Live Wire (2 page)

Parker could find any information about anyone. He did so for the private sector and the government—United States and its allies. It had been a while since they’d beefed up the team. But at the moment, the dynamic at Titan was solid, and he didn’t want to screw it up.

The
click clack
of Sugar’s high heels announced her arrival before she entered the room. Lexi, his wife, was in tow, though he couldn’t hear her, and the last Parker was told, Sugar needed a final decorative touch for the nursery. Baby Westin would come soon enough. Parker couldn’t imagine what a Sugar-Jared nursery would look like. He was almost scared to see what would dangle from the baby mobile. And what would the wall decorations be like—pink-and-blue AKs?

Sugar walked in pregnant as all hell, wearing the high heels. “Hey, Boy Genius.”

“We’re back.” Lexi smiled as she sashayed past her best girlfriend and kissed him on the cheek.

“Hey.” Parker ran his hand up her back and pulled her in for a better kiss. “Find good stuff?”

“The best.”

“Good. Sugar, looking good and gorgeous.”

She beamed, her hands resting on her swollen stomach. “What’d you get on the new guys?”

“Sugar!” Lexi’s eyebrows bunched.

Sugar shrugged, fidgeting with the cuff of her jacket. “I said we’d find out.”

“
Quietly.
” Lexi pressed her lips together, barely containing an eye roll. “We were supposed to be super sly.” She turned her smoky-makeup-laden laser focus on him. “But since we’re past that point, what do you know so far?”

Parker threw his head back and arms in the air and stretched. “I’m working on it, ladies.”

Lexi took advantage of his vulnerable position and slipped onto his lap. “We’re snooping nicely.”

Sugar crossed her arms, failing to hide her bright-pink smile as she gave him the evil eye. “I’m not.”

“Sugar, shut up,” Lexi chided.

Parker sucked in a breath. “Easy. Don’t upset the delicate, fragile woman with child.”

Sugar grabbed one of the chairs in Parker’s office, dropped, then spun herself in a circle. She was a sight to see, dressed head to toe in black leather, but she wore a magenta jacket that matched her lipstick. Parker didn’t take much notice of fashion, but Sugar was hard to miss.

Lexi, who had a similar-yet-different approach to style, burrowed farther into his lap.

Sugar raised an eyebrow. “Tell us what you got.”

Amused, he returned the expression. “This is now a team effort?”

Lexi nodded. “Sugar and I decided that anything you can’t hack, her gut will tell us. So if there are holes in your research, we can fill them in.”

“Anything I can’t hack?” He narrowed his eyes.

“We hurt his feelings,” Sugar said.

“Some things require outside-the-office work,” Lexi offered. “We are always outside HQ. I could even do some of the heavy lifting on this boring recruit research so you can get back to doing whatever you do. Hack China or crash a drone. Manly stuff.”

Sugar sat up, her bright lips forming a devious smile. “It’s the perfect combo.”

Parker grumbled. “Boss Man benched you, Sugar; you’re about to burst.”

“
No.
My OB benched me, thank you very much. My husband wouldn’t dare.”

Lexi kissed Parker’s cheek. “I’m between gigs. It’s perfect.”

“You’re buttering me up, and it’s not my call.” Parker looked at the closed file. He did love working with the ladies. There was no reason to say no. It’d be fun.

His phone rang—the extension coming from Jared’s office—and Parker hit the speakerphone. “I got the ladies in here with me.”

“Baby Cakes,” Jared said as Sugar looked up. “I know what you’re up to.”

“Good.” She beamed. “Less to explain to you at dinner tonight.”

“We’re not up to anything that you wouldn’t already expect.” Lexi leaned close to the speakerphone. “However, it’s a great idea. Parker and I will do the tech, and Sugar will round out the recruit research with her intuition.”

“Yeah, yeah. You know there’s more to it than that.” Jared grumbled. “You ladies absolutely know that.”

