“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I asked as I slipped her phone out of my pocket and held it up.
“Oh, my God!” she said. “I totally forgot you had that.” She eyed me again, as though she didn’t know what to think anymore. “Thanks for giving that back.”
“My pleasure.”
I pulled back and watched her drive out of the parking lot.
My phone had a new text blinking at the top. I compared the number with the one Kat had entered. They were different.
Fake number, Kat?
I smiled—I hadn’t expected any different. To get under her skin enough to be memorable, I’d needed to push her way past her comfort point. The natural reaction was to try and avoid that discomfort in the future. That’s where stealing her phone came into play.
The games are only about to begin.
3
~ Kat ~
“I’ll see you tomorrow!” I kept the artificial smile in place for as long as I could hold it. My ribs shook as I held in the emotion gnawing at my insides. The control unraveled as I walked across the parking lot and drew closer to Carly.
I barely made it inside before I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Oh, God.” I rested my head on the steering wheel. Tears welled up and spilled down my cheeks as silent sobs wracked my body.
Stress had mounted over the past three weeks since my first day at ARCANE. I was so overwhelmed and didn’t know how to deal with it—I’d never felt so out of my depth. As an outsider coming in, I had no support structure in place at ARCANE—the people underneath me were older and resentful that a younger woman with barely any experience had been placed above them.
They have good reason to feel that way, too.
It was hard to get anything done when none of the people working for you had any respect for your ideas or strategies.
I need a break.
All my friends were thoroughly entrenched in the tech scene—it was hard to get away from it in San Francisco. I didn’t want to have to talk about it—needed something to take my mind off things and let me destress.
James’ chiseled jaw came to mind. He looked like he knew how to take a woman’s mind off reality for a night. I should have given him my real number.
Too late now. I did the right thing. Getting involved with a bad boy like him would feel incredible—it always does—but it would just lead to trouble later.
I pulled my phone out to check my messages, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand to wipe away the tears.
There was a text from an unknown number.
A fake number, really? I would have thought you’d have more integrity than that. You think you’re clever, don’t you, princess? ~James
I stared at the phone, jaw sagging. My thumbs flashed as I tapped out a response.
How the hell did you get my number? I knew you were a creep!
I waited, breathless. His text had come in a few hours before, but something within me knew that I wouldn’t have to wait long for a response.
That something was right—James texted back almost immediately.
I had your phone for a long time. Something told me you wouldn’t be honorable about this whole thing. What’s your address? I’m picking you up at six.
His text sent a delightful chill through me. The presumption was incredible—and a huge turn-on.
I didn’t answer, but threw my phone down in the passenger seat and started Carly. The engine whirred to life no problem, whatever issue that had plagued her earlier now gone.
The drive home barely registered as I thought about the text on my phone from the hunky James. He didn’t care about my feelings or what I wanted—he would probably want to pick me up for a token date before trying to take me back to his place. I wouldn’t let that happen, but the thought of his body over mine, his hard shoulders under my hands as he took me—it drove me to distraction.
I could still recall his words: “…giving you the best sex of your life.” By the time I got to the Mission District, my panties were wet from fantasizing about him.
Fuck it.
Before I could stop myself, I entered my address into the phone and hit send.
I won't have sex with him. I just need something to take my mind off work and clear my head.
Once I got inside the apartment, the phone beeped again.
Wear active clothing.
That was it.
Active clothing?
I would have gone with my usual date wear—cute dress and low heels.
What’s up his sleeve?
It was only an hour until he would come to pick me up, so I didn’t have much time. A quick bite to eat and a hot shower made me more human. The heavy responsibilities of the job still weighed behind my temples, clamoring for attention, but I pushed them away as best I could.
I’d only just finished pinning my long hair up in a ponytail when my phone beeped. It was exactly six o’clock.
Here.
Shit.
I rushed to the door, picking up a purse and tossing on sneakers. A low, bright red sedan sat on the curb outside the front door—a Tesla Model S.
Huh. Expensive, bit pretentious, but also electric. Interesting choice. Not one I expected, based on what I knew of the man.
“You got here right on time,” I said as I opened the door and slid into the vehicle. “Not a minute early and not a minute late—impressive.”
He wore a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, as well as a pair of expensive sunglasses.
“They teach you to be punctual in the Marines,” James said. “If you’re early then you’re wasting your own time, and if you’re late you’re wasting everyone else’s.”
“You were in the military?” That explained the muscles. I gave him another look. His posture was good—better than most. I hadn’t noticed until now. “That’s surprising.”
“Is it?” he asked. “You know nothing about me.”
I had to concede the point. “That’s true. I guess you didn’t strike me as a guy who would be so selfless.”
James took his eyes off the road to look at me with a small quirk of his lips. “You think you need to be selfless to enlist? It’s cute how innocent you are.”
