CHAPTER ONE
Lexi’s fingers flew across the keyboard and then abruptly stopped. Something was wrong. Was it the code? She scrutinized the command lines, but everything looked correct. So why did the hairs on her arms tingle with awareness?
Her gaze left the screen and drifted up to the large form darkening her bedroom doorway, one which hadn’t been there a second ago.
“Parker!” she cried, yanking on the cord to pull the headphones out of her ears. “What are you doing here?”
She shut her laptop and sat up in their bed, looking down at her tank top and pajama pants, the fluffy comforter pushed around her lap. There were plenty of times during an op that Titan Group kept her husband working long hours, but there was never a threat of him coming home in the middle of the day. Certainly not early enough to catch her still in pajamas.
Okay. In fairness, it was past noon.
But she was working on a new program that had consumed her life for the last ten days, and she was so busy, sometimes she forgot to eat. Parker knew this, and thankfully, there was no judgement in her husband’s deep blue eyes. Only amusement.
“Pack your things.” He crossed his arms and leaned casually against the doorframe. “We’re getting away for a little R and R this weekend.”
“What? Where?” She scrambled off the bed.
“West Virginia.”
Lexi stood with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. “I can’t go anywhere until this Paradigm program is done.”
He knew that, yet his amusement grew until a smile spread across his lips. “And when is that going to be done again?”
“Another day, that’s it.”
“Didn’t you say that before? Like, on Tuesday?”
She groaned. The program was taking much longer than she’d expected. She’d set up mini-deadlines, and then blew right past them. What should have taken an hour, took three. As soon as she coded one thing, it broke the programming on another section. It was beyond frustrating. Usually she was so good at working smarter, not harder, but this program was kicking her ass.
“I have to finish it.”
He strolled toward her and her body instantly responded to his proximity. She’d been working on a deadline and he’d been on a mission. They’d barely slept in the same bed this week. So, now every inch of her was hyperaware of him. Every inch of her wanted his powerful arms wrapped around her, his lips pressed to hers.
Parker’s eyes hooded as he closed in, as if battling the same desires, and losing. His voice dipped low. “You don’t have to submit it for another week.”
“I don’t, but I want to debug and beta test.”
He swept the long locks of her platinum blonde hair back over her shoulder. His fingertips slipped beneath the strap of her tank top, urging it to the side. The fabric stretched over the curve of her shoulder and the strap slid down, threatening to expose her.
“Let Paradigm do that.” He leaned down and kissed her newly exposed skin, giving her a shudder of pleasure. Oh, his mouth was wicked and sexy, almost as much as his brain. Her eyes fell shut as his mouth continued its gentle assault, moving downward, peeling more of her tank top with it. Her nipples had tightened into hard knots, and the cotton hung just on the edge of a point, barely covering her.
Lexi’s mind was cloudy with lust for the man she loved. What was he doing home again? Oh, yeah. “Lemme finish the program and then you can take me wherever.”
“What if I want to take you right now?” His words were loaded with innuendo, and her body clenched in response. “The reason you’re having trouble with Paradigm is because you’re wound tight as a spring. You need a release, Lex.”
Yes, her body chanted. A release was exactly what she needed. Her fingers threaded through his dark brown hair, holding his head to her and his lips against her sensitive skin. Just one more centimeter and the tank top would fall. His teasing was torture, and the ache between her legs intensified.
But she didn’t love his phrasing, and her competitive side reared up. “I’m not having trouble with Paradigm, it’s just complex.”
“Want me to take a look?”
He was throwing fuel on the fire. When they’d only known each other by their online handles, hers as SilverChaos and his as BlackDawn, there’d been some competition between them. Friendly by hacker standards, since the big names in the underground community had big egos to match. They were the exception to that rule, but even in marriage, their competitive nature never completely faded away.
It was true, though. They worked much better as a team than they did individually.
“Yes, you can take a look,” she said firmly. “When I’m finished.”
He chuckled. “You can work on it during the flight, and I bet focusing on something else for a day will help.”
Her nipple popped free and Parker let loose a deep groan of approval. His hot mouth locked on her breast, and her knees went weak. She wasn’t going to complain about her husband seducing her in the middle of the day, but there was a nagging feeling she couldn’t silence.
“Flight?”
“Boss Man wants us wheels up in ninety minutes.” He went to work on the other side of the tank top, tugging it down so the shirt was bunched at her waist, giving him complete access.
But he might as well have thrown cold water on her. “What? Why is Jared involved in our getaway?”
“We’re using Titan’s helicopter.”
Of course they were, because that made no sense. Not unless Parker was working. He might be a genius, but she was no dummy herself. “What’s going on?”
