Evianna
Clive hands us off to Ronan as the sun dips below the horizon. The last rays paint the arboretum in deep purple and indigo, and I wish I knew how to describe it to him.
The lilac bloom is still crushed in Dax’s palm as we head for a dark gray SUV. I’m almost afraid to touch him. This strong man just broke in front of me, over…a flower. But when I turn for one last look out over the landscape, I understand. He’ll never see it as I do.
“Evianna?” Dax trails a hand down my arm, and I startle, but don’t turn to face him. “Come on, darlin’. Let’s get back to the hotel. I’ll show you what Wren and I found today, and you can check out that answering machine.”
With a wink, the sun disappears, breaking the spell. Our moment, the one I could have used to tell him I’m falling for him, is over, and now…it’s time to go back to reality.
I scan the room service menu. “What do you want?”
“They have a club sandwich or a steak?” Dax sits on the small couch in the main room, setting up his laptop, phone, and Kyle’s notebooks in precise order. The vulnerability he displayed earlier is gone, replaced by determination and the hard exterior I suspect he’s so used to, he doesn’t even know it’s there.
“Both. I’ll order one of each. Medium-rare okay for the steak?”
Something clatters to the floor, and his Bluetooth earbud rolls out from under the low coffee table towards my bare toes. He stares at me, mouth slightly open, for a brief second. “It’s perfect.” Almost as an after thought, he says, “You’re perfect,” under his breath.
“I’m far from perfect, babe.” The term of endearment slips out as I press the earbud into his hand. “But I like my steak medium-rare and my whiskey neat.”
Wandering into the bedroom with the menu and the suite’s cordless phone, I order the food, adding a bottle of red wine and a piece of flourless chocolate cake for dessert. They say it’ll be forty-five minutes, and the tension in my shoulders is about to crack me in half. I can’t concentrate like this.
With a quick glance at the deep tub, I smile, and I wonder…could I convince Dax to join me?
Challenge accepted.
It takes me only a couple of minutes to set the temperature and start the tub filling, and I strip off my blouse, black slacks, and camisole, tossing them in one of the drawers, before Dax’s frame fills the bathroom doorway.
“We should—” I stop him by pressing my half-naked body to his, and he groans. “Evianna, fuck. Your body…” He traces my curves, his hands molding to my breasts, down to my waist, over my hips, until he cups my ass. “Perfect.” Hooking his fingers into the waistband of my panties, he lowers them slowly. “And…mine.”
His deep, possessive timbre sends arousal flooding my core, and on his knees, Dax presses his lips to my mound, inhaling deeply. A deep growl rumbles through his chest as he rises and backs me up against the counter. Feeling around behind me, he gives a quick, short nod, then wraps his arms around my thighs and lifts me, depositing my ass on the cold marble.
“Dax? What are you—?”
“Lean back and brace yourself, darlin’. I need to taste you.” He sinks to his knees, guides my legs wide, and then his tongue is doing…oh God…things no one’s ever done with such…skill.
A hint of stubble on his cheeks tickles my inner thighs, and I try not to wriggle, because holy shit, looking down at this gorgeous man on his knees, face buried in my pussy, is about the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.
When he sucks my clit lightly between his teeth, I whimper, my legs tightening around his head almost involuntarily. “More,” I beg, and Dax reaches up and wraps his arms around my ass, easing me forward until I’m half-hanging off the counter. But I know I won’t fall. He won’t let me.
I’ve never felt more protected than I do in this moment. But then, I can’t think at all as Dax slides two fingers inside me, his tongue continuing to trace rapid fire patterns around my most sensitive nub, and his grunts and appreciative moans taking me higher than I thought possible.
“I’m…oh God. Dax…I’m…”
His free arm bands around me tightly, and he scores his teeth over my clit, thrusting his fingers deep and twisting them to find my G-spot. My entire body implodes, and I can’t breathe, can’t see, can’t hear anything but my own keening cries. He continues to drink me in until my entire body’s spent, and then pushes to his feet with his arm still steadying me.
