“No,” he whispered, tugging my hand away from his pants. “Not yet.”
“I want to touch you,” I whispered.
He didn’t answer. He just stole my lips again, making them his.
I rolled into him, pressing my body into his as I took a position on his chest. His arms both slid around me, both his hands sneaking under the back of my panties. I adjusted myself and pressed my clit against the swelling in his jeans.
Damn, it felt good!
We kissed for a long few moments, our tongues dancing. I rocked my hips, pressing myself hard against him, loving the feel of it, loving the feel of him. I wanted him inside of me and I could feel just how much he wanted me. And I wasn’t going to take no for an answer again.
I reached between our bodies, unsnapped the top of his jeans. I could feel him watching me as I sat up a little, giving myself better access. His hands were on my hips now, and one moved to help me move his inconvenient clothing out of the way. I’d forgotten about my own cock-blocking piece of clothing until his shaft was in my hand and I was trying to guide him inside. He groaned as he hooked his fingers under the front of my panties and yanked. They tore away as if they were made of paper, these thirty-dollar panties that were supposed to be of the highest quality. But I didn’t really care at the moment. I was so desperate for the feel him inside of me that I was just grateful to have the damn things out of the way.
And then…oh, my God!
I sat up straight as he slid inside of me, rolling my head back, my eyes closed even as they rolled back in their sockets. I can’t remember a time when anything felt as good as that moment felt. I couldn’t imagine anything better, until his hands moved over my belly and he pressed his thumbs hard against my clit. I thought I might scream…the pleasure was that overwhelming, that powerful. It was pure heaven.
I sat still for a few moments, trying to catch my breath. He wiggled his hips a couple of times, reminding me he was still there. But how could I possibly forget?
I pressed my hands to his chest and began to rock my hips, grinding myself against him, and then raising my hips in small increments, experimenting with different angles, different movements. When I found one that touched all the right things deep inside of me, I stuck with it, moving into a steady rhythm that made his breath quicken and brought tiny little moans from his lips.
It wasn’t long before I felt the familiar tightness that I knew was the beginning of that wave of pleasure everyone wants to ride. Too fast. I wanted it to last forever; I wanted to feel him inside of me for so much longer. But it was coming fast, and there was nothing I could do to slow it down. And when it hit, there was no stopping the sounds that slipped from my lips. My muscles convulsed, my body tugging at him until he couldn’t jump out of the way. I was barely aware of his body writhing and stiffening under me. And then he was riding the same wave, filling me quickly and confidently, his two-year dry spell officially over.
Chapter 8
David
“I think it’s someone from her past. Someone trying to frighten her.”
Ash nodded, his eyes on the coffee cup in his hands. He was leaning against the wall by that long, narrow window where Ricki spent so much of her time yesterday, dressed—as always—like a soldier on leave. Ash was somewhat averse to wearing suits. He always had been despite my suggestion that it might impress clients more if he tried to adhere to something of a dress code. But he liked his jeans and t-shirts, as did his operatives. The only person at the office, besides Rose, who ever attempted to dress appropriately was Joss. And Kirkland, if you could call his penchant for silk shirts appropriate workplace attire.
“Do we have any idea who?”
“I asked her to provide us with a list of the hackers she worked with back in the day,” I said, pushing myself back from the workstation where I was sitting. “She’s supposed to give it to me today.”
Ash’s eyebrows rose. “You say that like it was twenty years ago, or something.”
“More like five. But in terms of technology, it might as well have been twenty years ago.”
Ash shook his head, clearly amused by the idea. “Did you find anything specific in her computer system?”
“I found the hole where the hacker got in. And I found a pile of personal information about her clients that someone had stashed in the back of the server.”
“What?”
“Someone moved information around, like they were trying to convince her there’d been a real breach without actually compromising any client information.”
“That would suggest someone was trying to ruin her reputation, or drive the cost of her stock down.”
“It depends on the motivation. Either way, it looks like someone’s determined to hurt her.”
“Were you able to plug up the hole?”
I nodded. “And I installed our security package on her server so that if someone tries again, I can watch and see what they do.”
“Good.”
Ash pushed away from the wall and walked toward me, sitting on the edge of the desk with his legs sprawled in front of him so that I could wheel around him.
“You didn’t come back to the compound last night.”
I’d been waiting for him to address that. I had my own cottage and, supposedly, I was allowed to come and go as I pleased. But I knew Ash kept tabs on me. He just couldn’t stop being the big brother.
“She has an apartment upstairs. She let me sleep on her couch.”
“Yeah?”
“We worked late. It just made sense.”
Ash studied my face for a long moment, then simply nodded.
“We need you back at the compound. Joss is in position with her new client and we need you to monitor the security cameras.”
“Okay.”
