“I didn’t want them to call me Alyssa,” she blurted, reaching for the pineapple chicken so she didn’t have to meet his eyes. “My parents called me Alyssa, and I didn’t want their replacements...strangers...” She cleared her throat. “I just liked AJ better.”
The chopsticks made their way into her peripheral vision, and she took the offering, glancing at him as she did. There was nothing annoying on his face. No recrimination. No pity.
It made her feel a little better.
“Thanks for telling me.” He put the moo shu box back on the table.
“Yeah, well.” She dug into the box of chicken, looking for the best piece. “You probably would have just sexed it out of me later anyway. Figured I’d save you the trouble. But just so we’re clear moving forward, my name is AJ, which means if you call me Alyssa, I’ll kick you in the junk.”
He leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes, fingers linked over his belly. Well, his abs, she corrected herself. “You seem pretty obsessed with my junk. I like that about you.”
She gave a huff of annoyance but let herself smile since his eyes were closed anyway. “You would.” She reached out and gave his shoulder a shove with her chopstick hand. It was hard beneath her knuckles, warm, and he barely moved. If not for his grin, she might have thought he hadn’t felt it at all.
She chewed thoughtfully on a hunk of chicken as she stared at him. “Why do you suppose that I’m always spilling my guts around you?”
It was embarrassing. She didn’t like it.
He cracked his eyes open, angled his head toward her. “Okay, go ahead.”
AJ shoved the take-out box and chopsticks beside the moo shu. “Your sex talk really goes downhill after two a.m., huh?”
“You get to ask one gut-spilling question. That’s it. You want to waste it on bad jokes, that’s on you.”
Her eyes widened at the offer. He was letting her even the score, and there was no way in hell she was going to pass on his offer. “Why do you throw those parties if you hate them so much?”
Liam’s chuckle was self-deprecating, and he pulled a hand down his face. “Sure you don’t want a second to think about it?”
In answer, she pulled her feet up on the couch and sat cross-legged, facing him, her knee brushing his ribs. “I’m good. Say all the things.”
“Okay, so you know all that stuff I told you about my mom?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why.”
AJ shook her head. “I don’t follow.”
Liam blew out a breath and held his arms open wide. “That’s what all this is about. The house, the cars, the parties, the photo shoots.” He dropped his hands into his lap. “Hell, even Cybercore, if you want to get deep about it.”
His meaning hit her all at once, as though someone had adjusted the focus in her brain. “Revenge,” she breathed.
He nodded, looking distinctly less than pleased about it. He shifted on the couch, and his elbow came to rest on her knee.
“The day she gave me that check, I promised myself that I was going amass a fortune that made her wish she’d never walked out. Launched the company when I turned eighteen, put everything I had into making it a success. And when it was, I made sure everybody knew it. Dated famous women, hosted lavish parties, said yes to every interview request that came my way.”
“You wanted her to see you.”
“Damn straight I did.”
His hand had drawn into a fist in her lap, and AJ covered it with her own. His gaze snapped toward the unexpected touch, but he didn’t pull away, so she kept stroking his knuckles until his hand relaxed.
“You know what the kicker is?” he asked, twisting his wrist and lacing his fingers through hers.
“What’s that?”
“It took me so many years to realize I wasn’t actually trying to hurt her.”
“No?”
Liam shook his head. “I was trying to get her to come back. To pick me.”
AJ squeezed his hand, and a sad smile touched his lips.
“By the time I figured that out, my international party-boy rep was well established. And the networking opportunities are usually worth a couple of hours of hatred, so I persevere.”
Liam let his head fall back against the couch, closed his eyes. “If you ever tell anyone any of this, I know people who can make you disappear.”
“I should hope so,” AJ agreed. “Otherwise they’d have to revoke this sweet supervillain lair you’ve got.” The reminder of where they were, and why, crept back into her head. The computer was probably done with the latest round of code. “I should get back to work.”
His fingers tightened around hers when she tried to pull free. “Uh-uh. Sleep first.”
AJ stifled a yawn and glanced over at the desk. Something flitted at the edge of her brain, like a spasmodic butterfly, but she couldn’t quite catch it. There was a familiarity about the code that wouldn’t quite reveal itself.
She blinked, and her eyelids were heavy. Maybe if she just took a quick nap, things would make more sense when she looked again. Just twenty minutes, she decided, lifting their linked hands and ducking under his arm, readjusting her body so she could use his shoulder as a makeshift pillow. Twenty minutes, and she’d be good as new.
* * *
Shit.
AJ knew before she opened her eyes that something really bad had happened.
She could tell by the warmth of the muscled shoulder that her cheek was pressed against. She could tell by the soft rise and fall of the chest her arm was resting on. And she could definitely tell by the soft blanket that covered her and the man she was suction-cupped to, because that meant that at some point during the night, he’d been completely aware that she was using him as a body pillow.
God. She had one freakin’ rule. She slept alone, and all it took was a few nights in his sexy spy den and she’d broken it.