“I’ll never get enough of you,” he says, his voice rough, and I reach down to find his cock straining against his khakis.
Brushing my lips to his ear, I whisper, “Let me turn off the water, and then…we can take this to the bed.”
“There’ll be time for that…later. Get in the tub. I need to double-check the door locks, and then I’ll join you.”
“Dax—”
But he’s already gone. Hanging my bra on the back of the door, I turn off the water and lower myself into the tub. “Oh, sweet heaven,” I mutter as I rest my head against the warm porcelain and close my eyes. Between the hot water and the aftereffects of an amazing climax, I’m not sure I can move. But then I sense him, and when I force my heavy lids open, my breath stalls in my chest. He’s naked, fully erect, and I lick my lips. “My God, Dax. You’re…”
Dax’s shoulders hunch, and he starts to turn away when I reach up and lightly touch his hip. “We need to get past this.”
“Past what?” he says, his voice rough.
“Get in. There’s plenty of room. I’m not having this conversation unless we’re both on equal ground.”
Carefully, Dax feels for the edge of the tub, and when he’s across from me, the steam swirling around us, I wriggle closer, arranging myself so I’m seated between his legs, his length pressing against my ass. “Who hurt you?”
“I told you about Hell…”
“No. Who hurt you? After.” Tipping my head back, I press a kiss to the side of his jaw. “Every time we share something…real…you shut down. Like you’re sure I’m not going to understand. Or say something so horrible, you won’t be able to unhear it. Someone hurt you.”
“It wasn’t…all her fault,” he says with a heavy sigh. “I had too many demons.”
“Tell me.”
Dax slides his hands under my arms and scoots me forward an inch or two. I start to protest until his fingers dig into my shoulders, slowly working out the knots I’ve lived with for two days.
“Oh, God. Don’t stop…but this doesn’t get you off the hook. Tell me what happened.”
“I’m…thirty-nine, Evianna. I don’t think I told you that. Enlisted when I was twenty-three. Right after college. Served for ten years.” He moves to my neck, and I let my head fall forward as he strokes up and down. “Right before I left for basic training, Lucy and I got married.”
I stop breathing until Dax presses a kiss to my shoulder. “Trust works both ways, darlin’.” As I relax again, he continues. “She was my college sweetheart. Seemed like the right thing to do. I did love her. And I think she loved me too. But, my deployment…put a lot of distance between us. And after I joined my ODA team, I couldn’t tell her anything about my missions, where I was…”
Shifting slightly, Dax starts to dig his thumbs along the sides of my spine, and I lean forward, letting him work each knot, each bit of tension from my back and arms. “For most of the time we were missing, the army thought we were dead. They forced us to make a couple of videos the first month or two. But after that, when they locked us away in Hell, no one heard from us until three months before Ry broke out.”
“What happened then?” I ask, trying to focus on his words even as my body wants to float away under his capable hands.
“Don’t know. Someone got a signal out. A set of coordinates and the letters ODA. But that wasn’t confirmation. Lucy…she did her best. Took a second job to pay for our mortgage, kept a candle burning most nights for me. But when we got out…fuck.” Dax shudders, and I try to turn around, but he stops me and
rests his chin against the curve of my neck. “Not yet, darlin’.”
“When you got out…?”
“You spend fifteen months being treated like an animal—” his voice drops to a whisper, “—you become one. I was so angry. Scared. Had to adjust to a world where I wasn’t tied up all the time, where I could eat when I needed to, not whenever they decided we’d starved enough. Shit, I couldn’t even sleep in a bed for weeks unless I was doped up on painkillers. Even with all the pins in my leg and the metal brace, I managed to get myself onto the floor every fucking night.”
He chuckles, a dry, mirthless laugh. “When Lucy showed up…end of my fourth day out, I think, the distance between us…she didn’t know how to touch me. Hell, I didn’t know how to be touched. And when I came home…six weeks later…we were strangers. She wanted to know what happened to me. I just wanted to forget it all. And back then…I thought I could.”
