I look at the time. “We have… exactly twelve minutes to get to the Alibi before he puts our faces on missing person flyers.”
He tucks himself in, does a half-hearted job at tidying my dress, and then we both stand there a moment, dizzy and grinning and completely undone.
“I think this might be the dress,” he says, and it’s so terminally Logan I have to bite my tongue to keep from howling. I swipe at my mouth, fold down the hem, and for one second just look at us in the mirror, chaos and bliss, two engineers in the middle of a one-bedroom disaster and more alive than I’ve ever been.
“Well,” I say, voice raw, “if Dominic asks why we’re late, I’m blaming the dress.”
He shrugs, palming my ass as he glances at his own reflection. “Tell him it was a matter of…” he kisses my collarbone, lips lingering, “critical path optimization.”
I snort. “We are the worst.”
He grins and nudges me toward the closet. “Get your shoes. We’re already late.”
CHAPTER 33
Logan
“To the two biggest nerds I know!” Dominic raises his glass, sloshing champagne onto Bennett’s sleeve. “Who somehow managed to change the world while the rest of us were just trying to get laid!”
“Speak for yourself,” Caleb mutters, and Serena elbows him.
The Alibi’s VIP section is packed with our friends, champagne flowing like someone forgot to turn off the tap. Bennett keeps trying to make a speech about ‘strategic vision’ and ‘long-term market positioning,’ but Dominic drowns him out with increasingly creative toasts.
“To neural implants! To the FDA finally getting their heads out of their asses! To Logan’s freakishly large brain and Audrey’s—” He pauses, grinning. “Also, freakishly large brain. What did you think I was going to say?”
“Something that would get you slapped,” Jenna says coolly from the corner, where she’s been nursing the same glass of wine for an hour.
“You wound me, Pemberton.”
“Not as much as I’d like to.”
Layla leans across the table toward Audrey. “How does it feel? Officially approved. The thing you’ve been working toward for years.”
Audrey shakes her head, still processing. “Surreal. I keep waiting for someone to tell me there’s been a mistake.”
“No mistake.” Bennett raises his glass. “I’ve seen the official documentation. NeuraTech is going to change lives. You two should be proud.”
“We are,” Audrey says, and her hand finds my thigh under the table.
Not holding. Stroking. A slow, deliberate path from my knee upward.
I nearly choke on my champagne.
“You all right there, Logan?” Caleb asks. “You look like your brain just crashed and needs a reboot.”
“Fine. I’m fine. Bubbles went down wrong.”
Audrey’s expression is perfectly innocent, but her hand keeps moving—tracing circles on my inner thigh, her fingers drifting higher before retreating. A pattern designed to drive me insane.
Two can play this game.
I lean over, pretending to reach for a napkin, and let my lips brush her ear. “You’re going to pay for that later.”
Her breath catches. “Promise?”
“Guaranteed.”
“Oh, get a room already,” Serena announces, pointing her champagne flute at us. “Audrey, your poker face is terrible. You look like you’re about to climb him like a tree.”
