Hour by Hour (Games & Diversions #2) (6 page)

Yes, Lukas, you can fuck me. You can do whatever you want to do to me.

I lay my head back on the desk. I close my eyes, preparing to feel him.

To feel Lukas.

Hard. Long.
Ready.

I am
so
ready. I was ready before he ever touched me.

I spread my legs a little wider… and a knock sounds at the door.

“Hello?” There’s a small pause. “Is anyone in here? The door’s locked.”

Shit! It’s Ana.

I immediately jerk upright, adjusting my clothes to pretend levels of modesty.

Lukas steps away from me, fastening his belt, as we both struggle for composure.

I’m too scared to speak—too afraid that my voice will betray what I’ve just done.

Lukas turns toward the door. “Just a sec,” he calls out. “I’m going through some important files.”

“
Lukas
?” I hear Ana say. “Oh… that’s no problem.
Take your time
.”

Her voice is hushed and flirty, her tone taking on a completely different tenor when she hears that it’s Lukas. Like me, she can’t help herself.

There’s something about Lukas that makes you want to please him.
I should know.
I feel it every time he fixes his eyes on me.

When my skirt and hair are smoothed back down, Lukas looks at me. He waits for my nod before opening the door.

My breathing stops.

“Hey, Ana,” he says to her.

“Hi,” she smiles widely at him—before noticing me. “
Elle
?”

I cough sharply. “Hey, Ana.” I go for a lighthearted pitch; it comes out as a squeak.

Lukas looks from Ana to me. “Elena and I were just going over some last minute files. She noticed something…
strange
, and we decided to look into it.”

Ana’s eyes flit between Lukas and me. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah, sure, everything’s fine.
We figured some things out.
”

He gives me a pointed look that I hope Ana doesn’t catch. She shrugs her shoulders.

“Well, that’s good,” she says casually. “I just came back because I left my phone.”

She peeks her hazel eyes over my shoulder, and I pivot towards the desk, scanning its surface with my eyes and hands.

Ana steps closer. “
Oh
! Here it is…” She bends down. “
On the floor
…” She flips it over, checking for cracks.

“That’s funny…” she states absently. “I
thought
I left it on the desk.”

I nearly swallow my tongue.

“Well, at least it’s not broken.” She slips the phone into her purse, strutting calmly to the door.

“By the way, Elle…” She keeps her fingers on the doorknob. “You’ve got a Post-It note stuck to your ass.”

She tilts her head mockingly before shutting the door on us.

A player surprised is half beaten.  -  Proverb

LUKAS

The slam of the heavy wood door knocks me out of my daydream.

One minute, I’m reminiscing about laying Elena down on Foxx’s office desk just
one
short week ago—the next minute, I’m sitting behind my own—alone.

Well, not exactly alone.

Ana’s just stepped in, and as she usually does when she gets too excited, she bangs my office door behind her, scaring half of the
Tripping Out!
employees.

And,
as usual,
she barely notices.

She melodramatically sits a piece of paper on my desk before taking a step back. She is brimming with barely contained energy.

She waits until I look up at her from my seat before speaking.

“Griff, I’ve got some news.
Big
news. Are you ready for this?”

I sigh heavily. “No… not really.”

She rolls her caramel-colored eyes. “Well, I’m going to tell you, anyway. I just came from Chris’s office, and he agrees with me.” She takes a deep breath. “
I’ve done it
.”

My eyes narrow at her. “Done
what?
”

“I’ve narrowed down a profile for the hacker.”

I lean back in my office chair. “
Jesus Christ
, Ana…”

“Jesus has nothing to do with it this time.” She flashes a devilish smile. “We’ve got a situation on our hands right now…”

“
Our
hands
…?”

“
And
,” she interrupts, “the only way we’re going to make any leeway is if we can narrow down our suspects.”

I pick up the paper she’s placed on the desk. “Suspects? Like a police lineup?”

“One and the same. Take a look at the list of descriptors.”

I read aloud from the list. “Between the ages of eighteen to thirty-five, familiar with
Tripping Out!,
knowledgeable with computers, bitter…”

I sit the paper down. “
Bitter
?”

“Yes, bitter. This wasn’t a professional attack. It wasn’t financial; it was
personal
. And this person is playing shadow games—
diversions
.

“They wouldn’t have to be a whiz or anything, but they’d have to be knowledgeable enough about computers to pull it off and
young
enough to be familiar with the ‘mirror’ technique.”

I look down again at the profile. I nod… reluctantly. “This isn’t too far off the mark.”

“I know.” She grins broadly. “And when I help you solve this hack,
you
are going to make me an intern.”

“I’m going to make you a
what
now?”

She approaches the desk, planting her hands on its surface.

“Oh,
come on
, Griff,” she whines. “I’m
perfectly
capable. I love
Tripping Out!
I’m
loyal
to the company. I graduated at the top of my class,
and
… I’m the only other
real
computer scientist you’ve got.”

I start to shake my head, but she holds up a hand to stop me.

“Just… think about it. I’ll give you a week.”

She’ll give
me
a week?

I stand up.

“Ana…”

But she turns toward the door.

“Ana.”

She grabs the doorknob.

“
Ana
!”

She opens the door, turning innocently toward me.

“Yes?” she blinks sweetly.

I hesitate. I start to protest, but what would be the point? Ana’s been pressuring me for the past week, ever since her graduation party.

And no one, including my suddenly
softy
ass, has had the gumption to stop her.

Damn Lexington women.

I ask the second question on my mind.

“If you had to guess… who do
you
think would be
bitter
enough to hack our company?”

She looks down momentarily, seemingly pondering the question.