The water’s started to cool, but neither of us moves.
“We lasted three months after I came home. I don’t blame her. I was an asshole most of the time. Angry. Scared. She tried…I think. I didn’t until it was too late. I was too caught up in my own shit to see—” he snorts, “—or hear, I guess, how much I was hurting her. She wanted her husband back. And that man…he died in Hell.”
“But…” I want to find this woman and tell her how stupid she was. Except…if she’d stayed, this amazing man wouldn’t be here with me.
“Some people aren’t meant for one another, darlin’. I changed. She didn’t. I forgave her a long time ago. And she forgave me, too. We talk once a year or so. She remarried. Has two kids and her own yoga studio out in Framingham.”
There’s a knock at the outer door of the suite. “Room Service!” a female voice calls.
“I’ll get it.” Scrambling out of the tub, I reach for the fluffy white robe hanging on a wall hook.
“Evianna. Tell them to wait. Don’t open the door without me.” His command stops me in my tracks, and the reality of where we are—and why—hits me.
“O-okay,” I stammer, then duck my head into the main room. “Just a minute, please.”
By the time I get back to the bathroom, Dax has a towel wrapped around his waist. Water glistens all along his sculpted chest, and I wonder if he has any idea just how sexy he is—scars and all.
“There’s a robe. Here.” Handing it to him, I let my fingers rest on his for a breath longer than necessary. “I’m sorry about…Lucy. But…Dax?”
His eyes shimmer behind his glasses, and he presses his lips together in a thin line.
“I know who you are. And I’m here. With you. For as long as…for as long as you’ll have me.”
Another three raps on the door force us apart, and Dax shrugs into his robe, then takes my arm so I can lead him back into the main room. Before he opens the door, he tips my chin up so I can look into his pale blue eyes. “You’re…my light, Evianna. I don’t know how else to say it. You…chase some of the darkness away.”
27
Evianna
I rearrange our food, dividing up the sandwich and steak between us. Dax feels around the edges of his plate, and I stop with a wedge of club sandwich partway to my mouth. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry. The sandwich is at nine o’clock. Steak at three. Fries are on the plate between us. Um…two o’clock.”
He swallows hard. “Thanks.”
“You hate asking for help, don’t you?”
Picking up the steak knife, he uses his fork to find the strip of meat, then starts cutting. “With something as simple as eating? Yeah. How many people do you know who can’t manage to get food from their plate to their mouths?”
When I force the bite of sandwich down, I clear my throat. “My mom can’t.”
He freezes, then turns slowly to face me. Waiting.
“She has ALS. She’s bedridden, can barely speak, and while she can still swallow—for now—most of her meals are through a feeding tube. When I visit her, I usually bring her a chocolate milkshake, and if I spoon feed her, she can manage a small amount of it.”
“Fuck, Evianna. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. She’s…in Boston?”
I pour us both some wine, needing the distraction. “Yes. There’s an excellent long-term care facility in Watertown. Close enough I can usually manage to see her every couple of days.”
“You’ve been with me since Monday, darlin’. It’s almost Friday. Won’t she be worried?” Dax returns to slicing the steak, but his movements are more deliberate now. Calmer. And some of the anger I sensed when I described his plate has faded away.
“We email. She knows about Alfie’s launch, and I promised her I’d see her this weekend.” Risking a glance at Dax, I ball my hands into fists, unsure I want to hear his next response. “I can go in the evening. So Ronan can take me. Or Vasquez. If…you want…”
The knife clatters to the table, and Dax has my hands in his before I register the movement. “I can’t protect you alone, Evianna. But there’s no way in hell I’m letting you out of my sight—you know what I mean—until we know who’s after you and stop them. And…if it’s okay…I’d like to meet your mom. I…I’m with you too, darlin’. I should have said it before. I’m with you too.”
Tears spring to my eyes, and I choke back a sob. “I didn’t realize how much I needed…” Burying my face in the soft terry of his robe, I let myself break, knowing with him at my side, I can find a way to put myself back together.
