Page 93 of Talk to Me

“Sorry,” I told him, waving off the worry. “I was thinking. No, this is just a first attempt.” I motioned to the screen. “A test run, as it were, I wanted to see the strength of the bots against their security systems. I wanted to grab a pop of information as they did a data sync, then siphon it to here. Now?—”

I touched my tongue to my teeth. Excitement shivered through me. Not everyone enjoyed the cat and mouse, which usually involved a lot more patience than a hunt of that kind normally indicated, of data acquisition.

He ghosted a hand over my hair to rest on my shoulder. The earlier shiver redoubled and it was like a current raced under my skin. It prickled over my scalp and sent a pulse up my spine.

The weight of his hand was barely there, and yet I was achingly aware of it. The brush of his thumb against my throat sent a jolt to my pulse. If he hadn’t been right there, I might have sucked in a deep breath. As it was, every single inhale filled me with more of his scent.

“Now?” he prompted. The crinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened a fraction.

“Um…” What had I been saying? I tried to replay the earlier part of my conversation but it stuttered out the longer I stared up at Locke. Information. Skim. “Oh, I—got a lot of info, I just don’t know what it all is yet. The bots returned the packets and I have them isolated on a partition where they can be decrypted without alerting anyone that someone else has them.”

“So you have the box, essentially,” he murmured. “But you still need the combination to open it and the time to do so without worrying about the alarm.”

As analogies went. It wasn’t a bad one. “Yes. More or less. I mean—definitely more, not less but yes.”

The fact I couldn’t seem to adjust the flow of information escaping me registered on some level. I made a face and then nudged my chair back to stand.

Locke didn’t retreat far. In fact, he barely retreated at all. He raised his hand briefly and the loss of contact was as keen to my senses as him putting his hand there in the first place.

I almost sighed when he slid his hand against my shoulder then around to my nape. There was an intimacy in this hold. A flirt with closeness we’d been developing but I hadn’t wanted to read anything into.

They rescued me. Transference of emotion was absolutely normal. Textbook case even. I should remember to not act on these impulses. Clearly, it would be a terrible idea.

“Patch?” Not that I could look anywhere else when his voice dropped into that softer register.

“Yes?”

“I’m going to kiss you right now.”

“You are?” He was? “Why?”

Why? I asked him why? The earlier tingles seemed to ignite like sparklers on fireworks as he stroked his thumb down the column of my neck. Why the hell had I asked him why?

Rather than answer me, he dipped his head. When his lips were nothing more than a breath away from mine, he seemed to hesitate. My pulse jackhammered, no way he couldn’t feel it. The scent of him was an utter intoxication. I pushed forward, closing that gap.

I wanted to know.

His mouth was fierce and firm. Nothing gentle inhabited the kiss. If anything, the moment I put my hand on his chest and leaned into his touch, he took over the kiss. There was a kind of raw demand that urged me to pay attention.

His tongue stroked against the seam of my lips, and I opened my mouth to him. There was no way to deny him. To deny me. He squeezed my nape firmly, the grip burned through me and left a mark far deeper than just my flesh.

Then he was sucking on my tongue and nibbling bites against my lower lip. From pressing the pedal, to hitting one-sixty on the speedometer, Locke’s desire ignited my own and I had to grip his shirt to stay on my feet.

The drag of his teeth over my lower lip signaled an end to the contact. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all, the lingering connection sent tingles vibrating through my whole system. Then he lifted his head. Thankfully, my breath wasn’t the only one coming a little faster. The hammer of his heartbeat beneath my fist promised me he’d been every bit as affected as I’d been.

“Wanted to drop a kiss on that sexy mouth for years. Sorry it took so long.”

For years?

My heart stuttered.

For…years?

He licked his lips then brushed his knuckles down my cheek. “I think your program is done with one of them. More coffee?”

“Yes,” I said. “Sure.” The words were perfunctory and then I forced my hand to uncurl from the softness of his shirt. He snagged the chair and pulled it over for me.

Right. Sit.

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