They exchanged glances, and at that moment, Parker knew Sugar and Lexi were up to more than they were letting on. He hit the mute button. “Whoa. Hang on.”

Both smiled so big and fake that he dropped his head back. “Shit, I don’t want to know.”

“Parker, do you want the help?” Jared asked. “Hello? Am I talking to myself here?”

He gave Lexi
the
look and then Sugar a version of it as well. “You have one hour to go tell Jared whatever the hell you are up to, and you, darling dearest”—he squeezed Lexi—“will fess up in ten minutes.”

Lexi giggled—a dead giveaway.

“Brother.” He hit the unmute button. “Yeah. I’ll take Lexi’s help.” He wrapped his arms around his wife’s shoulders, taking any excuse to hang out and work with her simultaneously. “That works for me. Sugar’s headed your way; she has something to run by you first, though.”

Sugar pointed her fingers at him, pretending to shoot, and Parker tossed a pen, ignoring her antics.

“Fine. Done,” Jared said. “See you in five, Baby Cakes.”

The phone’s line went out, and Sugar pushed herself out of the spinning chair with dramatic flair. “Buzz kill, Boy Genius.”

“Out.” He grinned.

“It’s more fun to make him work for it.”

“Maybe for you, Sugar.”

She winked. “Always for me.”

Soon as the door shut, he turned Lexi in his lap so she couldn’t look anywhere but at him. “Spit it out.”

Her smile reached her ears. “New recruits have the interviews.”

“Yeah.”

“The background checks.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“They’re… under surveillance.”

Surveillance. Sugar might have had field training, but Lexi had not. She was a loner, a hacker, and had survived more than her fair share of harrowing situations. Parker preferred that she stay far from anyone who could possibly be worthy of surveillance. “Nope.”

Determination flashed on her face. “It’s not like we’re going to go watch people who are actually bad guys. They’re the good guys, just wandering around without a job—”

“They have jobs. Deadly jobs.”

“Well, not at home they don’t.”

“Lex.”
Christ.

“We’ll just stay in the car or whatever. Give us some of that Titan gear you guys hang on to, and we can see through the wall.” She winked. “Come on. Sugar’s going nuts. She’s not the type to nest.”

“Nest?”

His wife smiled but rolled her lips as though she wanted to hide it. “It’s almost time for Sugar to give birth. Some women in her position
nest
. They clean the house top to bottom. They have uncontrollable urges to prepare their home for the new arrival.”

He smirked, now knowing why Lexi hid her smile. A ridiculous image of Sugar scrubbing the rafters in leather maternity pants came to mind. “I’m sure the Westins have a top-secret-cleared cleaning staff proficient in the art of
nesting
.”

Lexi’s not-so-hidden smile came out in full force. “You’re missing my point. It’s her last hurrah. And it’s safe. We’ll behave. Sugar wants a road trip,
and
what she said is true. She has an instinct that Titan relies on. The girl could pick a bad apple out of an orchard. Bad bullet out of a barrel. Whatever. Let her help vet the new recruits.”

Parker shook his head.

Lexi pursed her lips. “It’ll be a piece of cake.”

No way would Jared allow Sugar, eight months pregnant, to search out the potential new team members and go undercover to watch their every move. “There’s not a chance that will fly.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Well, we’re going to do it.”

“You, maybe. He’ll give the okay to let you hack some data. But Sugar in the field? Nope.”

“We’re going to do it.” Lexi’s statement sounded like a practiced mantra.

“Lex—”

“Sugar and I are going on a pre-baby, nondangerous, surveillance-only road trip!” She smacked him with a kiss. “And it’s going to be
awesome
.”

“This wasn’t really a discussion, was it?”

She kissed him again. “No, babe. It wasn’t.”

At least he’d tried. Then again… he wondered how Jared was taking the news from Sugar.

