My pussy knew we weren’t done. And he knew we weren’t done. My brain was the lone holdout. My brain knew what was good for me. The tension swirled around us as his heat enveloped me.

  “You thought it would be that easy?” he growled, the tone sending a shiver of need through me.

  “I’m leaving Ben. I have a long day ahead of me.”

  “A long day? Do you have any idea how long the night was without you next to me? And the waking hours were almost worse because I didn’t know if you’d deign to grace me with your presence again.”

  My instinct was to whirl around and give him a piece of my mind. But I figured that was exactly what he expected from me. No. I could do cold civility.

  He braced both his hands on the door on either side of my head, and I didn’t have to squeeze my thighs together to know that my panties were soaked.

  I bit back a whimper and clenched my thighs together as a tingle of awareness made me clench.

  No. No. No.

  He did not get to turn my life upside down, keep things from me, and then be mad that I’d kept something from him.

  Yes, he does. You said you wanted honest and simple.

  Okay fine, he did have a right to be pissed. But being pissed while making me want him against my will, that was low. With fury making me clench my jaw tight, I angled my head so my gaze could meet his. The prison of his muscles kept me from escape. I frantically fought the pull of need.

  A lock of hair had fallen over his forehead, and his brows were locked in the down and furious position. His lips slightly parted as if in anticipation, but it was his eyes, as always, that got me. Equal parts fury and desire, his gaze was a war zone of all the shoulds and shouldn’ts running through his mind.

  Ben leaned forward as he caged me between his body and the door. His chest rumbled with a groan just before he leaned closer and buried his face in the crook of my neck.

  With a shuddering sigh, I angled my neck to give him better access. What was it about his touch that made me so desperate for more? My skin was practically on fire. I’d only been gone a day, but it felt like he hadn’t touched me in a century.

  “Do you have any idea how much I have worried about you?” he rasped against my throat in between hot kisses to my bared skin. He began kissing his way up my jawline until he buried his hand in my hair and turned me toward him so he could cover my mouth with his.

  I didn’t fight it, just melted beneath him and allowed him to direct how I moved. My thighs opened of their own accord, and he moved right in between them like he belonged there. When he settled against me, everything inside of me woke up and flared to life. Nothing else mattered but this.

  I could fool myself that I’d come back to keep the drive from falling into the wrong hands or that I needed his protection, but there was no denying that a part of me had come back because I couldn’t stay away. Everything inside me wanted to be where Ben was. Always. I’d known it in Paris. There was no denying it anymore.

  “What are you doing?” I choked out when his hands went to the button on my wide-leg trousers. I’d worn them deliberately because they made my ass look fantastic. That’s right, I was a tease and I couldn’t find a fuck to give about that fact.

  I gasped again when he practically ripped the zipper off while tugging it down.

  So… This was happening.

  Pussy: 1

  Brain: 0

  “Reminding you.” Ben yanked off his vest and tugged at the buttons on his shirt before he ripped it off.

  “Of what?” I croaked out.

  I gasped as his hand slipped inside my trousers and between my legs, the heat of his fingers branding me as they lit me on fire.

  With the first glide of his fingers, I bit back a harsh moan. He knew what he was doing. I’d be damned if I’d give him the satisfaction of letting him know how desperate I was for his touch.

  But I was the one being played... like the most delicate of violins played by a master. The harsh groan that tore out from me felt inevitable as those talented fingers parted my slick folds and found my clit with startling accuracy. I ached for him to fill me. To remind me of his stupid nickname. When he dipped his fingers inside my velvet sheath, I automatically clamped around him, my aching flesh feeling too empty.

  “Of who you belong to. Who this belongs to.” Ben kissed me again, our tongues tangling wildly as we each fought to take control. There was something about Ben that made everything feminine and soft inside me wake up and melt under his hands.

  I couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but every single time we kissed, I turned into a puddle of hormones.

  Is that all this is? Are we pretending Paris didn’t happen?

