He needed time to think. To figure out what to do. Maybe he would have to tell his father about the tape with Julie, but he didn’t want to right now.
“It’s nothing.”
Right now, he wanted to savor that his dad didn’t know, had nothing to do with this.
He hugged the old man, an awkward, stiff clench he’d never before attempted, and said, “I’m glad I was wrong. It would have…broken my heart.”
“Oh, well, ah…” His father patted him on the back. “I’m glad too.” Then he pulled away. “What was that about Julie though?”
“Nothing. I meant what would Julie think if you were found out? You know, that kind of thing. I know how much you love her.”
“I love you both, Jonathon.”
It was still dark out when Liv woke up, and her mouth tasted as if it was stuffed with cotton balls. Jonathon was nowhere in sight. She sat up and forced herself into the adjoining bathroom to brush her teeth and climb in the shower.
The Niagara Falls worthy water pressure was what her aching muscles needed and she was arching into the hot stream, eyes closed, when she heard the glass door open and she snapped to attention at the sight of Jonathon, naked, stepping into the shower with her, placing a small foil package in the alcove. God, he had a fantastic body. Narrow hips, broad shoulders, to say nothing of that incredible appendage between his legs.
She backed up a few feet—which the sheer size of the shower allowed for—since she didn’t exactly feel entitled to kick him out after she had ordered him to service her and everything. She had been tipsy through the whole debacle, that was for sure, but not really drunk. She had wanted everything that had happened to happen, so she wouldn’t pretend now that she hadn’t.
He stood under the stream of water and grabbed the soap, lathering up and then rinsing again while she continued to rub shampoo suds through her hair. After a minute, he moved back to let her go under the water and she rinsed the suds out of her hair, turning in the stream, eyes closed.
When she opened them, he was standing right in front of her, and his arms went to her hips. She looked at him uncertainly, noting that he was starting to get excited. Scratch that. Was fully, completely, beautifully excited.
Well, join the club. So was she.
“Is the mistress ready for that second round?” he asked with a straight face, loud enough to be heard over the sound of the shower.
She pursed her lips, considering.
The mistress wanted to feel him in her again, to feel that wild connection, to feel…and not to think.
“Wash my back,” she commanded. Okay, she’d start out small. The sensation of his hands as he lathered her was an experience in itself. “My, ah…” She hesitated. It was easier to talk dirty when she was drunk or tipsy anyway. “My butt,” she settled on and ever the faithful servant, his slippery hands dipped lower, washing, caressing, even slipping around to the front.
Which she hadn’t authorized, but she was feeling lenient. His soapy hands were between her legs, and then one came up to rub the soap into her nipple and she shivered, leaning back against him, feeling his rampant erection against the cheeks of her ass.
“Mmmm,” she instructed wordlessly, and he whispered in her ear, “Could you be a little more specific on that, ma’am?”
“Put yourself in me, from behind. I liked that last night.”
It was funny how she felt a little embarrassed about the game now that she was cold sober, even though she was quite enthusiastic about the results.
“Yes, mistress. I can go so deep in you that way.”
He positioned her and reached to the alcove and then to himself and she heard the crinkle of what she knew must be a condom. Then he was sliding between her legs, from behind as instructed. Deep. She groaned as he gripped her hipbones and thrust harder.
“Okay?” he asked.
“Perfect.” And it was. She was leaning forward, her palms anchored on the wet tiles, and he leaned over as well, covering her as he made love to her.
“I want to please you,” he whispered in her ear, stroking her breasts now, tugging at the nipples, driving her insane.
“Mmmm.”
“Do I?” he prompted, plunging even deeper.
“Oh yeah,” she confirmed, her words tumbling out in rapid staccato. “You get an A. A bonus. High five. Whatever,” she mumbled.
“How about forgiveness?” he urged and she froze, startled, while he pushed her heavy wet hair over one shoulder and kissed the neck he bared. She shivered despite the steamy shower. As his movements inside her continued, she ignored his question until he asked it again. “Do you forgive me, mistress?”
“For what?” she finally got out.
“For trying to steal your program to begin with and then not being completely honest with you about it?”
With his slow, sure, incredibly pleasurable strokes it was hard not to, frankly.
“Sure,” she said, and he thrust harder.
“Good. That’s good.”
He sounded out of breath now and she wiggled her bottom against him, earning an answering rhythm so wild and deep that she came and before she realized he hadn’t, he pulled out of her, shut off the water and carried her, wet, to the bed.
She tried to rouse herself and protested feebly, “No, Jonathon, I’m leaving puddles.”
But when he laid her on her back and kicked her legs open to shove himself inside her again, she stopped complaining. “Ah, okay. That’s okay too.”
He grasped her wrists by the side of her face and came against her aggressively. “You are so hot, so sweet,” he murmured.
“Oh, Jonathon…”
He moved inside her, long and deep, until he finally arched his back and came, bringing her with him again.
It had been so nice just falling asleep last time they made love. Not having to face any issues. But no such luck this time. She had no idea what hour it actually was—there was a dab of light from the balcony, but only moon-strength, and a half moon at that—and yet she was wide awake. Listening to the breathing next to her when he rolled off her, it was clear, so was he.