CHAPTER TWO

If there was a telltale sign that trouble was about to show up at Jared’s office doorstep, it was the cadence of Sugar’s step and the corresponding groan of his dog, Thelma. Sugar marched in, her posture and expression telling him she was sure that she’d get her way and that he had major reason to be concerned. Thelma placed a short, stubby paw over her wrinkly bulldog face and rolled over at his boots.

He leaned back in his chair. “This oughta be good.”

“Always is.” She leaned against the doorframe, looking hotter than the Fourth of July. Her smile said,
Just try me
, and her eyes dared him to disagree. The challenge she had yet to issue had him aroused, and attitude alone had him horny as all hell and wanting to push out of his chair and press her against the wall. This was their game, and damn, he loved it.

She tilted her head, letting her dark hair fall over her shoulder. “You’re looking particularly studly over there. Doing big, important things today, Boss Man?”

“Breaking out the
Boss Man
, huh?” He grumbled and laughed, rocking back in his chair, and watched her sway her hips forward as she walked like sex and stealth swirled into one.

His wife was a smokin’ sex goddess even pregnant. Too bad she knew it and would use those fuck-me eyes and screw him senseless until she got whatever answer she wanted.

Sugar sat her leather-clad hip on the edge of his desk, and they locked their gazes. “Thelma, honey. Go in the next room. There’s a treat.”

“Ruthless.” His pulse jumped. Kicking the dog out meant Sugar wanted her way, and it almost always meant her sweet pussy was his for the taking. No one would dare walk into his office without permission, and if his wife wanted to play the seductress, Jared would have zero complaints or accidental voyeurs.

“What?” She scooted closer to him on the desk. “Don’t you want to play with me?”

“If you think”—he pulled her leg so that she sat in front of him, straddling his chair—“that this will change whatever I have to say, Baby Cakes, you’re mistaken.”

“Pity.” She smirked but leaned close enough that he could smell her shampoo. “Kiss me anyway, and let’s see how it goes.”

She didn’t wait for an answer, and her mouth tasted bubble-gum sweet. His hands rested on her thighs, his tongue tangled in her mouth as her fingernails scratched the back of his scalp.

“The places I want your tongue. Care to guess?” she purred into his kiss.

Damn. She’d likely get whatever she wanted. He inched forward, licking the delicious slope of her neck. He stifled his own groan and kissed the soft skin. “Here.”

“I won’t complain.”

“Woman…”

She murmured in a way that was a stroke to his shaft.

His tongue ran behind her ear. “You like this.”

“Mm-hmm.” Sugar shifted on the desk, a quiet gasp giving her away.

“You love it.” He upped his game and scraped his teeth against her, nibbling as she tried to hold the upper hand.

“I love a lot of things you do to me.”

He pulled back, not giving in to her games so easily. “You’re up to no good.”

God.
Sexy sat in front of him. Flushed cheeks, heavy eyelids. Her lips were parted, and her hair was a mess. He hadn’t even started with that yet. “Yes,” she said.

“You’re going stir crazy. I’ve been watching you.”

She nodded, gaze set on his. “Yes, sir.”

He rewarded her with the slightest of smiles for breaking out the big guns with the
sir
. “You want a job?”

“Not exactly.” Sugar’s dark-blue eyes intensified.

“Then what?”

She put her palms flat on his chest then raked her fingers down. “Sex first, business later?”

Jared ran both hands down her thigh, answering her without a word, and unzipped the knee-high boot, tugging it free. He stripped the sock and held her bare foot in his hand, running his thumb along the arch. “Whatever it is, you’ll be careful.”

Her head dropped back. “Mm-hmm.”

“Good girl.” He worked his way down the sole of her foot, watching her squirm as he changed the pressure. His thumbs worked her heel and pressed deep circles, sliding to her ankles, then flexing her foot back until he massaged her brightly painted toes.

“God, that’s insane,” she whispered.

He took the other boot off, repeating the process, watching her melt. “You came into my office, planning to take over, and look what happened, Sugar.”