Chapter 7

Gaige wanted to bolt. He would have if the three men in the other office weren’t taking turns staring at him. Finn and Tony he could ignore. When Alec pinned him with that glare, Gaige’s insides froze. His ability to think sputtered.

Formidable. That’s the word Gaige mentally used to describe Alec. The word he tried to convince his brain fit as a simple, no-nonsense description. When his mind slipped over to compelling, Gaige tried to shut it down. Sexy in a wanted-to-slam-him-against-a-wall-and-run-his-tongue-over-him way? Yeah, that floated around in there, too.

He’d sworn off alpha assholes. Vowed to keep walking the next time a gruff fuck-me piece of hotness crossed his path. Certainly had no intention of having anything to do with anyone who worked for Seth. That guy was a raging dick.

But when Alec shot him a look, it stunned like a lick over his balls. Despite the recent shitshow his life had become, Gaige still wanted sex. Hell, he really missed it. Feeling wound up and ready to spring from a guy frowning at him? Well, that was fucking new.

He shook his head, trying to clear out the stray thoughts jamming up in there. The ones sure to make him hard and potentially sloppy about the task in front of him.

Seth had slipped him the burner cell and already demanded that Gaige start screwing with Alec’s phone and computer system. Seth wanted a tap, insisted he needed the window into what was happening at Drummond. He didn’t give a shit if Gaige got killed in the process.

Sneaking away from his desk to get the job done wasn’t exactly an easy task. Alec was right there at all times. That meant wandering off couldn’t just happen. Gaige had to plan and even then Alec likely would hunt him down.

For the hundredth time, Gaige wondered if sitting in jail on trumped-up espionage charges would really be so bad compared to this. Ever since he turned around in that server room to see Alec standing there, Gaige had been thrown into this wild storm.

He needed to get out of there.

As soon as he thought it, he glanced into the adjoining office and saw Alec and the other two men huddled together. They were studying something on his desk. A file, maybe. Since he refused to ask permission to go to the bathroom, mostly because he sensed Alec would follow and possibly watch, he decided to do what normal people would do: Get up and step out. Not make a scene or race around.

He pivoted around the side of the desk, keeping a close watch on the happenings in the other room. When none of the men bothered to look up, Gaige took his shot.

Walking faster than normal but refraining from busting into a full-scale run, he left the desk area. He knocked on the first open door he got to down the long hall. “Bathroom?”

The guy gave him directions that consisted of heading straight until he saw the door. Gaige didn’t let that stop him. He asked two more people, including one headed in the direction of Alec’s office.

He passed by a group of women and gave them a slight wave. Made it all the way to the bathroom and pretended to go in, before hanging a quick right and walking down another corridor.

He couldn’t just waltz into the server room. Breaking in required tools and a bit of time, neither of which he had, thanks to Alec and his security system. It bordered on pure paranoia, which made concealing even a small zip drive difficult. Alec all but had a body patdown conducted on his employees on the way in and out of the building.

No, the server room would have to wait until he could come up with a good reason to be in there…or convinced someone other than Alec to let him in. For now he’d settle for real computer access. He needed a back door. A way to nudge his way in while he was pretending to type jibberish on the computers Alec allowed him to use.

He kept walking but skipped the first office because the light was on and someone was sitting at the desk. Same with the next. By the fourth door, he found a dark space. The office didn’t have a lock and as soon as he slipped inside he knew why. Not an office. A small conference room. Only enough space for six chairs, but it had a monitor mounted on the wall and computer equipment on the edge of the round table. Still high tech. That was one thing Gaige could depend on in a billionaire’s office—gadgets.

He closed the door behind him and went to work. Scanning the room, he took stock of his options. He had a phone and what looked like the setup for a virtual meeting.

Perfect.

He slid into the chair tucked behind the door. The large windows would give his location away if someone really went looking. He figured he had only a few minutes before that happened.

With the keyboard out, he started typing. The screen on the wall clicked on but there was no picture, just a blue screen. That worked for Gaige. He wasn’t planning to call anyone. He was breaking through, using the systems page and heading for the code. Skipping over the usual settings and creating a few of his own.

He’d gotten halfway through typing the command sequence he needed when he heard the heavy footsteps. The commanding stalking of someone determined to kick his ass, no doubt.

