Page 14 of Wired Justice

Chapter Eight

“Come on, Sophie, take a chance.”

Don’t just take a chance by using the DAVID program—take a chance on him. Jake willed Sophie to understand his double meaning. She glanced up, her golden-brown eyes a little surprised. It almost seemed as if she understood him; but he’d been wrong before.

“All right.” She opened the laptop. “Where is the client information?”

Jake passed her the file containing all of the relevant data on their client submitted by the parents. Sophie had her program open, and began inputting. Her long tan fingers flew, her eyes flicking rapidly back and forth between the files’ contents and the screen of the computer that she was logging data into. Her ability to submerge into the cyber world was amazing. While he appreciated the function of that world, he’d never found it absorbing. He was a man of the outdoors, most at home doing something physical, and he made no apologies.

Jake sipped his amaretto. God, he hated the syrupy stuff, but he’d taken notice of what she liked; a good operative always knew everything about his objective. She liked Blue Hawaiians, too, and those frothy tourist concoctions made amaretto seem like hard alcohol.

Sophie drank a certain kind of tea, smoky and dark, from Thailand. She suffered from depression that could drag her down for days. She loved her dog. She slept in the buff.

Jake’s mind stuttered on that one. He’d overheard Marcella teasing Sophie about her private nudity habits, and had never been able to forget it. His gaze flicked over Sophie’s form, hidden in a body-concealing loose top and leggings. Ugh. He hated those clothes, too.

Whiskey, neat. And Sophie naked in bed.Now that would be a better evening.

“If you aren’t careful, we’ll devolve into actual working.” Jake handed Sophie her glass of amaretto after he topped it up a bit. “Medicinal purposes. We’ve had a long day.”

Sophie took it without looking at him and sipped. “That is certainly true.” She was barely paying any attention. Good. If he could just maneuver her into position . . .

Jake leaned against the headboard and patted the comforter beside him. “Come over here. You need back support.”

Sophie moved onto the bed next to him, leaning against the headboard, her eyes never leaving the screen of the laptop on her knees. She trusted him, and that gave him such a good feeling. She saw him clearly, knew he would cheat, lie, steal, and fight dirty to get what he wanted, and she still trusted him. Kinda made him wish he was a better man.Maybe he could be a better man, for her. Anything was possible—but tonight he was bent on seduction.

Sophie eventually finished her drink and he observed her for any signs of effect, taking her glass and filling it again. She slipped up, made a typo. Giggled as she corrected it. The booze was working.

“What’s so funny?” He drew a line down her bare arm with a fingertip, gratified to see her shiver.

“Just feeling good. Kind of floaty. I am a lightweight, as they say.” Sophie gazed up and to the left, considering. “What keywords, besides our client’s name, should we have DAVID search for?”

“I don’t know. Camping? Female hiker? Come to think of it, I don’t know how much about Julie Weathersby’s current travel is going to be online in any form. She didn’t do much social media, according to her parents and that commercial location media group that’s posting about her.”

“I know not what is available about Weathersby on the Facebook. But we must try all of the avenues.” Sophie’s voice had become pedantic and measured as she attempted to hide her amaretto buzz. She closed the laptop and set it on the nightstand. “And now we conclude our evening’s plan of collegial investigation work and alcoholic beverages.” She gave a little burp and hid it behind her fist.

God, she was adorable.

Time to make that move.

Jake slid an arm around behind Sophie’s back and drew her close against him. He loved how she felt against him; warm, strong, and soft in all the right places. He lifted her chin with his other hand. Sophie’s eyes fluttered shut as her face tilted toward him. Her lips parted. He waited to see if she would pull away, but she didn’t.

So, he kissed her.

Softly, at first. Like a gentleman. But she made a tiny sound, and that was the end of that.

He hauled Sophie over into his lap, and the kiss was bold and graphic. She gave as good as she got, pulling his hair, tugging at his shirt, nipping his lip with her teeth. Their hands were everywhere they’d wanted to be on each other. Thought disappeared in a red buzz of hungry sensation.

They eventually came up for air.

Sophie blinked, her gaze foggy. “I thought it might be that good,” she said. “But now you have to go.” She pushed at his chest.

Jake’s arms tightened around Sophie, but he made them let go. He was playing a long game. It would never be a good idea to rush a goal this worthy.

“No means no.” He gently disentangled himself and kissed her one last time, a touch on the nose, a brush of his lips behind her ear. “You’re the boss.” Leave her wanting more. Leave her believing she was in control. Leave her knowing she could trust him.

But that didn’t mean walking away was easy.

They metat the Jeep the next morning. After they’d settled their belongings in the vehicle and secured Ginger, Jake handed Sophie a bamboo stick with three sugar-dusted malasadas speared on it. “Eat these. And drink this.” He handed her a large cup of the strongest tea he had been able to find.

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