“I don’t know quite yet… Maybe a disgruntled employee, a jealous competitor…”

I swallow roughly.

“Or maybe even a scorned ex…”

***

Three hours later, I sit at the nearby Starbucks, pen and paper in hand, thinking about Ana’s profile.

Thinking
… about Gregory Sears
.

I must admit…

It was a damn good point that Ana made.

Sears wasn’t just a disgruntled employee… or a tragically scorned ex. He was
both
—a former manager of Foxx’s father’s company, Foxxhole Publishing,
and
… Kat’s collegiate ex-boyfriend.

He was a
snake
—one whom we’d all believed had shed his skin (and dignity) and hightailed it back to some fallback, publishing job in his home state of Tennessee.

We’d heard he used his connections to land some cushiony spot, smack in some remedial outdoors magazine that couldn’t tell you the meaning of “out” or “doors.”

Something his dear old hick of a dad had secured for him back in the Vanderbilt University area.

Nobody
was sad to see him go—least of all Foxx, who had knocked the dickhead flat on his ass after finding out that he had Kat fired from her journalistic job.

What the hell was Sears really up to these days, anyway?

His name is still on my mind when Chris walks through the door. His hair is windswept, and his look is eager as he waves quickly at me before heading to the counter to place an order.

He waits impatiently by the barista, checking his watch for the next two minutes until the employee places the latte in his hand.

He sits beside me, and I wait for him to take his edge off with the coffee. I calmly read the newspaper while he downs nearly half of his coffee cup, hoping to calm his caffeine jitters.

I look up from my paper as soon as his legs stops shaking underneath the table.

He reaches toward me. “Hey, I’ve got a question for you.”

I know he’s going to ask about this “internship” and Ana. I look down into my own cup of java before tilting it to my mouth.

“Shoot.”

“What the
hell
is going on between you and Elena?”

I nearly cough up my sip of coffee, but I manage to push it back down. I swallow the gulp as calmly as I can before responding to Chris.

“What do you mean, ‘going on between me and Elena’?”

“I
mean
, “ he stresses. “Are. You. Screwing her?”

I lie. Blatantly. “No,” I say, staring him down.

“You sure about that?” He raises an eyebrow.

“I think I’d be sure if I was putting my cock inside of Elena, Chris.
Yes
, I’m sure.”

He shrugs on a laugh. “Wouldn’t be the first time you weren’t sure about putting your cock in someone…”

“
Hey
. Not remembering their
names
isn’t the same as not remembering their
faces
. And I know the faces of
all
the women that I’ve slept with.”

“I’m surprised,” Chris quips. “I thought there might be too many to count.”

I glower at him over my Starbucks cup. “Just finish your goddamned Chai tea or whatever you’re having so we can head back to work.”

“Fine. Sure,” he responds flippantly.

I dismiss him with a cutting glance, returning my attention back to the newspaper on the table.

He leans in suddenly, making the table scrape across the floor, catching the attention of a few nearby customers.

He’s relentless today. He talks fast.

“
I’m just saying
… you disappeared early at Foxx’s engagement party, right?”

“I was tired and drunk and went to sleep in my room.”

“
And,”
he emphasizes. “Elena disappeared as well. It seems around the same time that night. Nobody saw the two of you for the rest of the evening.”

I sit my cup down, folding my arms on top of the table.

“
Like I said
, I went to my room that night and passed out.
Alone
.

“And just because you didn’t see Elena for the rest of the night
doesn’t
mean she wasn’t there. She
organized
the damn thing. I’m sure she had
much
more important things to do other than hitting on random floozies all night—unlike
someone else at this table
.”

“
Which brings me to my
next
point…”
he says, tapping on the table. “You didn’t hit on
one
woman
ALL. NIGHT.”

I stiffen.

“There’s always at least
one
woman,” he continues, “that catches your eye. And the only woman I saw you eyeing at all… was her.
Elena
.

“Same thing at Foxx’s house. On the front porch—outside of the office…
Something is going on.
So, give it up, Griff. I know
you were up to something.”

I stare at the table, scrambling for an explanation. Chris is not going to give it up easily. He’s sniffed out the blood like a hound dog. I know he won’t relent until I give him some scraps.

“Fine.
Fine
. If it will keep you off my back…”

“It will…”

“Then I’ll tell you…” I sigh deeply. “I was making out with Trin the night of the engagement party.”

Chris’s mouth drops. “
Trin?
As in
Trina?
” His eyes shift aimlessly in confusion.

“But she’s a Looney-Tune. You said so yourself.”

I shrug, shaking my head. “Yeah, that’s why I got so mad. One minute, I’m shoving my tongue down her throat in the bathroom and the next minute, she’s laying into my car.”

I take another sip out of my cup, staring straight into Chris’s eyes.

I’m lying.
I’m lying through my teeth so hard that I’m surprised they’re not chattering.

I trust Chris.
I trust him with my life.
But with this information—
with Elena
?

I can’t.

It’s bad enough that Ana suspects—or knows. If Foxx knew, he’d try to put an end to it. He’d do anything not to upset the balance of his “newly minted family.”

And that incudes not letting a
fuck-up
like me near his soon-to-be sister-in-law.

I should be offended. I should… but I’ve done so many things to prove him right.

Can I really blame him?

I promised him I wouldn’t do anything with Elena. I
promised
not to touch her. But now, that’s impossible.

I cannot
not
do anything with her. I cannot
not
touch her.

She’s in my system now. She’s in my mind; she’s in my
veins
. And she’s most certainly in
everything that moves below my belt.

And it doesn’t make
any
sense.
She infuriates the hell out of me!
The only time we can even
have
a civil conversation is when we’re fucking.