by Meghan March
But the biggest question was—what am I going to do about it tonight?
My time for evaluating anything was gone because we’d reached the gate and Rhett had stopped next to the keypad mounted outside.
“Code?”
Oh, good grief. I changed the code to every place as soon as I got there . . . and this one was embarrassing.
I rattled off “111723” and Rhett punched it in. It wasn’t until the gate closed behind us that he spoke.
“My birthday and football number.”
Everything inside me cringed. Dammit, sometimes I forgot he was a good detective.
“Coincidence, Ari?”
I looked over at him and focused on my words. “Complete coincidence.”
“Your eyebrow just twitched.”
15
Rhett
Get her inside. Do not fuck her. And for the love of God, don’t blow your load in your pants like a kid on his first date.
Before I could let this go any further, I had to clear it with Heath. Otherwise, I’d feel like shit.
Although I had my self-imposed marching orders, I doubted my confidence to stick to them as I parked under the porte cochere and hopped out of the Jeep. Ari had her door open by the time I got there, her legs stretching for the ground and looking longer than ever in that short skirt. It wasn’t the first time I was glad my Jeep had those six extra inches of height on it.
I reached out to grab her but she jumped at the same time, stumbling forward when her feet connected with the ground. My outstretched hands connected with her perfect tits.
Christ. I had no doubt they were one hundred percent perfect based on how damn good they felt in my hands. Instinctively, my fingers closed around them, and the nipples hardened against my palms.
My dick flexed against the zipper of my jeans like it was testing just how tricky it would be to find its way out and into the woman I’d never been able to admit I wanted.
Until now.
The expression on Ari’s face was priceless when she realized I was holding her up by her tits.
“Steady there.” I slowly positioned her upright and released my grip, even though I didn’t want to.
When she wobbled on her heels, I grasped her around the waist this time, not able to talk myself into breaking contact completely.
“You’re bossy all of a sudden.”
A smile slid over my lips, tugging one corner up. “I’ve always been bossy. You just never realized it.”
Her eyes widened, telling me she put it together in the context I meant. Heat crept up Ari’s cheeks, and there was nothing I wanted to do more than bury my hands in her hair and kiss her again. But that would be dangerous, considering we were within sprinting distance of her bed.
And I meant what I’d said—I wouldn’t go down this road without clearing it with Heath first. Sure, Ari was a grown woman and made her own decisions, but loyalty and friendship were concepts I valued.
Apparently, Ari wasn’t willing to be patient. Her hands moved from my shoulders to my neck, pulling my mouth down to hers.
Wait, did it count if I wasn’t kissing her, but she kissed me?
Loophole. This is what those fucking lawyers would call a loophole.
As soon as her lips pressed against mine and she took the lead, all thought left my head except how damn good she felt.
Ari moaned against my mouth, rocking her hips against my erection.
I was going to hell. My hands dropped from her waist to grip her hips, and when her tongue stole inside my mouth, I pushed her skirt up to her waist and squeezed my next favorite spot—her ass.
She bucked into me, tugging hard on my hair as she lifted a leg and wrapped it around my hip for more contact just like she had at the bar. I’d been two seconds from laying her out on the pool table and fucking her in front of an audience then, and now that there wasn’t one . . .
My fingers slid when she moved, and before I could draw them back, they swept across the wet panties covering her pussy.
Fuck. Me.
Ari was drenched, just like she was always meant to be for me.
One move, that’s all it would take to bury a finger inside her. I rubbed along the soaked lace as Ari moaned into my mouth, urging me on.
One finger slipped under the fabric—seconds away from finding heaven—when the front gate opened and headlights cut through the darkness before they came down the driveway.
Ari either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because she was still writhing against me. There was no way in hell I was going to let Carver see her like this, though, and I was pretty sure she’d agree.
I pulled my mouth away from hers. “We gotta stop.”
“But—”
“Company.”
As soon as the word was out, Ari jerked back, dropping her leg and shoving down her skirt. “Shit. Carver. I forgot.”
One of the garage doors opened, and as the car turned, the beams cut across us.
There was no way Carver could miss Ari’s wild hair or flushed face, so I took charge. “I gotta get the hell out of here before we do something we might both regret in the morning.”
Ari shrank back from me, but I was too preoccupied with getting her inside to notice. As soon as we stepped into the gargantuan house, she crossed her arms over her chest again, but this time, there was nothing seductive about it. All that delicious heat and intensity was missing.
“You can go. I’m fine.”
“Ari—”
“I would hate for you to make a mistake you’d regret in the morning.”
Fuck. “That wasn’t what I—”
“Just so you know, I don’t require my brother’s permission to do anything.”
“And what happened with the boyfriend? Is it really over this time?”
My question came out of nowhere, and Ari sucked in a breath before narrowing her gaze.
“Not that it’s any of your damn business—”
“My hands all over that sweet body of yours says it is my business.”