AJ stifled her groan as she attempted to extricate herself from Liam and the couch without waking him up, but by the time she lifted her head, it was too late.
Because Liam was already awake.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
AJ DIDN’T WANT to kiss him.
No, she corrected, staring down at his gorgeous face. She didn’t want to want to kiss him.
She swallowed back the claustrophobic tightness that gripped her chest at the threshold she’d just crossed. Fucking someone was one thing, but sleeping with him? Sleeping on him? That way lay Girlfriend City and Commitment Island. Better to keep things light. That way feelings didn’t get mixed up with the hormones.
But here she was.
And in that moment of suspended animation, where everything was still and quiet except the magnified beat of her blood against her pulse points and the synced rasp of their breathing, want was everything. The only thing.
Hyperawareness prickled along her skin, focusing her on their bodies—the way her leg rested across his rigid thighs, the softness of his skin and warmth of his chest beneath her hand. Heat pooled in her belly as she gave in to the inevitable and leaned down to press her lips to his.
His hand came up to cradle the back of her head, and something about the restraint of that melted the last of her resolve. She got caught up in it, the slow, hazy magic of the early-morning kissing, touching, unhurriedly pulling each other’s clothes off.
“Let’s take this upstairs.”
AJ shook her head, tamping down panic at his suggestion. The change of location felt too purposeful, too intimate. Couches were spur-of-the-moment. Hormones getting the better of you.
“I need you inside me now,” she countered, pulling Liam close.
“There’s more room in my bed.”
“I’m sure we’ll manage just fine.”
Relief washed through her when he gave in, kissing her into mindless insensibility as he
rolled her onto her back, donned the condom.
Even though she was desperate for him, she let herself savor the preshow, the weight of him, the shift of his back muscles beneath her palms as he settled himself between her legs.
And then he finally slid inside her, and they rocked together in a dreamy buildup of mutual pleasure that was like nothing AJ had ever experienced. She grew restless under his seeking hands and insistent lips, desperate for release.
When she couldn’t take it anymore, she pulled her knees up, dragging her heels along the couch so she could dig them into the cushion by his thighs, and Liam grunted in pleasure at the position change.
That was all it took for the sweetness to turn sharp. Liam sped his pace, driving into her with quick, insistent strokes, and AJ clasped him to her, circling her hips until finally, the current sizzled through her, overtook her, and she cried out his name as wave after wave of sensation racked her body.
She pulled Liam close as he joined her in ecstasy.
As she lay there, in his arms, AJ trembled at the realization of what had just happened. The magnitude of it.
Somewhere along the way, she’d let Liam in. The worst thing she could have done, really, considering who she worked for. But it wasn’t just Max, she realized. She’d spent the last five years hiding. She stayed under the radar. Worked alone from home as much as possible. Wore layers of black to pass unnoticed. And Liam...he lived his life out loud.
Flashy cars, mansion parties and stylish clothes. He had the kind of bank account and businessman street cred that made sure people took pictures of him when he was out in the world, whether his dates were famous or not. People noticed him. And AJ wasn’t looking to be noticed.
They had nothing in common.
“Hey.” The sound of his voice startled her. “You’re shivering. Come here.”
AJ let him pull her closer, let him rearrange the blanket over their bodies. It was stupid, taking comfort from the cause of the problem.
Then the problem tightened his arm around her, stroked his fingers soothingly against her skin. This was no big deal, she assured herself, stifling a yawn and tucking her head against his shoulder. Just good sex. That’s all there was between them. Her eyes drifted shut. Nothing wrong with that.
* * *
AJ had no idea how much time had passed when her hard, muscled pillow shifted under her, but judging by her grogginess, it had been a while. She moaned in protest. “S’too early to move.”
“Go back to sleep.” Despite the whisper, he disentangled their limbs, and her skin grew cold now that they weren’t touching anymore. He readjusted the blanket to cover her, and she snuggled in.
“Stay.”
“I have to get to work.”
“What?” The statement banished all of her sleepy disorientation.
Liam, who was gathering his clothes from the floor, paused in the act to shoot her a questioning look. “I...don’t really know how to clarify that any further.”
“You’re leaving me alone here?” She pushed herself up to a sitting position.
It was one thing for her to feel like something had shifted after what had just happened, but she didn’t want him to feel it, too. Not good. Bad, even.
Liam straightened to his full height. “It’s not haunted or anything.”
“Four days ago, I was persona non grata and you basically stopped going to work so I wouldn’t snoop in your stuff,” she reminded him.
Remember? she wanted to yell. How I hacked your party invite and swiped your laptop?
“I’ve got a meeting this morning that I couldn’t move. I’ll be back around noon.”
He was honestly going to leave her here. Trust her here.
“I could steal so much stuff by then.”
He shrugged. Fucking shrugged! “I mean, you could try, but the house is full of security cameras. I’d definitely catch you.”
