Page 71 of Radiant Exception
She smiled up at me sweetly. “I really do love you.”
My heart pounded in my chest, like it did every time she said those three words. “I love you too.” I beamed.
When the two of us weren’t wrapped up in one another, we spent the rest of the next several days observing Cassidy’s movements and combing through his digital footprint, or lack thereof.
Similar to what Lark discovered in her brother’s communications, there was so much missing that made no sense, unless you knew that Cassidy was the common denominator. Video footage was missing, glitched, or had clearly been doctored with looped material. There was a pattern of system logins that appeared to indicate his access time and length had been fabricated or tampered with as well, which meant that the keystroke logs couldn’t be trusted either. Miscellaneous communications were also mysteriously absent across multiple locations.
Cassidy had been systematically erasing and tampering with multiple data sources since the moment he’d stepped aboard theRadiant, but in doing so, he hadn’t realized he was only incriminating himself. Because the lack of evidence spoke to his involvement.
Still, we’d have to prove he was the one messing with all of it, so he didn’t have the opportunity to blame it on someone else or claim to have been framed.
“The information we’ve intercepted in just the small amount of strings of code you managed to isolate is staggering.” Lark continuedto scroll through the decrypted messages, her head resting in my lap as she lay perpendicular to my body in our bed.
“Do you—” I swallowed, nervous to ask the question I’d been wondering about since she’d told me what she’d discovered. “Do you think your brother was involved with this?”
Her lips pressed into a firm line while she considered my question. “I don’t know,” Lark replied softly. “I don’t want him to have been, but I refused to consider Cassidy, and look where that got us.” Her eyes met mine, glassy with emotion.
“If he was, it’s not your fault.” I traced my fingertips along her cheek, down to her jawline. I could already see and feel the guilt she was internalizing at the mere thought that he could have contributed to what happened. “There’s nothing you could find in his comm files?”
“I haven’t had a chance to look; we’ve got too much to sort through already. I can do that later, when we’re not up against a ticking clock.”
I combed my fingers through her hair absently. “I’ve gathered a list of time stamps of the missing footage that aligns with some of the other missing data, but it’s not enough. We need to catch him in the act of erasing something to tie him to the system interference, or he’ll walk. The decoded messages will do wonders to dismantle his empire, but it won’t mean anything if we can’t link it to him.”
“I guess we’ll have to use his greatest weakness against him to get what we need.” Lark resumed scrolling through her comm.
“His greatest weakness?”My brow furrowed.
She glanced up at me, her blue eyes sparkling as she gave me a conspiratorial smile and said, “Me.”
The few days we needed to flesh out our plan of attack were characterized by increasingly icy exchanges in public while on shift, per our plan, and passionate evenings in our shared quarters to make up for the lack of affection during the day.
The closer we got to executing our calculated sting, the more vigorous Vaughn became with his attentiveness. He poured his worry into his touch, making sure that I felt as much as I knew that he was in this with me.
“I want one more,” he pleaded, gazing up at me from between my legs, one hand clamped firmly at my hip, pinning me in place, and the other reaching up to roughly massage one breast.
“I can’t,” I whimpered, already spent from the two he had previously wrung from me.
“Wanna bet?” He flashed a wolfish smile, sliding the hand at my breast down my stomach to my folds.
The moment his fingers penetrated me, my body arched off the bed. “Fuck,” I hissed, moving my hips in time with his touch, and cresting with a muffled keening cry a moment later. Vaughn had released my hip at the last minute to silence me, lest our charadeof marital problems be discovered, dashing our plans before they’d begun.
He only gave me a moment to recover before he was pushing his cock against my entrance.
I moaned deep and low as he filled me, lifting my legs up to clamp around his hips, a silent demand for him to continue.
“I’ll never tire of this,” he groaned, leaning down to press his forehead against mine as he pounded into me, the friction so lovely, I felt like I was floating. “Tell me if I’m being too rough.”
“Harder,” I challenged.
“Be careful what you wish for, Trouble.” Vaughn reared back, slamming into me harsher and deeper than ever before, leaving me breathless, sporting a knowing smirk upon his face as he did so over and over again, until we both reached our respective releases.
Sweaty, but sated, I curled up against him, the gravity of the situation coming back into focus. It would be the last night I’d spend in his bed until, for better or for worse, the mission was completed.
“I changed my mind,” Vaughn groused, wrapping a possessive arm around my middle and dragging my back flush with his front as he cuddled me from behind.
He’d said the same thing every night since we’d put together our plan.
“We’ve been over this.” I sighed. “He’ll be suspicious of anyone else monitoring him so closely.”
