“Good morning, Cora.” He purred.
Cora’s hands clenched and was thankful he couldn’t see them. “Morning,” she needed to focus on her work, not him. He had a job to do, and so did she.
“Have you called Hound yet?” He asked as he came over to her desk.
Cora’s software was just opening when he came to stand next to her. Cora started typing randomly while he looked over her shoulder. “Not yet, I just got up.”
“I’ll give him a call. He can come by sometime today or tomorrow to set everything up.”
“That’s fine.” Cora kept staring ahead.
“Are you okay, Cora?”
“Fine, why?” Why was he still there?
“Because you are only looking at the screen and just typing. You’re not even in an account. And that’s not a code.”
Cora looked at what she had been writing and saw that it was in fact just random letters. Busted. “It’s an exercise I do in the morning before I get started. Stretch out the fingers.” She was so lame. “How do you know it’s not in an account?”
“I’ve told you before I notice everything about you. It doesn’t hurt we dated for over a year. I’ve seen you work. I may not be able to understand it, but I can tell when you are in an account or not. Can I get the contact information you have for Alejandro? I want to get it to Hound.” Cora stopped pretending to type.
“I can’t contact him, but Aaron can?” She asked incredulously.
“Hound won’t be contacting him. He can trace the phone number, and we might finally know where he is.”
Cora didn’t say anything as she scribbled the information down before thrusting a sticky note in his direction. She still refused to look at him when he reached for the sticky note and let their fingertips graze. “I’ll see you later.” He turned around before he let her see his smile.
“Where are you going?” She asked before she could stop herself.
“Don’t worry, I’m not leaving you. I need to shower and make some calls.”
Cora was about to snap at him about not worrying about him, but she looked up at him, and the words died on her tongue. He had sunglasses propped on top of his head keeping him unruly locks at bay. His t-shirt clung to him like a second skin and rivulets of sweat rolled down his neck and arms. And that was why she avoided looking at him until now. All his sensual muscles were on display. Was there anything that could make this man look bad? “Just get cleaned up quick. I don’t want all your sweat all over my floor.” Cora turned back to her computer and erased everything she had been typing and opened a client’s file. This time she was focused on her work and missed Liam smile at her before he ran upstairs to shower.
~
By the time Liam came back downstairs, Cora was fully engrossed in her work. It was one of the things he had always admired about her. She was just as dedicated to her job as he was to his. Cora thought she was sneaky when he first came through the door and didn’t think he would notice she had been waiting for him. For one thing, once she started working you couldn’t get her to stop. Another clue was that he could see her hands were clenched when he first walked in and suddenly started moving the mouse as he walked towards her. The last clue was that she refused to look at him and she was typing randomly. He hadn’t been offended she wanted him to leave. He was unnerving her. Liam knew Cora didn’t really want to break up with him five months ago. Things had been going great between them. He had been staying with her more than he had been at his own house. The sex had been amazing and she had accepted his job without any issues. Cora still cared for him and now they were in the same space together again. Neither knew what to do to close the distance. Cora wanted answers he wouldn’t give her. Unless he was willing to cave, he didn’t think he would ever get back with Cora. Were his secrets worth it? Cora had accepted everything else about him, but his secrets were a hard burden to bear, and it wasn’t her problem to bear them.
Liam walked away from Cora and headed for the kitchen. After running for fifteen miles, he was a little hungry. He whipped up some pancakes and eggs, and poured himself a cup of coffee. He ate quickly and called up Hound to make sure Cora had decent security soon. Cora was right in saying he couldn’t be with her all the time. They still had to be ready to go out on a mission that was coming up. He hadn’t brought it up to Cora, but he wanted the security in place, so she didn’t worry. He debated calling her dad to see if her parents could stay with her, but he knew Cora wouldn’t appreciate that. She wanted to be as independent as possible. He respected that about her, but she had to know asking for help every now and then was okay and not seen as a weakness. He even had to ask for help from time to time. The whole team was willing to help watch Cora and Midas’s house until Alejandro was apprehended. Hound and his FBI contact Blade were using all their contacts to try and locate him, but after killing Commander Brady, Alejandro had gone underground. Cora was their only lead on the guy.
“What’s up, brother?” Hound asked as soon as he picked up.
“He made another play for
