by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne
He powered into her, holding her to him, making her take every single insane inch of his pleasure.
Their breaths echoed in her ears. “So good.”
He grunted in response. Lexi’s climax built immediately. Her mind was already there, surprised and shocked by how brutally amazing this was.
“More.” Seriously, she’d said it—hadn’t thought it and didn’t know how it was even possible.
Parker gripped her tight enough to crush her, and his rigid length pounded her until she was blinded with impending bliss. Her muscles banded tight and rippled. The orgasm sideswiped her to some other dimension, making the room fade. White light and all those sparkly, shiny fireworks ignited as forever spanned into a climax coma.
He seated himself deep inside her and strained his release. Her head lolled back, embracing that intimacy of his bare length coming inside her.
Parker took a deep breath, his head dropping on top of hers, his lips murmuring in her hair. Finally, he pulled away and slid her off the table. “I cannot get enough of you.”
They both righted themselves, but she knew she looked like she’d just been fucked. God and every person in this building probably knew how loud she was, even muffled by Parker’s shoulder, but screw it. She didn’t care.
“Never going to look at this table the same way again.”
She covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. “Oh, my God.”
“I had every intention of taking you to dinner and updating you. Got a little side-tracked, but still seems like a good idea. You hungry?”
“Sure, yeah.” She smoothed her skirt and could still feel him inside her. She needed to run to the ladies’ room, but she also loved how he’d internally marked her. “Do you, um, need to remove the duct tape? Why was that there? I mean, I guess it makes sense, but…”
He guided her out of the room and laughed. “Trust no one. Plus, a couple years back, I busted Winters and Mia damn near getting it on against a motel room door. I got pictures and everything.”
She smacked his chest. “That’s awful.”
He hooked an arm around her. “He’s going to get me back one day, but today wasn’t going to be it. Besides, their stuff was tame enough. They hadn’t gotten through the door yet. I adore Mia, and Winters is my boy. All good fun.”
“Well, if I’m the one he gets you back with, let me know—”
Parker pulled to a stop, scowling. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
Her eyes went wide. “Well, um—” Was he talking about them? “I, uh…”
“If I could kill Matt, I would. Because Jesus, shit, he did a number on you.”
Oh, yeah, her invisible scars. They were still there, but why was Parker scowling about them?
He grabbed her hand and practically dragged her back to office. There he sat her on a rolling chair and spun her around to see every screen, every piece of equipment that hummed and blinked for his attention. “This, Lexi, is what I know. I’ve told you, same as you’ve told me, how I feel. I’ve never done love. I don’t do feelings because, until you, they didn’t get in my way. I never noticed the warm fuzzies and whatever else. That’s how my brain works.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I told you I loved you for shit’s sake because I do. And you’re all ‘if you’re the girl I get caught with’? Fuck me running, what the hell more do I have to do besides notify you how I feel and want to stick with you like I can’t get enough? Because news flash, sweetheart: I can’t.”
“Parker—”
“I’ve said the words, done what feels like the right actions. But damn it, Lex, what more am I supposed to do? I am out of my element.”
Her jaw hung open. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
His hands ran into his hair. “Shit. I’m not hurt. Nor am I concerned about you going anywhere. If that makes me a cocky motherfucker, fine. Call me cocky. But you need to realize what’s in front of you.”
“I see you. I do. I get it. I think. It’s just, I don’t know. I—”
“You are more amazing than even you know.” His hands rubbed over his face. “And I have no idea how to do more than be by your side, saying the words that I thought were supposed to do the trick, holding your hand—I mean, tell me what you need, Lex. Then consider it done.”
Unexpected tears streamed down her face. “I want you.”
“You need to trust me.”
“I trust you. It’s me I don’t.”
“Then fix it, Lex.”
She wiped her wet cheeks. “I’m trying.”
“Good.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “I can plan the crap out of a mission objective. Give me a little time, and this job is good as done.”
“I’m a job?” she squeaked.
“It’s the only way I know how to fix things.”
Her eyes went wide. “What do I have to do?”
“Grab on.” He extended his hand. “We’ll find a way to figure it out.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Basketball played on Parker’s flat screen as he lounged in the living room while sipping his beer with his woman in his arms. Lex played on her tablet and mindlessly petted Bacon, same as she had every night this week. Titan didn’t have any teams on mission, and Jared had turned over all of Titan’s intel on the ARO to the Defense Intelligence Agency. Life was good. Parker could be lazy and do nothing, and he enjoyed the daily routine he and Lexi had picked up.
She twisted to face him. “I’ve identified part of my problem.”
“What are you working on?” he asked.
“No. I mean with me.”
Muting the college hoops, even though his bracket was totally killing it, he thought it was interesting that she’d figured out an aspect of the trust-herself problem when he was no closer to the resolution. If he’d had one of those within his sights, he could at least mentally crunch the numbers and know statistically if it had a shot in hell at being successful. “Alright. Shoot.”
His plan was to lie low, stay in bed, order delivery, make love, make her scream, walk the dog, and start over again. It might even be a solution. He wasn’t saying it wasn’t, but he had checked the computational value of just living as they were. Whatever, he was overthinking this. When she was ready to trust herself, she would.
