Page 44 of Cocky Tech God

I didn’t participate in the evening festivities planned for the attendees. Instead, I was in the hotel room reviewing the report Mia had sent me with details of the breach. The conference was halfway over, which meant I had only a few days left to save the future of LMS. With this in mind, my eyes flew over the lines in rapid speed, searching for irregular patterns or something that stood out.

I saw nothing obvious. But, of course, my mindset was a blocker to my ability to find a solution. At least Hansen had been in the thick of the networking events, or at least that’s where I’d seen him. After I’d seen him on the beach on my way back inside the hotel, he’d been following me around, asking me how I was. I couldn’t tell him the truth. He couldn’t know about LMS. No one could. So, obviously my face had been betraying me, showing cracks in my strong-woman demeanor. I hated that. I also hated that for the first time in so long, I felt helpless. Weak. I felt like a failure.

A feeling that brought back too much of my past.

Okay, focus. Time was running out. So, I turned my gaze back to the report and read again, slower this time, taking in each character. A knock at the door startled me. My mind went blank for a moment, but I remembered I ordered room service. A cheeseburger and a bottle of the cheapest white wine they had.

I stood and walked to the door, but it opened before I reached it. My heart jerked in my chest. I stalled, bare feet sinking in the carpet.

It was Hansen.

The breath left my lungs. For the briefest of moments, I was wrapped up in his energy, standing before me, tall and commanding. And so gorgeous. But he still had that warmth in his eyes that suggested he cared about me.

I turned around, my stomach waving. “I thought you were room service.”

“Oh yeah?” The click of the heavy door shot through the air. He continued, “What did you get?”

I sat back on the settee and swiped my iPad screen to light up the document again. “A burger and wine.”

“All the important food groups.” He laughed and removed his blazer. Was he staying? It was too early to bail on the evening’s events. “I’m kinda hungry myself.”

“You can have a bite of my burger.” I looked up at him. He was much closer than I realized—sitting next to me.

“I’d rather have a bite of you.” He leaned in to kiss my bare shoulder.

I set my iPad aside. Maybe I needed this distraction to get my solutioning ability back on track. “Shouldn’t you be at the events networking and all that?”

“This seems like more fun.” Hansen trailed his finger up my thigh. I still wore my cropped pants. “What do you think?”

“Hmm…” I purred and lifted to straddle him. “Can you guess what I think?”

He gripped my bottom, squeezing hard, and his mouth moved to mine, meeting me in a rough kiss. In seconds we were both naked and writhing against each other. The one thing my mind kept attaching to was the comfort I felt in the familiarity that his body had become. I liked how I knew him. I liked how he knew me too.

I was lightheaded and moving with him to that final destination that we both wanted from each other. But, with the thoughts that flittered through my head, it would seem that some part of me wanted more than that. My heart beat to near explosion, and instead of running and running as I wanted to, my release came hard and fast, shaking me to my core.

I slumped over Hansen’s shoulder, desperate to find some balance. The recent events had wreaked havoc on my emotions, so why else would I entertain thoughts that I had only moments ago? I was certain that was it because the intention with Hansen was to have fun. Get the fix that we both wanted. Nothing more.

I said it again to myself. Nothing more.

“Are you okay?” Hansen was breathless. “Was that not good?”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not that.”

“Then, what?”

A knock at the door saved me from answering a question to which I didn’t have the answer. And after I’d thrown on his shirt and opened the door, I took my dinner from the tray and used that respite to recalibrate myself. I had far more important things to think about besides some random confused thoughts about Hansen.

“Dinner.” I announced, my casualness barely coming back. I willed it with everything inside me and walked to the coffee table and put the tray down. “Do you want some wine?”

He lifted his chin. “What kind is it?”

I flicked my hand in the air. “It’s probably nothing you’d want. I got the cheapest bottle on the menu.”

He was behind me then, rubbing the length of my arm. I closed my eyes for a moment and turned to face him, breaking his contact in the process.

“I’m sure it’s fine.” His gaze moved to my cheeseburger.

“I’ll split it with you.”