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ADAM
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I GOT BACK TO THE HOTEL after work with one thing on my mind, and one thing only, and that was to follow through with Katie on her promise to get dinner with me. To discuss the case, obviously.
Though discussing the case was the last thing on my mind.
This girl had become an integral part of my life, and not only because she was working on a case that could cost or save my company millions of dollars. She was, much to my surprise, also one of the most interesting girls I’d ever met. Nerdy and obsessed with numbers, sure. Slightly awkward, socially. Yeah.
But sexy as hell and insanely smart. Like, smart enough to keep up with me.
It just wasn’t something you came across all that often. Or at least, I didn’t.
She also wasn’t even a little bit put off or intimidated by who I was—which was also unusual. Way too many people were so starstruck at meeting the head of a large company that they couldn’t have a normal conversation with you. They definitely couldn’t talk to you without trying to figure out what was in it for them.
And never mind finding a girl that wasn’t trying to make you her next sugar daddy.
It got really old, really fast.
But Katie was... different. Everything about her was different. She was head of her own company, and her job was literally to track down bad guys and make them pay. She could run circles around most of the people I knew in terms of intellect.
And she could still joke with me about having Russian code names.
Plus, the girl had curves for days. And I knew from experience that she was just as attracted to me as I was to her.
I got onto the elevator without noticing anything much, my mind too taken up with thoughts of Katie, and hit the button for my floor. I looked up at the numbers above the door, the way any normal human being does when they’re in an elevator, and let my mind run right to the pencil skirts Katie was so fond of. The things they did to her—
A shuffling to my right made me realize abruptly that I wasn’t actually alone in the elevator, and I let my gaze slide in that direction, wondering who else was in here with me.
To my surprise, it was Katie. And she looked...
Well, she looked like she’d just found out that her dog had died.
“Well, hello, Katie Walters,” I said quickly, wondering if she was the kind of girl who wanted you to notice when she looked like she’d just walked through a war, or the kind of girl who would get upset if you dared to suggest that she couldn’t handle whatever it was she was currently going through. “Fancy meeting you here.”
She gave me a rather weak smile but didn’t answer.
“Were you planning to say anything to me, or were you going to let me ride up to my floor without cluing me in to the fact that you were my elevator buddy?”
She finally turned on at that point. Enough to cock one very sarcastic brow at me, at least. “Elevator buddy? Is that all I am to you?” Then, with a smile: “I figured you’d notice at some point, and honestly, I didn’t have enough energy to say hello.”
I moved to her side at that and leaned up against the wall next to her. “You do sort of look like someone just killed your dog. What’s going on? Rough day?”
I’d never seen her look any less than put-together—even when we’d just slept together—so I was wondering what exactly had happened to get to her this badly.
She surprised me when she just shrugged. “A number of things, none of which I want to talk about. Mostly it’s the idea that our thief could be Rachel. I don’t like thinking that she might be the bad guy. I actually like the girl, and that bothers me.”
“I don’t think it’s against the rules to like someone, actually,” I said. “Unless you do have that exact rule, and you’ve just never told me about it.”
“I don’t,” she said with a rueful smile. “But I pride myself on my instincts, and if the bad guy was right under my nose, it means I haven’t been doing a very good job at my job. The truth is, I shouldn’t have let myself get so close to her in the first place. I’ve been too distracted.”
I moved a bit closer to her and touched the tip of her nose with one careful fingertip. “I also don’t think there’s any rule against becoming friends with someone who goes out of her way to become friends with you,” I told her gently. “As your boss, I have to tell you that I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”
She looked up at me, her big green eyes slightly glassy. “As your PI, I think you’re being too generous.”
I got an inch closer, every cell in my body on the alert at how close she was. My fingers were actually twitching with the idea that I could reach out and run them up her arms. Revel in her warmth. Put my nose to her neck and remind myself exactly how she smelled.
She’d been pulling away from me ever since the last time we slept together, and my body was obviously intent on rekindling the connection.
My brain wholeheartedly agreed.
But I wasn’t sure pushing her was a good idea. Not right now.
“And I think,” I returned, “that you need a night off from the case. Come to my room for dinner and wine. Give yourself a night off.”
Yes, it was a shameless attempt at getting her into my room. Yes, I had about a million ulterior motives.
But I also wasn’t lying to her. I was dead positive that she’d feel better if she had a night off.
“I should really run some num—”
“I don’t know about you,” I interrupted, “but I’ve always found that my brain works better if I let it reset. Come on. Give yourself a break for a night. Come to my room and have some food and wine. We’ll talk about everything but the case. And I bet when you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a whole new outlook on everything. What do you think?”
It wasn’t my usual hard sell, and it was way too heavy on the charm, but I thought I knew Katie well enough to say that she wouldn’t react well to strong-arming. She was the kind of girl who was used to making decisions for herself.
She wouldn’t thank me if I started trying to make them for her.
Besides, I could see that it was working. Her shoulders were starting to loosen up a bit, and the wrinkle between her brow was already gone. Her mouth was even starting to sport a little smile.
“Is it a deal?” I asked.
She twisted her mouth into a moue and tapped her lip like she was actually thinking about it. “Food, you say? And wine? And zero talk of work?” She shrugged. “Sure, sounds like the ideal way to spend my night. Let’s do it. Just one thing, though.”
