“Your partner’s?” he asked, when she didn’t respond.
“What?” She was getting damn tired of his accusations.
“You just happened to run to a secure and untraceable warehouse? A partner is the obvious answer.” Dizzie couldn’t decipher his tone.
“No! I…” There was no way to condense everything that had happened into a reasonable explanation. Especially when she didn’t understand it herself. “I’ve never been here before. It’s a place to stay.”
“Right.” Killian gave her a sidelong glance and prowled around the rest of the room. Arms crossed, she watched him circle the room once, and then again. Then he dropped into the main chair in front of the computer and started typing.
Whoa. Washethe hacker?
Though he appeared comfortable at the keyboard, the custom-made chair didn’t fit him like she’d expect. Which made sense if he hadn’t been here in a while.
Then again, he hadn’t known—or used—the code.
Pretending to look over his shoulder, she stepped closer and studied the back of his neck for a port. She didn’t see one, but maybe they were like her optical implants—you couldn’t see them from the outside. Without thinking, she swept her fingers over the back of his neck. He shivered beneath her touch and turned to look at her. She jerked her hand back.
“What are you doing?”
“Just checking,” she said.
“Checking for what?” he asked, staring at her. When she didn’t answer, he shook his head. “I can’t do this with you hovering over me. Take a seat.” He tilted his head toward the other chair.
“I’ll watch from here.” She rested her hands lightly on the back of the chair.
His fingers flew over the keyboard. The blank screen was suddenly replaced by a variety of news sites. Some were less newsworthy than others, but almost all splashed his name across the tops of the screen. She read the headlines and gasped.
He turned suddenly in the chair. Dizzie stepped back, but not in time.
Knocked off balance, she wobbled and grabbed at his shoulders. Before she steadied herself, his hands were on her waist and he tugged her onto his lap.
Her breath whooshed out and she wasn’t sure it was from the fall.
“I’m fine,” she said. Stay or go? Her brain whirred frantically as she tried to decide.
“Sit still.” Killian wrapped his arm around her waist. “Now I can keep an eye on you.”
With the decision made for her, she regained enough awareness to catalog her new position. Killian’s firm chest was behind her. His breath was warm on her neck. And his lap was solid and warm. And cold.
Wait, what?
She shifted. His left side was slightly cooler than the right. And harder. She wiggled. His warning growl reverberated through her entire body.
Now that she knew what to look for, she dropped her hands to her sides and trailed her fingers along his outer hips and upper thighs. Warm flesh under one hand, smooth metal under the other. “You have a cyber leg.”
Her pronouncement hung in the air between them while beneath her his body tensed. He whirled her around until she was practically cradled in his arms.
“You have a cyber leg,” she repeated. “How did I not know that?”
He cocked a brow.
Wow. She was taking stupid questions to a whole new level. Swatting him on the shoulder, she said, “You know what I mean. The newsies never reported on it.”
“It’s none of their fucking business.”
How did one of the most watched men in the country keep a secret like that?
“What happened? When?” The questions tumbled out.