  This time was no exception. Within seconds, I was whimpering and canting my hips, trying to get more of his deft fingers. Trying to rock against him, desperate for what I knew he could give me.

  Despite the internal warning blaring in my mind that this was not a good idea, I started pulling frantically at my own clothes, almost breaking a nail in my haste to get my trousers down my legs.

  With a bit-off curse, he reached behind me and flipped the lock then practically tore off his trousers and boxers. My throat went dry as he stood before me. The ridiculous eight-pack of abs. That V. The whipcord lean muscle on his body. That face, beautiful enough to make angels weep.

  And then there was the dick. Big.

  No. Screw that. Pun intended. It was huge. And it was erect and pointing at me in a very accusatory manner.

  As if to complain that I’d finally given him a taste and then walked away from him.

  Once we were both naked, he didn’t waste any time. He lifted me easily in a smooth move and we were plastered together chest to thigh. With nothing between us now I could feel everything. Every muscle, every twitch of his thigh. Every bob of his dick against my slick heat.

  I was already lost in him, my whole being focused on touching my lips to every inch of the smooth skin presented to me. I ran my hands through his hair, loving the feel of the thick strands gliding through my fingers.

  He hitched me even higher and bit my throat, which made me arch my back slightly.

  “So beautiful,” he whispered. “Don’t run away from me again. Need you.” He spoke so softly that I wasn’t sure if he’d intended me to hear that last part.

  “I need you. I need you.” I just kept repeating it over and over. But instead of making it better, the soft words seemed to make him more frantic. His hands clenched my hips tighter, and his lips sucked at my neck.

  “Why can’t I stop wanting you? Even when I know you lied to me, I still want you. Fuuuuck. It’s almost worse now than before.”

  My mind spun at his angry words. He wanted me despite everything I’d done. What about his secret keeping?

  Pussy: Please focus so we can get on with the many orgasms. Sincerely, Your Lady Parts.

  It was impossible to hold the train of thought while Ben was licking my neck and my core was rubbing against his stomach.

  His grip tightened on me. “I would never let anything hurt you, Liv.”

  For the first time in my life, words failed me. All I could do was clutch him tighter.

  He dropped his forehead to mine. “We’re not done, Liv. Far from it.” He lifted me then and slid inside, so deep that my eyes rolled back in my head. My mouth opened on a silent scream from the sheer pleasure, and Ben paused, those ice-blue eyes I loved roaming my face to make sure I was okay.

  “Too rough?” he whispered.

  My nails tightened on his shoulders, and he hissed at the pain.

  I tightened my legs around his waist. “No. Please. Don’t you dare stop!”

  He grinned before he rocked his hips again, grinding deeper. We both moaned at the sensation, and Ben’s fingers tightened under my ass. I clutched him closer, my hands roaming over his muscular back and shoulders as I hung on for dear life. He must have liked that because he growled, a low, sexy sound that instantly made me wetter before he set a frantic pace that had my head banging against the wall.

  “Oh my God!”

  I panted, taking in short, sharp breaths as my desire raced out of control. He was so strong, and the fact that he was holding me while he fucked me against the wall was such a turn on. I purred as the thought of him controlling my body so easily made me think of the other ways he could take control. I wouldn’t have thought I’d ever like the idea of being restrained in any way, but every time he picked me up or held me still so he could do all these dirty, delicious things to me, it was impossible to pretend I didn’t want this.

  Ben was grunting in my ear along with every thrust, and his muscles went tight. “Fuuck, Livy.” I tightened my internal muscles around him, which felt so good that I moaned.

  When he shifted his stance, he hit that spot that I hadn’t even known existed until a few days ago, and suddenly I was coming, biting and scratching as I groaned against his shoulder.

  “Fuck! I can’t… Liv.” Ben squeezed me so tightly that I almost couldn’t breathe, and then he shuddered and groaned as he filled me with cum.