After a minute, she got up and headed toward the door.
He sat up. “Where are you going?”
“Down to the beach for a swim.”
“Naked?”
He sounded so shocked she had to laugh. “The hacker’s offended by skinny-dipping?”
“I’m not a—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said softly, heading out, noting he was right behind her.
“I’ll bring towels,” he called out.
There was no one awake in the house and the beach was deserted, the sand warm and squishy between her toes. By the time she waded into the black water as far as the tops of her thighs, Jonathon was right beside her.
The waves lapped against them as he slipped his hand into hers and looked at her in the sliver of moonlight.
She shrugged. “What the hell? I’ve already been drunk and belligerent in front of my bosses and reamed out their business partner’s son, so I might as well add skinny-dipping to my other offenses. The way it’s going, Mr. Hershey will probably come out and catch me right now.”
“He should be so lucky.”
She walked a little farther into the water, but he held fast to her hand and asked, “Did you mean it?”
She stopped. “What?”
“Do you really forgive me?”
“I overreacted,” she admitted. A conclusion she had been working toward during her long walk down the beach, but had forgotten with the heat of seeing him again on the balcony—and whatever the hell was in that iced tea muddling her thought processes. “I don’t even know now how much there is or isn’t to forgive.”
“I was trying to steal your program.”
“You already told me that.”
“But I never admitted that, ah, at the beginning, I didn’t even think it was wrong. I was a hacker, and though I haven’t done it in years, I didn’t think twice about going back
to it when I chose to. Didn’t think about who I was hurting.”
“Because you thought you had to in order to protect your sister.” She leaned up to kiss him lightly. If she wanted him to trust her, she had to start trusting him. “I have a bit of a hangover, but I remember what you told me upstairs. About the tape and your suspicions about your father. That’s what really happened, isn’t it? That must have been devastating. Did you talk to him?”
“Yes. And thank God, it wasn’t what happened. I mean, there is a tape of Julie, but I was wrong. My dad didn’t commission it, or set it up or whatever. Rudy was pitching him on the idea of buying the stolen technology. That’s why I saw them together in the town car, but Dad told him no, and he says he knew nothing about the blackmail, and, well, I guess in the last analysis I don’t believe he could use Julie like that.”
“Or use you,” she added softly.
“And he is here to buy the program, so stealing it doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense anyway.”
“Did you tell your father how Rudy was blackmailing you?”
“No. I couldn’t. Maybe I’ll have to, but for now I let him think Rudy had something on me in terms of hacking.”
“Don’t you think you should ask your sister about this?”
“Ask me about what?”
Julie was standing in the shallower water behind them, but close enough to hear, and in tandem they crouched down into the water, up to their shoulders, laughing as they looked back at her. Unlike the two of them, she was dressed, holding her peasant skirt up to keep it from getting wet.
“What are you talking about, Jonathon? And is this the famous Miss Altman?”
“Don’t come any closer, honey, Miss, Ah, Altman and I are skinny-dipping.”
His sister laughed, a high happy sound that reminded him of how much he wanted her to be all right, how much he loved her.
“I saw that from your bare bottoms! Can’t say I’m surprised, at least with you, Jonathon. Miss Altman, you I don’t know, but I’ve been hearing a few things.”
“I bet,” Liv said, embarrassed, going a little lower in the water, making sure she was covered. “The rumors of my wild escapades are greatly exaggerated.”
“I know the feeling. So ask me about what?”
Only the sound of the gentle waves answered that. Jonathon looked at Liv in the moonlight and whispered, “I can’t.”
“You have to,” she whispered back.
“Hey, you guys, don’t make me come out there to find out what you’re talking about. I don’t want Jonathon to die of embarrassment.”
He took a deep breath. “Turn your back, honey and we’ll get out and grab the towels.”
When they had, Jonathon and Liv safely wrapped in big bath towels and sitting on the warm sand next to Julie, Jonathon said, “Something has happened and Liv thinks I should ask you about it, but I don’t want to upset you.”
“Liv’s right,” Julie said. “Whatever it is. I’m not a piece of china. What are you talking about?”
Jonathon gave her the gist of it, in short clipped sentences.
“What?” She laughed. “That’s the last thing I expected you to say!”
“Julie, you may think it’s funny now,” he added in an undertone, “though why, I have no idea, but even if it doesn’t hurt you now, having something like that will come back to haunt you, when you find out what you want to do or when you have kids. It’s serious.”
She dug her bare feet in the sand, wiggling her toes. “I agree it would be serious if I had ever done anything so gross!”
Liv nodded. “Just what I was starting to suspect.”
“What?” Jonathon asked in confusion.
“I agree a gangbang with that sleazy old senator and, well, whoever, would be embarrassing and I wouldn’t want it to get out, but I’ve never done anything like that!”
“You haven’t?”
“No! Never! That creep was always hitting on me. I didn’t tell Dad because his politics are actually pretty okay, but personally he’s a sleaze. I don’t know what you saw, but it wasn’t me.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “Maybe, I mean there are date rape drugs where you don’t remember.”
