“Sushi?” she said as they left the building.
“Sure.” He’d never had sushi. “Sushi it is.”
Lara led the way to a sushi bar about a half mile away, down a side street.
The task involved sitting at a revolving conveyor belt ready to snatch whichever plate of food appealed. He had no idea what any of it was, so once she’d made her selection, he grabbed one too.
“Tell me more about your brothers.” He stared at the sushi, bewildered.
“Why? They aren’t involved.”
Draco wasn’t so sure. “Don’t get your back up. I’m asking because they’re the two guys who were asked to find out what’s going on. In essence, they’re my competition for the reaching the goal, your goal.”
She was about to eat, but paused, chopsticks in hand. “Oh, right, yes. I hadn’t really thought of it like that.”
That was an admiring glance she was giving him.
He popped one of the sushi into his mouth and smiled. Chewing, he found himself astonished. It was cold, and slimy. He reached for his sparkling water.
“Jamie’s twenty-two and he’s a cool guy, but he does as little as possible.”
“I can take that two ways.”
“I bet you could take it more than two ways,” she answered sarcastically. “Hear me out. He does as little as possible, but he’s highly intelligent and take the shortest route to the end result.”
Her sexy smile turned him on. “Bit lazy, bit clever.”
“Yes, a lot like you, in fact.”
He lifted his eyebrows and shot her a glance. “Anything else I need to know about Jamie?”
“He’s serious, keeps his head down. He’s a home boy really, likes living with my dad and his new wife, and doesn’t want to rock the boat.” She stared into space for a minute. “Split up with his girlfriend recently. Apparently she kept mentioning her ring size and he said he wasn’t ready for marriage.”
“What about the other guy, the party boy, Charles?”
“Oh yeah, he loves to party hard, lives for the weekend. Has bit of a cocaine habit.”
“Cocaine?” Draco tensed.
She frowned. “Yeah.”
Draco knew he was scowling, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Just recreational, parties and such.”
Something buried deep inside rose up and rattled him. “Jesus, just a bit recreational coke?”
She sucked in her breath, looking from side to side as if she thought someone might have heard. “Wow, judgemental or what?”
“Don’t tell me you do drugs too?”
“No, but that’s not the point. I find your attitude unnecessarily extreme. It’s none of your business what I or my brothers do in our personal life. That’s not what I invited you to work with me for and I’d be grateful if you’d keep your judgemental opinions to yourself.”
He stared at her for a good half a minute, and then had the dreadful feeling she was going to walk out in him. She was not only offended, she looked nervous about his reaction.
“Sorry.” He sighed and pushed his hands through his hair. “That was uncalled for. You’re right, I’m being judgemental, but it’s not without reason.” He paused, trying to figure out what to say. “Someone close to me got tangled up in drugs. It hurt people around them, a lot.”
Her expression softened. “I’m sorry to hear that. Was it a girlfriend?”
He shook his head.
Studying him silently, she picked at her food.
Draco sipped his water.
“Look,” she added, in a lower tone, “I don’t understand why he needs to do it, really, but I try not to judge people. Besides, you should be glad he’s a party animal, its unlikely he’ll get to the information before we do.”
Draco huffed a laugh. “Fair point.”
It bothered her immensely, the fact she might be beaten in the secret project. He wanted to reassure her, but he had to tread cautiously. “Have you ever used, recreationally?”
She shook her head. “It’s not my thing, and I have to keep a straight head if I’m going get ahead in my dad’s business.”
He nodded.
She stared at him thoughtfully. “You really disapprove so much?”
He didn’t really want to talk about why, but she looked suspicious, as if she needed more of an answer. “Someone close to me got heavily into drugs for a while, for years. It affects everybody around them, sooner or later.”
Once he’d said it he worried she was going to question him, dig a little bit deeper, and he didn’t want to talk about his mum’s darkest days and what it was like growing up inside that special version of hell.
Thankfully she nodded and returned her attention to her food.
Draco risked another sushi. This was one tasted of tuna, which as a relief. He had no idea what the hell that slimy stuff was in the last one.
“Do you think either of my brothers is looking for the drain?” Lara asked.
So she had thought about it. “They didn’t give any signs of being under pressure, did they?”
She shook her head. “Charles is probably rattled more than anything, it’s the kind of pressure he might not respond to.”
Is that why Compton Senior had taken the task to them, to wake them up? Draco nodded. He didn’t want to say anything more on the matter, but he couldn’t help being sceptical. Both brothers were quietly going about their chosen diversions, despite being set a challenge by their dad, neither doing an obvious hunt for the breach of security and lack of funds. Why not?
Because it was one or both of them behind the breach? Was that why C.S. had told them, to let him know he was aware? Was Charlie boy funding his party habit or was Jamie creating a personal stash, before walking out on the father who had walked out on them? Draco figured he was letting his own life experience color his view, but it was a possibility he wasn’t going to rule out
He chucked down a couple more sushi so she wouldn’t know, and then glanced at his phone. “Talking of family,” he said, once they were walking back to the office, “I need to go see my stepbrother, Rory, this evening.”
