Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(50)

Man, this woman deserved so much more than him. And he owed her huge. If not for the sleep, then for the gift just waking up next to her had been. “I don’t want you to think you don’t matter. That what we did—last night or anything else—is just some random hookup. I just... I can’t—”

“I know.” Soft. Simple. No explanation needed.

He leaned in, knowing the second his trajectory registered what a monumentally horrid idea it was, and chucked his rules out the window anyway. His lips melded with hers. Easy. Lingering. More than anything, he wanted to lick between hers and wake her up differently. To take his time and show her the side to himself he kept hidden.

He pulled away instead and stood, locking his focus on her palm pressed against the sheets rather than the hunger in her bright blue gaze. “You don’t have to come in today if you don’t want to.”

“I want to.”

He looked. He couldn’t have stopped it if he tried. No more than he could have stopped the words that slipped past his lips. “I want you to, too.”





Chapter Twenty

Four days he’d made it. Four long, grueling days Knox had kept his shit centered and his hands off Darya. His focus shifted off the suspicious log entry on his main screen to the server room security feed on his left and gritted his teeth so hard a sharp twinge pierced the spot where his jaw hinged. Vance was a good kid. One of the best server guys he’d ever hired.

But if he didn’t stop touching Darya soon, he was gonna be minus both arms.

His office door clicked open and Beckett’s heavy footsteps lumbered in. “Hey, man. Jace and Axel called. The rest of the guys are hangin’ at Crossroads tonight. You wanna go?”

Shifting his gaze back to the task at hand, Knox punched in the IP address listed in the most recent hit against their mail server. “Not sure. Got someone who’s started pinging our servers last night.”

“Brother, the last thing I’m worried about is anyone getting past your traps.” He pulled out a chair and made himself right at home. “And what’s with the shit mood anyway?”

“I’m not in a shit mood.”

“Uh, yeah. You are.”

“Nope. I’m good.” Fuck. Now he wasn’t just lying to himself, he was lying to Beckett, too. “Just wanna know who’s knocking so I can shut ’em down.”

“Thought you said those honeypots and triggers you set up blocked ’em automatically.”

“They do. Usually.” Except the number of attempts had been twice as high in the last twenty-four hours, which made him itchy.

“Good, then finish up your cyber God routine this afternoon, and we’ll meet back at our place after close. Danny’s gonna meet up with us, too. It’s Friday. Time to work out the kinks.”

Movement in the server room feed caught his attention, and he caught the backside of Vance following Darya out the door. She’d work late. He’d bet last year’s earnings on it. But then Vance probably would, too. And what the fuck was she doing hanging around with Vance anyway? The last time he’d checked in with Katy, Darya had been knee-deep in some low-priority code defects.

Beckett’s deep voice boomed a little louder. “Yo. Earth to space cadet.”

Goddamn it. Hell of a time for him to get caught eyeballing Darya. Though, Beckett was a little out of his direct line of sight. Maybe he hadn’t caught the slip. “I don’t know. Let me see how this goes for the next few hours and I’ll let you know.”

“You’ll let me know.” Beckett’s deadpan mimic had more than a little sarcasm to it. He rested one forearm on the edge of Knox’s desk and drummed his thumb against the chrome surface. “The only time in the last six years you’ve ditched your brothers when you didn’t already have something to do was when three servers went down and you felt bad about letting Vance fly solo.”

“So?”

“So, I wanna know what’s wrong.”

Knox slid his hands away from the keyboard, let his eyes slip closed and rolled his shoulders to work out the tension in his neck. He loved Beckett. Loved all his brothers. But right now, he needed time alone to make sure his emotional game was packed up good and tight. Not to mention, the usual pickup routine they’d all expect of him at Crossroads gave him the scratch. He swiveled his chair to Beckett and met his heavy stare head on. “I told you. Someone hits us this many times in one day, I want to know who’s behind it.”

“Bullshit. Someone hands you a puzzle, you get a boner. Not stressed out or pissed. And, brother, I’m very aware you’ve been one or the other all week, so what’s really eating your lunch? You not sleeping?”

“No less than normal. Got a solid eight a few nights ago.”

Beckett grinned and snickered the same way he had when they’d scored their first Playboy. “That the same night you disappeared over at Darya’s place?”

Motherfucker. “You tracked me?”

“Why the hell not? The beauty of GPS and all that, right? Besides, you do that shit to us all the damned time. Don’t get your panties in a wad when we return the favor.” He shrugged, reclined in his chair and kicked one foot up on the edge of Knox’s desk. “Get pissed if you want, but you weren’t answering your phone. Just wanted to make sure you were someplace safe.”