His condescension didn’t piss me off like it should have. It made me want to smack him, but it also made me want to climb on top of him.
This is a dangerous mood to be in.
I hadn’t so much as thought about sex for the past three weeks, and the pent-up desires were going to get me into trouble.
A change in topic was the safest path forward. “Where are we going for this date?”
“It’s a surprise,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind wind.”
“I'll find out soon enough,” I pointed out. He was keeping me in the dark just to piss me off. It was working.
I watched the street signs, trying to figure out what his final destination was.
“So, you were in the Marines? Where were you deployed—did you do any crazy missions?”
He sported that cocky grin again. “I’m afraid that’s classified information. Civilians aren’t allowed to know what I’ve spent the last four years doing.”
Trying to extract information from him was like talking to a brick wall. A sassy, unrepentant brick wall.
“What do you do now, then? This is a fancy car for ex-military, isn’t it?”
“I work for a large international bank, doing something you wouldn’t understand. They pay me a lot for what I do, and it comes with perks, including traveling around the world for meetings, luxurious accommodations and nice cars.”
Again with the condescension. “You don’t think I'd understand what you do? Why don’t you try me?”
“The main goal is to optimize exposure to collateralized debt obligations in such a way that returns are outsized relative to the risk assumed by the bank, and that comes by having more detailed information than anyone else is working with.”
Damn. What the hell does that eve
n mean?
“Sounds lame,” I said, unable to think of anything else.
He laughed, a hearty chuckle that filled the car’s cabin. “It is lame, but it pays well.”
He exited the I-280 for John Daly Boulevard and I felt confident enough to make a guess at our destination, given his clue about wind earlier. “You’re taking me to Fort Funston, aren’t you?”
“Wow,” he said, glancing over at me as he turned onto the boulevard, “I’m impressed. Have you been there?”
“Only once. It’s so close, but there are so many other cool things to do around the city that I’ve never made it back.”
“Today’s your lucky day, then.”
The park was only a short drive off the highway, a gorgeous windswept stretch of beach and cliff that used to be a military installation. James parked and we headed up the main trail.
Wind blew in a constant stream around us, making conversation difficult.
“Do you come here often?” I asked.
“A fair amount,” he replied. “It’s got some of the best winds in the country.”
Before long, we got to the observation deck at the top of the cliff. The ocean stretched out for miles into the distance, waves rolling in from across the vast expanse. A handful of other people leaned on the railing and watched a parade of hang gliders soar back and forth along the cliffs.
I leaned against the railing, and James stood close to me, putting his hand on my lower back. His palm felt impossibly hot—the contact was like a jolt to my system, and half my attention diverted to how near he was. The parts of my body facing him felt warm, as if he was a second sun.
I looked up at him out of the corner of my eye. He gazed out over the ocean. If he was as aware of me the way I was of him, he hid it well.
Come on, Kat. Don’t let yourself get caught up in this guy. You know it will just end badly for you.
“They look so peaceful,” I said, nodding toward the gliders. “It must look incredible up above everything, flying like a bird.”
“It does,” James said. His voice was low and rumbly, near my ear. It made the hairs on the back of my neck rise, and tingles ran down my body.
“You’ve done it?”
He nodded. “It’s one of my passions. I became addicted to being in the air in the Marines—from the first time I jumped out of a plane, I was hooked and knew I wanted to chase that feeling for the rest of my life.”
“Wow. I can’t even imagine working up the guts to do that. I’ve always wanted to, but I’ve never mustered up the courage.”
“Do you want to try?”
“What?” I turned to face him. With the way his hand rested on my lower back, the movement pulled me closer to him, almost into an embrace. I looked only inches up into his face. “You can’t be serious.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you.” His mouth said one thing, but the glint in his eyes said another.
He’s insane! I can’t just go hang gliding with him.
Hot, visceral fear welled in my belly, but adrenaline also flooded my system and gave me a rush. His presence was like a drug, inhibiting clear thought and giving me ideas I shouldn’t have entertained.
“You’d keep me safe?”
I couldn’t prevent my eyes from darting between his lips and his eyes. He was so close.
“Always.”
I bit my lip. It was crazy to even think about saying yes. James was a complete stranger I’d only met that morning, and here he was asking me to trust him enough to go hang gliding.
People die doing that!
There was something about him. Despite his cocky attitude and condescending manner, a part of me wanted to trust him, like he was a close friend.
My fear settled, leaving only the tingles over my skin from the decision I’d made.
“Let’s do it, then.”
4
~ James ~
The straps rattled as I checked the connections one final time.
Kat stood next to me, holding onto my arm as we prepared to launch.
“Ready to go? Do you remember everything I told you in the briefing?”
She nodded, but she was wary, watching everything I did. “I think so. Are you sure we’ll be safe?”
