A Covert Conquest Read online

  She smiled, snuggling against his hard body. Maybe she should email Olivia and thank her? This wouldn’t have happened if her idiot husband hadn’t … hadn’t what? They still didn’t know what Rob had done. Rissa mentally shook away the thought. The last thing she wanted filling her head right now was the work waiting for her and Barclay.

  “Next time, we’ll try some new things.”

  She lifted her head. “Next time?”

  “Did you think this would be one-time thing?”

  “No.”

  “Then why the surprise?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He sat up, so she did, too. “I meant what I said earlier.”

  “I believe you. I really do. It’s just that I can’t think clearly right now.”

  His soft laugh made her smile again. “I know what you mean. We have a lot of work waiting for us, but right now I can’t imagine doing any.”

  “Me either. I don’t want to leave this room.”

  “We could bring our laptops here.”

  This time, she laughed. “Can’t say I’ve ever worked naked in bed before.”

  “Really? I do it all the time.”

  “Must be awkward during video calls with the other Weathermen.”

  “We’re all really good friends.”

  She eyed his body slowly. “Is that so? Maybe I should sit in on some of those calls, then? I mean, since I’m helping you recover this data and all.”

  His sexy growl had her scrambling to move away from him, but he was too fast. He pinned her on the bed and moved her arms overhead again, grasping both wrists with one hand. “I don’t think so. No one sees you naked but me.”

  “Who said anything about me being naked? I’m curious what your friends look like without their clothes.”

  “Oh, really? Well I obviously have more work to do here then.” He kissed her, and Rissa was shocked how easily her body responded. He let go of her wrists, and she wrapped her arms around him as he deepened the kiss, grinding his dick against her. He was hard again. Now she knew he wasn’t human.

  He released the kiss and groaned, moving off her. “Need a damn condom again.”

  Rissa stretched, moving her arms overheard. “First world problems.”

  He raised his brows, put on a condom, and then reached for one of the toys that had rolled off the bed earlier. It looked like a riding crop. A real one. And she knew it would sting like crazy. He slapped it against one palm. “Watch it, beautiful. Your ass is already pink, but I’m not above using this on you anyway.”

  Part of her wanted him to. She shivered as the memory of that delicious floating sensation washed over her. He watched her for a few seconds, as if debating, then put the crop on the bed and crawled on top of her again. “Maybe later.”

  Rissa molded her body against his as he kissed her again. He reached between them and spread her legs, and she groaned into his open mouth as he slid his cock into her pussy. He rolled them onto their sides, and grasped her hips, pulling her closer. At this angle, every thrust massaged her clit, and she came again without even trying.

  Barclay moaned softly when she did, and then he kissed her neck. “That’s what … about eight?”

  She giggled. “No clue.”

  He stopped moving and cupped her face. “You’re the most fun I’ve ever had in bed, Rissa Kerry. Why did I wait so long?”

  She had no clue what to say. No one had ever said such things to her. Her mouth was suddenly dry, and her voice was gone once more. He stared into her eyes for long, luscious moments, and then he began to thrust again. She wrapped her arms around his strong body and pulled him as close as possible, never wanting to leave this bed.

  “Oh, baby. That’s it. Don’t stop. I’m almost there.”

  When he came, he groaned soft and low against her neck, and Rissa thought it was the sexiest sound she’d ever heard. He held her tightly for long moments again, and then released her to take off the condom. She had to use the bathroom, and hated to leave the bed, but needs were needs.

  Once that was taken care of, she came back into the bedroom to find him snuggled under the covers. He moved them aside and patted the space next to him. “Come and sleep with me for a while. We’ll work when we wake up.”

  How could a girl say no to that?

  Rissa climbed next to Barclay and folded her body against his. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. She drifted off to sleep, thoughts of laptops and data gone. There was only this sexy man, the best sex she’d ever had, and the promise of more to come. Rissa had never felt this way, but she didn’t analyze it. She merely enjoyed the feeling of being so happy and sated while sleep overtook her.

