Page 75 of Hard Wired

Sylvie cupped his cheek and kissed him. He pulled her down so that her body stretched over his. There were no sheets between them, nothing but skin and sweat and longing. Their mouths were hungry for each other, hands desperate to touch and to please.

He’d never felt this kind of need for another person. It was like a live wire inside him, lighting him up but burning him, too. She was right here in front of him, but that wasn’t close enough.

A phone rang. Damn it, no.

“Shit, that’s mine.” Sylvie jumped out of his arms. Dominic flopped back onto the pillows.

She dashed across the room and dug into her laptop bag. “It’s Tanner.” She answered it. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I’ll be down in a minute.”

She turned around, a sheepish look on her face. “Tanner saw I wasn’t in my room. Did you know it was almost ten o’clock?”

“That’s still breakfast time, isn’t it?”

“Not when I’m supposed to be at work by eight.” She wiped her hand over her face. “I need to check my messages. Why don’t you take a shower while I try to catch up on things?”

He kicked his legs off the bed. “You don’t want to shower with me?”

A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. “Of course I do. That’s exactly why I can’t. I have to get going.”

* * *

Dominic joggeddownstairs and went straight to the kitchen. His hair was still damp, leaving droplets of water on the shoulders of his white T-shirt.

Tanner looked up as he came in. The bodyguard was sitting at his usual stool by the counter. Maureen was emptying clean dishes from the dishwasher. “So you’ve decided to make an appearance. Tanner and I enjoyed our breakfast quite a while ago.”

“She made beignets.”

Maureen nodded. “Just like Café du Monde in New Orleans. We were going to save some for you, but you know how the saying goes.”

“Snooze, you lose,” Tanner finished with a laugh.

“Assuming all you were doing was snoozing?” Maureen lifted two skeptical brows.

“Have you two been practicing this comedy routine all morning?” Their teasing couldn’t ruin his mood. He was too happy and sexually satisfied, even though he and Sylvie didn’t get another round this morning.

Dominic was glad Tanner didn’t seem weird about the sleeping-with-Sylvie thing. Generally, Tanner seemed like a good guy. He hadn’t made Dominic feel completely worthless, so in his book, that qualified as a friendship.

But then again, the bodyguard had probably known about Sylvie’s true mission here. And that meant he assumed Sylvie had slept with him in order to get close enough to install her virus thing on his computer.

So maybe Tanner wasn’t as innocent as he seemed.

Maureen poured Dominic a cup of coffee and gave him a bagel, since the beignets were gone. Tanner wandered off, probably in search of Sylvie.

“You’re rarely so chipper before noon. I assume you and Sylvie had a nice night?”

Dominic sipped his coffee, leaning against the counter. “We did.” He didn’t try to hide his grin.

“It’s lovely to see you smiling.”

“I can’t even remember…” He didn’t finish the thought. He knew Maureen understood. He was happier right now than he’d been in ages, despite the danger they were in.

Maureen finished with the dishwasher. She grabbed a towel to wipe off the countertops. “I just hope you two know what you’re doing. It seems to me a little odd that Sylvie and her bodyguard would turn up here so soon after your lawyer did.”

“What do you know about Sandford’s visit? I told you to wait in your room while he was here.”

She gave him a wry look. “And you think I do every little thing you say? I can hear a conversation in the living room from over in the hallway. I heard what Sandford asked you to do.”

“I wish you hadn’t.” Dominic hung his head. He couldn’t believe she hadn’t said anything. “And you think I went through with it? I didn’t.”

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