Defended & Desired

by Kristi Avalon

  “We’ll talk later.”

  Stone-faced and silent, Adam stalked out of the conference room. Sorens were notoriously bad losers. Their Viking blood refused to tolerate failure.

  Trey nodded at Liam. “Go do some damage control.”

  “You got it.” Liam followed after his brother.

  The two brothers were tight, closer than Adam and Trey had ever been, or ever would be, for a lot of reasons. Although Trey was only six months older than Adam, they were worlds apart in personality and attitude. Trey needed calm and balance and consistent planning to stay grounded, unlike Adam who thrived in conflict and aggression and chaos. Adam had used those things as outlets to ignore the deeper issues that stemmed from his struggle since childhood with dyslexia.

  The death of Adam and Liam’s father when they were in their teens had cemented Adam’s heart in a block of concrete. Trey, instead, took his own father’s more recent death five years ago as a catalyst for change.

  Adam didn’t buy into change as a positive thing. In fact, his idea of settling into a new city was befriending the local motorcycle gangs. Not the type of people Trey wanted associated with their new aboveboard reputation. Adam had deep ties and attachments to the old way of doing things. He’d fought Trey on this move from the start, as though if he accepted this new business he was betraying the legacy of his father and their family’s bounty hunter roots.

  Regardless of their personal differences, Trey believed Adam would eventually settle in and discover his niche at the company—kicking and screaming all the way, but he would find it. They weren’t going back to their old lives. The sooner Adam accepted that fact, the better off they’d all be.

  Within two hours, the whole building seemed to know what went down in the conference room. Isaac and his fifth-floor sales team already started a bidding war on who’d win the next match. Not exactly the morale-boosting, team-building exercises Trey had envisioned for his company. Though the win earned him a few hearty slaps on the back from his managers. No doubt they wanted their proposals passed, too.

  Employees he recognized but never spoke to directly started coming up to him in the hall or cafeteria, smiling or making small talk. As the gossip mill continued churning all afternoon, he noticed the incident had suddenly made him more approachable, something he’d tried to prompt in the past, but never achieved to the extent he’d wanted.

  Meanwhile, Adam stewed and sulked behind his closed office door. Trey wondered if he’d heard about the attention their stunt received. He didn’t want this to be about who won or lost. Somehow, he had to explain that to his hot-headed cousin.

  At the end of the day, Trey knocked on Adam’s door. After the third knock, he tried the handle. The door was unlocked. He walked in to find the office empty. The disappearing act didn’t bode well for future dealings when he needed his cousin on his side. Adam was family, and Trey genuinely wanted his cousin to do well and build a good life here. It would devastate Trey if Adam picked up, headed back to Las Vegas, and rejoined the treacherous underworld that would eventually get him killed.

  Early the next morning, Trey looked up from his desk to see Devon breezing through his doorway.

  She came to his desk and fanned her face with one hand, batting her eyelashes. “Well, I do declare, what’s this I hear about you redeeming my fragile reputation in a mighty duel?” she asked with a southern belle accent.

  Trey failed to staunch a grin. “Ma’am, it was my duty to defend your honor at all costs. A man does what he has to for the sake of a lady.”

  She dropped the act, setting her hands on her hips. “When I submit a budget proposal in the future, should I expect boulder tossing and pissing contests? Or was this a one-time thing?”

  “Remains to be seen. Adam is…Adam.” He sighed.

  “He needs six weeks of boot camp. That’ll get his attention. It worked for me and my smart mouth.” Her teeth tugged at her glossy lower lip. “Well, mostly.”

  “Considering Adam’s issues with authority, he’d get kicked out on day one.”

  “What’s his problem?”

  “Do you have three hours?”

  “No, and neither do you. I want to show you something.” She paused, staring past his shoulder at the floor. “Is that your girlfriend’s yoga mat?”

