We collapsed together, not even pulling apart. Sticky come coated my inner thighs and my whole body ached, but nothing could make me move from that spot. Fucking. Nothing.
I guess Jordan really was my Prince Charming, after all.
Chapter 16
“Wait, you said something earlier about dealing with Alex?” I asked a little later, trying to catch my breath. I was still a boneless mess but somehow found the strength to turn my head and meet Jordan’s intense, heated gaze.
“So I did,” he agreed, with a smug smile. “Before you distracted me.”
I gasped, faking indignation. “Me? Distract you?”
Jordan gave a small shrug with one of his smooth, bronze shoulders, then let his smug grin spread wider. “Yep,” he replied, dragging his gaze over my body, “you’re very,verydistracting, Violet Rose.”
Groaning, I dragged the sheet up over my nakedness before we both got distractedagain.“Tell me the plan. I’ve been fucking dreaming about putting Alex in his place, but beyond beating the shit out of him—”
“Which gets us nowhere,” Jordan commented, and I nodded.
“—I’ve got no better ideas.” I quirked a brow at him and sat up slightly, propping myself up with an elbow. “So tell me.”
“Okay, so you know how I’m kinda good with tech stuff?”
I rolled my eyes at his modesty, remembering all to clearly how he’d debugged my palm reader so I didn’t need to worry about my digital fingerprints being recorded. “Uh, yeah. Kinda. Sure.”
He flashed a quick smile, tucking an arm over his head to get comfortable. It took a whole shitload of willpower not to follow the movement of his muscles and drool all fucking over them.
“Right, so this plan is in its really early stages, but I wanted to tell you first,” he started, with a small grin.
I smiled back, tryingreallyhard not to make it a lusty one. “’Cause you like me.” I was teasing, but he took me seriously. Reaching up, he snaked a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a long, lingering kiss.
“I really like you, Violet.” His voice was husky and low, and it did all kinds of sexy things to my lady parts. “But back to the plan.”
I cleared my throat, mentally shoving the arousal aside for five freaking seconds so he could tell me what he’d come up with for Alex. “Yes, the plan. Go.”
“So, I’ve been thinking a lot on this whole princess ballot system, about how they seem to be using it to make genetic matches for royals who don’t have a peer match.” He paused, his mouth tipping in a frown. “Or royals who lost their genetic match to murder.”
I cringed, thinking of Jasmine.
“Anyway, it got me to thinking. They couldn’t possibly be testing fifteen million people just to selectonematch. That’s a gross imbalance of resources to result, right? The cost and manpower it’d take to conduct the tests, then process them… it doesn’t add up.” He was becoming more animated as he spoke about this, shifting up in the bed, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “So I started digging around on the internet. Subtly, don’t worry.”
“I wasn’t worried,” I replied with a teasing smile. “If anyone can cover his tracks in the digital world, I’m thinking it’s probably you. Which, I might add, totally busts the whole stereotype of what tech geeks look like. If I had guessed two months ago, I definitely would have pegged Nolan for the nerd of your group.”
Jordan laughed. “It’sourgroup now, gorgeous. And what would that make me? The charming athletic star with a heart of gold?”
I snorted, thinking back to those first meetings I’d had with Jordan. “More like playboy prince with a bed full of women,” I muttered, shaking my head. “But stop deviating off topic. Tell me more.”
“Right, so I’ve been doing a bit of snooping, and I think I’ve found the database where all the results are being stored. Obviously they won't be running another ballot for another five years, but I think the database from your round is doing more than just sitting there collecting dust.” He paused, and I waited patiently—okay fine,impatiently—for him to get to the point. “There was evidence in the servers that they’re actually using it to match up other couples as well, rich people, those who will pay good money to guarantee a genetic match resulting in healthy heirs.” He raised his brows and I gasped.
“Holy shit. People would actually pay for an arranged marriage?” The idea shocked me, but it shouldn’t have. Of course people would do that. In a world where fertility was a dying asset, ofcoursesomeone had found a way to monetize it. “And let me guess. Only one party would be aware of this transaction?”
Jordan shrugged, but the grimace on his face probably mirrored my own. “I don’t know, but I can guess.”
I shuddered. “Gross.”
The whole thing was layered in ick. It was slimy and devious and… “Wait, how does this deal with Alex?”
Jordan’s face brightened. “Ah, well, I couldn’t find an easy way to dig any deeper than I already had, not without setting off alarms and security alerts and all that crap. But that in itself gave me an idea. What if I could develop a, uh,codethat makes it look like Alex was the one accessing these confidential files? Two for one. My code can transfer the entire database to me, wipe the original server clean, and frame Alex for the whole hacking crime.” He beamed with pride at his idea, and I had to hand it to him… that was pretty great.
“Acode,huh?” I teased. “Just call it what it is, Jordy. You’re creating a virus.”
