“How was I supposed to know you were such a shitty negotiator that you’d let me in without even putting up a fight? Also, I’d like the record to show that I told you Max wasn’t your hacker.”
“Has anyone ever told you how incredibly gracious in victory you are?”
“What can I say? I’ve had a lot of practice winning.”
He shook his head, telling himself it was exasperation and nothing else. He definitely wasn’t charmed. “So now what?”
“Now we wait for the computer to finish running all the supersmart analyses I told it to do while you were getting all prettied up. Should take at least an hour.” Her eyes turned sultry as she got to her feet. “How ever will we pass the time?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LIAM DIDN’T STOP her when she flattened a palm against his chest. Or when she started walking him backward in the direction of the couch.
“I thought you said no sex,” he said, reaching over his shoulder and dragging the T-shirt he’d just put on back off.
“I said I wasn’t going to sleep with you. I didn’t say we weren’t going to fuck.”
Her hand was back, warm against his bare skin, and he let the pressure of her touch guide him around the coffee table. Once they’d cleared it, she gave him a hard shove, and he landed on his ass on the brown leather couch. “Works for me.”
AJ pulled off her hoodie and her T-shirt in one go. “Before we do this, I feel like I should confess that I made it into your bedroom the other night.” She bent over at the waist to work her jeans down her thighs, giving him the most perfect view of her breasts, spilling over the cups of her basic black bra. “You caught me on the way out.”
“The trip wire was still on,” he countered, reaching down to adjust himself as she finished stripping off her jeans.
“Better check your secret counter there, Tech God. Should be up one unauthorized entrance.”
“You figured that out?” he asked, as AJ crawled onto the couch, planting a knee on either side of his hips. “That’s so fucking hot.” He groaned as he ran his hands up her torso, palming her breasts. No finesse, but he needed to get his hands on her. Her nipples were hard peaks beneath the fabric of her bra, and she leaned into the caress.
“Jesus, I love your breasts.”
She ran her tongue over his bottom lip, getting his mouth wet, ready for a kiss that was part desperation, part hostile takeover. His hips surged at the blatant sexuality of it, the expert blending of teeth, tongue and suction. Liam dropped his hands to her ass, yanking her closer, grinding against her until she gasped into his mouth. When she pulled back, they were both panting. He used the moment of disorientation to unhook her bra, and she helped him pull it the rest of the way off.
He groaned at the sight of her, bared to his gaze. “How are you so gorgeous?” Liam pressed a kiss to the slope of her breast. “All caramel skin and nipples like mocha.”
“Focus there, big boy. Are we having sex, or do you want dessert?”
She gasped as he caught her nipple in his mouth, laved it with his tongue.
“You taste plenty sweet.” He traced the bottom curve of her breast with his thumb.
She tucked a raven curl behind her ear, stared down at him with indecision in those dark brown eyes, and then surprised the hell out of him by giving him an answer.
“My dad was half British, half Puerto Rican.” Her fingers toyed with the hair at the nape of his neck. “And my mom was part Filipino and part Italian, with a little Jamaican thrown in.”
“Wow.” He ran his fingers along the edge of her panties, and she shifted her hips in retaliation, teasing his cock.
“Yeah. I’m a walking DNA-test commercial.”
“Well, it looks good on you.” Liam returned his attention to her spectacular boobs, kissing and licking his way to the other peak, until she was clutching his hair and rocking against him, driving him out of his mind, getting him hard.
When he couldn’t handle it anymore, he grabbed her around the waist and executed a quarter turn, so he could lay her down on the couch.
Body primed for action, Liam got to his feet and shucked his jeans.
“All my ancestors are from Ireland,” he offered, pulling a condom from his wallet.
She laughed up at him, shimmying out of her panties. “Really, Liam Kearney? Shocker.”
She was so goddamn sexy, all soft and curvy, breasts jiggling when she moved, that he stroked himself a few times before he got down to business. He didn’t miss the way her eyes tracked his progress as he rolled the condom on.
“Fun fact—” Liam braced an arm on either side of her head as he lowered himself onto the couch, onto her, “—the name Kearney means ‘warlike or victorious.’”
“How interesting.” Her eyes were dark, more pupil than iris, and heavy-lidded with arousal. “Does that mean you have experience handling this weapon?” she asked, and all the breath left his lungs as she wrapped her hand around his cock. Squeezed. His balls were tight with need, and he thrust into her hand, desperate for more of this pulse-pounding desire that sparked between them.
“Some experience,” he told her, then gritted his teeth against the pleasure as she twisted her wrist and stroked up the length of him. “But you’re going to make me look like an amateur if you keep that up.”
She giggled as she took pity on him and let go, and something about the innocent sound, devoid of bravado or cynicism, coming from the kick-ass, take-no-prisoners woman beneath him left him stunned, grabbed him by the chest.
Liam leaned forward and caught her mouth in a deep, spiraling kiss that felt less like physical satisfaction and more like he’d fallen into an emotional vortex.
* * *
AJ was a little dizzy when Liam pulled back.