I had already started to celebrate my victory but brought my mental pat on the back to a screeching halt when the fine print showed up.
“What’s that?”
“If anyone asks, we tell them we are working on work.”
Well, that was easy enough. I knew she was concerned about her reputation and our cover, and it made sense that she didn’t want people from the office to see us together and assume that we were dating.
Officially, we were barely supposed to know each other. And it would get really complicated if people guessed otherwise.
I stuck my hand out to shake. “Done. Get to your room and put down all your stuff and please, for shit’s sake, change into something more comfortable. Because I’m planning on a carpet picnic and I just don’t think that skirt is going to lend itself well to sitting on the floor.”
She grinned for real now and stuck her hand out as well, and moments later I was getting off on my floor and hustling to my room. If I was going to have company, I should probably do something about the fact that I hadn’t put anything away for the last week, at least.
***
I SHOVELED ANOTHER dumpling into my mouth and spoke around it. “So you’re telling me you always knew this was what you wanted to do? Like, seriously? I didn’t think that was actually possible.”
“Well,” she said seriously, chewing a bite of noodles. “When I was extremely small, I really wanted to be a bird. But then I got a rash on my arms and thought I was transitioning or something, and realized that if I became a bird, I probably wouldn’t be able to talk to my parents anymore. I mean, they’d just think I was some crazy bird, you know? So I freaked out and ran to my teacher, crying, and she told me that it wasn’t possible for a human to become a bird. So that pretty much cured me of that. Then, when my uncle died and I ended up helping the PI solve the case, it was just such a natural fit that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
I stopped the grin before it made it all the way to my mouth. “From wanting to be a bird to wanting to be a private detective. That’s quite a change. Imagine if you could do them both.”
She pointed her chopsticks at me and reached for her wine. “Don’t think I haven’t considered it. I’m just trying to sort out the logistics. I mean, how will I transition back and forth? I obviously can’t be a bird all the time. It’s totally impractical.”
She slurred the last word a little bit, and I glanced at the bottle of wine between us... and saw that it was empty.
Well, that explained the slurring. And the belief that being a bird full-time was just ‘impractical.’
Still. I’d had just as much wine as her. And I didn’t see anything wrong with playing along.
“We should put someone on it, immediately,” I told her, being very serious. “Honestly, can you imagine how much intel you’d gather as a bird? You could go places no human could ever go, and the bad guys would never even know to watch out for you. Although...”
“What?” She asked, like we were actually building a solid plan right now.
Damn, she was adorable when she was drunk. It stripped away all the serious thoughts and just left her...
Adorable. All soft brown hair and glowing green eyes and freckles, her face wide open and almost childish now that it had dropped the cares of the world off, courtesy of half a bottle of wine.
She looked like an angel. I had the thought, marked it as incredibly cheesy, and then allowed it to take shape in my head anyhow. Because it was the truth.
“How would you remember what you’d heard?” I asked. “Would you keep your human brain in the bird suit? Or would you immediately become a... bird brain?”
I giggled at the phrase, and I’m not even ashamed to admit it. Because I was having way too much fun with this little game where we were talking about something that could legitimately never happen.
“Of course I’d keep my human brain,” she said, as if it actually could happen. “I’ve thought about it, and the logistics would obviously be that I kept my human consciousness. How else would I know when it was time to transition back to my human form?”
“Obviously,” I agreed.
I took the empty bottle out from between us and stood to take it over to the kitchenette area, eyeing the second bottle doubtfully. We both had to work in the morning, and I did not think that Katie would thank me for sending her to work with a hangover tomorrow.
Hell, I wouldn’t thank myself.
I threw the bottle in the trash and opened the fridge, pulling out two cans of soda and then making my way back to our floor picnic. When I handed one of the cans to Katie, she grinned up at me.
“Have you made the executive decision that I’ve had enough to drink?”
I dropped to the floor next to her and smiled. “I made the executive decision that neither of us would be too keen on going into the office tomorrow morning with a hangover,” I admitted. “Though if you’re sober enough to use the phrase ‘executive decision,’ I think you must be a whole lot more sober than I realized.”
She moved so quickly that I didn’t know what she was doing until her lips were pressed against mine, moving softly and coaxing my own mouth open so our tongues could dance together.
When I did realize it, though, I reached up to cup her jaw and tilted her head, giving me better access. And then I kissed her like I’d never kissed anyone in my entire life. I put my whole soul into it, breathing her in as her tongue moved in and out of my mouth, her touch electric against me. I pulled her onto my lap, thanking the instinct that had told me to tell her to get out of that silly skirt, and felt her gasp against my lips, and she sank down on my cock.
When she rocked her hips, I almost came undone, right then and there.
But I pulled back from her, ending the kiss and looking deeply into her eyes. This was a woman I was really starting to appreciate, and though we’d jumped right into bed before—I mean, metaphorically—I didn’t want to make that mistake again. Not when she already seemed to be questioning what we were doing.
This time, I wanted to do it right.
She stared at me for a long moment, and then sighed and laid her head against my chest.
“I really like you,” she breathed. “I’m not supposed to, and I’m definitely not supposed to tell you. But it’s the truth.”
“I really like you, too,” I replied, keeping my voice as quiet as hers. “And I don’t care if I’m not supposed to.”