  He noticed the frosty nip in her voice and experienced a wave of satisfaction. Especially since she’d shown zero sign of being affected by his kiss the day before, which had bothered him. He wanted some sort of response. He wanted her affected. Damn it, he wanted her period. Her kisses, her throaty moans, her smile and humor. He didn’t care that she worked for him. He wanted to explore a relationship with her, and taste more of her kisses. “No girlfriend. The mat’s mine.”

  Her expression relaxed. “Really?”

  “Yoga is an intense workout for the mind and body.” Not that he’d had much time to devote to the practice lately. Another reason he’d stooped to arm wrestling Adam. Trey needed intense physical outlets, too. He just didn’t resort to the ones Adam preferred. Except maybe sex. That hadn’t happened lately either.

  He could remedy that with one phone call to his willing ex-fiancé, but he had severed those addictive ties to Jenna geographically and emotionally when he’d moved away from the life he’d purposely left behind. Jenna was as unhealthy to his peace of mind as bounty hunting. Manipulative and conniving, she’d steered him in the wrong direction one too many times. Six months ago, he’d called her anyway and chartered a private jet to Vegas. That night, she’d tried to rope him into another one of her schemes. The next day, he’d fiercely regretted his lapse of judgment. He’d left her bed less satisfied than if he’d maintained his celibacy. He hadn’t told anyone about his secret excursion, not even Cade. His brother had always accused him of being self-destructive when it came to the women he chose, and he hadn’t wanted to see the accusation in Cade’s eyes.

  Devon glanced at the yoga mat again. “I’m not into stretching and contortion. If I’m going to sweat, I’d rather be active and moving around.”

  He glanced at her gorgeous legs and imagined ways they could move around together on his bed.

  “Anyway, when you see what I have to show you, I think you’ll find it interesting,” she said.

  “Okay.” His gaze strayed to her lips.

  “Are you coming or not?” she asked.

  I’d love to, what are you doing for the next forty-five minutes? Instead, he answered, “Right behind you.”

  They rode the elevator to the fourth floor and Devon led him to her office. The marker scrawls covering her whiteboards looked like a roadmap of hell.

  For a minute, he almost felt guilty for pulling the plug. But he definitely didn’t regret what happened after. Kissing Devon had awakened his lust, and he knew his intense attraction to her wasn’t going to fade anytime soon. Devon was brilliant, classy, and completely different from any woman he’d ever dated. Which made him want her even more. He wanted something positive and permanent in his life for a change. An amazing woman to share his success with, who understood and appreciated how hard he worked to make a better life for his family. Something beyond mere lust.

  “Hey, eyes up here, pal.”

  Slowly, he lifted his gaze to lock with hers. “Sorry. Your mouth is distracting.”

  “Thank you.” She shot him a grin that quickly turned into a frown. “But we’re not here to talk about that kiss.”

  “Which one?”

  “Both. Neither.” She threw up her arms. “Stop distracting me.”

  “Now you understand my predicament.”

  Devon grew serious. “We do have a predicament. Or…I do.”

  That gave him pause. “Explain.”

  She gestured for him to stand beside her at her keyboard. “Better if I show you than try to explain it without context.”

  He slid in behind her, leaving less than an inch of space separating their bodies. She smelled delicious, and he loved when she wore her hair swept up i
n a tight twist. The slender arc of her neck tempted him. New jewelry blocked his view or would bar him from lifting his hand and tracing the delicate curve from her neck to her shoulder.

  She bent over her keyboard and entered several keystrokes. “One of my guys isolated a bizarre string of sequences in the hacker’s code.”

  A window popped up on her screen, white text against a black background. “Bizarre, how?”

  “It forms a riddle, sort of a code within a code. It’s something I’ve rarely seen. This guy has mad skill.”

  If she meant “mad” as in “talented psycho,” he was inclined to agree.

  When she pressed the Enter key, an image flooded the screen. A pixilated picture of a black flag with a skull-and-crossbones motif.

  She explained, “There was a guy I met a few years back at a tech convention called DEFCON. Ground zero for the best, elite hackers and programmers in the world. Well, I didn’t meet him, exactly. He hooked up with our group remotely, and together we executed a brilliant hacking strategy that won our team a lucrative military contract.” She swallowed. “He went by the name of Captain Jack.”

