Faith & the Dead End Devils (Sweet Omegaverse, #8)(75)

Across the room, behind the desk I'd been avoiding looking at for most of the day, a throat cleared.

"I'm fine," I said, a little too sharply.

King's rolling chair squeaked as he pushed back from his desk, a loop of keys on his hip jangling as he approached me. My knees were bent, feet planted on the couch cushion, and he lifted them and my computer together, sitting down and stretching my legs out over his lap.

"Shit. This is gibberish," King muttered.

I smiled and tipped my head to look at him. He was wearing a pair of glasses too now, the sight of which did outrageous things to my insides, and he glared at the laptop screen like it was playing tricks on him.

"Did you come over to help?" I asked.

King grunted and continued to squint. I slid one leg out from under the laptop and rubbed my foot against the side of his thigh. He reached for me absently, fingers wrapping around my ankle like a cuff.

Do not get horny right now, I scolded myself, even as my body heated at the simple touch.

"Thought I'd take a look but…now I'm afraid of touching anything," King said.

"Mm, better not. I know I'm nearly there. I think I'm just switching a few of the strands around." I reached for the laptop and King passed it back to me, but he didn't get up to leave. I rested the computer on my stomach, and his hands stroked over my calves.

"Gotta be pretty smart to figure that kind of thing out," King said.

"Adam is smart. I didn't build any of this. I was just supposed to remember how to get in. Which, obviously, I failed at." I let out a long sigh as my next attempt failed. But it was easier to stay calm with King working his fingers into my muscles like that. Harder to focus too.

"You need to take a break, princess," King said.

"Not yet."

"Faith—"

"One hour!" Over the top of the laptop, King raised his eyebrows at me. I raised mine back. "One more hour of trying, and then I will take a break and you can make me go take an omega nap or whatever coddling it is you and Bear think calms me down."

"Princess, I know what calms you down," King said, smirking and sliding one hand high up my leg, teasing my hips forward without touching and then retreating again.

I almost scolded myself again before I realized that, no, this was definitely King flirting with me, and while I'd sworn to myself that I would stop pushing him, I'd made no vow on responding to his advances.

"The massage is helping," I said, waggling my eyebrows. "I know you're busy, but—"

"I've got a little time," King said.

I hid my smile behind the computer and got back to work as King moved those magical hands down to the soles of my feet. I couldn't decide which I liked best—when he was being gentle with me, or when he was spanking my ass hot and red.

"So if you're not the computer genius, what are you?" King asked.

"Hmm?"

"You said your brother was the one who set this…service thingy up?"

"Server. Yeah. Adam did…most of the work, honestly. Made the plans, hacked into the companies to find the information we needed. I just made sure to do whatever he needed. Be the lookout, open the right door at the right time, smile at the right security guard in a bar while Adam swiped the badges."

King laughed at that. "Pretty little bait. Bet it worked every time."

I frowned and glared at the screen, nodding.

"Did you like it?"

"Like it?"

"Fooling them?"

I scrunched my nose up and shrugged. "It was just what Adam needed me to do. He did it himself when he could. Coached me on what to say and how to move when he couldn't."

"What made you decide to leave the foster home with him?" King asked.

I blinked.

"You must've been pretty young."

I had still been a teenager. Underage. Adam and I ran hard those first few years.

"Was the house unsafe?" King asked.

"It wasn't… Not exactly. It was just what would happen when we turned seventeen. Straight into the system for a pack. A year of courting and then that was it, we'd be bonded and settled."

King was quiet for a few minutes, and my head was in a far-off place. Years ago. When I was fourteen and Adam was making plans to leave for both of us and it was impossible to not go with him.

"Why didn't he come back for you?" King asked.

I sat up, pulling my legs out of King's reach and glaring at him. He was relaxed, lounging in his seat, face easy and thoughtful.

"Omikron had me. He didn't know where to look!"

King blinked and shook his head. "Not that. When you were a kid. Why didn't he let you stay at the home for a few more years? Come back for you when you were seventeen and about to be shopped around to packs?"

"I didn't want that."

"Mmm." King nodded. "Woulda been hard. The two of you were all you had. No other family, no friends."

I'd had friends. Friends in the home and at school. And I'd wept at night at the thought of leaving. But I'd wept at the thought of staying too.

"What are you asking me?"

King shook his head. "Dunno. Just trying to figure you out. If your brother is the mastermind, the one with the plans, who are you?"