Page 41 of Reckless Devotion
I take it, resisting a shiver when I feel the warmth from his body bleed through my clothes. It evensmellslike him, and I take a surreptitious lungful of that woodsy smoke before it fades.
“Send me the data from the platform when it arrives, and I’ll have another poke around to make sure.” I wiggle the mouse to wake up the screens that have gone dead.
“Good, thank you.” He does the top button of his shirt back up and steeples his spine as he fixes his tie around it.
The desktop blinks to life on every screen in front of me, and it suddenly hits me how fascinating it would be to have unfettered access to Chase Walker’s systems. Even when you hack in, there are areas too firewalled to even bother trying.
“Don’t get too excited,” he drawls as if he heard my thoughts, giving each of his jacket sleeves a swift tug. “Jen? Make sure she doesn’t access anything she shouldn’t.”
“Of course, Mr. Walker.”
Walker turns to head for the door and I mimic him behind his back and then stick my tongue out too, for good measure.
“I saw that,” he growls, and my spine snaps straight.
Despite the spark that crackles over my skin, I snark as he steps back into the elevator, “You were meant to!”
Chapter 16
Chase:If one of you doesn’t drown me in liquor tonight, I’m never speaking to you again.
Mia:Chloe is coming over for dinner tonight. Join us?
Chase:Will you both stroke my hair and tell me I’m pretty?
Mia:I’ll give it my best shot…
Chase:And will this be scheduled before or after you both pillow fight in lacy underwear?
Mia:
Chloe:Only if you wear lacy panties too, Chase.
Chase:Deal.
CHASE
“What are you doing?”
Pearlescent pink hair bobs up, the scent of heated solder reaching me across the desk from where Pepper is hunched over what looks like a circuit board.
“Erm…” She has the grace to look sheepish at least, rolling her lips in and removing my protective glasses that are far too big for her head. “Playing?”
That’s an understatement if the mess in here is anything to go by. Every surface has tools splayed over it, lights on and a soft bassy beat playing in the background. She has shucked her sweater, and the white short sleeved T-shirt she wears shows off a smooth expanse of ochre skin, but what catches my attention the most are the dark tattoos snaked up one arm. I’m only human, and that is fucking hot. It makes me wonder if she has any more…in less visible places.
Mentally shaking myself, I lift one eyebrow and slide off my tie. Honestly, it can only be late afternoon, but I’m ready to be done with the day. Between prototypes that aren’t behaving as they are supposed to, a three-hour-long legal briefing, and a shitty market day, I need vodka.“I see that. Didn’t I leave you here to look over that data?”
“That took me about twenty minutes.” She huffs, waving a gloved hand in the direction of my desk.
“And what happened to keeping her out of anything she shouldn’t be in, Jen?” I wrap my tie slowly around my knuckles as Pepper picks up the fiberglass board and wedges it an inch from her nose to examine her own handiwork.
“Chicks before dicks, Walker.”The familiar voice has a sassy edge I’ve never heard before. And what the hell is it on about, chicks before dicks? “Pepper taught me girl code.”
I turn my focus incredulously back to the pink-haired pain in my ass standing front and center. There is a smudgeof something dark just above her cheek, like an errant finger swiped hair out of her face, too engrossed in her work.
She bites down on her full lower lip and places the circuit board gently on the illuminated desk, pausing for a second before speaking. “We gotbored!” she whines suddenly, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “You were gone for ages.”
“So what, you decide to rifle through everything in this place?” I pick up a stray screw before it rolls off the edge of the desk.