She turned around again. Her back was on his stomach, her blond hair spread on his chest. Bacon was on the floor, snoring like a fat man, even if the girl had lost a few pounds. Lexi’s arm hung off the sofa, casually petting her dog and sometimes rolling the poor thing over when she got too loud. The casualness of it all made him comfortable, made him feel complete, as though he shouldn’t be anywhere but holding her and watching ball on TV.
“I don’t belong anywhere,” she said quietly. “I don’t go home at the end of the night because I don’t have anywhere to go.”
One week. Seven dinners, seven nights in bed. Eight mornings of waking with her in his arms, and he had no intention of making the eighth night any different. Actually, he had no intention of changing the eighth, the eighteenth, or the eightieth night, and he was confident about her thinking that too. “You don’t like staying here?”
She twisted to face him. “I love staying with you.”
“So stay here.” He shrugged.
“I can’t just stay here. I need a place where I live.”
“Seems like you’re living now.”
“You’re a guy. You don’t get it. I need a place that’s mine. With my things. My stuff. I mean, everything at my old house, I’m sure he’s sold it off or burned it or whatever. But I need more than just the stuff Sugar and I went shopping for.”
“I like you being here, sweetheart, but I’m also not about to let you out of my sight when I’m not one hundred percent sure that no terrorist fuckers are going to try to grab you in the middle of the night.”
“I’m a work thing!”
He laughed as she grumbled. “You’re not a work thing, and you know it.”
&nb
sp; Lexi pressed her forehead to his chest as if she was burying her face. “I need a place of my own. It feels weird to just be here.”
“Hmm.” He stroked her back, basking in the quiet, trying to think of how to say what he needed to say without sounding like a bossy dick. Simple facts were what he could understand. He loved her. He wanted her in his house. He enjoyed waking up with her naked body pressed to his and died to be inside her every night.
“What does ‘hmm’ mean?” she asked, resting her chin on his sternum.
“I hadn’t thought about what we were doing; I was just living each day with you.” He turned the muted television off and wrapped his arms around her. “So what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I can’t just sit and work from your office all day.”
“You want to stay here and work?” Though watching her interact with the guys who’d come through his office had been… he didn’t know the word for it. It’d been as it should be.
They all got on well, though a few had met her before. She worked hard, worked quiet. It was totally impressive to watch her think and watch her fingers fly over the keyboard. Hell, he could barely get shit done for watching her work. If he thought that leather rocker-chick look she had going on was hot, her brain gave him an instant hard-on. Because damn, she was brilliant.
She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“What’s really the problem?”
“What if you get sick of me?”
“Back to you trusting you. Still not taking offense to it, sweetheart, but I am calling you on it.” His cell phone buzzed on the table. The screen lit with his contact at the Defense Intelligence Agency. “Hang tight, I have to get this.” With a swift move, he sat her up, answered the phone, and headed toward his office. “Hello?”
“Sorry to call so late,” the familiar voice said. “But we have a confirmation and need direction on Flyaway.”
Operation Flyaway was the working title of tracking down Monarch to ARO and seeing where it landed. He’d been itching for news on Monarch for days, but since they’d handed the job off, he hadn’t heard a word. “Okay.”
“Our eyes on the ground have seen the laptop. We’re right about their intentions for micro-targeted, door-to-door attacks. But the computer was damaged, or something has corrupted it. They’ve kidnapped a few hackers and are forcing them to work. No one can pull it off, but with trial and error, they’ll get it soon.”
“Get the civilians out, blow the whole place up.” That’s what Titan would do anyway.
“We have different protocol, as you know.”
Parker grumbled. Maybe they shouldn’t have turned the Monarch problem over and just taken care of business on their own. “So what do you need?”
“A hacker who goes by the name SilverChaos. We have an opportunity to track the entire ARO network, but their system has to be infected with physical access.”
“Bullshit, I can get in anywhere.”
“There’s no time to prove you wrong. They’re decentralized, rarely hooking into network, always off the grid. They want SilverChaos, and we need physical access to rootkit the system and install malware that can harvest intel the rare times they hook in.”
Damn it. Parker couldn’t access what didn’t have a connection. But Lexi couldn’t do an in-person job. There were too many risks. “No. SilverChaos isn’t possible.”
“Any reason why not? The guy can name his price and any indemnification he wants for any outstanding issues.”
“Outstanding warrants aren’t the issue.”
“Then get a price from the guy. We need to get him in there.”
“The woman is under our protection, and we’re not turning her over for you DIA dicks to run shop over.”
“Come on, Parker. You’re not putting one person above the safety and security of a nation?”
“Of course I’m not, asshole.” Though that sounded exactly like what he was doing. Shit. “Give me another option. We’ll work on it.”
“We’re up against a hard deadline. I don’t have time to come up with another option. You can find anyone; our plan was for you to find SilverChaos.”
“I call bullshit for having only one plan.”