Half an hour later, the dishes set outside the door, I plop the answering machine down in front of me. “All right, Kyle. Let’s see just how much of a movie buff you are.”
“Huh?” Dax furrows his brow, a stack of the notebook pages in his hand.
“Sneakers was like…the geeky movie of the 90s. Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley…oh, and River Phoenix. You never saw it?”
“No. We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up. Movies…well…I saw Jurassic Park and Independence Day…that’s about all until I was in college.”
“Oh, my God. Okay, this is going to require some explanation.”
“Can you put it on? The Fairmont has pay-per-view.”
Now, it’s my turn to stare at him, confused. “Dax…this might sound obvious, but…you’re blind.”
His deep laugh seems to surprise him, and he sinks against the back of the couch, takes off his glasses, and wipes his eyes. “Trust me, darlin’. I haven’t forgotten. But…a lot of movies—especially older ones without all the fancy special effects—rely on enough dialogue that I can follow them pretty easily.”
“Oh. I didn’t…”
“Don’t you dare apologize.” Carding his fingers through my hair, he angles my head until he can claim my lips. “Though, I remember how much you enjoyed me stopping you.”
“Enough,” I say, my hands on his shoulders to force a little distance between us. “We have work to do, soldier. Tell me what you and Wren found in the notes while I hook my tablet up to the television. I have the movie on iTunes.”
Dax tucks his Bluetooth into his ear, taps the rim of his glasses, and starts slowly flipping through the pages. “This one here,” he says, passing it across the table as I sit back down and start the movie. “Wren says the numbers and abbreviations listed are likely subroutines and lines in the code where Kyle found anomalies.”
“I recognize some of these function names. I wrote a lot of them. Or…at least the beginnings of them. When Noah hired me, he had three developers working for him. Barry, Sundar, and Raja. They’d just started Alfie’s framework. Barely had an idea of where they were going or what they were doing. All Noah knew was that he wanted something that could compete with Siri. He wasn’t thinking about a home unit, or car sensors, or personal security. Just the software.”
On screen, Martin Brice watches as Cosmo’s taken into custody, the scene fading to black, and Dax cocks his head. “So, Redford got away.”
“Yep. And his buddy spent the next twenty
years or so in prison. The good stuff happens in about twenty minutes.” Turning over the answering machine, I find four small screws holding the housing in place. “Need my kit. What else is on those pages?”
“A lot of dates. Time stamps. Down to the second. A lot of them are crossed out. But a few of them, he circled. Then, in the corner of this page,” Dax hands me a ragged-edged piece of paper that someone must have crumpled up at some point, “three words stood out to Wren.”
Arch01 Remote Enabled?
My stomach clenches, dinner suddenly not sitting well. “That’s the name of the computer in my office. But we don’t allow remote work. We haven’t since Noah agreed to turn Alfie into…what she is now. I brought in an intellectual property lawyer to advise us on how best to go about keeping Alfie a secret until we were ready to announce, and he came back with a whole twenty pages of recommendations and regulations. Including disabling all remote access to our servers.”
“Most of the rest of these pages…they all look like gibberish to me. Wren says they’re bits and pieces of code, so you might have more luck with them than we did.”
Pouring us more wine, he cocks his head and listens. “Wait. Whistler’s…blind?”
I laugh as I loosen the first of the four screws. “Yep. And he solves the whole damn thing. So stop selling yourself short, soldier.” From my seated position on the floor, I nudge my shoulder into his knee. “Just listen to this next bit of dialogue while I get this housing off.”
On screen, Robert Redford describes an office to the rest of his team, and before the blind Whistler character can make his big reveal, Dax mutters, “Son of a bitch. The guy has an answering service. He wouldn’t need a machine.”
“Bingo. Two points,” I say. “I told you this movie was brilliant. Now, let’s see what secrets this little machine has.”
Setting the case aside, I frown. “It looks like your standard nineties answering machine. Except the tape’s missing. And there are like sixteen more screws.”
Second Sight: An Away From Keyboard Romantic Suspense Standalone Page 18