There’d been a surge, something hot and bright and blinding, like she’d looked directly into the sun and it had singed the synapses in her brain. She blinked against the disorienting sensation.
It was a kiss, sure, but not a kiss like anything she’d ever experienced.
She glanced toward the power source, and goose bumps flooded her skin.
The look on his face was so intense it crackled along her nerve endings. It was like he was looking through her skin, to the heart of her. Like somehow, she was suddenly more naked than she’d been before his mouth had touched hers.
She licked her lips, and his eyes cleared. Liam looked more like himself again, and that made her feel more like her. She was suddenly vibrantly aware of the throb of his cock against her thigh, and she moved her leg, reveling in the resulting clench in his jaw.
“Your aim’s a little off there, warlord.”
The challenge sparked something exciting in the depths of his eyes, dark and passionate, more brown than green with his arousal. “You can’t just rush into the fray, swinging your sword,” he counseled. AJ shivered as he dragged his fingers from the side of her torso to her navel before shifting direction and heading south. “At least not until you’re sure everyone’s ready for battle.”
His fingers dipped into the moisture at the apex of her thighs, and she moaned as he circled her clit, sending sparks of need racing along her limbs.
“Do I pass muster, sir?” AJ reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck and drawing him closer.
“Slow down, soldier.” He pressed his lips to the pulse point at the base of her throat, and she tipped her chin up, granting him better access. He dragged his lips up the side of her neck, nuzzled her ear. “I’m not finished with my inspection.”
AJ bit her lip as his fingers stroked through her slick heat, driving her to the brink of madness before retreating, only to attack again. Her hips moved restlessly beneath his ministrations, trying to get closer.
Finally, he put her out of her misery and sank two fingers deep inside her.
Liam pressed a kiss to her jaw. “I
love the sounds you make, the way your breath catches when I touch you in just the right way...”
The pad of his finger skated over her G-spot, and AJ’s body jerked with pleasure.
“God, yes. Right there.”
He obliged, and AJ’s arms tightened reflexively around his neck and she pressed her forehead against his shoulder.
And then he did it again. And again. Until she couldn’t deny the build of pressure and expectation, undulating against his hand, desperately seeking that burst of pleasure that was so close...
Liam twisted his wrist, driving his fingers deep and flicking his thumb against her clit, and AJ cried out, tasting the salt of his skin as she broke, lifting her hips as heat radiated through the core of her.
It took her a second to catch her breath.
“Yeah, I’d say you’re ready.”
The dry observation startled a laugh from her. “Understatement. Come ’ere.”
She kissed him as he shifted on top of her, and his weight pressed her deeper into the cushions.
He reached between them, and there was nothing wrong with his aim this time.
AJ’s breath stuttered at the aftershocks of her orgasm as he filled her. His back muscles strained under her fingertips as he pushed up so he wouldn’t crush her. She’d just come, but at the feel of him deep inside her, something rolled under her skin, like thunderheads gathering for an impending storm.
It took her a moment to realize he wasn’t moving. Just staring down at her, the planes of his face harsh with need. “Are you ever going to tell me?”
“Oh, baby, your cock’s so big and hard and good at sex.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “What AJ stands for,” he clarified.
“Seriously? That’s your most pressing concern right now?” She wiggled her hips, gratified when he groaned, and his thighs flexed against hers, pushing him deeper.
It took a few hard thrusts before he caught on to her diversionary tactic and frowned.
“Hey, no distractions.” In retaliation, he pinned her to the couch with his hips, cutting off her entire arsenal of sexy lower-body movements.
“Why are you stopping? Things were just getting good again.”
“Just tell me what I want to know, and this will all go away.”
She laughed at the bad-guy refrain. “What am I? Your sex hostage?”
He leaned close, nipped her bottom lip with his teeth. “Tell me your name, or I’ll kill the orgasm.”
There were two answers to his question, so she picked the one she’d made up. The one she hoped would impress. “Arctic Jade.”
Liam’s eyes widened at the mention of her old hacker handle, so she used the element of surprise to her advantage and shoved on his chest.
He rolled obligingly onto his side, helping her reverse their positions on the couch.
“No shit?” he asked as she straddled him. “You’re Arctic Jade?”
“In the flesh.” AJ shifted her weight, started to rock against him. “Did you dabble?”
He growled at the friction, his hands coming up to ride her hips, spurring her on.
“I may have dissected a few of your hacks back in the day.”
“Oh, yeah?” She rewarded that confession with a squeeze of her internal muscles that made his eyes roll back in his head.
“Jesus, AJ.”
“And?” she asked, leaning forward and bracing her hands on his chest. “What did you think?”
“I think you were good. I think you’re better now. And I think if you don’t finish me off soon, I’m going to take over and fuck you senseless.”
The last word ended on a groan as she circled her hips, catching him off guard with the change of pace. Electricity surged through her veins, lighting up her body. He was so hard and strong, and she liked that she didn’t have to be careful with him. She didn’t feel like being careful.
