Seducing Texas (So Not Prince Charming Book 2)

by Diana Downey

She cocks her head innocently, like she doesn’t want me to know. “Just a friend. I’m meeting you here.”

  “A close friend?” I accuse. I’m sick of Niki and her lies.

  She nervously glances around us but then reaches for my hand and then my face. I don’t want to kiss her, especially in front of Cyn, so I push Niki off.

  Before I see her, I smell Cyn’s spicy scent that has always driven me crazy before she speaks.

  “I’m not doing this anymore,” Cyn says. “Tell her the truth.”

  I can’t tell Niki everything. “It’ll just be another hour or so, and I’ll be home.”

  “What is she talking about?” Niki spits out.

  “No,” Cyn says. “It’s either me or her.” She spins around and walks out.

  “Wait, Cyn,” I plead.

  “What are you saying?” Niki asks, confused.

  Cyn has already left the bar, and I can’t let her go, not for this, not for anybody. I can’t live without her. I could’ve lost her yesterday and it still churns in my gut.

  “Niki, I can’t be with you. I love Cyn. Don’t call me anymore.” I stand up and hurry after Cyn, not waiting for Niki’s response or reaction. I don’t care about her.

  Breaking it off with Niki will piss off the feds. I don’t want to be in this position, but I can’t lose Cyn.

  When I get outside, I look up and down the street and see her heading to my truck. There’s a black Escalade on the opposite side of the street.

  As she steps onto the street to cross over to the truck, the Escalade revs its engine. I glance at her and the Escalade careening out of its parking space.

  Shit.

  I run after her, catching her in my arms and pulling her back to the sidewalk behind the streetlamp and the fire hydrant.

  “Shane,” she screeches. “What the hell are you doing?”

  The Escalade jumps onto the sidewalk, and I carry her into the alcove of a different bar. A gun pokes through the window, so I throw Cyn onto the ground and shield her with my body. My hand reaches for my concealed weapon.

  The Escalade hits the streetlamp and then the fire hydrant, which shoots water skyward like a geyser.

  Before the culprit’s gun goes off, I fire off a couple shots at the window. The return gunfire explodes in my ears before ripping into my shin.

  “Fuck,” I scream out.

  I fire off another shot into the driver side and the SUV bucks off the sidewalk and peels down the road away from us.

  I grunt out, pain searing my leg. I stare down at the blood oozing from my leg. “Can you drive me to the hospital, princess?”

  “Oh my God, you’re hit.” After tearing my shirt, never hers, she presses it onto the wound.

  I smile. She’s still my princess, and I love her the way she is. I wouldn’t change a thing about her, including her shoe fetish.

  From the blaring sirens, the cops are on their way. She helps me up because my leg won’t wait. I need to get to the hospital now. After I crawl into the front cab of my truck, I call Agent Timmons to tell him where to meet us.

  Cyn rushes me to the ER, ignoring the posted speed limits and running several yellow lights. “You know the files on the flash drive?”

  I grit my teeth because my leg hurts like a mother. “Yeah.”

  “The files you thought were Asian?”

  “Yeah?”

  “At least the one file I’ve deciphered in Wu contains bank account numbers. They’re in the Caymans, Panama, and Switzerland. The file also includes IP addresses. I don’t know a lot, but aren’t IP addresses kind of in groups?”

  “Yes,” I say. Shit. Somehow the drug dealers are involved with embezzling from companies and stealing technology or maybe not. Maybe, it’s only the Chinese. They could be into several lucrative business areas, including heroin.

  “I think the IP addresses may be in the same groups as what you handed over to the feds from the packet sniffer you wrote,” Cyn says, “and that’s not all. A few names were on the accounts, including Nikita’s.”

  “It was?” The feds are right?

  “So are lots of other fake names. Her name is spelled wrong. It reminds me of those fake reviews where the English isn’t very good.”

  I thin my lips. “The feds must’ve known.”

  “Not necessarily. The spelling is pretty close, except for Nikita’s middle name. I think the information in those files will lead us to the people who took your money, and that information puts us at risk.”

