Page 34 of Brazen Deceits

I yank a comb through my ends before stepping into the warm water, wishing for magic to portal me back two minutes ago, and start the long process of wetting my hair.

The warm water washes away most of my anger, leaving me with two realizations:

1. Despite the mixed signals, Trips is interested. Or at least he thinks my ass is hot. And

2. I totally kicked his ass on that exam.

The day just got a lot brighter.

Once I’m clean, dressed, and slightly less pissed, I search for RJ or Jansen—they’re heading to Chicago today for their reconnaissance mission, and I want to make sure I say goodbye. Things are so weird between Walker and me, and now, the two guys who’ve been helping me through this mess? They’re both leaving.

I knock on RJ’s door first.

RJ opens it wearing pajama pants and nothing else.

Years of martial arts have carved a delicious map of muscles over his entire upper half, and I physically tuck my hands into my pockets to keep myself from jumping him right there in the hallway. I mean, damn. I’ve seen hints here and there, but if this is nerd bod, I’m team nerd, all the way.

I might be drooling.

“Good morning, sugar,” he says, forcing my brain to restart so I can look him in the face like a normal, non-pervy person does.

“Hi,” I say, scrambling for the words I need in my overheated brain.

Luckily, RJ has me covered. “Want to come in? We’re not leaving for a couple of hours yet.”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” I stammer, following RJ into his room.

Looking around, he uncovers a sturdy-looking nightstand and hauls it over next to his massive computer setup. I catch a hint of ink on his back as he kicks some dirty clothes into a pile. Mmm.

Forcing myself to focus on his setup instead of the ripple of muscles as he tidies, I conclude that he could single-handedly land a space shuttle from here. He has two rows of three curved monitors stacked on top of each other, all of them nesting around a chair that could only be described as futuristic. Wow.

He kicks the nightstand while rubbing the back of his neck, looking anywhere but at me. “Sorry, I, um, don’t have a second chair.”

I plop down cross-legged on his nightstand, patting the seat next to me. “No worries. I take it you’re working?” I ask, motioning at a variety of text boxes scattered around his screens, a few open but unfamiliar internet browsers, and a paused anime in one corner of a girl with blue hair wielding a massive sword paused mid-swing.

RJ settles into the chair beside me, taking a sip of Mountain Dew—it’s still morning. But as I’ve already had a full cup of coffee with milk and hot cocoa powder mixed in and will probably drink another sweet concoction yet this morning,I’m not the person to judge how he meets his daily caffeine intake.

“So what are we doing?” I ask, setting my elbows on my knees. I attempt to understand anything on his screens besides the anime and the Chicago weather forecast open in one of the internet browsers.

RJ toggles between a bunch of windows until he pulls up a photo of Jasmine surrounded by a bunch of older men and women, while one young boy with matching flame-red hair is pressed tight to her side. “I’m nailing down all the relationships in Jasmine’s web. We need to figure out who’s a threat, who might be an asset, what kind of trouble we could get into if we mess up, stuff like that. I’m also scraping for the other teams that we might be up against, so Trips has something to go on besides word of mouth while he tries to plan our offense.”

“So you’re basically doing Trips’ job for him?” I ask.

RJ laughs, and once again, I practically melt at the sound of it. “I’m drumming up leads. He’s going to be the one turning them into action.”

“Speaking of leads, I’ve got a few names for you to run through your scraper,” Trips announces from behind us.

I twist around to see him hovering in the doorway, his stance telling me to go, but the glint in his eye is 100 percent mischief. Bastard.

Spinning back to RJ, I can tell he’s going to ask me to leave. Before he can start the excuses about how Trips is more important right now, I slip off the nightstand. I get it. “I’ll vamoose, then. Just find me before you go, okay?”

I can’t stop my hand from stealing a soft caress down from his shoulders over his biceps. He stops my hand, giving it a soft squeeze. “Of course. You’ll be here?”

I nod, skirting around Trips on my way out the door. Trips snags me by the arm before I make it past him, and I stop, yanking my arm back. “Yes?”

Trips rolls his eyes, and I want to shove him again. Without the element of surprise, though, I don’t think he’d move as much as a millimeter. “No need to get all defensive. Come find me after they’re gone. I’m going to need you this weekend.”

Confused, I nod. Confirmation received, Trips nudges me the last few inches into the hall, winking with a grin as he slams the door in my face. Jerk.

---