He might be worth hundreds of millions, more if his new fence tech got picked up by the military, but he had the body of a warrior, not a desk jockey, and it turned her on so much to have him pinned on the couch, his body growing harder under her questing hands.
She couldn’t get enough of him—of each flex and thrust of his hips as he tried to get deeper inside her. She tightened her thighs around him, biting her lip as she rode him faster, grinding against him until she felt the deep throb of his cock, so hard and hot inside her, pushing her toward ecstasy. She tumbled over the edge a second before his hips bucked and he joined her there.
It was a good three minutes of panting before she could summon enough energy to slide off him. “Nice work.”
Liam exhaled and tugged her closer. “Back atcha.”
AJ tucked into his side, genially stroking her fingers against the smattering of dark hair that covered his chest before arrowing enticingly downward.
Postcoital glow was the shit. At least the way Liam did it, it was. She’d never stuck around long enough to have a comparison.
“Why do you work for Max?”
The question didn’t surprise her, not really. You could only push things off for so long with sex. They always caught up with you, sooner or later.
She lifted herself up on her elbow, resting her head in her hand so she could see his face. “Oh, you know. The usual reasons. Money, food, shelter.”
“But why tie yourself down?”
She poked him in the chest. “Are you trying to poach me, Mr. CEO?”
“Sure. You want a job at Cybercore, say the word. But if you ask me, you should be doing your own thing.”
The words, hearing the idea aloud, made her antsy, like a million bugs were swarming beneath her skin, but Liam didn’t seem to notice her plight.
“There’s big money in forensic hacking. And if you play up the mystique of the whole Arctic Jade, vaguely criminal past, there’s some cachet there. Bad girl gone good. People love that shit.”
AJ shook her head, thoughts racing a mile a minute. “I can’t... I’m not... I couldn’t...”
Liam reached out, caught her chin in his fingers and tipped her face toward his. Stilled her. “I’ve known you for forty-eight hours. I have no idea what your favorite color is, or how you like your eggs. Hell, I don’t even know your last name. But despite all that, there is one thing about you that I’m absolutely certain of.”
She didn’t want to know, but she wasn’t sure she could stand not knowing, either. It took everything in her to ask. “What’s that?”
“You can do anything.”
The answer stole her breath.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THREE DAYS.
Three days in Liam’s basement, staring at code, with the odd break for food and sleep, and slightly more regular breaks for sex and more sex, but they were no closer to figuring out who their asshole was.
AJ scraped a hand down her face. At times like this, when she was stuck, Wes Brennan’s words often came back to her.
Sloppy gets you caught.
Sloppy got everyone caught. So all she needed to do was find the sloppy.
“Okay, just think,” she counseled herself. Going after Whitfield Industries and Cybercore took balls. Big fucking balls. “You pull off something like that, you’re going to want to tell someone about it. Leave a clue. Sign it.” But how? “Think, Alyssa...” Maybe a—
“Alyssa?”
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, all the fucks.
She’d forgotten about him. Though when she looked over to where his big body was slung out on the couch, she had no idea how that was possible. The man was sex personified, surrounded by a bunch of Chinese take-out boxes, looking like a lounging god.
“Well, now we’re getting somewhere.”
Nowhere good. How could she have let her guard down like that? She was usually so careful. Her survival had depended on it for a long t
ime. But sometimes, when it was just her and Liam, she got lulled into this place where the really bad stuff felt far away. Like it couldn’t touch her. Like she was...safe.
He sat up and swung his feet to the ground, setting the laptop on the couch beside him. “So the J is... Jane? Johanna? Jillian?”
“I need to focus if I’m going to save your billion-dollar company and figure out who leaked the product specs before you launch The Shield.”
“Janine?”
“You’re not even close.”
“Jocelyn?”
She pushed her curls back from her forehead. “Seriously, Liam. I’m trying to work here.”
“Jordan? Jordyn with a y? Juanita?”
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Hell no. In fact, I’m prepared to read every single J name off a Google baby name list until I figure it out.” He reached menacingly for his laptop.
With a sigh, AJ stood up and stretched. A quick glance at the time showed it was two thirty in the morning. No wonder she was so stiff. She rubbed her eye as she made her way over to the couch, grabbing a container of cold moo shu pork and a set of chopsticks before she sat down beside him. “It’s James, okay? My last name is James. Mystery solved.”
“Alyssa James, huh? I was expecting something more...”
She shot him a glare. “If you say exotic, I’ll be forced to kick you in the junk.”
“Actually, Alyssa, I was going to say badass.”
She sat up a bit straighter as she selected a piece of pork. “In that case, your junk and I both thank you.”
“So why AJ?”
Her sigh deflated her shoulders, and she shoved the chopsticks back in the box before tipping the container in his direction. He accepted the offer.
“Just wanted a change, I guess.”
She watched Liam expertly wield the chopsticks she’d just used. His jaw was shadowed with a few days’ worth of stubble, and it flexed as he ate some moo shu pork.
The fact that he didn’t push her on her nonanswer should have been great. But it wasn’t great. It made her feel vaguely restless. Like that swarm of bugs was back, burrowing under her skin.
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