Summer finishes her apple and tosses the core in the trash.Hopping off the counter, she comes up from behind me and flicks at my hair.
“Emma Clark, this right here is not housekeeper hair.It’s what’s known asjust-got-fuckedhair.Don’t deny it, or I’ll announce it to the world.You and Finn have been doing the four-legged two-step right here in the house.Now spill.I want the details.Don’t leave anything out.”
CHAPTER 51
Finn
Declan flicks my forehead hard enough to leave a bruise.
“Hey!What was that for?”I punch his upper arm, and Iknowit will leave a bruise.“Shit, Declan.”
I rub my forehead with one hand and keep my other hand clenched in a fist in case I need to punch my little brother again.
“Where are you today, Finn?”
“Right here.”I look around our sensitive compartmented information facility conference space in Cal’s house.We’re surrounded by our data center servers, high-powered computers, and monitors.Plus stacks of code printouts.We’ve been in here, just the two of us, working on a problem that’s been kicking our ass for weeks.
We can both smell it—this iteration of our technology could have far-reaching implications for national security.But only if we can break through what looks like an impossible brick wall.
Our goal is to develop a prototype and find a way to monetize it.Unfortunately, we’re not making much progress today.
It might be my fault.I might be the tiniest bit distracted.
“No, you’re absolutely not here in the SCIF,” Declan says.“You’re in Lala Land.We’re getting nowhere.What the fuck is your problem?”
“I’m not distracted.”
I’m the king of distracted.Because I’m the only man on the planet who knows that Emma is in my house down the lane, smelling like me, because I’ve just finished fucking her brains out.Again.And I plan on doing it again when I get back home.And again after that.
That woman is a wild thing.She can give as well as she takes, and she’s learning how to take all of me.
“This is going nowhere.”Declan stands.“Later.I’m flying to Hawaii.”
“You can’t go to Hawaii.”
“We’ve got work up to our asses, but what’s the point of staying here when we’re not getting anything done?”Declan digs his hand into my jellybean jar, comes out with a fistful, and throws them in his mouth.
“Hey, I don’t know where your hand’s been.”I drag the jar closer to me.
“Then why’s it here in the conference room?If you want to hoard your candy, then you keep your candy locked up.Anyway, I showered two days ago.”
“Liar.”
“Actually, I’m takin’ the heli to Reno.Dad asked me to fly Scarface up there.You know, that horror-movie-lookin’ dude who comes here once in a blue moon selling gaskets or wheel covers or feed or some shit.”
“Fascinating.”
“But Iamgoing to Hawaii next spring.I’ve got a nerdy helicopter thing down there, and I’m going to stay a month.”
“Yeah, right.”Declan doesn’t leave the ranch for long.He’s a diehard homebody.As a pilot, he loves to travel, but only if he knows he’s coming home soon.The Navy was hardest on him because military housing isn’t exactly permanent, and he was the one who originally suggested we headquarter StellaR Tech on Yosemite Ranch.
“Sit down.Let’s finish this.”
Declan laughs.“We should have finished an hour ago, but we didn’t, and whose fault is that?I’ll give you a hint.Not mine.You’re staring out into space.It’s like you got your mind on a girl or something—oh, shit.”
His eyes grow round.His head bobs up and down and he points at me, wagging his index finger like he’s having a seizure.“You have your mind on a girl.You have your mind on agirl.”
I take a running tackle at him, slamming him into the wall.He fights me back, trying to yell that I have my mind on a girl, so I clamp down harder on his mouth and we slide onto the floor where I put him in a chokehold.