AJ pulled the blanket up to cover her breasts and anchored it under her arms. “Again with the pervert cams.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “They’re connected to the security system. They’re not on unless I turn them on.”
“So say all the amateur porn kingpins.”
“Don’t sell us short.” He surprised her, dropping a quick kiss to her lips. “That felt pretty professional to me. I think we could make it in the big leagues of porn.”
She gave him a dirty look, but it had no effect. He remained unrepentant as ever. Just standing there, gorgeously naked, semihard, with his arms full of clothes that she wanted to knock to the ground so she could drag him back on top of her.
His house might not be haunted, but it was terrifying. Because for all the outrage she was mustering, she knew she wasn’t going to take anything.
“Whatever. I’m going back to sleep.”
She lay back down, made a big production of closing her eyes and getting comfortable, but she watched through her eyelashes as he walked his spectacular naked ass up the stairs.
Pretending to be asleep after he’d disappeared seemed pointless, so she tugged on her clothes, grabbed a room-temp piece of leftover pizza from a box almost buried under Chinese take-out cartons and tried to distract herself with the mysterious junk code.
Might as well run it through the next decoder on her list, even though it was starting to feel futile. She’d already run it through a bunch of code breakers, trying to figure out if it was a taunt, or a signature, or both, but so far, no luck. If she could just find one little clue, something to tie it to someone...
She was still watching the computer churn through its analysis a half hour later when Liam reappeared, freshly showered and shaved, clad in gray pants and a white button-down, his gray vest hanging open. He laid his suit jacket on the arm of the couch and turned to face her with a red tie in one hand, a black tie in the other.
The man was like one of those human evolution posters, a masterpiece in every state between naked and fully clothed.
“Which one of these ties will help me achieve peak pretentious douchebag?”
“The red one. But only if you drive the matching Corvette.”
“Consider it done.” Liam tossed the black one on the back of the couch, and AJ watched in fascination as he made quick work of fashioning the perfect knot before adjusting his collar and buttoning up his vest. Lethally handsome. A woman could probably die of lust just watching him put on clothes and take them off again.
“So listen, I have this work thing I need to go to. Tonight.”
AJ glanced back at the computer screen to check the progress on the deciphering. “I like cats.”
“What?” Liam looked up from his vest.
“I thought we were just stating random facts about ourselves.”
“I was easing into inviting you to my work thing.”
She cocked an eyebrow and pulled her feet off the desk, so she was sitting properly in the chair. “A work thing. Like a company barbecue?”
“It’s a little fancier than that.”
Semantics were never a good sign. “How much fancier?”
“Black tie.”
AJ brought a hand to her chest, affecting her poshest accent. “Oh, I’m certain I don’t have a thing to wear.”
Liam grabbed his suit jacket from the couch and pulled it on. “We can go shopping this afternoon.”
Panic reared in her chest, trampling her lungs with a flurry of hoofbeats. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t think.
And Liam just stood there, adjusting his cuffs, like everything was normal. After another beat of silence, he looked at her. “You know I’m being serious, right?”
“I had a bad feeling you might be.” AJ toyed with the zipper on her hoodie, up, down, up, down. The sound of it sawed away at the conspicuous silence in the room and helped drown out the blood rushing through her ears. “I don’t
really do parties. Or crowds. That sounds more like supermodel socialite time.”
“Except I know that’s a deflection, because we met at a party. And I didn’t invite a supermodel socialite. Because I want to take you. So say yes.”
He meant it.
Something in her chest loosened, as though her resistance had grown brittle and splintered apart. As though what had happened between them that morning had changed things. As though fear’s mighty fist wasn’t lodged in her chest anymore. Free.
“If I say yes, will you stop pestering me?”
“You know what the best thing is?” Liam shifted his shoulders and buttoned the top button of his suit jacket. “Your excitement makes me even more excited.”
AJ’s smile seeped out against her will. “I said I’d go. You didn’t stipulate I had to like it.”
“This is why I have lawyers go over all my contracts. I’m garbage with minutiae.” He glanced at his watch. “I have to get to my meeting.”
“Okay.” She got to her feet, rounded the desk. “I’m gonna shower, and then I’ll just keep trawling the depths. See if I can connect this code with anyone active on the dark web.”
“You know that makes you sound cool as hell, right? Text me if you get a hit?”
“Yeah, sure. Have a good day at work.” The words were out before she realized she’d said them, and the domesticity gave her some serious icks. She needed to get the hell out of the vortex before she did something insane, like kiss him goodbye. She tried to walk by him. Thought she’d made it, too.
“Hey, wait a minute.”
“I’ve got stuff to do,” she countered, but Liam caught her fingers in his.
“I’ll be quick,” he promised, and tugged her close, then closer still. She clutched his lapel like some golden age movie heroine as he claimed her mouth, slanting his lips over hers. The contact jolted along her nerve endings, pulling a low, desperate sound from the back of her throat, and Liam responded with one of his own as he licked into her mouth, ratcheting the kiss up another level. Suddenly she didn’t want to let him go.
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