Absurd.
He stopped beside her only to stumble back a step when she glanced up at him with her dark eyes slitted in menace. “If you’ve come to ask about my progress, I swear to god, I might kill you.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but others have already tried that and failed.” He pointed to the scar on his neck.
The menace in her eyes turned to concern. “What happened?”
“Too much to condense down into a five-minute convo.” He hitched his chin toward the screen. “So how’s your progress?” Healmostmanaged to finish the question without cracking a smile.
Despite her earlier threat, she didn’t attempt to end his life. Instead, she turned back to the computer screen with a scowl. “If you must know, it’s like when Keanu kept seeing the black cat.”
He blinked, not getting the reference.
She fluttered impatient fingers. “There’s a glitch in the matrix.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “What kind of glitch?”
“If I knew that, it wouldn’t be a glitch,” she stated flatly.
“Are you always this grouchy when things don’t go your way? Or are you suffering from a low blood sugar situation?”
“Can’t it be both?”
He took another step back. “So I guess that means I should keep my distance ’til you figure out what’s wrong with the matrix or the pizza arrives.”
“No. No.” She kicked out the rolling chair next to her and gestured for him to sit. “Maybe what I need is a second set of eyes.”
He made a show of tiptoeing toward her and then gingerly settling into the seat.
She rolled her eyes. “I may be hungry, but a promise I won’t bite.” And then she sent him a lascivious grin. “Unless you want me to.”
“Cut it out.”
She’d always flirted. And he’d always chalked it up to her testing out her burgeoning pubescent skills on a boy she’d known was safe. Back then, he’d thought it was cute.
Now? Well, her flirting, andparticularlythe look in her eyes, had his body reacting in ways it had no business reacting. Since he sure as shit didn’t want her to see, he shoved his hands deep in the pocket of his jeans and felt something in the left pocket that didn’t belong.
He knew what it was the instant he wrapped his fingers around it.
Pulling out the candy brought back a million memories of a time long gone. “Talk about a blast from the past.” He unwrapped the treat and popped it into his mouth. “I remember how your sister would sneak one of these into my pocket on our dates. I never knew when or how she did it. It would just suddenly be there.” He snapped his fingers.
His eyes rolled back in his head as the sugary sweet flavor exploded on his tongue. It tasted like youth and sexual awaking and that breathless feeling of teetering on the cusp of manhood. “Did Candy teach you her trick with the watermelon Jolly Ranchers?”
Something strange passed over Hannah’s face, and her pouty Bratz Doll lips formed a perfect bow. Before she could answer, however, a snippet of information on the screen snagged her attention.
“There.” She pointed. “There’s another one.”
“Another what?” He turned to the monitor but couldn’t see anything other than an email exchange.
“They don’t make any sense. Here.” She grabbed the arm of his rolling chair and pulled him next to her.
She smelled good. Not like bubble gum and Noxzema, as she had when she’d been thirteen. But like orange blossoms and vanilla. Warm and citrusy, reminding him of sugar cookies topped with sherbet.
“See this?”
He followed her point to where her bright blue fingernail tapped the screen. “Read this exchange between Agent Beacham and Director Morgan.”
Sam was keenly aware that her fingers were still on his armrest and touching his forearm. The coolness of her skin against his heated flesh caused the hairs there to stand on end. Also, was his heart beating faster? Was his breath shallower?
