Wicked Pleasure

by Taryn Leigh Taylor

With another swipe of his thumb, the big door lifted, and Liam parked inside.

  AJ was already out of the Ferrari and three cars away, past the Corvette and the Maserati, staring contemplatively at the vintage Jag, by the time her “host” caught up with her.

  “I thought you were bragging when you said you had a garage full of penis metaphors,” she said.

  His smile slipped out, like he’d forgotten he was mad at her. The sudden white glamour of it was a jolt to the chest. “I was.”

  She nodded, lamenting that his grin disappeared as quickly as it had come. “Well, it’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

  They meandered past the Aston Martin and the Porsche, toward the door that led into the main house.

  “So does that mean you’re not bragging when you talk about your computer prowess and how good you are?”

  Now it was her turn to grin. “Pure fact.”

  Liam looked contemplative at that, tossing the knockoff Shield in the air and catching it, twice, three times, before stowing it away inside his jacket.

  She tipped her chin at where it was hidden. “I can help you solve that problem.”

  “I have an inconvenience, not a problem. The Shield will launch as scheduled. There’s no real value in releasing the knockoff tech until it does, so the worst that happens is that the fakes flood the market a week before they normally would.” He gave a shrug of broad shoulders. “So you can let Max know I’m sorry to disappoint him.”

  Her eyes snapped to his, and Liam frowned at her unwitting confirmation. She swore under her breath.

  “I knew it. I fucking knew it. Of course it would be him.”

  “You think Max did that?” She gestured again to the pocket that hid the knockoff from her view.

  Liam’s eyes were focused just over her head, a slight frown on his handsome face. “Who would want The Shield to fail more than the guy I beat to market?”

  At her continued silence, he finally lowered his gaze. “No, wait.” His face cleared with sudden realization. “That’s not why you came to my party. You were trying to get him proof that I was the one who hacked SecurePay so I could fuck up his launch.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Max doesn’t know I’m here.”

  “So I think Max hacked me, and he thinks I hacked him.”

  They both stood there, facing each other, letting that sink in for a moment.

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “Maybe we can help each other out.”

  “You didn’t seem so into this plan a few minutes ago when it was mine.”

  “Because the game has shifted. This isn’t about trust anymore. It’s about skill. You breached my security, probably would have made it into my bedroom if I hadn’t interrupted you in the hallway, and managed a semi-credible job of hacking my phone with an elegant dupe of my tech.”

  She frowned in refutation of the understatement. “What I did with your tech wasn’t a dupe. It was a fucking revelation.”

  “Well, whatever you call it, now you’re going to use that talent to help me.”

  AJ crossed her arms at his imperious tone. “How do you figure that?”

  “Because until ten seconds ago, my suspect list for this consisted solely of Whitfield Industries. If Max thinks the delay in launching SecurePay because of the hack was costly, wait until he feels the full brunt of me filing an injunction against him so he can prove his innocence in court.”

  This time, AJ managed to keep her expression neutral, but it didn’t lessen the threat.

  Whitfield Industries couldn’t survive another scandal. The media was still having a field day with the fact that Max had ratted out his father to the Feds and his sister, Kaylee, the company’s PR director, had been outed as a burlesque dancer. The family business had been in the news too much lately.

  The last thing they needed was someone else questioning the honesty of their current practices, even if the story didn’t have an ounce of truth. Public confidence would only stretch so far.

  “Somebody leaked the specs for The Shield. That means somebody fucked me over, and I will figure out who did it, even if I have to raze Whitfield Industries to the ground and walk through its ashes to do it. So if you’re so sure this wasn’t Max, it’s in your best interest, and his, for you to aim my retribution at the rightful target.”

  Liam’s voice was thin, like a razor’s edge, and she had no doubt that he meant every word.

  AJ felt the familiar itch she got when she was onto something, when a night full of hacking or code analysis loomed before her, when she got to test her mettle against an opponent and see exactly how she stacked up.

  It was a character flaw, the little thrill she got from doing the wrong thing.

  Her eyes dropped to his mouth.

  And worst of all, she wanted to do him again.

  “So is that a yes?”

  “Okay, here’s how this is going to work. First, I charge double whatever you planned to get around to offering me.”

  “Who says I was going to offer you anything?”

  “Time is of the essence here. You really want to waste time on something we both know is going to happen anyway?”

  Liam conceded with the slightest tip of his chin.

  “Second, I’ll report here every day by noon and—”

  “Deal’s off.”

  AJ scowled at him.

  “You’re not leaving this house. We’re working from here. End of story.”

  His imperiousness raised her hackles. “What do you mean ‘we’? In case it hasn’t become infinitely clear in our short acquaintance, I don’t play well with others. And I always work alone.”

  “Not this time.” Liam motioned at the computer she’d forgotten was in her hands. “You’ve had access to something I have never let anyone see—”

  “Ha!” She sent a derisive glance at his crotch. “Not according to the tabloids.”

  “—and you hacked into my systems once already. You have enough knowledge in that pretty little head of yours to do some serious damage to me...to Cybercore,” he corrected.