  My embezzlement had something to do with the drugs. “Do you think the guy who shot me is one of Juarez’s?”

  “No. Juarez wouldn’t shoot you unless you try to hurt him again. That was stupid.”

  She doesn’t need to remind me. “Cyn, I told Niki we’re through. I’m sorry. I should’ve believed you. You’re always right.” I grin. I’m learning how to be a good husband.

  A smile curls up those delectable lips. “Remember that, and we’ll be together forever.”

  “Do you promise?” I say.

  She pulls up to the ER drop-off, leans over, and kisses me. “Yes, I promise. I love you, Shane.”

  I want more than a kiss right now. My cock is begging for her pussy. “Even when we live on the Kenai.”

  She kisses me again, her tongue delving into my mouth. “We haven’t negotiated that yet. Will your bum leg stop us from having sex?”

  “Not if you’re on top, princess.”

  Her mouth seals mine, and my cock fucking hurts for this girl. “Good. I really, really need it after today and last night,” she says.

  “Should we tell the feds about the files?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “Not yet. I need to hear back from Juarez about the one file. What do you think the Wu file means?”

  “That the Chinese were not just into heroin. I bet my money was used to start up the Asian communication company I found online using my technology.”

  Chapter Cyn

  When we get home, Willa is in her usual spot on the couch, studying. She doesn’t look up, and I worry she is permanently damaged from killing our uncle and little Manny.

  “Where’s Aedan?” I ask, throwing my purse onto the counter along with the truck keys and Shane’s gun. I can’t technically stop her from seeing him, so I may as well not force her into it by saying she can’t.

  She glances up from her statistics book. Her eyes show that she’s aged in the past couple days, and it hurts that I’ve done this to her. My sweet baby sister is growing up in some ways, which are not healthy for her.

  “Working,” she says. “It’s odd. The studio fired him for sticking up for me when Lynch got out of hand, but then they hired him back.”

  Why would they hire him back? “We haven’t lost the contract?”

  “Not yet.”

  Shane comes limping into the house on his crutches.

  Willa jumps off the couch. “What the hell happened to you?”

  “I got shot saving your sister,” he says, pinching my ass.

  “Ow.” It didn’t really hurt, but only reminds me of what I’ve craved all day—him. “How do you know they were shooting at me? You’re the more obvious target.”

  The seriousness and concern whittling his brow sets me on edge. Why would anyone besides Manny target me?

  “Because you figured out what’s in the files,” he says.

  “But nobody knows what I’m doing.” How could they? I didn’t connect to the Internet, except a couple times to find a UTF-8 editor and language masks. Could the person have tracked my history? Probably.

  “I think they do,” Shane says, his arms loop around my waist. He kisses my neck, igniting a flurry of shivers.

  “I want to forget about everything tonight,” I say. I don’t want to think about his problems that have somehow become mine too.

  “I can make you forget,” Shane says. “Goodnight, Willa.”

  “Goodnight, children,” she shoots back.

  I want to ask her if she had s
ex with Aedan, though I probably shouldn’t. I don’t want to see her waste her time with loser guys like I did. I want her first real boyfriend to be her happy ending.

  When my bedroom door closes behind us, Shane puts his crutch in the corner, picks me up, and tosses me onto the bed that takes up almost the entire room.

  “Cyn, maybe you shouldn’t work for me.”

  “We really need the money, Shane.”

  His mouth claims mine, and I’m left breathless and panting, even though my body is drained from lack of sleep and the adrenaline rush of being shot at multiple times in one day.

  “You can work under my desk,” Shane teases.

  I kick off my shoes and shimmy out of my skirt, anxious to remove my clothes. I want to free myself from everything that happened today. “You’d still owe me, Shane.”

  “I know. I already do.”

  “You dumped Niki?” I ask.

  “I told her it was over, not that there was anything going on between us. I’m sorry, Cyn. I should’ve listened to you. I should be looking at someone at my company and someone who had access to my personal laptop. That’s the only one I banked from.”

  Shane kisses me again, his lips fusing with mine. They’re hot and steamy wet, scintillating my mouth, and the heat works its way between my thighs.

