The Dare Collection: August 2018. Avril Tremayne

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СКАЧАТЬ my tongue against spilling what I really wanted for my prize. Hell, she knew it already. Knowledge flamed in her eyes. Whether she would choose tonight to do something about it was another matter.

      I gathered the ingredients and watched her watch me fix her drink. I slid it across the counter to her, lifted my glass of bourbon and waited.

      She picked up her glass, took a delicate sip. Her tongue slid across her bottom lip. My cock jumped. “It’s good.”

      “Just good?”

      Again, her eyes flicked to my raised eyebrow, and her mouth twitched. “Okay. It’s perfect.”

      “You’re welcome.” I reached into the freezer, plucked out two ice cubes and dropped them into my drink. Anything to lower the inferno raging in my groin.

      Grabbing her candy and drink, she hopped off the bar and headed for the red leather lounger with drink holders on either side.

      Perfect for two.

      On Saturday night, when another damned nightmare had ripped me from sleep, I’d wandered downstairs, heard the movie running and came to check on her. I’d toyed with waking her but with tensions running high, I thought it best to leave her alone. As I’d made her comfortable, she’d made a small, forlorn sound that ripped through me.

      As I joined her now, questions crowded my mind. Asking more personal ones would mostly likely hurl us back onto the battleground. So I stuck to a less volatile one.

      “I’ve ruled out most people on the list.” Including her ex. A discreet probe into Scott Wyatt’s activities showed he’d been mostly out of town in the weeks before the stalking started, and was currently engaged in a long-distance relationship with a new woman in Seattle. He was lucky he was out of my reach.

      A trace of unease flitted over Lily’s face. “Okay. So who’s left?”

      I paused. My answer could risk her acting differently around the people left on the list. “I haven’t been able to rule out Nordic Razor yet. Could he have seen what you were working on when you were online?”

      She tucked her legs underneath her, rested sideways on the lounger, and took another sip of her drink. “No. I use a separate computer for social activities.”

      I set my glass in the holder. “Why Q?”

      “What?”

      “Cipher Q. What does the Q stand for?”

      She toyed with a damp strand of hair. “What do you think it stands for?”

      “I thought it was Quantum. But I’m going with Queen,” I replied.

      Her head dipped, that hint of shyness and innocence adding to her appeal. “It’s silly, I know. And vain. But...”

      “But you wanted to feel empowered at a time when things felt out of control?”

      Her mouth dropped open a few seconds before she shut it. “I don’t like it when you do that,” she murmured.

      “Do what?” I asked gently.

      “See...too much.”

      “I won’t hurt you, Lily. Not with any information you give me. I can promise you that.”

      After a moment, she nodded.

      Grasping that tiny leeway, I probed softly, “How old were you when you started hacking?”

      She looked a little trapped by my question, but she answered, “Thirteen.”

      “I’m guessing it was your stepfather who made you feel...less?”

      A shadow crossed her face and she remained silent for a long time before she nodded. “He was saddled with me after my mom left. Every now and then he would let me feel his displeasure.”

      My fist tightened. “Did he hurt you?”

      “Physically? No. In other ways...yes.”

      I took a sip of bourbon just for something to do so I didn’t drive my fist through the wall behind me. “Tell me what he did.”

      Her nostrils quivered as she sucked in a breath. “I don’t have all night.”

      “Then tell me exactly how you got involved with Chance.”

      “When I was fourteen, I hacked him. I was good back then, but I wasn’t great. He hired another hacker to find me, and turned up at my house with the cops. He gave me a choice, work for him or go to jail.”

      “Your stepfather didn’t tell him to get lost, I take it.”

      She gave a bitter laugh. “Not when Chance started throwing money his way, he didn’t.”

      She flinched at my tight curse. I reached across the counter and placed my hand on hers. She stared at it with a sad smile before she inhaled long and deep.

      “Anyway, between them they hammered out a deal that he’d pay my stepfather a monthly fee for my maintenance, then my college tuition fees on condition that when I left MIT I’d devote all my time to developing something big for him.”

      “The algorithm?” I asked, my chest and throat tight with the effort it took to keep my fury inside.

      She nodded. “I had the beginnings of the idea back then.”

      “Why didn’t you walk away when you turned eighteen or even twenty-one?”

      Her lips tightened and she shrugged. “I gave him my word I wouldn’t.”

      A simple answer, but such a powerful statement as to the true depths of Lily Gracen. I would’ve thought it impossible, but I grew even more attracted to her in that moment.

      “And the Scott thing? How did you find out?”

      She smiled unapologetically. “I hacked his phone records and confronted him.”

      “How did Chance take it?” I realized I was searching for another reason to punch the guy’s lights out when I met him tomorrow.

      “He claimed he was looking out for me. I called bullshit and threatened to walk then. He promised it would never happen again.” The information was coming out in charged little bites.

      “Lily—”

      She shook her head. “No more. You’re ruining the mood.”

      I cupped her cheek, my thumb caressing her lower lip until she had herself back under control. “Don’t feel bad about letting me in. I know a little about how that feels like.”

      Wide green eyes locked on mine. “Really?”

      I heard the throb of pain in my voice and inwardly grimaced. I could’ve answered differently, thrown her off with a shrug or said nothing at all. Instead, the last word I expected to say surged from my throat. “Yes.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