  “Awww.” AJ tipped her head and batted her eyelashes in parody. “You think I’m pretty? Well, that just makes everything okay then, doesn’t it?”

  “If you think I’m going to hold the door open and wave while you run back to Max with everything he’d need to destroy my business, you’re delusional.”

  The phrasing, so reminiscent of the story he’d shared about his mother’s abandonment, deflated her anger.

  I stood there at the door and I fucking waved.

  AJ held the computer out to him. “I didn’t poke around in there. And I know you probably don’t believe me, but it wasn’t why I came to the yacht. I was just...” She exhaled. “Sometimes when I feel cornered, I do stupid shit.” She shoved it at him again. “So take it.”

  His hand closed around the edge of the laptop.

  “And fine. I’ll stay,” she relented, before he said something to make her regret what she’d just done. “But I get my own room for the duration of our arrangement. I sleep alone.”

  His nod was sharp.

  Something smug and satisfied spread through AJ’s chest at the realization that he wasn’t a fan of the revised rule number two. Not that she thought he intended to make her his sex slave or anything. It was just a relief to know that this reckless, wicked heat that invaded her blood when he was near wasn’t flowing one way.

  “And lastly, I find our hacker, and Max never knows about me showing up at your party.”

  Liam’s jaw flexed. “Unless I’m right and it turns out that my hacker is Max.”

  “It’s not Max. And I’m serious. If you ever tell him, if you tell anyone, the fires of hell will rain down upon you. I can make that happen. You ruin my life, I’ll ruin yours right back. I am not above mutually assured
destruction.”

  Their silent standoff ended with a brusque nod of his head. “I accept your terms.”

  She extended a hand, and Liam reached for it, but before he could clasp it, AJ drew back. “Wait.”

  They stared at one another.

  “As soon as we shake, things are going to get very complicated.”

  The truth of that settled between them. Because things were already complicated.

  He knew she was affiliated with Max.

  He had the power to make her body hum like a voltage meter.

  He’d already proven himself a cunning adversary. She’d be a fool to take him solely on his word. For the thousandth time, she wished she’d deleted that stupid countdown clock from her phone on the way home and erased Liam Kearney from her thoughts that first night.

  And then, for the thousand-and-first time, her conscience called her a liar.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “I WANT MY phone before we make a deal. And my jacket.”

  Liam shook his head. “Now you’re just adding shit to see how far you can push me. Stop while you’re ahead.”

  “Nonnegotiable. I’m not stepping into this fortress without all of my possessions.” She held out her hand, not for a shake, but with her palm up, mimicking his actions in the car when he’d confiscated it in the first place. “It wasn’t a request.”

  She smirked as she threw his words back in his face.

  Fine, she wanted to push buttons? He could push buttons. He gave her his most patronizing smile. “You could at least ask ni—”

  She grabbed him by the tie, giving it a sharp jerk so that their mouths were inches apart. “I swear to God, if you tell me to ask you nicely, I’ll fuck you up.”

  Her eyes flashed with heat as she stared up at him, the threat hanging between them. He’d missed this, the intensity of her. The crackling heat that always sprang up when she was close.

  “I was totally on board until you added the ‘up.’”

  She swore as she pushed him back against the wall beside the door, crushing her mouth against his, and he pulled her close, trying not to lose his grip on the computer as he hoisted her up his body. Liam groaned as she wrapped her legs around his hips and ran her hands up his chest, winding her arms around his neck.

  It wasn’t enough, and he spun around and pushed her against the wall, reveling in the hitch of her breath as their bodies slammed together with the pressure he craved.

  In response to the rock of his hips, AJ bit his bottom lip, laving the sting with her tongue.

  He’d never felt anything quite like what she did to him.

  He held her, pressed against the wall, staring at her as their breath slowed, as his heart rate returned to normal.

  She unhooked her legs from around his waist, and Liam closed his eyes briefly at the heavenly sensation of her body sliding against his. He stared down at her kiss-stung lips, soft and tempting. He had to take a step back to keep himself from reigniting the flame that licked along his nerve endings, so close to the surface.

  They might have come to a truce, but a quick fuck against the garage wall was just the sort of thing that could burn their uneasy alliance to the ground. He needed to figure out who had sold him out as quickly and efficiently as possible. He had some big military contracts on the line for his new fencing tech, and if word got out that he had a leak, he could kiss them goodbye. And AJ, despite their rather complicated...relationship, was good at what she did. Almost as good as him, and he could use all hands on deck.

  Still, he was relieved that she looked as disoriented as he felt by the hard punch of lust that had just consumed them, and she glanced down at her feet for a moment, as though checking that she was back on solid ground. When she raised those cynical brown eyes, Liam could see that sanity had returned, and it kept him in check. He straightened his tie as he stepped back from her.

  AJ extended her hand. “So we have a deal?”

  “We have a deal,” he confirmed, and for the first time, the buzz of skin-on-skin contact didn’t take him by surprise. He wasn’t sure AJ could say the same, as she pulled her fingers free of their shake with more force than was necessary.