He hit a few more keys and covered his work. Hit the off switch that flipped the blue screen on the monitor back to black. He’d just gotten up when the door opened and crashed into the back of his chair. It bounced but Alec caught it before it smashed into his face. Then he slammed it shut behind him.

He didn’t make a sound. Didn’t need to. Rage pulsed off him. One second he stood there. The next he reached out and grabbed Gaige. Spun him around until his back hit the door.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t beat you to death.” Alec wrapped his fingers around Gaige’s throat as his harsh tone filled the room.

Gaige fought back the need to lash out. To surge and punch and drop Alec. One move and he knew Alec would be all over him. The grip on his neck amounted to baiting, as if Alec was daring Gaige to come at him.

Needing to do something, Gaige braced his hands against Alec’s chest. Let them rest there, knowing he could take a more aggressive stance, wrestle for the upper hand, if needed. “I wanted a bigger screen.”

Alec never broke eye contact. “Bullshit.”

“You don’t know anything about tech.”

“I know when someone is fucking lying to me.” Alec shoved Gaige harder into the door. Didn’t so much as blink when Gaige’s head cracked against the wood.

“Jesus, Alec.” Gaige waited for reinforcements, for guards, but no one came. This was between the two of them. He and Alec, and there was no guarantee on how that would end.

“You can pray later. Tell me what you’re doing in here.”

“Getting some air.” Gaige tried to shove Alec back, get some room between them, but he didn’t move. “You’re a bit much to handle.”

“You’re trying to handle me?”

Alec delivered every line as if it had a hidden meaning. Gaige fought to keep his head in the game. The one where he stood a chance of losing everything because Seth had issued threats to get him to do this.

“Any chance you’re going to calm down?” Gaige tried to relax his breathing. The tension pinging around the room threatened to take them both out. He needed to de-escalate and fast.

“I’m about to search you.” But there was no heat between Alec’s words. Well, not anger. Something else lingered there. Something questioning.

A new type of tension whipped through Gaige. He could actually feel his balls tighten as he stood close enough for his breath to mix with Alec’s. “Is the plan to stick your hand down my pants? Because you really should ask first.”

Alec just stood with one hand balanced against the door and the other still wrapped around Gaige’s throat. He’d loosened the grip, but his fingers stayed there. Ready.

“You are playing a dangerous fucking game.” But Alec didn’t step back. Instead, his thumb brushed under Gaige’s chin, across his Adam’s apple then back again. It was a caress of sorts, one straddling a thin line between lethal and sexual.

Gaige could hear the whoosh of his own heavy breathing. Every lift of his chest registered in his brain. Every noise and every sensation. That thumb, tracing back and forth. The shift of Alec’s hold, a ticking up of the heat flowing between them. All of it sucked Gaige under. Smashed his control to pieces.

Still, Gaige didn’t say anything. He wasn’t convinced he could over the sudden scratchiness in his throat.

“If I didn’t know better I’d say you were testing me.” Alec’s voice grew rougher as his hand slid down Gaige’s neck to his chest. Then lower, traveling until his fingertips skimmed Gaige’s stomach.

Despite his shirt blocking the path to his skin, Gaige’s muscles clenched at the slight touch. His brain shouted to cram his back hard against the door but his body ached to get closer to Alec. The magnetic pull tugged at him.

“Are you winning or losing?” It was a risky question, but Gaige wanted to know.

Alec’s gaze dropped to Gaige’s mouth and stayed there. “I’m not sure yet.”

“How did you find me?” Gaige tried to remember the placement of the hall security cameras. “It’s as if you tied a bell around my neck.”

Alec’s gaze shot back up. “Is that what I need to do? Tie you down?”

That did not sound angry. The edge in Alec’s voice sounded like sex. Hot, dirty, stop-for-nothing sex.

Fucking damn he was in trouble. “Do you want to?”

The nod started slowly at first. A clipped reaction but then it continued. “Yes.”

“Sir?” A woman’s voice sounded in the hallway. It had a soft Southern lilt to it, but sounded pretty stern.

It was enough to break the spell. Alec blinked a few times before his hands dropped. Gaige took longer to react.

After months of shutting his body off, denying what he needed, it flowed through him now. Alpha asshole or no, he wanted Alec. Naked, on the floor, over the desk. It didn’t matter so long as his pants came off.

Alec nodded behind Gaige. “Step away from the door so she can come in.”