  “No more drug dealers,” he says. “I hope this is the end of them.”

  “What about the Chinese list of account numbers? Juarez said the Chinese dealt in heroin.”

  “I’ll start looking at them in the morning as soon as I talk to Timmons. He was upset that we didn’t talk to him long at the hospital and even more pissed over Niki.” He lifts me on top of him, his massive hands resting on my hips. “That’s enough talk. Let’s forget about everyone else, but you do all the work tonight while I enjoy.”

  “Shane, I’m exhausted.” I know our love making will be teasingly slow, and I need it.

  I push my hair back and lean down to kiss the rough beard that’s grown over the last couple days. His hair grows fast, and it adds to his overall rugged appearance.

  I help him out of his shirt to expose his broad chest. It’s what I love best about his body—the hard-packed muscles lining his torso, shoulders, and arms. Shane doesn’t have an ounce of flab and it’s natural for him from living in the wilds of Alaska. My hands run over the baby-fine hair on his chest that travels south to his magnificent organ that’s gone rigid in his jeans. He always responds to me, and I love it.

  I unbutton his jeans to pull them down and caress his stiff cock with my mouth. Hearing him groan excites me further. Having sex with him is familiar and relaxed. We don’t have to work at it. Everything feels right about it.

  He tugs at my shirt to get it off. “I like you naked best. I don’t really care about the fancy underwear.”

  I smack his delectably hard chest. “You’re such a guy.”

  “Aren’t you glad.” Shane throws me underneath. “I’m tired of you fucking around when we should be getting down to business.”

  “I thought your leg hurt?”

  “It does, but I need you now.”

  His lips assault me, and despite his injuries, he slowly tongues me from my chin down my neck and between my breasts. It blazes a trail of fire everywhere his tongue contacts my skin.

  “You like that?” he teases.

  “You know I do.” I think about my virginal sister, and how I want her to not give into guys like I did. “Shane?”

  His tongue slides around one nipple and gives it a tug, spurring a jolt of electricity in my center and racing between my thighs. “Yes, princess.”

  “Do you think I’ve slept with too many guys?”

  He stops and presses his chest against my breasts begging for his gentle caress. “I don’t care what your past is, Cyn. I only care about our future.”

  I’m not exactly the best influence for Willa. “Are you sure?”

  He chuckles. “Yes, princess.”

  “I’d be happy anywhere you are.” And I know that’s true.

  He licks my breast while teething the nipple. It rouses every erogenous spot on my body. “Can we get back to fucking? I’d say anything to get into your skirt.”

  It almost crushes me until I see his teasing expression. I’m normally sensitive, but hell, I’ve had a rough time lately. “So you were making that up? You aren’t going to take me shopping?”

  “Cyn, I would’ve done anything when you turned eighteen to get you permanently into my bed. I honestly love you the way you are and all your flaws. I’m just glad you’ve finally can overlook mine.”

  “You’re perfect, Shane. I was just blind and stupid. And what flaws do I have?” I don’t know why I feel insecure. I never have before. Is it because I’ve lost so much?

  He smiles, and it lights up his beautiful eyes. “Nothing I’d ever worry about. No one’s perfect, princess.”

  His tongue continues its journey south, stopping at each hip for a long kiss. I wiggle from the intense sensation tickling my pelvis.

  His nose dives into my mound, and he licks the nub, toying with it and firing the sensitive nerves. I squeeze my eyes shut and moan. When he sucks hard on the sensitive skin, I buck into his mouth.

  “Do you like?” He messes with me.

  “You know it. Don’t stop.” I’m so lucky to have him.

  His mouth moves away while I was on the brink of orgasm. “Then I’m going to stop.”

  “Please don’t,” I almost cry, my pussy thumping like a dog’s tail.

  Shane finishes kicking off his jeans and boxers, and Secretariat springs free. From the hard planes of his chest and abs to his sculpted arms and legs, he is all male. I will never tire of looking at this man naked. I love the sexy trail of hair leading to his extended cock, and I like that he trims the hair surrounding it. I even like the two-day growth of beard that fully covers his strong jaw.

