Go Fetch ! (10 page)

“So what you’re telling me is that you’re kind of a hacker?”

“No. No. I
was
kind of a hacker. But that is long behind me. I’m a nice respectable girl now. As soon as I get my doctorate my life is going to start really rolling.”

“So what did you do?”

She shrugged. “Moved some stuff around. Infiltrated a few…” she sighed, “…government organizations.”

Conall
raised his eyebrows. He couldn’t help himself.

“But,” she quickly added, “I never stole anything.”

“Is that why you didn’t do any hard time?”

“Well, that and my age. Thankfully, they expunged my record when I turned eighteen. But let me tell you, no computer for three years. To somebody like me that
is
hard time.

“But you know,” she continued. “It was always about the hack. It was about proving we could do it. It was always about that. Not money or stealing anything from anybody.” She shook her head. “But those days are over for me. No more hacking. In fact, no activity that can get me arrested.”

“That’s always a good plan.”

She smiled then and he immediately got hard. It was amazing really. Almost like she’d stroked him. She had both her legs on one of side of him, so he took one and pulled it over so that her legs boxed him in.

“Having fun with my legs there, Viking?”

“Yup.”

He stroked her legs and stared at her. She looked away once and then, after a deep breath, looked back at him. He ran his fingers lightly along her calves and across her knees. He could hear her breathing change. Hear her heart beating faster.

“
Conall
?”

“Miki?”

“Don’t get any ideas. As it is, I’m still pissed.”

“Anger can be quite the aphrodisiac.”

She laughed. “Men are so pathetic. They will come up with any bullshit to get laid.”

“Do you want me to stop?” He massaged the muscles in her calves.

“What if I do?”

Conall
stopped and pulled his hands away. “Then I stop.”

Miki rubbed her neck and stared up at the ceiling. She was trying to look unaffected, but he wasn’t buying it for a second. Especially when she said, “I didn’t say you
had
to stop. I just asked what would happen if I did ask you to.”

“So do you want me to start again?” Miki shrugged. “That’s not an answer,
Mik
.”

She locked eyes with him. “Don’t try and bulldoze me, Viking.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

He leaned forward in his chair and ran his hand on the inside of her thigh. “How about you tell me if you want me to stop.”

“I bet you’re praying I temporarily lose my powers of speech.”

“Only for a few hours.”

She smiled again and shook her head. When she smiled her whole face lit up and he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“God, Miki. You’re so beautiful.”

That seemed to surprise her. “Okay.”

He stroked his hand up her thigh and inside her baggie shorts; he felt gooseflesh break out over her soft skin. “Don’t you believe me?” His hand played along the very edge of her panties.
Lace. Yum
.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. But it’s all perception, isn’t it? One man’s beauty is another man’s coyote ugly. I mean, it’s all about society’s views and…”

“Miki?”

“Yeah?”

“Stop thinking.”

“That’s a cute idea and all, but I don’t think I’m actually capable of…of…oh god.” Her hands gripped the arms of her chair as his fingers slid past her panties and his middle finger slid inside of her.

“You were saying?”

***

Miki was trying to stay in control. Trying to keep her wits about her. But with his finger slowly stroking in and out and his eyes never leaving her face, that was starting to become a
freakin
’ impossibility. “What?” He’d asked her something and for the life of her she couldn’t remember what. Her with the
fuckin
’ photographic memory.

“You were just giving me your theory on beauty and society. Thought you could finish that thesis for me.”

“Um… yeah. Sure.”
Okay, Kendrick. Focus. Focus. You can do this. He’s just testing you. Oh, my god in heaven, that feels so
freakin
’ good
! “You see, it has a lot to do with… um…”

“A lot to do with… what?”

“Well, society and…uh…people…” She closed her eyes. “They are raised to… um…see…” She gripped the arms of the chair harder and wondered if she might just rip the fucking things off. “See what?” He slid another finger inside of her and let his thumb brush her clit.

She almost came out of her chair with that. Instead she let her head fall back. Her breath coming out in short, hard gasps. “Uh…”

“Miki?”

Okay. He won. She couldn’t think of one goddamn thing at the moment. Nothing but him and that big talented hand of his. Unable to stop herself, she moaned out, “Oh god,
Conall
.”

Somehow she got the feeling that was what he’d been waiting for.
Conall
slid off his chair and kneeled in front of her. Leaning forward, he brought his mouth to her breast and sucked on it through her T-shirt. She gasped and wrapped one of her hands in his thick hair, pushing him forward so that he could get a better grip on her nipple. And she had been right. His hair did feel like silk against her skin.

Shit
. This had so not been a part of her plan. At all! But then he’d started touching her and she couldn’t believe how much she loved it. Nothing had ever felt that good before. Now Mr. Happy was more than 2300 miles away and she was about to come without him. She never had before, but
Conall
was bringing her there. Her own live Mr. Happy.

Closing her eyes tight as the sensations began to build inside her, Miki brought her other hand up and gripped the back of
Conall’s
neck. She pulled him tight against her as his fingers continued to move inside her. He brought his mouth to her other breast and sucked on the nipple until that was rock hard. Then he moved his tongue across her collarbone and up one side of her neck. She felt heat spreading throughout her body as
Conall
whispered in her ear. “You smell so good, Miki. Feel so good. I could stay inside of you forever.”

That was the last bit she needed. Her orgasm burst inside of her and she clung to
Conall
as his thumb rubbed against her clit, drawing out her release until she was screaming against his neck.