“Okay.” She looked disappointed.
“It won’t take long. Why don’t we meet for a drink at seven?”
She smiled. “Great idea. There’s a bar near the apartment that does happy hour on cocktails between six and eight. I’ll give you the postcode when we get back to the office.”
“Great, it’s a date.”
CHAPTER TEN
After Draco took off, Lara hung around at work for a while, uneasy about his sudden departure. It was the second time she didn’t know where he was. Of course he could have snuck off that first night when she’d left him to settle in at the apartment on his own. Her gut feeling was he hadn’t. The uncertainty was what she’d expected when she thought she was hiring a surly unreliable guy in a hoodie, but Draco had—so far—shattered her stereotyped preconceptions about her hired hacker. There was so much about him she didn’t know, though.
He said it was his stepbrother, who he used to hack with.
If he’d been called away by someone from his hacking past, it could be a more lucrative or interesting opportunity than the one she’d offered him. It occurred to her she might never see him again. A sudden and intense sense of loss hit her. It startled her to feel that way.
Her motto in life was to be prepared for all eventualities, so she’d have a back up plan no matter what happened. So if he didn’t come back, what would she do? The database would be on her plate entirely. She could cope with that, she had a working knowledge of spreadsheets and databases and could follow instructions. The bigger issue was the secret project would be left undone if he didn’t come back.
Before she left the office, she texted and reminded him she would wait for him in the wine bar near the apartment, adding they served free nibbles during happy hour. On her way, she grabbed groceries, ingredients for the evening meal.
At the wine bar she put her shopping under the bar, took
a high stool, and risked ordering two cocktails. Time ticked by.
When she was just about to give up and leave—having waited there an hour, and being hit on twice by older men—Draco suddenly appeared and sat on the stool beside her, acting as if they did this every night after work.
“Cheers.” He swigged liberally from the fancy glass set up for him.
Relief flooded through Lara. She tried to act as nonchalantly as possible. “Good meeting?”
Now that he’d turned up and she could breathe easier, her curiosity was up and running. He looked as if he had worries.
“Nightmare.” He shook his head and grabbed a handful of olives from the platter in front of them, popping them as if they were peanuts.
The guy was hungry. She smiled.
He chomped through the olives, ignoring the nuts. Lara began to wonder whether he’d have any appetite left for dinner. “You haven’t forgotten I’m cooking?”
“I haven’t forgotten. I’m here, right?” He reached for another olive.
She lifted her eyebrows.
“What?”
“I’ve never known a guy who liked olives before.”
He grinned and took another olive. After considering her silently for a moment he quizzed her. “How many guys have you known?”
Ouch. Lara didn’t know what to say. Not many. That was the truth. But she wasn’t sure she wanted him to know the intimate details of her non-love life. Her brothers hadn’t been around, having gone with their dad when their parent’s split, so she hadn’t met their friends. Then she’d gone to an all-girls boarding school. Since college there’d been a couple of brief encounters, including the necessary ridding herself of her virginity. Right now she only had one good male friend, and he was gay.
“I’m sorry,” Draco added, his expression altering when she didn’t immediately respond. “It was rude of me to ask such a personal question.”
It was. The apology was nice, but humor danced in his eyes. The cheeky so-and-so had asked the question on purpose and now it looked as if he wasn’t going to drop the subject. “Not many. I’ve been too busy studying. I thought you might have guessed that.”
He inclined his head. “So your comment about olives is based on a vague generalization?”
“No!” With a quick laugh, she reached for her glass. “It’s a known fact, women like olives more than men do.” She’d read it in a magazine, but she was relieved he’d moved conversation away from her love life. She’d said enough on that subject, as if he was really interested anyway. Instinctively she knew he had plenty of experience, an attractive guy like him. His confidence was bone-deep too. It came from being able to talk to anyone, being able to equal his peers and more, being able to go after what he wanted and having the cheek to do it—even if it meant walking on the wrong side of the law.
“A known fact, huh?” Draco replied, amused. “Well, I must be some sort of freak olive-eating-male, I’m an aberration.”
“You said it.” She shot him a look, laughing.
It felt good to share the joke.
She wondered again where he’d been. “I’m not going to lose you to a better offer, am I?”
The question seemed to level him, as if he were surprised she was even concerned about it. He locked eyes with her and shook his head. “Just an unexpected irritation.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
He swigged again from his glass then sighed heavily and tugged at his tie. Undoing it, he rolled it up and put in his pocket. The sight of his strong collarbone made her want to touch him, to put her hand inside his shirt and feel his strong, muscled chest.
“My sister, Sky, she’s in London. I ran into her the other night, unexpectedly. I didn’t like what I saw.”
“You didn’t know she was here?”
“I knew, I’d seen something about it on Facebook.” He shrugged and there was a guilty look in his eyes. Lara caught it before his eyelids lowered to hide it. “She’s seeing someone I don’t approve of.”
Given his background in criminal activity and his stepbrother was banged up in jail, she wondered what would make him disapprove of his sister’s boyfriend. “Not suitable?”