“I’d never get myself in that position. I don’t drink because of the drug thing and, God, I wouldn’t even drink a glass of water around that icky senator.”
“Not to mention,” Liv added, “I believe date rape drugs wouldn’t allow for so, ah, coordinated an activity as you were describing, Jonathon. I think it leaves you pretty passive and out of it.”
“Not giving blow jobs around a daisy chain!” Julie said frankly, though Jonathon had been as delicate as he could in describing that.
“I’ve done things I’m not proud of,” Julie said. “Don’t get me wrong. Especially when I was using. But I didn’t do that, and now that I’m clean, well—”
“Shhh.” He hugged his sister, but she squirmed out of it.
“Who is the guy who brought this to you?”
“Somebody I went to school with.”
“Who probably knew you couldn’t bear to watch much of that tape,” Liv said. “It was probably doctored. Another girl and then Julie’s face spliced in at certain shots.”
Jonathon felt a huge weight off his shoulders and simultaneously a white-hot anger. “I can’t believe I was so stupid! He said it outright. That Julie was my weakness. He knew I wouldn’t examine the tape. God, I’m going to fucking kill Dickhead!”
“Hold on,” Liv cautioned. “We have to figure out a way to catch him so he goes to jail, not kill him.”
“He taped you changing, by the way,” Jonathon added.
“What?”
“He infected your computer with a spyware camera and you didn’t catch it for an hour or so. You changed in front of it.”
“That asshole! And then what, he showed it to you? I’ll kill him.”
Jonathon laughed. “That’s more like it.”
“I’ll leave you guys to your vengeance planning, but if you need any help from me let me know.” Julie stood up, kissed her brother’s cheek and went back to the house, leaving them alone.
Jonathon turned to face Liv directly and put one hand soothingly along her bare back, under the towel, stroking. Okay, if he gave her one of those neck massages again, she was lost. She might as well just hand over the keys to the kingdom or whatever. Defeated, she rested her head against his shoulder, his skin so warm and vital. She knew what she felt for him was real, whatever he felt for her.
He coughed and if there had been some more light on the darkened beach she might have even thought he was blushing. “I, ah, like you, Liv. I really like you.”
“Your penis likes me,” she said.
“I like you.”
She furrowed her brow at his insistence.
“And for the record, my penis adores you.” He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
She laughed. “Mmm, well my tender bits have taken quite a shine to you too, mister.”
He brushed her hair back from her face. “And what about you, scrumptious tender bits aside?”
His wet hair slicked back, his heavily lashed eyes staring down at her so sincerely…she felt something lurch in her chest. Shit, it wasn’t her heart was it?
Talk about playing dirty.
“Wild about you,” she whispered. “Let’s go back in the water.”
They walked in until it covered them almost completely and they could fall backward to float or tread water or just hang on to each other, lazily letting the waves ebb around them. After a minute, she said, “Did your father know you were a world-class hacker?”
“Yep. Has since I hacked into his girlfriend’s bank account and sent every penny she had to PETA.”
“I am not laughing at that.”
He smiled. “She had a lot of fur coats. Get it?”
It was really so impossible not to laugh. So she did, giving in, and splashing him a little for good measure. “I get it. But cut th
at out!”
“I was twelve.”
“You’ve only gotten more dangerous,” she grumbled.
“We’re all dangerous. I get that, Liv. I do. So maybe I do have to start, you know, working within the system. No more Peter Pan.”
“Be still my heart!” she teased.
“I was thinking about your program again.”
“It’s not going to shut down the Internet, Jon. You’re not giving me enough credit. I can tailor it so it accomplishes what companies want, but doesn’t turn the Internet into a police state. I haven’t worked everything out yet, but I will.”
“Could you use some help? I’d love to consult, see if the two of us can come up with something, if my Dad buys the company, I mean, so we’re on the same side and everything.”
A corner of her mouth went up. “Really? That would be great!” He pulled her to him and in the buoyancy of the water she wrapped her legs around his waist.
He shook his head ruefully as hands slipped to her bottom to hold her up. “I should have trusted my father before all this, and I didn’t. He’s not quite the monster I had pictured in my head. My mother was, well, she was great, smart, beautiful, but she wasn’t perfect and their relationship wasn’t perfect and, I don’t know. I ended up putting all that on him.”
She kissed him. “And can I be honest with you? I did have an incredible crush on you in college—or on the idea of you. But it was cerebral. No masturbation involved.”
He chuckled and swirled her around in the water. “Well, I’m more than happy to have helped you turn that into a more adult appreciation.”
“Yes, you’ve been very helpful with that.”
“And can I be honest?”
“We’re insisting on it, right?”
“Right. It still pisses me off I couldn’t crack your code.”
She squealed in delight. “I knew it! I love it!”
He walked with her held in his arms, tight to him, back toward the shore, looking into her eyes so seriously she wondered what new revelation he was going to make.
But all he said was, “We have to figure out how to get Dickhead. What’s the jail time for industrial espionage? I think we should bring my dad and Mr. California guy and, er, fat guy—”
“Hershey.”
Tempting the Corporate Spy Page 14