  Ben

  Well… That happened.

  PS, that also happened with no fucking rubber, you jackarse.

  I should be worried about that. I should be scared. But I wasn’t. Clearly, she’d fucked me until I had no working brain cells. I’d fucked her… in my office… without a condom. Who the fuck was I anyway?

  I had no idea how long we’d stayed braced to the door. What I did know was that as soon as I set her feet down on the floor, she gathered her clothes and went into my bathroom. When she emerged ten minutes later, she was completely composed as if that wasn’t fucking unbelievable.

  My balls ached just thinking about it.

  But she’d walked out of my office like none of that shit had mattered.

  What was worse, I knew the Spanish Inquisition was coming. There was no hiding her reemergence from East. And East gossiped more than any woman I knew, so he’d tell Drew and Bridge immediately today at our weekly team meeting, and they wouldn’t hold back.

  Surprisingly though, it wasn’t East who started in with the questions. It was Bridge.

  The moment I walked in, I could practically see them mentally clapping their hands together, rubbing them with glee at my impending discomfort. “Mate,” Bridge said, grinning. “First of all, you shagged her?”

  I gritted my teeth together. “Honestly, are we going to gossip like schoolgirls?”

  East chimed in then. “Yep, he’s shagging her now.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “You two are wankers. Do you know that?”

  Bridge shrugged. “I’m happily coupled. I need my gossip from somewhere.”

  Shaking my head, I slouched in my seat. “Don’t we have clients to discuss?”

  Bridge shook his head. “No client we have right now is as important as this information. She’s well and properly miffed with you, mate.”

  “Did you really not tell her?” East asked as he leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.

  I wanted to crawl out of my own skin. As angry as I was with her for copying the drive, Livy was right; I had kept the details from her. I hadn’t told her even half of what was truly going on. I kept her in the dark. At the time, I’d told myself I was keeping her in the dark for her own safety. But I knew better. I’d been covering my tracks. And now those ambitions had come back to bite me in the arse. “Yeah, I didn’t exactly tell her.”

  East sat back. “Mate, I’m not the wanker. You are.”

  I scrubbed a hand up my face. “Yeah, I know. I fucked up.”

  Bridge just chuckled and twirled a pen between his fingers. Dexterous and fluid, he didn’t drop it. Hell, he wasn’t even looking at his hand or the pen. That ability had made him a particularly skilled pickpocket when he was young. “The question is, now will she ever let you shag her again?”

  “You know, that’s not helpful.”

  He shrugged. “Helpful or not, that’s the truth of it. How are you going to fix it?”

  Wasn’t that the question?

  Because that angry shag in my office yesterday certainly wasn’t going to fix things. All it had done was make me want her more with the kind of fiery burning in my lungs that I couldn’t escape. I’d managed to avoid her this morning, but that was sheer luck. Subconsciously, my body and brain sought her out. I’d walked by her office on my way down to this meeting, and I’d sent her several emails without even intending to, really.

  I deliberately delayed getting ready this morning to try to leave with her, only to find that she’d left without me. And the worst part of it was that I basically had a semi-erect cock ninety-nine percent of the time. Always primed and ready for action on the off chance I got to see her in the coffee room, or the kitchen, or when she was bent over her desk in her office. God, what the hell was wrong with me? “There is something I need to tell you though.” East and Bridge both leaned forward, hoping for something juicy to sink their teeth into. “She made a copy of the drive.”

  East’s eyes went wide. “Come again?”

  Bridge’s gaze narrowed to slits. “Livy, our Livy, made a copy?”

  I nodded slowly. “Yep. Apparently, she didn’t trust me about what information was on the drive. So she made a copy and had her friend Telly, who owns Brinx Technologies, try to take a look at it.”