“It’s a difficult situation,” he commented, eventually, but he kept looking back at her as if he wanted to confide.
“Someone you know well enough to make an informed decision on?”
“Yes, in fact it’s the guy who taught me how to hack code.”
“Oh, really.” She laughed softly.
He looked at her quizzically.
“You’re judging him on the very crime you yourself do.”
“Did, I did. We both gave up, actually.”
“He started working again?” She could see how he wouldn’t want his younger sister involved with that.
“No he’s gone straight, he stuck to our vow. In fact he wanted to talk to me about disposing of his hacker kit, ending it for good,”
Boy, they really were close, like some sort of gang. She was both intrigued and nervous at the same time. Maybe it was better she didn’t know.
“He’s a mechanic now, doing well. Anyway, it’s not what he does that worries me, it’s who he is. He’s our stepbrother.”
“Oh.” Lara frowned, trying to get her head around it. Then she noticed he was looking at her waiting for more of a response. “I suppose the more you tell your sister not do something, the more likely she is to do so.”
“Absolutely.” Again he studied her.
“It’s the way I’d be with my brothers.”
“Like now, like you should be staying out of a challenge your dad set for them but you’re diving in there trying to get a piece of the action?”
She laughed. They both did. “Yeah, that.”
It was nice, she realized, sharing a bit of family stuff, comparing notes. But Draco soon had that thoughtful look back on his face, as if he was weighing up his options. “It’s not the one in jail, obviously, it’s his brother, Rory.”
Lara realized she’d better read carefully. “So you and your sister aren’t properly related to this guy, Rory?”
Draco nodded and toyed with his glass. “No, but it doesn’t feel right. We all lived together like family.”
Lara stared at him. Everything she knew about him made sense, except for this. It was almost old-fashioned. “Can I ask how long you all lived as family?”
“Less than a year.” He gave a deep sigh. “I know. There’s nothing legally wrong with it, it just feels weird.”
“Were they always attracted?”
“Oh yeah.” He groaned, as if remembering.
“You think they’re serious about each other now?”
“Maybe, at least for a while.” He looked as if he wished it was over.
“If it were me, nothing my brothers could say would stop me.”
Draco laughed. It pleased her to hear the sound, and to witness the frown he wore vanish. “I see that.”
“So maybe let it run its course. If it burns out, she’ll remember you were concerned at the outset. If it’s meant to be, it doesn’t matter what you say or do now.”
“Just be ready to pick up the pieces if it all goes wrong, right?”
“Yes, it’s what a good brother would do, be there for her.” With a certain sadness, Lara realized she was stating an ideal. She and her brothers hadn’t been close since they were little kids. After their parents split, the boys had gone with their dad and she’d stayed with mum. It made her feel like a bit of fraud, advising him that way.
Draco reached out and cupped her face with his hand, as if he would read her troubled thoughts. “Thank you for listening, you’re so right.”
“You’re welcome.” She savored his touch on her face, then briefly planted a kiss in the palm of his hand. Draining her glass, she stood up, collecting the shopping as she did. She was ready to take him home for the night. “Hungry?”
He stood up and lifted her shopping bags from her hand. “Starving.”
> CHAPTER ELEVEN
Most of all Draco was hungry for her, but she seemed to want to make a meal, so he played along. She showered, changed and then cooked burgers, from scratch. That was unexpected. He grabbed a shower too, then dressed in jeans and T shirt.
Sitting at the marble breakfast bar he watched as she prepared the food.
The burgers were good big and juicy and she served them in crusty rolls with crisp salad on the side. He ignored the salad while they ate then hid it under his cutlery.
Again, they sat across the table for a long while afterwards. It always felt like a negotiation. They chatted more about family. It was light and fun.
“That was delicious,” he eventually said, wanting to get closer to her. “I feel like I should’ve brought a gift. Do you like flowers?
Laughing, she nodded. “I like meadow flowers, in the meadow.”
He frowned, confused.
“I don’t like cut flowers,” she clarified.
“Oh right. I should take you to Wales to see flowers in the meadow.”
“Sounds good,” she said, then cleared the dishes.
“I’ll put it in the diary, for after I’m done rooting about in the family code vault.”
She stalled. “Don’t say it like that.”
Oops. “Sorry, Princess.”
“Ugh, I hate it when my dad calls me that.” She laughed,
“It’s what I thought. No nicknames needed. Although I should confess I thought of you as Miss Prim and Proper when I first clapped eyes on you.”
Her eyes opened wide in surprise. “Prim and proper?”
“The business suit and all. The heavy glasses. What’s a guy supposed to think?”
She dumped the plates in the kitchen then returned to his side. “You’re supposed to think a woman is wearing her armor for the office.”
He loved that. Chuckling, he tangled his fingers with hers, tugging gently on her arm. “We’re not wearing our armor now, are we?”
“No. I already feel naked, but I often feel that way when you look at me.”
Good. “Does it make you uncomfortable?”
She shook her head. “No, I feel as if I’m being admired. There’s nothing lewd or lascivious about it.”
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