“The R and R I’m talking about doesn’t stand for rest and relaxation, but I promise you’ll like it. I can explain while you pack.” He straightened and his appreciative gaze swept over her topless body. “Or don’t pack. I’d like it if you didn’t have any clothes this weekend.” Then, a faint scowl overtook his handsome face. “Actually, you’ll need clothes.”
He abandoned her, went to the closet, and fished out a suitcase. It was thrown down on the bed with a thump, and Parker went back into the walk-in closet. Only he wasn’t picking out clothes for himself. One of the few dresses she owned, a slinky black one, was chucked into the bag.
She pushed down the desire swirling inside her and tugged her tank top back in place. The beauty of her gig was she could work it from anywhere, and if Jared, the head of the elite security force her husband worked for, expected them on the helicopter in less than ninety minutes, she had better get a move on. There was no arguing with that man.
She grabbed her favorite pair of leather pants and boots, dumped them in the suitcase, and went back into the closet. “How many days?”
“One, maybe two,” Parker said as he crossed paths with her, heading out of the closet, this time holding clothes for him. Was he packing a suit?
When she made it back to the suitcase, her boots and pants had been pulled out. “What gives?”
“We’re going to the Sycamore Springs Hotel. The dress code at that place is . . .”
She’d never been there before and didn’t know much about it, other than it was an upscale and historic resort. “Not hacker chic, gotcha.”
She glanced down at the options in her arms. If the place was as stuffy as she imagined it to be, half of these options weren’t going to fly. Lexi grabbed some of her nice, conservative pieces, AKA boring clothes, and tried not to think about the time in her life when they had been her daily uniform. The mask she hid behind while trapped in her abusive relationship with her ex-fiancé Matt, and the only joy in her life was the few hours alone with her laptop and her dog snoring away beside her.
“What about Bacon?” she asked abruptly. The pug was currently a lump under the covers, which dampened the dog’s heavy snores.
“Jared can watch her at HQ while we’re gone.”
Once Lexi was packed, she tugged on a pair of leggings and a sweater. “Okay, Parker. R and R?”
“Reconnaissance and raid.”
What? “Are you working a job for Titan?”
“No.” His expression was devious. “We both are.”
Nervous excitement flooded her. She loved getting to work side-by-side with her husband, and doing it for Titan Group? Even better. She was a white-hat hacker just like Parker, and putting their skills to use with Titan’s backing meant they got to keep the world just a little safer.
“What do you know about Sycamore Springs?” he asked.
“Only whatever you’re about to tell me.”
He zipped up the suitcase, hefted it off the bed, and called to Bacon. The pug snapped to attention and burrowed out from under the covers, her curly-cue tail rocking furiously side-to-side. It made Lexi’s heart melt. Her dog had cowered in fear around her ex, but Bacon loved Parker so much, sometimes Lexi wondered if her dog was more excited to see Parker or Lexi.
The family of three moved to the living room while Lexi looped her hair back into a ponytail. Bacon circled under foot, excited about whatever was happening without knowing what was going on, in the way dogs always did. Lexi felt the same way. A job for Titan with no details, yet she was thrilled.
Parker collected supplies for Bacon, talking over the sound of dog food being poured into a Tupperware container. “The hotel was built back in the thirties. They’ve expanded a few times, and now it’s a sprawling five-star resort complex. Ten restaurants. A shopping center. A casino in the lower level of the hotel.”
Lexi pulled on her boots and zipped them up. “We’re going gambling?” Parker was brilliant with numbers, but factoring in Titan, this scenario seemed unlikely.
He wrestled the excited pug into its harness, then set his full attention on Lexi. “The most interesting addition was added in 1960, but didn’t go public until the late nineties. They built a massive structure sixty feet beneath the hotel, which could hold eleven hundred people and be completely sustainable for two months at a time.”
She blinked. “Why?”
“It was the fallout shelter Congress would use in the event of a nuclear attack. Over the next thirty years, the government kept it state of the art. Military grade technology and communication. When the location was leaked, the government packed up their shit, and the bunker was shut down.”
Bacon danced at the end of her leash, anxious to get going, but Lexi stood motionless. Parker still had dots to connect, because she couldn’t understand why her husband’s black ops security company would be interested in a site the government decommissioned more than twenty years ago.
A faint smile teased his lips. “The place is completely off-grid. Three generators, a massive ventilation system, only one point of entry for security, and a lot of empty floor space. Any ideas what the bunker became?”
He’d mentioned technology, power, and a temperature controlled environment. “Servers,” she said, thinking out loud. “Data storage?”
Parker grinned and nodded, like he was amazed how fast she’d figured it out. “One of the largest data storage centers in North America. And we’re going to hack it.”