  He doesn’t even wait but pushes inside me, stretching and filling me and reaching for that elusive G-spot. When it hits, my body trembles and my sex squeezes hold of his hard length. I’m so close to nirvana. He thrusts into me, and my on-the-brink orgasm buzzes deep inside me. I come so hard that it feels like it’s splitting me in two.

  Shane keeps grinding inside me, buried up to the hilt. My drenched pussy ekes out another wave of spasms until my body is wiped out. Before Shane, no man had gotten me off, but Shane knows exactly how to set me on fire.

  He keeps slamming into me, and my pussy ramps up for a third time. While it contracts, he releases deep inside of me, but that doesn’t stop him. He keeps going, and my poor pussy is shaking from the intense pleasure. It feels so good it hurts.

  Sweat from his toned body drips onto me. It’s funny how he works up a sweat easily, yet it has to be really humid hot for me to perspire. I love the salty tang of him.

  Shane withdraws from me, goes to the bathroom, his cock hanging down his thigh, and returns with a damp towel. He wipes his semen from my butt and pussy and then hops into bed where his strong arms pull me into him.

  “I can’t wait to look at that file you converted,” he says, his nose burying into my long dark hair.

  “I want our lives to be simple,” I say, my fingers finding his long cock.

  He groans out his pleasure. “If you keep doing that, we’ll go another night without sleep, and I really need mine.”

  I kiss him hard, worried about what’s next. Other than the files, why would the men stealing from Shane want me? I don’t have any money, not anymore.

  Chapter Shane

  I’m a nervous wreck. I don’t trust Juarez and being shot at by an unknown assailant doesn’t help, though I’m pretty sure I hit one of the men shooting at us. According to Timmons though, no blood was found at the scene other than mine, so the only lead is an unmarked Escalade, which are both owned by serious businessmen and drug lords.

  I wait for Cyn to roll out of bed, so we can go to work together. I can’t leave her alone.

  Willa is C
yn’s weak spot. If anyone wanted to get to Cyn, he’d use Willa, and she can’t carry a gun to school.

  On our way into work, Cyn and I drop Willa off at school.

  “Why don’t you let me pick you up?” I ask Willa as she gets out of the truck.

  Her normally cheery expression appears tainted from yesterday. Killing has changed her. Cyn is stronger than Willa, and killing Loki empowered Cyn. She was my pampered princess but showed her impregnable strength trekking across the Alaskan Interior. Killing Manny seems to have broken Willa.

  “It’s okay,” Willa says, sadness crinkling her pretty dark eyes. She looks a lot like Cyn, except Cyn loves clothes and Willa is more comfortable in sweats or jeans. She’s a sweet kid. “Aedan is picking me up. Do you think it’s weird that the studio hired him back? They know he likes me.”

  “The studio probably had a hard time finding a qualified videographer,” Cyn says. “We will pick you up, Willa, not Aedan.”

  I don’t argue with Cyn because we should keep Willa close after the Escalade tried to run Cyn down. I’m on high alert and find everything suspicious. It does seem odd that the studio fired and rehired him.

  When we drive into the covered parking at my office building, I search for any black Escalades. There are none, but that doesn’t set me at ease. Our attackers could drive any vehicle.

  With one hand on my gun, I guide Cyn upstairs. The office is quiet because many of my programmers aren’t morning people. I don’t keep track of their time because they work really hard. I like all my employees, but one of them added this rogue software and opened the port on our server. I have to find him or her before Cyn gets hurt.

  She digs through the files in my office.

  “This is the one I converted,” she says, her voice low and shaky.

  I open the file she modified and search through the account numbers. “Fuck,” I mutter.

  Her hand squeezes my thigh, and for a moment, my concentration is shot. “What?”

  “These top three accounts belong to me. We need to scrub the file we don’t want to hand over and give the rest of them to the feds.”

  Over the next few hours, I convert the rest of the files and find bank accounts all over the world. After making copies of the files, I look up the names of the banks and their locations. Cyn works with me until all the files are translated into English.