was damn sure that somebody was throwing this party tonight.
Grabbing the arm of the chair, she turned it so it faced the window and took a seat, unclasping her purse as she set it in her lap. Someone should be here any second now...
As if on cue, the doorknob turned. AJ stole a glance at her phone. Forty-five-second response time, give or take. Conspicuously slow for a silent alarm, so she’d been right about it being just cameras.
The smug smile playing about her lips died instantly as AJ spun the chair around to face the man who’d just walked in on her.
Ho-ly shit.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in here,” he said.
And she’d been expecting some covert security lackey to be dispatched to check on her, not Liam Kearney himself, complete with a tumbler of amber liquid in one hand and a flute of champagne in the other.
Inconveniently, he was sexier in real life than her Google searches and his television interviews had suggested. She knew he was hot—the man got more press than the latest reality TV starlet’s nude selfies—but nothing had prepared her for his presence. There was something about him that didn’t quite translate in his pictures, something almost...wild, which was not usually the adjective that came to mind for a man who was known for his savant-like coding and his three-piece suits.
Her lady parts gave a twinge of appreciation, and AJ realized that it had been a long time since she’d gotten her flirt on. And an even longer time since she’d, ahem, taken care of things. Why else would she be salivating over a man so completely not her type?
She liked dangerous guys, ones who didn’t look like they’d just come from the cover shoot of CEO Monthly, with their clean-shaven jaws and their jet-setting tans and their thousand-dollar haircuts, short on the sides, slightly longer on top. In fact, the only thing that kept all that masculine perfection from being completely repulsive was the devilish spark in his hazel eyes. There was an implied dare in them, and AJ had never been good at turning down a dare.
She dropped her gaze pointedly before meeting his eyes again. “The fact that you’re double-fisting drinks leads me to believe otherwise.”
His grin was lethal, a cocky mea culpa that probably earned the forgiveness of women from six to ninety-six, even though it was completely unrepentant. “Detail-oriented. A quality I admire.”
Yeah, she’d figured that out pretty fast. Not often the king of the castle himself came to check on a security blip. AJ wasn’t quite sure what that was about. It didn’t make sense.
“I was just looking for somewhere quiet, away from the crowd,” she lied with her best damsel-in-a-tiny-dress head-tilt. “These shoes are killing me.”
She leaned back in the plush leather chair, propping her heels on his desk, ankles crossed so that her strappy gold stilettos were on full display.
There was a suspended moment as his gaze slid the length of her legs, and she ignored the phantom warmth that followed in the wake of his inspection—an inspection that lingered for a beat too long on her purse. Reflexively, AJ shut it, the snick of the clasp deafening in the silent room. Her breath caught at the snap of awareness as he reestablished eye contact. Something indefinable shifted in the depths of his gaze...and then he pushed the door closed behind him with his elbow, totally falling for it.
AJ exhaled.
When it came to distractions, the classics always worked, though AJ couldn’t help a pang of disappointment that she’d won so easily. Liam might be a renowned tactician, but that didn’t change the rules of the game: rock beat scissors, scissors beat paper, and penis beat brain.
She let a hint of a smile curve her lips. “So what’s your excuse for ducking out of the party?”
“The truth?” he asked, walking toward her. He moved with a lot more grace than your average tech geek. Hell, he moved with more grace than some of the more accomplished pickpockets she’d known.
It took a second before AJ realized she was pressing back against the chair at his approach. She swallowed and forced her muscles to relax as Liam circled the desk, positioning his body between her chair and the desk. A show of dominance that she recognized—she was good at reading body language—but that didn’t mean it didn’t work. She made a conscious effort not to move her feet even an inch to accommodate his big frame as he leaned a hip against the dark wood surface. The soft material of his suit jacket brushed her bare calf, and she shivered at the sensation.
“I don’t believe we’ve met.” His voice was deep. Seductive. “And I was looking for an excuse to rectify that.”
He held out the champagne flute.
AJ cocked an eyebrow and ignored the stemmed crystal, relieving him of the tumbler in his other hand instead. “Well then, the first thing you should know about me is that I prefer scotch to bubbly.”
He let her see the flare of interest in his eyes. “It’s bourbon,” he advised, setting the champagne on the desk beside his hip.
AJ took a sip. Potent, but smooth. Much like the man who’d provided it.
He reached into the left side of his jacket, retrieving his phone. His thumb flew over the surface of the sleek, matte black rectangle with impressive speed. It took a moment longer than it should have before the soft whir of the security cameras simultaneously shifting direction penetrated her consciousness, before her gaze cut from his big, capable hand to the reflection of his screen in the monitor behind him. Before she could glean anything of import, he was already tucking his phone back into his interior breast pocket.
Damn.
It took everything in her not to flinch at the wasted opportunity. She’d gotten soft, working for Max, holed up in her cushy apartment and doing everything remotely. She’d been off the front line too long. The old her would have capitalized on a gift like that—a glimpse at the screen of her adversary.
Maybe she still could...
She’d come here to drop a backdoor into his main server so she could poke around at her leisure and figure out how to thwart any further attempts to hobble Whitfield Industries. It was supposed to be a quick, covert mission, under the radar all the way.
Liam had messed up the covert part of her plan by walking in on her, but he’d also presented her with an opportunity she’d never dreamed of—the chance to do the same thing to his phone.
She’d made some mods to the program Max had asked her to look into, the one that had been covertly installed on his sister Kaylee’s phone. It had turned out to be Cybercore issue, which put a big red bull’s-eye on Liam Kearney’s chest. He’d rocketed to the top of the suspect list—douchebag most likely to be responsible for the hack on Whitfield Industries.
After she’d analyzed the malware, she’d tinkered a little. It had good bones, but she’d made it even better. If AJ could get her phone close to his, she could install the spy app remotely and have access to everything: his passwords, his emails, his whole life. Excitement at the prospect bubbled in her chest. There was something poetic about beating Liam Kearney with his own tech.
But to make that happen, she needed him to stay close. Really close.
AJ licked her lips, not missing the quick dart of his gaze to her mouth. Her smile was indulgent.
This was going to be easier than she’d thought.
She waited until he raised his eyes to hers. “How can you be sure?”
“That it’s bourbon? I poured it myself.”
She smiled despite herself at his dry, offhand delivery. “That we’ve never met,” she corrected.
He searched her face, and her breath caught beneath his scrutiny, trapping her in the moment. She couldn’t look away.
“I’d remember you.”
AJ’s