Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
She whistles and shakes her head. “That’s not good.”
“No kidding.” I sip my coffee, considering. “We’ll need to try something else.”
“We can always, you know—” She stretches out on my couch with a sigh and looks at me upside down. “Steal it.”
“Not this again.”
“Better than waiting ten thousand years. You’re going to be an ugly mummy by the time that happens.”
“We’ll both be mummies with bullet wounds in their foreheads.” I study my wife, considering. “I’ll come up with something else.”
“Oh, come on.” She stretches, and her top pulls up, showing a naked band of flesh around the top of her tights. I stare at that skin and think about pushing her shirt up more, up over her breasts, taking my mouth to her pierced nipple—
Focus, damn it.
“Are you here to help, or are you going to make the same suggestion over and over again?” I’m being a little needlessly surly, but it’s better than walking over there and fucking her senseless, which is what I really want to do right now.
“I’m going to keep on suggesting it until you realize it’s our only option.” She props her face on one hand. Her top stays pulled up, and now I’m sure she’s messing with me because she knows I keep looking. Her eyebrows raise, and she’s got a sly smile. “Why are you staring at me?”
“Because you’re bothering me.”
“Oh, no, I’m distracting the poor genius hacker?” She pouts and bats her eyelashes. “Are you going to punish me?”
A thrill runs into my stomach, and I’m already half hard thinking about smacking her perky, pale ass until it’s pink with my handprints.
“You want me to leave my mark on you, Riley?” I lean forward, staring at her with a vicious hunger. “Or do you think this is just some game?”
“I think it’s a game,” she says, smiling softer now and stretching again. “And I think you’re also full of shit. You’re going to sit at that computer all day, cursing and getting all mad, and in the end, you’re going to realize I was right all along. Why not save us both some time and get right to doing what I want?”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Is that something you get often? What you want?”
“Rarely,” she says, glancing at my arm muscles.
So, the little kitten likes what she sees as well?
I smirk slightly and let her eyes move along my torso. They linger on my lips for a moment. And I swear, now she’s blushing. I wish I could read her mind and hear all the dirty thoughts she’s got rattling in that filthy brain of hers.
“You aren’t getting anywhere near Mantis again. The last time you were in the same room with one of their operatives, you got us into this mess.”
“I was ignorant. Mea culpa. But I know better now.” She sits up and spreads her hands. “Use me, Alexan.”
My eyebrows raise. “Use you?”
Her cheeks turn pink. “You know what I mean. Use my skills.”
“I was thinking I’d use you for something else.” I lick my lips, thinking about her mouth wrapped around the head of my cock, sucking and moaning and whimpering for me to fuck her.
“I’m going to admit that I feel a little guilty about this, okay?” She says it quickly, like she’s rushing to cover something else. “I didn’t know who I was stealing from, but that’s not really a good excuse. I’m impulsive sometimes, alright? I screwed up and now you’re involved, and I just want to do something to help. That’s all.”
I consider that while drinking my coffee. She sits back on the couch, arms crossed over her chest, looking frustrated.
“That’s admirable,” I finally admit. “You want to make this right. I totally get that.”
“I want to be useful,” she says. “I can be useful. You just have to trust me first.”
“I believe you, I really do, even though I’m kind of surprised, but it’s not about your skills.”
“Great, thanks, that’s almost a compliment. What’s it about then?”
“Keeping you safe. Making sure the alliance we built doesn’t fall apart.” I lean forward before she can talk over me. “My boss murdered your leader’s brother. Do you have any idea how hard it is to come back from something like that? The fact that we’re sitting here in this room together is a testament to hard work and pure luck. The second we screw this up is the second a lot of people will start trying to kill each other again, and I don’t want that. I assume you don’t either.”
She looks toward the window, frowning. “I don’t want that,” she says gently. “I knew some of the men that died. They were boys, really.”
“Then I have to keep you safe. I need to preserve this relationship. Which means you go nowhere near Mantis.”