She bristled. “He cheated on me. I saw the pictures. Heath had them. Of course it’s over for good this time. I do have some self-respect, you know.” As the anger faded, her vulnerability broke through.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” I pulled her into my arms, and she didn’t resist. “So damn sorry.”
She sniffled, and I wanted to wipe that dick off the planet for causing her a single moment of pain. “I should’ve done it a long time ago, then I wouldn’t have had to go through that awesomely humiliating experience with my brother. I called him after I left Heath’s and confronted him about the pictures.”
“What’d he say?”
She stiffened in my arms, and I loosened my grip so I could see her face. The expression on it gutted me, but morphed into rage before I could say anything else.
“He told me that they were none of my concern.”
What a fucking asshole. I kept the comment to myself.
“So I very politely explained that he was right, it wasn’t any of my concern because I was done with him, and I would appreciate it if he never contacted me again.”
A wave of approval surged through me, and I swiped a thumb along her cheek to catch the couple of tears she’d let fall. “Way to stand up for yourself.”
Ari lifted her chin, and I could practically see her armor closing over her emotions. “Thank you. Now I hope you’ll understand why I’m asking you to go before I say something I won’t be able to take back because I’m frustrated. I refuse to be anyone’s mistake. If anything, I’m a goddamned privilege.”
Only Ari could make me smile while throwing me out of her house.
She’s always been special, and this is more proof.
“I’ll go, but I’ll be seeing you tomorrow. And just so we’re all clear, I’m going to see your brother first.”
The promise in my words made her eyebrow shoot upward. “Is that so?”
“Damn right.” I turned for the
door.
“Good night, Rhett.”
I paused with my hand on the knob. “Tomorrow, Red.”
16
Ariel
It took me hours to fall asleep with Rhett’s words ringing in my head, so when my phone went off at three o’clock in the morning, I wanted to crush the SIM card and go back to bed. But instinct, and a healthy dose of fear, had me grabbing it.
“Hello?”
“We just had an attempted hacking incident.” The voice on the other end was one of my assistants, Erik.
I shot up in bed, fumbling for the light switch to turn on the nightstand lamp. “What? Did they breach? Wait, you said attempted.”
Esme’s voice joined the call. “They made it past the second firewall before the threat was contained and our adaptive security measures crushed them like the little roaches they are.” She had always been more bloodthirsty than Erik, so her comment didn’t surprise me.
“They got through the second?” I sounded like a demented parrot with my repetition, but shock had me fumbling for coherent thoughts.
“Yes, through the second,” Erik confirmed.
“What the hell?”
“That’s what I said. No one has been able to get that far since you designed this system.” This came from Esme.
“Who was it?”
I didn’t bother to ask if they were able to trace it because it would be an insult. My team was good. I wouldn’t have hired them if they hadn’t been kicked out of Stanford for some creative grade switching, also known as hacking into student files and failing three guys on the swim team who wouldn’t stop harassing a friend of theirs. They were expelled, black marks solidly placed on their record, with no chance of getting a decent job with most companies.
Except mine. I appreciated their sense of justice and creativity.
“Some idiot savant in Miami who didn’t know how to cover his tracks well enough to hide from me.”
“Get a name, get the information. Find out everything you can to determine why we were targeted.”
“It might be another punk just trying to prove himself, you know? We’ve got a reputation as being impenetrable because of your genius brain, which makes us a big, beautiful target.”
Esme had a point. By being virtually hack-proof, there was always an idiot out to test his skills against my security. So far, we’d napalmed anyone who had gotten past the first barriers, and this jerk-face would be no different. But it did worry me that he’d gotten further than most.
I took a deep, calming breath, inhaling the lavender diffusing at my bedside. Look for the opportunity when presented with a problem. That was how I’d built an incredibly successful business, and I wouldn’t let emotion get in the way here.
“This just means I need to get more creative and do some tweaking. It’s time to adapt and change, something I’ve clearly been neglecting this week.”
Normally, I updated my security protocols at least twice a week, but since being back in New Orleans, my schedule was off. It proved, once again, that complacency represented weakness.
While I had one big glaring weakness in my personal life who’d left me needing to take care of business myself tonight, I didn’t have them in my professional life.
Immediately, my mind went to Carlos. Had he hired the hacker out of spite? Just to prove to me I wasn’t as good as I thought I was?
Even though the possibility burned, I voiced it. “Check for any connection between the idiot savant and Carlos.”
“Really? Why would he want to . . .” Erik’s question trailed off.
“I dumped his cheating ass today. Cut all ties. Maybe this is his way of telling me that he didn’t like my methods.”
“You go, girl! I never liked that douchebag.” Esme’s response was quick and to the point.
“And you never mentioned this because?” It came as a little bit of a surprise that she hadn’t shared her opinion sooner. Esme was nothing if not assertive.
“Didn’t you notice that I brought you celebratory sushi every time you flipped the switch to off-again mode? And I’m pretty sure I made enough snide comments about that ridiculous Lamborghini he drove to compensate for something he’s obviously lacking.”