“But first…”
He gestured toward the door as he climbed to his feet. I followed him down the hall to Ricki’s office. She was sitting behind her desk, the phone to her ear and her eyes glued to the computer monitor. I watched her, just as I’d watched her in the dark of her bedroom last night, wondering if it was pity that brought her to invite me into her bed or if it was something else. She was so beautiful, so different from the type of woman I’d been attracted to before the accident. I’d liked them tall then, sturdy. Capable of the sort of rough sex I particularly enjoyed. Delicate women just didn’t do it for me.
But, really, there wasn’t anything delicate about Ricki. She was as tough as they came—despite the misleading reality of her appearance.
She’d fallen asleep afterward, curled up against my chest. I watched her for a long time before I finally slipped away, redressing and rolling myself out of her room as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to fall asleep and have her wake in the morning, ashamed of what she’d done. So I came back downstairs, stealing a few hours of sleep on the narrow couch in the reception area before returning to my work.
Ricki finished her call and looked up, her eyes just skimming over Ash before coming to rest on my face. I couldn’t really read her expression, and I think that worried me more than if she’d looked at me with shame written all over her face. Or regret. Or anger. Or even disappointment.
“David found a few things we should probably talk about,” Ash said, jumping right into the meeting without seeming to notice the look that passed between Ricki and I. “He thinks that someone from your past might be targeting you, trying to undermine your corporation.”
“We discussed that last night,” she said, her voice quiet and steady. “I’ve made a list of the hackers I can remember working with before I began Friend or Foe.”
“Good,” Ash said, taking the list she offered. “David can go over this and do background checks to see if anyone sticks out.”
Ash handed me the list and I perused it quickly. They began talking about something else, something about what Donovan had noticed about her techs downstairs.
I interrupted.
“Arabelle Murphy isn’t on this list.
”
Ricki’s eyes flashed as they fell on me again. There was definitely no mask to hide behind this time, no hiding her emotions. She was quite simply displeased with me and my knowledge.
“Who’s Arabelle Murphy?” Ash asked.
I waited for Ricki to respond, but she didn’t. So I began to explain, watching her for any sign that I was getting it wrong.
“Arabelle was Ms. Dennison’s partner back when they were both hackers. They went to college together. Correct?”
Ricki shrugged. “You seem to know my life history. You tell me.”
“They were classmates, met in an advanced programming class. They were also given internships at the same company after graduation, so they got an apartment together in Chicago. When Arabelle got involved in hacking and with the hacker community, she brought Ricki along with her. If not for Arabelle, Ricki would probably still be working for someone else rather than running her own corporation.”
Ricki inclined her head. “You know a lot about me.”
“My brother worked for the FBI for some time, tracking hackers who liked to break into federal computer systems,” Ash said.
Something flashed in Ricki’s eyes then, but she didn’t say anything.
“Why isn’t Arabelle on this list?” I asked Ricki.
She shrugged. “I don’t think of Belle as a threat. She was arrested about the time I got out, tried on cybercrimes, but she was acquitted. Last I heard she’d settled down and got married.”
“You’re not in contact anymore?”
Her eyes darkened as she shifted, turning her face away so that I couldn’t read her expression. “No,” she said quite simply.
“We should probably still check her out,” Ash said, focusing on me.
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I also knew there were a few other names missing from this list. Mine included.
Ricki and I had a long, rich history, but I’m not sure she’d connected the dots just yet. If she had, last night never would have happened.
I was the reason her friend, Arabelle, was arrested five years ago. How would she look at me if she knew that?
“Donovan will stay undercover in your IT department for another week or two. We’ll reassess as we go along, see where we stand. But David’s finished with your system, so I’m taking him back to the compound when our meeting’s over, if that’s okay with you.”
Ricki nodded. “You found the breach, then?”
I watched her watching me. She was once again the cold CEO, all emotion gone from her expressive eyes.
“Whoever it was, gathered a bunch of information on your clients and stashed it in the code where it was unlikely to be found but could be easily accessed with another breach. I think whoever’s doing this was hoping for some sort of reaction from you. I’m not sure what, exactly.”
“But nothing was leaked?”
“Not that I can tell.”
“What have you done to keep that from happening?”
“I closed the backdoor where they were getting in and, to be on the safe side, I installed a security program we use on our own computers that will alert me to any attempt a hacker might make to get into the system again.”
“Alert you? Does that mean my system is still vulnerable?”
“Every system is vulnerable. You should know that better than anyone.”
She inclined her head slightly.
“But this program allows me to watch and act should someone attempt to break in again.”
“Will we be able to figure out who it is if that happens?”
“We should.”
“Good.”
She seemed satisfied by that information. She turned back to Ash, asked about Donovan again, dismissing me in a way that felt final. I turned away, rolling my chair toward the door where I parked and waited. I wasn’t sure I understood her attitude. I mean, I didn’t think last night was the beginning of some big romance, but I hadn’t expected to be dismissed so easily, either. Maybe it was my ego. I’d been the one to do the dismissing when I was healthy. When I could walk. But now…I guess this chair made me feel vulnerable in more than one way.