When Miki’s vision cleared, she realized that she was still holding onto him. “
Conall
?”

“It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.” His hand slipped out of her and he picked her up, walking over to the bed. He dropped them both to the mattress. He rolled on top of her, kissing her neck, her jaw. “
Conall
?” He pulled away and looked down at her. “You really are beautiful, Miki.”

“Thanks,
Conall
.” He stared at her a moment longer. Smiled. Then passed out. Suddenly the biggest guy she’d ever met had her pinned to the mattress.
A really ugly way to die
.

She pushed the thought away and dragged herself out from under him. Luckily, he hadn’t fallen completely on top of her. It seemed like at the last minute he moved just enough to crash more to her side.

Miki dropped to the floor.
Well, that had been interesting
. She took a deep breath to calm her body down. She was still rolling from that orgasm, but she wasn’t going to let that distract her. And she wasn’t going to feel guilty either. He’d started this game, was it her fault that he’d underestimated her?

She stood up and looked at her watch. Her calculations had only been three minutes off. Not bad. She had to guess the time he’d finally drop based on what Sara had told her about their metabolisms. Thank goodness for Pharmacology 101. Best three credits she ever earned.

She went back to her room and changed into clothes that didn’t have
Conall’s
smell all over them. Then returned to her oversized
shapeshifter
in his bedroom. She looked down at him and realized that asleep he did look like the innocent teddy bear everybody kept talking about.

She checked his pulse and his pupils. He was out cold, but breathing normally. She made sure that his body was in a comfortable position, brushed his blond hair out of his face, grabbed her backpack, and snuck out the door.

Chap
ter Six

Miki sat with the closest friends she had outside of Sara and Angelina, and realized that after all these years they were still a bad influence.

“You still have Feds coming to your door and yet we sit here hacking into a man’s computer?”

Craig grinned, but never looked away from the laptop he was diligently working on. “Yeah. They’re like friends now. I make them coffee.”

Miki shook her head. “You’re nuts.”

“Dude, they have nothing on us. They’re just fishing.”

Miki put down her Shirley Temple. “But you guys are hacking into someone’s computer. So you’re giving them ammunition.” Miki ate pretzels out of a bowl then briefly obsessed over how many hands had actually been there before her. “Who are you going after anyway?”

“Mitchell
Leucrotta
.”

Miki frowned. “Who?”

Her four friends stared at her. All scrunched together in the booth opposite her, they leaned on top of one another trying to see what Craig was doing on the laptop.

Amy glanced at Craig. “
Professor
Mitchell
Leucrotta
.”

Miki groaned. “Are you guys nuts? Have you lost what little bit of your minds you have left?” Hacking into another university was dumb. Hacking into your own was just damn suicidal career-wise. And the thought of Craig being the butt buddy of someone in prison was just not a pleasant thought.

“I’m almost positive he’s holding up my grant money.” Craig, like her, was still working on his dissertation. But he had his own lab in the biotech school and would probably be a very rich man one day. If he didn’t have a weird fetish about feet, she would have dated Craig herself. But, as it was, they were better off as good but strange friends.

“Whatever you find, you can’t use it against him. Not legally.” Miki shifted around in her seat and Craig stared at her.

“You so want to see what we’re doing, don’t you?”

Miki turned her head away. “No.”

“Liar.” Amy Bitter, who loved her name, accused. Amy could take apart and re-build absolutely anything no matter how complex.

“You want to touch the keyboard. You lust for the keyboard.” That from Kenny Liu. A software genius who loved creating viruses.

“You’re all idiots.”

Ben Klein, whose hacking skills made hers look like child’s play, raised an eyebrow. “She desires the keyboard as much as she desires to help us with the password.”

“I’m not listening.” Miki put her hands over her ears. “You can’t lead me down this road of evil and prison time.”

“This is part of your ‘I’m a good girl now’ plan, isn’t it?” Amy asked sweetly.

Miki took her hands away from her ears. “Yup. I’m a very good girl.”

Craig winced. “Don’t say that.”

“Why?”

“Because to guys it just means you swallow.”

“Grow up,” Miki snapped as she tried not to laugh. “How about I’m going to be a very respectable girl with a life.”

“We have lives.” Kenny grabbed his bottle of ale off the table. “Sad, lonely, bitter lives. But lives just the same.”

“But what about our plan to rule the world, Miki? Or at least Microsoft?” Ben pushed his empty bottle of ale away. “You and me. We had big dreams.”

“You guys are boneheads.” But she loved each and every one of them. She’d connected with all of them in junior high through an online game before online games were hot. Together they’d begun a minor reign of terror against big corporations. But Miki was the only one busted. She never turned them in, even though she could have gotten off scot-free by turning state’s evidence. Because of that they were loyal to her. And she knew it was no accident that they had all ended up attending the same university.

“Okay. Let me make it clear. I’m here for one reason. To get my doctorate and to get a life. Sara and Angelina are passing me by. I don’t want to wake up 40, still living in Texas alone and bitter. So, until further notice, I will not be doing anything remotely…” she cleared her throat. “…illegal.”

She didn’t know what expression she had on her face, but Amy was all over it.

“Except that you’ve already done something illegal.”

“What? No.”

Amy leaned forward. “Bullshit, Kendrick. Come on. Tell us. You’ll feel better. What was it? Corporate espionage? Credit card theft? Identity theft?”

Miki stared. “The fact that you would think for a second that I would ever do that bugs me.” Then she shrugged. “I kind of drugged a man.”