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“I can tell I had an effect.” My gaze shifted lazily from the bulge in his pants to the smile on his face. “You and I? We’re going to be bestfriends.”
His deep-seated laughter was almost as satisfying as my orgasm. “We do have a thing, don’t we? Aconnection?”
I sat up in the tub, not a little startled. “Do you believe in thatstuff?”
“Not until I met you,” he said. “But I think we’ve just provided scientific proofofit.”
He was right. I tried not to look as shocked as I felt. My eyes roamed Tanner’s face all over again, his eyes so kind and serene, his body, so strong and capable. “Can I return thefavor?”
“Hell, yeah.” He reached for one of the towels rolled up in a basket nearby. “But notrightnow.”
“I owe you,” I said. “Even though my hands are shot, I can improvise. You should know: I believe in fairness and I always pay mydebts.”
“I bet you do.” He tucked a strand of wet bangs behind my ears. “You’ve got to be…” He hesitated, searching for words, his gaze passionate and intense. “You’ve got to be the most extraordinary thing that has ever happened to me,tous.”
Holly hell. The way he said it? I had no doubt that hemeantit.
“Is that true?” I cased his face with the back of my hand and rubbed my knuckles against the strong line of his jaw, where my skin rustled against the rough shade of his stubble. “Then let me give you what you justgaveme.”
“I’m coming back to redeem the offer in full.” He pressed his lips against my knuckles before he unfurled the towel between his hands and held it up for me. “But right now, we have a lot to talk about and…well…Zar’swaiting.”
Zar was waiting. That couldn’t be good. Reality check. Ulysses was waiting too, somewhere very near, hopefully only a fewmilesaway.
Chapter4
Zar
We shouldn’t have brought the woman to the house. She was trouble. I knew it in my gut. She represented the single, most severe security breach we’d faced since we’d set up operations, a threat that set off my alarms and had me scouring the cyber horizon, wondering where and when the enemy wouldstrike.
I paced the kitchen, trying to control my impatience. Stillness had never come naturally to me. If I had to stay in place to spy on the enemy, run over watches, or wait at ambush, well then, no option. It had to be done. But I’d much rather be on the move and the woman had been out for threedamndays.
True, Tanner had hooked her to an IV with a low dose of muscle relaxants to help her rest and heal, but still, I needed to speak to her. I understood she needed some time to get herself together, but I was at the end of my rope. Where the hellwasshe?
A hacker. A top-of-the-line brilliant hacker looking for none other than Ulysses. How could she be anything other than trouble? We’d been working non-stop to verify her identity and position her in our risk assessment matrix. But I wasn’t willing to commit to a course of action until I spoke to her directly. I had questions, and all of my tactical decisions depended on her answers, or better yet, on the accuracy of heranswers.
I didn’t like surprises. I didn’t believe in coincidence either. Surprises and coincidences killed on the battlefield and as the tactical lead in command, I was charged with my team’s protection. Ignorance was a killer, too, which is why, in the last three days, I’d invested a lot of time and resources to learn as much as we could about the hacker who’d crashed-landed into ourlives.
Tanner and Aiden had done their work. I’d done mine as well. We had solid, factual research to back up our overall impressions and tons of personal and professional information that verified the few tidbits that Nina had represented to us. As to her personal circumstances—the ones she’d refused to share with us—we’d made some progress. The fading bruises around her neck and the high caliber bullet holes I’d found on her plane’s fuselage verified her fugitive status. I’d been able to backtrack through the last few days of her life. This woman was trouble and now her troublewasmine.
I stopped by the kitchen island and skimmed over Tanner’s report once more, scrolling down my tablet. Her personal history was compelling and, I had to admit, her profile was interesting. Aiden’s technical discoveries seconded Tanner’s findings. Nina was highly intelligent and quite accomplished in her field, both traits that had impressed the guys. Not me. In my view, those traits made her even more dangerous to us. And then there was her online diary. Talk about TMI—too much information—for the sexual beastinme.
Perhaps because of all of that, Tanner and Aiden were positive about her presence at the house. I trusted Tanner and Aiden. The three of us had survived more shit than anybody should have to endure in three lifetimes. But cynicism was my standard operating policy and, as the lead in command, it was my job not to trust anybody. I was good at what I did and I knew better. Danger often came wrapped in prettypackages.
My best case scenario was a quick interrogation that proved that she was inconsequential to our operations. In that case, we’d just process her out and be done with it. Unfortunately, the evidence wasn’t pointing that way. Plus, I had one otherproblem.
Tanner, Aiden and I had a pact forged in battle and signed with blood. It meant that we were committed to watching each other’s back and sharing everything in our lives.Everything.Our pact worked. Only one aspect of it had proven difficult to implement. It’d never bothered me. After my gut-wrenching divorce, I planned never to be in a relationshipagain.
But now, for the first time ever, encouraged by their findings, Aiden and Tanner had brought up the touchy subject. As if things weren’t complicated enough. I was in command of the work mission, but we were equal rank in the life mission. Three of us meant three votes and it’d been two against one on this one. Democracysucked.
I walked out onto the wrap-around balcony that overlooked the canyon, trying to burn the nervous energy buzzing through me. I took in a deep breath and tried to dispel the pervasive sense of danger electrifying my body. My gut told me this was bad. I always listened tomygut.
Down, Zar, down. Intensity wasn’t always a good thing and, as Tanner had pointed out, I wasn’t gonna gain anything by scaring the hell out of Nina. I popped my neck and stretched out my shoulder, which was still sore from the close encounter I had during the last on-the-ground mission I’d run two weeks ago. I was getting too old for that bang-upshit.
But then again, a guy like me had to go out and play every once in a while. It was what I was born to do, what I was best at. The money I made from my contracts was already spent, thanks to my ex. Besides, fighting terrorism in the cyber world was fine and dandy, but never as satisfying as nabbing those son of bitches in the flesh andblood.
The soft, feminine groan that drifted from the balcony above caught my attention. It filtered through my body to stir the beast that burrowed in me. From where I stood, I couldn’t see the tub, but the sexy moans left no doubt as to who was the sound’ssource.
Son of a bitch. Tanner had made a decision in the field and was moving forward to explore the full range of our options. Nothing wrong with that. He’d always been our best scout. But this couldn’t work, even if I tried, like Tanner and Aiden wanted. I liked women, I really did. To me, they were the superior sex, hands down. I especially liked having sex with women, the kinkier, the better. The problem was I also liked control. A lot of control.Allthecontrol.