When their conversation was finished, we headed out without any fanfare. Ash had driven his personal car, a low Mercedes that was too much like the Mercedes I’d crashed that night in Austin for comfort. I balked as we approached it, not really in a hurry to get into it. But I wasn’t all that anxious to stay behind, either.
“I thought maybe we’d run by the doctor’s office while we’re in town.”
I turned my chair around and headed for the sidewalk.
“Where are you going?”
“I can’t imagine it would take more than four or five hours to roll myself home.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
“Don’t be patronizing.”
Ash rushed to catch up with me, stepping in front of my chair to make me stop. He grabbed the armrests and leaned down, getting as close to my face as he could. “You may like to think that the world revolves around you and your choices, but it really doesn’t. This isn’t only about you, brother.”
“Then what is it about?”
“I lost Mom and Dad, too, David.”
“But you weren’t the one driving.”
The cold truth lay between us like a block of ice. He stared at me, the same green eyes I often saw in the mirror staring down at me, filled with the same pain and hurt and grief that I saw in my own. But Ash’s grief was mixed with something else, with the disappearance of his fiancée, Alexi. He was used to losing friends over there in Afghanistan. But to lose three people to whom he was so incredibly close? Maybe I should have a little more mercy on him.
But I’d lost a lot with that accident, too.
“It was an accident, David,” Ash said softly. “You couldn’t have seen that patch of black ice.”
“No. But I should have been able to pull the car out of that spin.”
“Why? Because you’re some sort of superhero?”
I pushed at his arm, trying to force him to let me go. But it didn’t do me any good. Despite the muscles I’d built in my arms from the work this chair created, Ash had always been bigger than I. He’d always been the epitome of the big brother. I couldn’t get him to budge.
“You don’t get it, Ash. You weren’t there.”
“No, I wasn’t. And I regret that. I should have been there. But that doesn’t change the facts of the accident.”
I didn’t agree. It had never been an accident in my mind. It was negligence on my part. I should have had better control. I should have stopped him from…I should have just stopped it from happening.
“Go to the doctor,” Ash almost begged. “Please. Let them look at you, look at the MRI.”
“I’m not going to change my mind.”
“You don’t know that. And it would be best to have a current set of films on record if you do.”
I started to shake my head again, but Ash wasn’t taking no for an answer. He moved around behind me and grabbed my chair before I could say a word. He was stronger than me. I couldn’t have stopped the forward motion if I had wanted to.
I was going to the doctor.
Chapter 9
David
I don’t particularly like small spaces. Lying in an MRI machine was like lying inside of a crushed soda can…with some kid slamming a stick against the sides of it in a rhythmic motion that was more than grating on the nerves. It took every ounce of control I had to keep from screaming.
“You okay in there, Mr. Grayson?” a feminine voice called to me over a scratchy intercom.
“Fine,” I mumbled.
But I wasn’t fine. I wanted out of there.
I closed my eyes and starting writing code in my head. That was how I got through this ordeal the last dozen so times they’d done it. But Ricki’s face began to seep in, breaking my concentration. More specifically, Ricki’s face last night as she straddled my hips, pleasuring herself on my…okay, maybe that
wasn’t the best thing to be thinking about when all I was wearing was a thin hospital gown. I didn’t want to shock the poor technician watching me from behind her window.
But I couldn’t help but think of Ricki and the way she was this morning. Was she angry with me for leaving without saying anything? Maybe she’d expected me to cuddle with her this morning, or maybe she’d hoped for another round of what’d happened last night?
I didn’t know what this was. I wasn’t even sure I should be questioning it. In fact, I was pretty sure I should simply be happy it’d happened.
And I was.
After all this time, after Abigail left me, after all the nights I sat at my workstation and watched Kirkland sweet talk one scared client after another into bed and all the clients who came onto Donovan that he graciously, if sometimes a little belatedly, declined, and then when Donovan was working that case with Kate and he thought I couldn’t see into the bathroom…I was glad that I was the one sharing a bed with a beautiful woman for once. For once, I wasn’t the nerd sitting in his wheelchair behind the bank of computer monitors, watching instead of doing. I was charming enough and hot enough to get a client into bed.
Well, maybe not charming. She handled most of the seduction.
At any rate, it would be a memory I wouldn’t soon forget.
“Okay, Mr. Grayson,” the technician called, “we’re done. We’ll bring you out now.”
I felt the machine began to move underneath me and then the technician was beside me, holding out a hand to help me sit up. I took it, pulling myself up before I quickly let go and helped myself into my chair. She watched, an almost hurt expression on her face.
“I like to do for myself as much as possible,” I said.
DAVID: A Standalone Romance (Gray Wolf Security) Page 5