“Yeah. He’s warning me off Suzie. Says his dad’s got shit going on with Alex and his crew at Argent. Says he can get us discounted stuff and get ExFil in on some weapons testing if I abandon Suzie here.”
“You gonna?”
“No. But figured you should be the one to tell the little fuck the way it is. Above my paygrade.”
“You on a burner?”
“Yeah. Givin’ him the phone so you can ‘splain. I’m headed up to Suzie now.”
“Take care of my girl, Stunner. You know we have your back if you need it.”
Stunner snorted. “Don’t need it with this punk. Though if you wanna send Willa, she could use the practice.”
“Doubt Trucker would let me, but I’ll give her the option. Now, who is this guy? More importantly, does he even know what Argent Tech is?”
“Name’s Jake Salisberry, and I doubt it. If he did” -- Stunner met Jake’s ever-widening eyes with his own piercing gaze --”he’d know that Argent makes the tech that goes into the weapons. Not the weapons themselves. But then, he is a stupid-ass motherfucker.”
“I’m also guessing that he doesn’t know Giovani Romano is the one who practically forced Suzie into MIT in the first fuckin’ place. You realize, if it hadn’t been for him gettin’ all pissy that she broke into their system when she was seventeen, she’d be at home right now? How’d he put it?”
“Just because she can break into a highly sophisticated, highly classified network doesn’t mean she doesn’t need to learn how to do it in a way she’ll never get caught.”
There was a silence before Cain said, “Hmm. Not sure he said it exactly like that, but I’m pretty sure that’s how she took it.”
“As evidenced by the fact that the next time she did it, it took him three days to figure out he’d even been hacked.”
“OK, yeah. I remember now. Anyway. Put the dipshit on the phone. We’ll see if his daddy’s more connected than me.”
“He might have you there, brother,” Stunner said, a smile teasing his lips, but he managed to keep it tightly under wraps. “But I guarantee your contacts can take his contacts.”
Stunner tossed the phone to Jake. “Have a nice chat with the man who won the protective father of the year award and just happens to have several full teams of lethal soldiers at his beck and call.” Had he ever had such a long conversation with anyone? He sighed. He was getting soft. He’d wanted to intimidate the shithead. He’d succeeded, but had given away tons of information.
Wincing as he opened the stairwell, Stunner decided he’d fooled around long enough. It was time to get things settled with Suzie.
* * *
How long did it take to get his clothes from the car? Suzie knew she’d been a bitch. Run-ins with Jake or pretty much anyone else in her building always put her in a bad mood. Honestly, she had no idea what she’d done to get on literally everyone’s bad side. It must be one of her talents.
There was a knock at the door, and she jumped. A quick look out of the peephole told her it was Stunner. No real surprise, but it wasn’t until that moment she realized she’d half expected him to abandon her again. God, she was pathetic!
She opened the door and just resisted the urge to throw herself at him. Still, she let out a breath that made her lungs burn and her throat tighten.
Stunner shut the door and tossed his bag on the floor, pulling her into his arms the first second he could. He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tightly. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to take so long.”
Was he trembling? No. She had to be wrong. It was her trembling, quaking in her shoes. Surprisingly, it wasn’t from fear. Despite her past, despite doing everything in her power to suppress this side of her nature out of fear of where her mind would go. The second Stunner wrapped those wonderfully strong arms around her, her mind simply embraced the sensations even as she embraced the man.
She tilted her face up to him, accepting his kiss. His growl thrilled her even as the tenderness he showed her filled her with warmth and a love she’d only ever hoped existed. Funny. She’d always known Stunner loved her, but she felt like everything was brand new now. Like this was the first time he’d ever held her. In a way, she supposed it was. There was expectation in the air that had never been there at any other time.
Cupping her face in one hand, Stunner guided her, showing her what they both needed. He was patient, never rushing her, but she knew he wanted to. The dampness of his shirt over his sweat-slickened skin proved that.
“Need you naked, baby,” he said, his voice that gruff, sexy growl she loved. He pulled back, cupping the other side of her face with his other hand so that he had complete control of her. His hands were so big, they nearly covered her whole head. “Do you trust me?”
She smiled, realizing she did. “Only you, Stunner. I trust only you with this.”
He nodded gravely, never looking away from her eyes. “If you get scared, you say so. We’ll stop and talk about what I did to frighten you. I’ll never get angry, honey. Never.”
“I know. Besides, I don’t think it’s possible for you to scare me. You’ve taken care of me through some of the worst times in my life. I think we can both manage this.”
He nodded once, then scooped her up and headed to the bedroom. Suzie buried her face in his neck, inhaling the woodsy smell of him. The underlying hint of gasoline fumes were still present, even though he’d obviously taken great pains to hide that part of himself from the outside world, and it made her smile.
When he sat her on the bed she looked up at him, watching intently as he
