I came in a spray of gibberish. I was talking in tongues and writhing on the couch. As the pleasure washed over me, I wanted to keep my eyes open, to order Blade to undress, to kiss him as he fucked me. But I was drifting off in the boat of postsex sleep.
“Wine, pasta, chocolate,” I slurred.
“That’s more like it,” Blade said, voice smug.
39
Blade
Ididn’t mind that Avery had fallen asleep; that had been the point after all.
She was sprawled on the couch, her full breasts rising and falling as her breathing slowed. I kissed each one and then her mouth. Avery stirred slightly and muttered more phrases having to do with cheese, charcuterie, and craft cocktails. I wasn’t sure what that was about, but I had wanted to give her such an amazing experience that she couldn’t form a coherent sentence, and it appeared I had succeeded.
Avery was soft and warm when I scooped her up in my arms, her head lolling against my chest. In the bedroom, the box of condoms was on the comforter. I set it on the nightstand and tucked Avery into bed. I wanted to wake her back up, then kiss her, stroke her, tease her into a sweating, moaning mess, then ease my cock into her, feel the way her pussy would clench around me as I thrust into her.
I turned off the lights. I could wait. I was a patient man.
The food was still out when I returned to the kitchen. Looking at it, I was furious again at Avery’s father.
“Who treats their own child like that?” I said. My father certainly had; he’d hated us kids. He would always threaten to drown us or feed us to the coyotes that lurked on the edges of the compound.
After putting the food away, I went into my study and opened up my laptop. There was no way I would be able to sleep next to Avery tonight, not with her half dressed under the covers.
With all the distraction of the wedding and the contract, I hadn’t had much chance yet to work on ruining my father. Leif liked to think he was a smart man. He had apparently found an IT specialist to handle the cybersecurity of his many shell companies and fraudulent accounts. I’d found posts from him on Reddit. The man my father had hired was a fool. Oh, he was good at IT all right, but his hubris would be his downfall. Every good hacker knows that the best way to hack into a network is to use the stupidity of the system administrator against them.
I had been sending the IT specialist several phishing emails over the last week, hoping to entice him to click on a link. The one pretending to be a girl he had lusted after in college asking to catch up had done the trick. He had clicked on the link to the Facebook page I had included in the email. It went to my server then quickly redirected. Hopefully the guy didn’t notice anything. It didn’t seem he had, because I was able to access the system. My program had installed a keylogger, and I reviewed what it had gathered: bank account numbers, login information, and internet search history. After spoofing the IT guy’s phone number, I was able to access the server. There were pictures of my sisters there playing and being kids. The computer mouse cracked under the pressure of my grip.
“I’m going to save them,” I whispered in the dark. I knew my father had them earmarked to be sister wives. I refused to let that happen. Since it appeared Garrett was too busy trying to destroy my fake marriage, I was going to be the one setting the trap for my father.
I downloaded as much information as I could from the bank accounts and the server. It was all disorganized, the workings of a madman. No matter—that was what my algorithms were for. I fed the information in and set it to run.
Leaning back in my chair, I breathed out, forcing myself to release the tension in my shoulders.
I know what would help relax you…
But Avery was asleep. I looked out the window; the sky was pink with the sunrise. Avery would probably be hungry when she woke up. I went into the kitchen and started chopping vegetables and leftover meat. I wasn’t a great cook, but I could make an omelet at least—unlike many of my brothers, who could barely boil water let alone manage a whole breakfast. I was whisking the eggs when I heard Avery scream.
I ran down the hall, heart pounding, and skidded to a halt in front of the bed.
“I slept with you?” she shrieked, pointing at the condoms on the nightstand.
“We didn’t have sex,” I assured her. “Though I wanted to.”
Avery gaped at me then looked down, cursed, and pulled the covers up to cover her bare chest.
“Oh my god, my dress is undone and—” She went red. “Where are my panties?”
“It’s too late, I already saw all of that,” I said, trying not to smile at the memory. That would probably make her mad.
“I told you the rules!” she screeched. “God, my head is pounding. How much did I drink?”
I frowned. “You didn’t seem to care about the rules when my tongue was on your clit.”
“Oh my god,” she moaned, her head sinking in her hands. “At least we used a condom, right?”
“We never actually had sex,” I repeated.
“Oh. Oh…” She looked up at me guiltily.