It took another second for the words to register and Gaige to move. As soon as he shifted his weight, the door pushed open. The woman standing there had a round face and shoulder-length brown hair. She was pretty and stylish in her slim-fitting black pantsuit. She also wore the flat-lined mouth, pissed-off look Gaige started to think was a requirement to work here.

Her gaze shot from Alec to Gaige, then to the dark monitor on the wall behind them. “Is there a problem?” she asked in a tone that suggested she had a big fucking problem with all of this.

Alec gestured to both of them. “Pam Masters, this is Gaige Owens. He’s the—”

“The specialist sent to review my work.” She nodded then turned to Gaige. “Right?”

Lucky me. “I’m a data analyst. An outside audit is recommended—”

“Why?” She frowned at Gaige and shook her head and looked at Alec. “Really, why?”

Well, she didn’t fool around. Gaige half wondered if she was related to Alec since she had his rabid in-control demeanor.

Before Gaige could mess this up with the wrong words, Alec stepped in. “It’s time for our meeting, Pam.” He turned to Gaige. “You were heading back to your desk.”

Gaige wasn’t about to let that opening go. “Right.”

He tried to slip past Pam, but she didn’t make that easy. She stood there, all five-ten of her. She was not a woman most men would ignore in the looks department. There was something striking about her. He also kind of admired that she held her ground against him. She didn’t shrink away or rush to please Alec. She evidently ran the computers and he’d pissed on her turf.

“Excuse me. I’ll leave you two to your meeting.” He liked that she intended to defend it, but that didn’t mean it was his job to stay and fight this fight.

“Why were you using the telecom?” she asked in a deadly calm voice.

Gaige froze. “Why do you think I was?”

“I know everything that happens around here relating to technology.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “If someone so much as turns on a pencil sharpener, an alarm goes off at my desk.”

Gaige could see Alec’s smile. Saw and ignored it. “My mistake.”

She nodded. “Exactly.”

Alec waited until Gaige left the room to do a quick check. He kept the door open, watching Gaige walk back to the office suite. Since he’d stationed Tony right around the corner, Alec was pretty sure Gaige would get there and stay there this time.

But that still left the problem of Pam. He turned back to face her. “I should have told you about this before today.”

Her eyebrow rose. “Agreed.”

“This is no reflection on you or your team.”

Her arms dropped to her sides. “How can you say that?”

“We had a breach in the server room last night.”

“Your email said that was a false alarm.”

She had him there. “But I’ve been concerned about holes in security for some time.” When she started to interrupt, he lifted his hand to stop her. “Again, this isn’t about you. This is about all of Drummond’s protocols. I’m using outside observers with limited access to check and double-check so we know if there are areas where we need to improve.”

“Then shouldn’t this Gaige person be with me? Put him in my office. I’ll show him around.” Both eyebrows rose this time. “Watch him.”

Alec loved that about Pam. She had as many trust issues as he did, which was exactly what a business needed in a tech security person. “That’s the problem. If he spends time with you, sees how competent you are, I’ll never get an honest assessment.”

Some of the wariness left her face. “I think you’re trying to sweet-talk me.”

But there was a lot of truth there as well. He depended on Pam. Actually liked her, and he didn’t like that many people. When her sister started dating Tony, Alec had worried. The last thing he needed in the office was family drama, but if anything, Tony and Pam worked even harder now. It was as if they had a sibling rivalry, a sort of competitiveness that made them both better. Alec benefitted from all of it.

Alec pushed the thought of Gaige and his snooping out of his head and smiled at Pam. “Is it working?”

For a second she smiled back. Then she started shaking her head. “I don’t like this. Some random guy I don’t know. It’s making my team twitchy.”

“You know I hate new faces around here, too. But the more we’re in bed with foreign interests, the more careful we need to be.”

“Maybe, but I’m going to watch him. This Gaige guy.” She pointed in the general direction of where Gaige went when he left. “If he steps into my server room, I’ll be all over him.”

Alec had the distinct impression Pam might get her wish on that score. He didn’t see any signs that Gaige intended to stop doing whatever he was really doing for Seth. “I’m kind of looking forward to that fight.”

“He might have a pretty face, but I’m tougher.”

A really pretty face, damn him. And damn Seth for bringing Gaige around. The temptation already had Alec ready to chew through his own arm. Which meant it was good Pam would be there for backup.

“I’m counting on it.” Someone needed a clear head and for once in his life Alec wasn’t sure it would be him.