  “Next time give me my phone when I ask,” she said, turning to open the door to his house. There was a phone-shaped item in the back pocket of her jeans as she stepped across the threshold.

  A quick touch revealed that his inside left breast pocket was now empty, a wry smile touching his lips as he followed her inside the house.

  “If you want to head to the library, it’s—”

  “I know where it is.”

  He raised his eyebrows at her certainty.

  “You think I broke into your party without going over the blueprints?” she asked, heading off down the hall. “What am I, an amateur?”

  No. No, she wasn’t. And that made what he was about to do all the more stupid. But The Shield was launching in three weeks, and the more information he had about the knockoff, and the asshole who had leaked the specs, the better he could prepare. He could use her on this.

  “AJ.”

  Her name on his lips stopped her progress, and she turned to face him. He tipped his head in the opposite direction.

  Her brows drew together over sharp eyes. “The stairs through that door only go up.”

  She really did know her stuff. “On the blueprints that were filed with the city they do. What good is a false panel if everyone knows about it?”

  AJ sauntered back toward him, managing to look seductive and superior and far too tempting for his peace of mind. She poked him in the chest as she passed by. “Mansion bowels. I knew it.”

  Liam smiled despite himself.

  “You coming?”

  “I’ll be right there. I’m just going to slip into something more comfortable.”

  She stopped in the doorway to say, “Fair warning—if you show up in a silk robe with an ascot and matching slippers, I’m out of here, our deal be damned,” before she disappeared from sight.

  After he’d changed and grabbed the black leather jacket from the foot of his bed, Liam swung back through the kitchen to grab a couple of bottles of water from the fridge and made his way downstairs to his favorite room in the house.

  A big fireplace, red walls, floor-to-ceiling bookcases accented by a big wood desk and a brown leather couch; it had an old-school vibe that appealed to him. He liked the dichotomy of the classic setting tricked out with the most up-to-date Cybercore-made tech and gadgets.

  AJ looked up from the computer when he entered, and his body was not immune to the once-over she gave his jeans, T-shirt and bare feet.

  “Do I pass inspection?” he asked, dropping her jacket on the back of the couch as he passed.

  “Very man of the people.” She rested her chin in her hand, and the look she gave him was too sweet by half. “I see you’ve been studying the masters.”

  She spun the monitor that displayed his analysis of her party invite hack.

  Liam handed her a bottle of water and set the other one on the desk in front of him. “Okay, don’t choke on those canary feathers.”

  Her crooked smile was in full effect as she leaned back, cracking the seal on the water. “Just savoring a compliment from a hot guy with some mad tech skills.”

  “Nice try, but I won’t be distracted by completely true statements. Did you find anything?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” AJ swallowed a mouthful of water as she recapped the bottle and set it on the desk. “Well, technically, your computer did most of the hard work. The analysis you were running between The Shield and the counterfeit seems to have finished up. Check out that last line of code.”

  Liam circled the work station, bracing one hand on the desk, the other on the back of her chair so he could lean over her shoulder. The familiar scent of her teased his nostrils.

  He
frowned as his eyes scanned the computer screen. “But what does it do?”

  “As far as I can tell, it serves no purpose. But it’s the only thing that distinguishes the knockoff from The Shield. So I figure that’s gotta mean something, right?”

  He hoped so.

  “But as I’m looking at it, trying to figure out why counterfeiters would bother adding this shit, I realized there was something familiar about it. Like I’d seen it before.” She gestured toward the monitor below the one they were looking at, and he dropped his gaze.

  A tingle of recognition flared at the base of his skull. “Same garbage code.”

  “Exactly the same garbage code,” she stressed.

  They grinned at each other, but the moment of discovery was swallowed by something else. Something darker. Hotter. AJ was so close he could feel her breath on his neck. Every part of him ached to kiss her. But if their short acquaintance had taught him anything, it was that he needed to keep a cool head. He wouldn’t give her the power to destroy him again. She was a runner, and this was not a game he could afford to lose.

  Clearing his throat, Liam straightened up. Took a step back. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to tell me this code I’m looking at isn’t actually from my hack?”

  She smiled approvingly, and he felt his good intentions slip a notch. “Because you’re smart. Not as smart as me or anything, but I like that you can keep up.”

  He smiled despite himself. “High praise. So what’s this from?”

  To his surprise, her face grew deadly serious. “This code is from the hack on Whitfield Industries.”

  “What?” Liam couldn’t hide his surprise. That was a big fucking deal, that she’d uploaded such sensitive information to his machine.

  “I brought it as a show of good faith,” she confessed softly. “In case you wouldn’t talk to me.”

  Trust. It was the third time she’d gifted him with it—first with her past, then with her body, and now...it was a huge risk, her showing him the inner workings of Whitfield Industries. The profundity of it had weight as it settled around them.

  So of course, Liam wasn’t shocked in the least when she plowed through it with a reckless lack of finesse.