”