AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That camera’s coming out of that office today,” he muttered against her lips. “Crowl can shove it up his ass if he wants to. There’s no way I can wait all day to have you again.”
Her heart raced at the knowledge that he hadn’t had enough of her. And she was woman enough to admit that it fed that small little part of her ego that was completely female.
“Crowl might shake in his little shoes if you try to choke him again.” She smiled against his lips, loving the feel of being this close to him. So close that they kissed as they spoke. That she could hear his heart beat against the side of her breast and the warmth of his body wrapping around her, stealing through the leather coat.
He pushed the leather from her shoulder, nudged her sweater to the side and stole her breath as he licked over the mark he had left on her.
“I’ve never marked another woman,” he told her, kissing the small bite gently. “Only you, Ria.”
She hadn’t known she needed that information, but she had. The vague fear rising inside her stilled at the knowledge that no one else, not even the girl who should have been his mate, had carried his mark.
Her head tilted farther to the side, and for the few moments of privacy that they had left, she luxuriated in his touch.
And Mercury liked to touch her. Stroke her hair. He’d refused to allow her to pin it up that morning. It flowed around her now, the thick, heavy length perfect for him to run his hands through and fill her with pleasure.
She kept her hair long for very specific reasons. The old maid look didn’t go very well with short hair. Besides, short hair had a tendency to make her face look a bit chubby, not quite studious or severe enough. She had needed the studious look.
But she knew she would never cut it again now. Because of this. Her eyes fluttered closed in pleasure as his hands stroked through her hair and his tongue lapped at the wound on her neck.
“We’re almost there,” he growled.
She didn’t want to be there. She wanted to be right here forever.
Suddenly, Ria had a very bad feeling about Sanctuary, one that went far deeper than the conspiracy she knew was building there. That female part of her was rising inside her, warning her. She had given too much of herself, and now she risked losing it all.
CHAPTER 15
Callan and the others were taking care of adding the ghost program to the compound’s server and systems, and within the office, camera covered, Ria took care of sending the various files and information through the independent program she had attached to a ghost drive she was now able to use on the computer system she had been given to work with.
There were no outside lines on the computer; it was completely self-contained. It wasn’t even attached to the main compound server. There was no way out of it, no way inside it except from the seat she was sitting in.
The ghost drive was simple. It attached to the computer as another hard drive, but once it disconnected, all signs of it were wiped completely from the computer it was attached to. There was no way to tell it had ever been there.
Efficient for her, because it allowed her to go through the files she needed to decrypt to reveal the code; very bad for Dr. Elyiana Morrey, though. Because many of the transmissions Ria had questioned had come from her office.
As she worked, she was very much aware of Mercury sitting across from her. He did as he always did, read one of the magazines lying on the table beside the chair, but unlike always, her skin prickled with the need to rub against him.
Rubbing against him was a pleasure in and of itself. The fine, supersoft hair that covered Mercury’s body was—unique. The sensation was—oh, she really shouldn’t go there.
“The look on your face is going to get you fucked.”
Her head jerked up and she felt a flush suffuse her face at the look he was giving her.
“Locking the door is easy.” He glanced to that lock. “And very simple.”
She shook her head and turned back to her work. This part of her job was child’s play. It was simply gathering the suspected files, sending them through the program, then saving to the ghost drive those that needed decrypting. The real job came when it was time to decrypt them.
“How close are you and Dane?” he asked a few minutes later.
Ria lifted her head slowly and stared back at him. He had laid the magazine aside and watched her, slouched in that chair, one ankle lying on the opposite knee, his elbow propped on the chair arm as he rubbed at his chin with his index finger. The pose was so sexy, so virile, she wanted to come from the sight of it alone. But the question, posed with just the right amount of serious interest, warned her there was more beneath the surface than a sexy, brooding male.
“Haven’t we been through this?” she asked.
“No, we have satisfactorily answered whether or not you’ve slept with him or intend to sleep with him,” he said to refute her. “That doesn’t answer the question why he felt he could invade your bedroom or why he displays such an air of protectiveness toward you.”
She shook her head at that.
“My mother worked for Vanderale. In the main office. When a neighbor heard of my mother’s death, she contacted Dane to find out if I was in the car with her, because she hadn’t heard one way or the other about a child. Dane was the one who found me in our apartment three days later.”