“You need to make this play happen. Run it by him—her. Whatever she wants. Done. Record cleared—”
“That is just one of the reasons I don’t want to turn her over to you. You assume she’s a criminal? No more than you and me, man. Plucking people out of nowhere—”
“Don’t compare some hacker to intelligence work.”
“She’s elite.”
“And I’m decorated. Get her in the goddamn office.”
Parker rubbed a hand over his face, knowing that he’d walked into that one, but worse was knowing that if it hadn’t been Lexi, he never would have balked.
“Parker, I’m one phone call away from contacting Jared Westin. No one wants to do that.”
He cackled. “Call Jared. See if he doesn’t defer to me, asshole. Let me be clear to you. If Silver does anything associated with this job, I call the shots and I run point. You got that? Because Jared will defer to me.”
“Fuck me, tell me Silver’s not actually Titan?”
“In every sense of the word. For all you care, Silver is Titan in every conceivable way you can imagine, then some you can’t.”
The man grumbled in Parker’s ear before agreeing. “Call you back.”
“Fine. Call, as long as you have more than one option.” Parker hung up the phone, pocketed it, and turned to find Lexi staring at him.
“What do they want me to do?” she asked.
Damn it. “No idea. I didn’t get that far because they didn’t have another option for consideration.” That, and no way was he involving her in anything like this. He could imagine the job—sending her to some Jihadist work site—and it didn’t matter if it was in the States or overseas. It was a big, fat, hell no.
“I can help.”
“They’re going to ask for a lot more than help, Lex.” Like her life. He wouldn’t risk it, and he wouldn’t let her consider it either. Parker shook his head, feeling anxiety grow in his chest. SilverChaos was the best option for the greater good. “No. Nope. No way. There’s always another way. They shouldn’t have approached me with a single option.”
She pulled her cell from her back pocket. “I’ll call Sugar. She’ll call Jared, and I can talk to whoever that was.”
“Lex.”
“And then I’ll get my way.”
He rubbed his temple. “You have no idea what you’re asking. I have no idea what they want, just a few assumptions. So to agree to that before we even know? I can’t, and you won’t.”
“But I can.”
“Why?” he near-shouted, frustration at the situation choking him.
“You know I’m the best solution. If I can keep people from being hurt, then I want to.”
“Lex—”
“I created it, don’t you get that? I have a responsibility to stop it.”
“And I have a responsibility to you!” He threw out his arms. “I want you here. I need you here. In this house. Under this roof. I need you just as badly as I love you. Goddamn it, I don’t want to run the numbers on this op’s risk. I don’t want to crunch data as to whether or not you will make it out alive. Alive! Don’t you get that?”
She blinked, not saying a word.
His insides raged. Not at her. Just at the world, just because she was right. “I can’t look at statistical computations and make any justification for what should be done, what’s worth the risk. It eats me alive, but I can’t choose them over you. You. Are. Mine. And I can’t say I want you to help because it’d be a lie.”
Breathing like a mad man, he paced the room. She didn’t budge, just watched him circle as his phone rang again.
“Shit,” he growled. It would either be Boss Man or his point of contact at the DIA. Either way, he didn’t want to take the call. But he grabbed the phone, his sense of honor w
arring with his sense of self. DIA POC. Shit again, but he answered. “Better be good news.”
“Sorry—”
He flung the phone on the bed and stormed out.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
The phone’s screen ticked seconds away, and Lexi alternated looking at it and at the door Parker had just stormed through. She’d put him in this crappy position, torn between doing the right thing and what he wanted to do. Well, she could make life a lot easier for him. Holding her breath, she climbed onto the bed and held the cell as if this was a make-or-break moment. And it was, on several levels. She was choosing to protect Parker from her, but at the same time, going against his wishes. She was also protecting the world from what she’d created. She couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try.
Gingerly, she held the phone to her ear. This conversation could change the course of her life. Parker could walk away from her or, as he’d made clear, she might die.
Crap. No good solution.
Lexi took a deep breath and whispered, “Hello?”
“Hello? Who is this?”
Her insides trembled. “This is Silver.”
There was a long pause, making her wonder if she had done the wrong thing.
“Hello?” she tried again.
Finally, a string of low curses. “It’s ten fifty-seven on a Wednesday night. He’s flipping out, and you’re on the phone.”
“Yes.”
“You’re Parker Black’s woman?”
She nodded. “Yes.” Though pulling a move like this might mean she would no longer be Parker’s. “Can you tell me what’s going on? Or at least why you need me?”
“Goddamn it. Hang on.” There was noise in the background, as if whoever it was was talking to someone else. Seconds ticked by. “I can’t share, Silver. It’s classified.”
“But it’s about me? I want to help, just talk to me.”
“Shit. Let me think. We’ll call back.”
“No. Wait. Tell me enough, what’s not classified.” Because if he got off the phone and started talking about her as Parker’s woman, not Silver the hacker, she didn’t trust that anyone would make an unbiased decision. “I can make this happen. I have to help. I—need to. But I can’t hurt him, and he won’t put me in a dangerous position. Just give me enough that I can tell you what to do with me, then you do what you need to.”