Thinking back, I remembered both, but I hadn’t made the connection. “Why didn’t you just come out and say it? You know I don’t pick up on hints. I would’ve listened.”
Erik choked out a laugh. “Ari, no offense, but you’re about as good at taking suggestions on your personal life as you are at tennis.”
Oh, he did not just mention “the incident.”
“That’s not fair.”
The phone went completely silent, telling me they hit Mute so I couldn’t hear them laughing. Assholes.
Nine months ago, the CEO of a very prominent Silicon Valley tech company invited me to play tennis with him as we discussed a potential project we could pursue together. My tennis lessons had stopped when they started costing money the summer after fourth grade, so my skills as an adult were basically shit.
After two days of intense private lessons, I’d convinced myself I was good enough to play a casual match.
I was wrong.
My first serve landed right in his ball sac, and the match was over before it could even start. In a high-pitched voice, the other CEO had said maybe we should have our project managers get together to discuss it instead.
I swore up and down that my serve was no indication of my interest in partnering on the project, but he was too busy icing his balls to listen.
I’d sent a bottle of Macallan and a slow-thawing ice pack I’d invented years ago after a bike accident as an apology, and I hadn’t heard anything from him since.
“You can take the phone off Mute now if you’ve gotten your laughs in . . .” My tone was devoid of humor.
Esme and Erik’s chuckles immediately became audible.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to think about that without laughing, Ari,” Esme said. “I’m just putting that out there in case you need to fire me now.”
“I have a buddy who works there who said he still shields his balls whenever someone makes a sudden move in his direction.” Erik’s words were barely understandable through the giggles.
“Are you cry-laughing? I swear to God, Erik.”
“I’ll stop. I promise.”
“Moving on. I’ll dig into the security issue as soon as we’re off the phone. It’s not like I was getting much sleep tonight anyway.”
“Oh, really? Why is that?” Esme didn’t bother to hide the interest in her tone.
“I’ll give you one guess.”
My assistants were no strangers to the history surrounding my ridiculous crush on Rhett. Heath had taken care of that a few visits ago when we went out for dinner and drinks, and all the stories came out.
“No way!” Esme yelled. I could picture her doing a fist pump.
“What happened?” Erik asked.
“He kissed me. Or maybe I kissed him. I don’t know. There was kissing.”
“Eeep!”
I swore I heard them trade a high-five.
“This is huge,” Esme said.
“I want to know what else is huge,” Erik added. “Wait, I take that back. I don’t want to know. Forget I said anything.”
Rather than reprimand him as would probably be more appropriate in this situation, I let it slide. I didn’t have a normal employee-employer relationship with these two, and that was the way we worked best.
“He won’t make a real move without my brother’s approval, though.”
“Really? I’m not sure how I feel about that. You’re a grown-ass woman who doesn’t need anyone to give her permission to do anything.”
“Exactly!” I yelled. Esme obviously understood where I was coming from.
“Cut the guy some slack.” Erik took the devil’s advocate position, as always. “He was a cop and all about honor and serving others. Why would he want to do something that he sees as a betrayal
of his friend? He probably shouldn’t have kissed you to begin with, and I bet he’s wrestling with that hard now.” A slap of skin on skin came through the line. “Dammit, Esme, don’t hit me.”
“Then don’t say stupid things.”
“Stop. It’s fine.” I’d played peacemaker between these two often enough to start feeling like their big sister, which was a signal it was time to wrap up this conversation. “I’m jumping off here, and I’m going to spend some quality time with our defenses. Have alpha team attempt entry in the morning. You two can call it a night.”
“You swear you’ll keep us up-to-date on the hot-detective saga?” This came from Erik.
“He’s not a detective anymore, but yes.”
“Stand your ground, Ari. Don’t settle for scraps from this guy just because he’s been your holy grail for fifteen years.”
“Thank you for the reminder. Now, go to bed.”
I hung up before they could give me any more advice, but as soon as the room went silent, I missed their presence. Now I was alone in a big empty house with nothing but work to keep me company.
Story of my life.
17
Rhett
As soon as I left Ari’s, I texted Heath saying I’d dropped her off. His response was a suggestion to meet at our regular place at ten o’clock tomorrow.
Looked like I wouldn’t have to track him down.
How was I going to tell my best friend that I’d manhandled his sister, kissed her, and planned to do a hell of a lot more? I climbed into bed at my hotel a little while later, still without an answer to that question.
When I woke up at seven the next morning and jogged to the gym, I was still coming up empty. Even a punishing workout didn’t knock any ideas loose.
Didn’t matter. I was going after what I wanted. No more sitting on the sidelines. No more allowing life to pass me by.
I rolled up to our regular breakfast spot just beyond the boundaries of the Quarter and decided to wing it. Heath was already inside, a mug of coffee in front of him. Black with two sugars. That was how well I knew the man.