Page 27 of Beyond the Rules
“You’llsee.”
Pressed against Zar’s wide chest, feeling his solid strength and heat wrapped around me, and fresh out of a conversation that made me feel wicked to the core, it was hard to think clearly. My instincts told me to trust these guys. My brain said I had no other options. My body was reacting as if my choices were adonedeal.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm the pointedly sexual energy vibrating through my body and succeeded only at inhaling Zar’s breaths. Fire and metal scented my lungs and smelted my body to his hold. I had to make a concerted effort not to melt in his arms. He was so freaking hot in his command mode. Something about him made me want to fight him, provoke him, inflame him, the same visceral force that reared inside of me when he lookedatme.
No way, I wasn’t going to surrender my will to him, not even if my treacherous body wanted to submittohis.
Three guys. One woman. Was it even possible? I was about to flaunt society’s rules again. Could they really share me? Could I really share myself with them? The visions on my mind were hot. Wow, Nina. Wow. On the other hand, there was a lot at stake: my sanity, their friendship, their team and their pact. I needed to find out more aboutthispact.
We arrived at the bottom level of the house, where a sprawling game room overlooked the canyon and served as library, game room, and fully-equipped gym. Zar walked to the back wall and put me down. He slid an alarm panel aside and put his palm and his eye to a scanner. In the opposite corner, one of the book casesglidedopen.
Zar didn’t say a word. He didn’t strike me as a man who relished having to explain anything. He just took me in his arms again and carried me through the newly-opened threshold and into a room built deep into the mountain. All I could dowasgawk.
A large cage stood to one side of the room, neatly stacked with all kinds of equipment and an impressive collection of weapons mounted on the wall. There was a lot of firepower in this house. My brother had kept his guns in what he called his “locker” at his San Diego base. I was now looking at Zar, Tanner, and Aiden’s missionlocker.
The rest of the room was set up as a high-tech operational center, with three defined work stations, several military grade, top-of-the-line computers, and an impressive set of cutting edge servers, protected with the latest bells and whistles. The hacker in me salivated at the chance to work out of a cyber Fort-Knox like this one. I also craved the chance to break in and get out with thegoodies.
“This is awesome,” I said as Zar putmedown.
His chest expanded a little. “We’re proud of thisplace.”
The elevator’s quiet ding sounded outside and then Tanner shuffled in. Aiden came on his heels, with my laptop in tow. He punched a button by the threshold and the bookcase slid back into place, sealing the room with a quiet, sound-tighthiss.
Aiden placed my laptop in a clear box at one of the work stations, a dampening device that prevented my computer from generating signals that could contaminate other computers and servers within its electronic range. I was going to love it here. My confidence was back in full. These guys were part of something big, an interagency collaboration or a federal contract of some sort. It took a lot of dough to finance this setup. “Who’spaying?”
Zar gave me a forbidding look. “How about you stop asking questions now so we don’t have to slap the word ‘classified’ into every othersentence?”
So, I was right on all counts and Ulysses wasbigtime.
Aiden sat down at his work station and, nimble fingers flying over his holographic keyboard, powered my laptop. The large screens on the wall lit up with the icons of my initiating screen. No need to tell Aiden my security codes. He’d already figuredthemout.
He looked up at me. “Whereto?”
“Call to Mission, BlackOpsMax.”
Aiden jaw dropped, but his fingers kept working. “You hid the evidence in avideogame?”
“Not just any game.” I crossed my arms and smirked as the screen came up. “The most badass videogameever.”
Aiden’s caramel eyes smiled. “It’s myfavorite,too.”
“Your exquisite taste in music extends to videogames, I see.” I returned my attention to the screen. “Go to the one hundredlevel.”
Aiden frowned. “There is no one hundred level inCall toMission.”
“No?” I shrugged and cocked my chin at the screen. “Thenwhat’sthat?”
Aiden’s eyes widened. “You added a whole new level? How the hell… Am Idreaming?”
“Nope.” I grinned at my newest admirer. “I got bored, so I uppedtheante.”
“I do believe you just broke a million fucking laws,” Zar grumbled from hisworkstation.
I glanced over at him. “If the tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, diditfall?”
“It did fucking fall,” Zar said. “And it will rot on theground.”
I looked to Tanner and Aiden. “Is he always thiscranky?”