  East ran his hands through his hair. “Jesus fucking Christ. That drive has all the names of the Elite. The potential names of the Five. Important information that certain people don’t want to get out. Fuck. There are tripwires all over that damn thing. You go snooping on the wrong area and it either erases the drive or sends some kind of alert somewhere.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it.” I pushed to my feet and started pacing the length of Bridge’s office. “I’m so fucking angry with her.” I blasted out a frustrated sigh. “It doesn’t stop me wanting her though.”

  Bridge gave a mirthless chuckle then. “Yeah, welcome to the world of women. Sometimes you want to choke them and fuck them at the same time.”

  East lifted a brow. “Mate, neither one of us wants to know about your kinks. No judgment, but asphyxiation? Come on.”

  Bridge sputtered. “Arsehole, you know that’s not what I meant.”

  East held up both hands. “Like I said, no judgment.” Then he waved his hands in front of his face and winked. “Except all the judgment.”

  Bridge scowled at him and said, “For all we know, she could have brought this on herself. Tripped something that she wasn’t supposed to.”

  East frowned. His brow furrowed as he thought it through and rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “I don’t know. Telly, hasn’t had any problems, right?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not to my knowledge. She seems perfectly safe.”

  “Yeah, and if something was tripped, they’d be all over her.”

  I winced. “Well, actually, she had a friend help her.”

  Both of them cursed then. Bridge’s voice was barely above a growl when he said, “Jesus fucking Christ, how many people are up in this business now?”

  “She knows some proper white-hat hacker with black-hat skills. It’s not like he’d be careless, and Telly didn’t report anyone being all over his arse either. So I don’t think it was the drive.”

  East sat forward. “I mean, are we back to the suspicion that Livy’s dangerous to us?”

  I frowned at that. The thing was that I knew her. To the bone. To the core. She wasn’t after us. She was just looking for her own insurance. “No. She made a dumb mistake, but she was just looking out for herself, covering her arse. After all, she didn’t know us. She didn’t know she could trust me. I had put her in danger. How was she supposed to trust me?”

  East nodded. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. All right, I’ll just do a quick look-see at Telly Brinx. I also need the name of her mate.”

  I shook my head. “All I know is that it was Matthias something or other. That’s all Telly told Livy.”

  Bridge raised his hands. “All right, so East will look into Telly Brinx and see if he can find out anything about her friend, I guess. Then where does that leave us and everything else we have planned?”

  I shook my head. “We have no choice; we have to keep going after Van Linsted. Keep moving the plan along as much as we can. We don’t have much time left.”

  He nodded slowly. “We need another meeting with Lucas.”

  “I agree. Jessa’s due back here soon. I’ll get her to bring Roone. Lucas is already coming, so we’re going to move this forward as quickly as possible. Roone is skilled in surveillance. I want him keeping tabs on Marcus Van Linsted. I don’t trust the old coot.”

  Bridge’s voice was low when he spoke. “Mate, at this point, we can’t trust anybody. Including the one person you’re protecting. We need to watch our backs, you, most of all. Because right now, it looks like she has you in the palm of her hand.”

  “I’m not in her palm.”

  Yes, you are. She owns you.

  I shoved that thought aside. “I guarantee you she’s not involved in this.”

  Bridge shook his head. “I’m not saying she is. Hell, I don’t think she is. But every move she makes, someone somewhere is watching. We just have to figure out who because we’re missing a key piece. Sure, she could be in danger because of us. We accept that. We understand that. But what if that’s not the complete picture? Some action she’s taken could be causing all this. We have to protect her against an unseen enemy, which is going to be one hell of a task.”

  He was right. We still weren’t sure of anything. “We need to figure it out. She’s counting on us.” I’d already let her down once. I didn’t have any intention of letting her down again.

  The two of them exchanged glances.

  “What are those looks for?”

  East just grinned. “It’s just nice to see you care about another woman again. It’s been a long time.”

  “Shut it.”

  And then they both started humming a nursery rhyme about Olivia and me, kissing in a tree. Jesus Christ. One of these days, I was going to upgrade those two for more mature friends.