Page 84 of Irresistibly Dangerous

“So you said the other day.”

I hold her tighter against me, dragging her back right up against my chest. “He won’t get anything we don’t want him to have. I’ve gone through your stuff and locked it all down. He’s good, but I’m a lot better. He’s searching for vulnerabilities, the same way I did with Ezra, but he won’t find anything he can use to discount you or me.”

She sighs. “How have you not had the FBI or NSA knocking on your door?”

“Because I have nothing to prove to anyone. I’m not a hacktivist, and I don’t have a master plan to overthrow the government. I don’t need to hack something just to prove I can, or do it simply because I can. My father always told me not to hack something for pride or arrogance because that’s how you get in trouble. Like our friends here.”

“But what you do is still illegal.”

I stiffen because we’ve never directly talked about this. “Yes,” I hedge and clear my throat. “Does that bother you?”

I watch her face as she thinks about that, and her hand trickles along my stubbled jaw. “No. I mean, as long as you’re not doing it for evil or to unnecessarily hurt people.”

“I don’t. Unless someone tries to fuck with someone important to me.”

She smiles and rubs her nose against mine. “I love your protective side. It makes me feel safe. Like I know that no matter what, you’d never let anyone hurt me.”

“I won’t,” I promise her, my lips grazing hers. Knowing I’ll do whatever it takes to keep that promise and never break it.

“What in the Long Island Sound are we doing out here?” Georgia shrieks as icy wind along with an unpleasant pelting of snow and ice barrages us.

“We have a dog.”

“Can’t she poop inside?”

I laugh watching Georgia jump up and down, hopping from one foot to the next as if the snow-covered earth she’s standing on is made of hot coals, and she’s afraid of burning her feet through her knee-high snow boots. She’s wearing about ten layers, including the biggest, puffiest coat I’ve ever seen. Her hat covers practically her entire head, and she has cashmere gloves under her snow mittens.

She’s goddamn adorable.

“You didn’t have to come out for this.”

“I thought it would be fun to play in the snow.”

I grin. “And now?”

“Now it’s not as fun as I thought it’d be.”

We’re standing on my large deck, which already has about a foot of powder on it, with more to come. It’s supposed to stop sometime tomorrow, and the power hasn’t so much as flickered once. It’s honestly not that bad. Just another storm, but Georgia isn’t buying that from me. Alice, meanwhile, is loving it. She’s prancing all around, jumping and diving in and out of the snowbanks.

“How are we ever going to get out of here?”

“What?” I laugh with a bemused chuckle.

“You live in the woods in an unpaved area. It’s not like Mr. Snowplow Man can come through.”

“Mr. Snowplow Man?” I might die a little at that.

“You know what I mean.”

“I have a truck with a plow on the front of it. I’ve never had a problem getting out before and I’ve lived through some big storms.” Just then my phone rings, interrupting us. I pull it out of my pocket, squinting against the ice and snow as it almost instantly covers my screen. Swiping my finger along the screen, a spike of urgency crawls over me as I answer. “Brooklynn?”

Georgia immediately stops jumping and stares at me, her brows furrowed.

“Oh, thank the elves you picked up.”

“What’s going on?”

“So, funny, not so funny story. My water broke about two hours ago. No big deal as I’m just hitting thirty-seven weeks, except the road to the hospital is closed because there is a major accident there, and no ambulance is available to come to get me because they’re all at the accident. Apparently, it’s really bad. Like a thirty-car pile-up with a lot of injuries.”

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