  He blinked. “I don’t get it.”

  “Captain Jack Sparrow, from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.”

  “A pirate. Great.” He scowled. “What does this pirate want with you?”

  “That’s the thing. I don’t know.” She hugged her waist. “I’m not sure I want to know. Except he went to a whole lot of trouble to track me down and get my attention.”

  “So it’s is personal.” Trey’s hackles rose and his jaw clenched. Some super nerd had invaded his company, turned his tech department into a war zone, and put Devon in a vulnerable position at the center of his raid. Trey needed to know one thing. “Is this guy dangerous?”

  She shrugged. “Do I think he’ll come after me with an oozie? No, not likely. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of inflicting serious damage.” She paused then gave a decisive nod. “I know what I need to do.”

  Waves of tension traveled over his tight muscles. “I’m listening.”

  “I need to redirect his attention away from the company. I’m planning to set up an interaction with him on my own, at my house, to put his attention on me, not Soren Security.”

  “A sting.”

  “Basically, yes.”

  “I don’t like this,” Trey said darkly. He slashed his hand through the air. “No. Forget it.”

  She stared at him as if “no” was a foul word. “Excuse me?”

  “I won’t let you take unnecessary risks.”

  Her eyes snapped with challenge. “Who are you to forbid me to do anything?”

  “I’m your boss. The guy who signs your paychecks. The man responsible for your safety.”

  “My safety? Since when?”

  Since I started falling for you the day we met. “This is a work-related issue ,” he insisted. “If this guy wants to mess with me and my company, I’ll bring the fight to him. Right beside you.”

  “Trey, I can handle this.”

  “I’m sure you can. But you’re not doing it alone.”

  She crossed her arms. “Okay, I’ll have one of my guys sit in on the exchange.”

  “No. It’s my company. I want to be there.”

  She blinked. “The whole time?”

  “As long as it takes.”

  Suspicion clouded her eyes as she peered at him. “This is way beneath your pay grade and job description.”

  “As an owner of the company, my job description is whatever I make it. I’m overseeing your sting. Don’t fight me on this. You won’t win.” But he would. And while he had her alone, he’d find a way to convince her that the two of them had something between them. Something that deserved exploring.

  “Fine. God, you’re stubborn.” The icy glare she sent him could freeze lava.

  He didn’t care.

  What she’d proposed could go from innocent to dangerous within a few lines of code. This hacker-stalker had crossed a serious line. If the guy went this far to get Devon’s attention, no telling what other ethical or moral lines he’d cross if he caught Devon alone and defenseless.

  Trey operated a bodyguard business—he could sure as hell protect her himself. He’d failed to save his dad. He wouldn’t fail a second time to defend someone who needed him.

  He glanced at his watch. “When should I be at your place?”

  “Whoa, easy there tiger. This kind of thing takes time.”

  “The sooner we drag him out of his geek hole and into the open, the better.”

  She rubbed her temples. “I guess I could have my home system ready to trace him by tomorrow night.”

  “Do you need tomorrow off? Consider it done.”

  She set her hands on her hips. “I’m up to my eyeballs in support tickets that need to be addressed before the weekend. A Friday off isn’t happening anytime soon.”

  “Let me know if you need my help.” Protective concern clenched in his gut. “I mean it. Anything.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb.

  “I can handle myself,” she murmured, her gaze softening at his touch. When she leaned in, he couldn’t resist tracing the edge of her lower lip with his thumb. Her breath quickened. Her lips parted. He edged closer, needing to taste her, needing to—

  She froze, blinked, and retreated. With regret, Trey let his hand fall to his side. “I’ll see you tomorrow night, then.”

  “Sure.” She lifted a shoulder as if she didn’t care one way or another.