I chuckled, overplaying it to put her at ease. “We’ll be fine. I’ve done this hundreds of times. You’ve read the pamphlet, signed the forms, and been briefed. We’ve watched a few other tandem launches. There are no surprises here. You know exactly what’s going to happen and what we have to do.”
Kat took a deep breath and nodded again, this time more sure. “You’re right. I can do this.”
We'd both suited up in helmets and equipment to reduce the drag as we glided through the air. It was our turn to launch.
“Okay, we’re up. I’ll count down from three, and then we’ll run into it, okay?”
I waited for her nod. She clutched my arm tighter.
“Three. Two. One. Go.”
I led the way, giving her the pace to match as we charged to the edge of the cliff.
The wing of the glider caught the wind, lifting us as the ground fell away beneath our feet.
“Holy crap!” Kat yelled as we took flight. The harness suspended her to the left and slightly behind me. “We did it!”
Transitioning from running to flying was quick and simple—it had taken me by surprise the first time I’d glided.
“How does it feel?” I asked. I banked ninety degrees to the right to follow the beach and maintain our positioning within the lift region. The wind rose around the cliffs in a predictable manner—if I kept us on a certain path, then we could stay aloft for a long time before coming in for a landing.
Kat laughed. “This is incredible! I can’t believe we’re flying!”
Her arm rested over my back, and the way we hung in the harness draped part of her body over mine. I let her closeness wash over me.
It was a great day for flying—the ocean rolled away to our left, waves glistening as they reflected the sinking sun. The coastline was rocky and dusty, the windswept cliffs dotted with clumps of green brush.
“Do you want to hold the control frame and see how the steering works?” I asked.
“Are you sure? You won’t let me mess it up, will you?”
“I’m right here. Just hold the bar like I’m doing and use it to push us right and left. See how the glider responds to the movement?”
I couldn’t see her face, but her voice held all the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning. “That is so amazing! That’s all there is to it?”
There were countless intricacies to the sport—reading the wind, trick maneuvers, skimming the land, watching the weather—but she didn’t need to know that.
“That’s it—you’re a pro now.” I took back control of the craft.
“Wow. I can see why you do this all the time,” she said.
We drifted up the beach a couple miles before I turned us around with a gentle bank. A comfortable silence filled only by the wind settled between us as Kat reached her arm back around me and we watched the ground.
I gave us a few more passes of the beach before circling back to the landing zone.
“Do you remember the landing procedure I taught you?”
“You mean to let you bring us in and then try to not trip over my own feet as we touch down?”
“That’s the one.”
She chuckled. “I think I got it.”
“Good. We’ll land in one minute from here.”
If jumping off a cliff was nerve-wracking, seeing the ground come closer and closer was no walk in the park, either, especially for a first-timer.
I eased us closer, paying careful attention to our airspeed and the wind. Finally, we were close enough to flare up and touch down. Being so much taller than Kat, my feet touched first, and I ran us out, slowing us before she hit the ground.
She looked up at me, her cheeks rosy from the wind.
“Congratulations,” I said. “You’ve now completed
your first hang glide.”
Kat wrapped me in a big hug. “Thank you, James! That was fantastic. I can’t believe we did that!”
I held her close. Her head felt perfect resting on my chest.
“You were great up there. I’m impressed with how well you kept your cool.”
She looked up at me with a smile. “It must be ’cause I had such a great teacher.”
The sun sank toward the horizon, and the light caught her face and made her eyes sparkle. Her hands slid up to my wide shoulders and squeezed the muscles.
I couldn’t resist any longer. I bent my head and captured her lips in mine, teasing them open. Her right hand shifted to the back of my head, pulling me deeper. The softness of her mouth entranced me, demanding that I ravish it.
Exerting self-control, I broke off the kiss. She stared up at me as though drunk, eyes wide and lips parted.
“We should clear the landing zone; there will be many people landing soon with the sun this low.”
Kat cleared her throat and dropped her hands to her sides. “Right.”
It didn’t take long to unhook us from the harness, and I picked up the glider to carry it back to the group of spectators at the launch point.
“You’re a good kisser,” she said as we started the trek back.
“That’s not the only thing my lips are good at.”
She flushed.
She was always so easy to embarrass.
“Is that a skill they teach you in the Marines?”
I wanted to see how far I could push her limits. “You mean how to fuck? Not exactly. Stamina, maybe. Lots and lots of stamina.”
Kat turned an even darker shade of red.
We reached our goal. “I’ll need you to strip for me.”
“Excuse me?” Kat put her hands on her hips.
I guess I haven’t broken down her barriers, yet.
“I mean your equipment. We have to return everything.”
“Oh, right. I almost forgot about it.”
We divested ourselves of the helmets and flying suits, folding everything up neatly beside the glider.
Bad Boy Boxed Set Page 2