  He wondered why she pretended their mutual attraction didn’t ping-pong in the air between them whenever they were in a room together. The way she couldn’t meet his eyes was a dead giveaway. For a woman so in control, she wore her emotions surprisingly close to the surface. At least around him. From the looks of it, maybe he had affected her. The notion gave him a shot of encouragement. Being in close quarters at her house all evening on a Friday night resembled a date. Maybe the closest he’d get to one without asking her and giving her the chance refuse him.

  When it came to Devon, he wouldn’t be denied.

  *

  Devon cringed as sticky little hands clung to her skirt.

  “Up! Up!” Sammy hollered with a popsicle-stained grin.

  Devon scooped up her friend Allison’s baby boy, who patted her cheeks and blew her a kiss. She melted under his innocent charm. “If you’re trying to win me over, kiddo, you already succeeded. The day you were born.”

  “Hang on, Devon. I’ll be right there,” Allison promised from across the kitchen, then continued her distracted phone call with a caterer.

  Devon carried Sammy from the kitchen to the sprawling great room. She glanced at the toys scattered on the floor, wondering what to do with him. She’d been an only child and had few interactions with small children. She was terrified that if she accidentally dropped him, he’d break.

  Bouncing Sammy against her hip, she went to the two-story windows that overlooked the Stone family’s beautifully manicured acreage. Their new in-ground pool was nearly complete, just in time for the hottest days of summer. She pointed at the birds winging from branch to branch in the Japanese maple tree. “Can you say Blue Jay?”

  “Boo. Boo-da. Boo-day,” he mimicked.

  “Not bad.” She tapped his nose and smiled. She couldn’t believe he’d turned a year old already. He was getting big, she realized, shifting his weight to her other hip. “Who said you could grow up so fast?”

  He babbled and squirmed, so she took a seat on the large wrap-around couch at the center of the room. She perched him on her knee.

  That lasted about three seconds.

  Sammy squirmed and squealed. Devon gave up her attempt to hold him still. The second his toes touched the floor he was off and running like a miniature daredevil.

  Allison ended her call and intercepted Sammy before he reached Devon’s purse in the foyer. “Sorry about that. Next weekend is Logan’s birthday, and I’ve been trying to work out the menu and
delivery time with the caterer.”

  “You could always bake a pie.” Devon grinned, recalling her friend’s Thanksgiving blunder that nearly ended in a call to the fire department. “Just make sure Sammy’s out of the house first.”

  “Thanks.” Allison narrowed her eyes. “You’re all heart.”

  “Just trying to help.”

  “Yeah, right.” Allison cracked a smile. She plopped Sammy down on the floor, sat cross-legged beside him, and handed him plastic shapes to fit into a box with matching holes. “I haven’t seen you in ages, I’m glad you came by. You said you have news.”

  “So did you.”

  “You go first,” Allison insisted. “I need a few minutes to collect my scattered brain cells. Maybe then I can have a coherent adult conversation.”

  When Sammy tossed several plastic shapes across the room and then crawled around to retrieve them, Devon snorted. “Never a dull moment.”

  “Not a single one. Though I do miss them occasionally.” Allison gave her a verbal nudge. “So?”

  “Well, the opportunity came out of the blue,” Devon admitted. “A recruiter called me several months ago, wondering if I’d be interested in a position at ActionNet. It’s a well-respected company that produces some of the most popular online PvP games in the industry.”

  “Explain in non-tech speak, please.” Allison followed Sammy to another spot on the floor and helped him stack alphabet blocks.

  “Player versus player, involving elaborate gaming scenarios. They have a position open for Director of Development. It’s a little out of my realm of experience, but they said they’ve been interested in my career and skill set for some time. They want me to join their company.”

  “That’s exciting.” Allison sat forward. “What did you tell them?”

  “I had an initial interview three weeks ago, and it went well.” Maybe well was an understatement. She’d nailed the interview, had great rapport with both owners, and the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. They’d all but offered her the position, and she believed they would make the offer concrete when she met with them again. “They called me to set up a second interview sometime in the next week or so, but I’ve been so crazy with the servers going down, I didn’t have a chance to check my schedule and set a firm date to meet with them.”