  Chapter Ten

  It was dark when Rissa woke. What day was it? She couldn’t remember. Sunday. She’d come to Barclay’s apartment on Sunday. She glanced to her left, but he wasn’t in the bed. Reaching over to turn on the bedside lamp, she realized he’d stacked the toys, lube, and condoms on a chair. His clothes were no longer on the floor, but his shoes and socks were. Had he gone back to work? What time was it?

  She retrieved her jeans and dug in the pocket for her phone. It wasn’t even nine in the evening yet. They couldn’t have slept that long, and she had missed a call from Mindy. What could she want now? Whatever it was, it could wait until the next day at work.

  She put on her clothes, leaving her feet bare. As she opened the bedroom door, she nearly tripped over a box on the floor. What the heck? A hand-written sign on it said “Open Me.”

  I’ve landed in an Alice in Wonderland movie.

  She picked up the box, about the size of a tablet, and opened it. Grinning, she read the note, also hand-written.

  I’m in my office working, although the temptation to ravish you again instead was strong. I’ve already emailed Ed and told him you’re off his team for now. No one will expect us in the office tomorrow so we can work from here if you want, because I’m not sure I can let you leave this apartment.

  Signed, Pirate Barclay Hampton

  P.S. That means I’ve kidnapped you.

  Rissa laughed, then hugged the note to her chest. She hadn’t felt this giddy about a man since she was fourteen, and Harry had passed her the first of many notes in science class, asking if she’d like to grab a burger after school with him.

  Harry.

  Rissa almost dropped the note she clutched as guilt washed over her. He’d want her happy. She knew he would.

  Even if the sex with Barclay is better?

  She shook her head. No. That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t a contest, and even the greatest sex in the world couldn’t hold a relationship together without trust and love.

  Harry had been dead for seven years. She knew in her soul that he’d want her to move on, and she was ready to. She had been for quite a while now. It was time to let another man into her life. Harry would like Barclay. She knew that for certain, just as she knew that if Harry could tell her now, he’d give her his blessing to see where relationship with Barclay this took her.

  ****

  Barclay frowned at the entries he’d just discovered, hidden in a sub-folder that had been part of several inside a parent folder labeled “Recipes”. He began to dig further when he realized the parent folder was encrypted with code he recognized. He should recognize it. Ace had taught it to him years ago, and had then taught it to his hacker team. That’s likely where Rob had learned it.

  Was this same info on Rob’s laptop? It should be. This data had been moved to the external drive less than a week ago. He pulled over the laptop and searched. There it was. Then he searched the second external and found the same data. This was what he’d hoped for. That Rob had merely backed up both externals with the same data at the same time. That would make his and Rissa’s searches easier.

  He read the entries one more time, pulling over a pad and paper. He decided to hand-write everything he found that was too important not to lose, just in case. Eventually he’d compile it on his own laptop, but
for right now, he was too paranoid to use a computer to preserve this data.

  He still believed there was a possibility that Rob would find a way to shut down this laptop and both externals remotely as soon as he got home. The technology existed for him to do that. Granted, they would have found the program on his laptop that would allow him to, but Barclay wasn’t taking any chances. This was too crucial, and if he was right about what he’d just discovered, they had indeed hit the mother lode.

  What time was it? He should call everyone. Or maybe it would be better to wait and see what else he could find first? Barclay rose and paced his office, so damn excited he could hardly breathe. Dominic had been right about this being an inside job. Ace had been right about Rob. Damien had been right about Rafael, or whatever he called himself, and all of them had been right about that satellite.

  Without him and his friends at HCS stumbling on the accidental conversation the hackers had encrypted on the satellite’s hard drive, they wouldn’t be this far. If Harper hadn’t discovered Rob’s username on two different sets of message boards, they wouldn’t have this laptop. Everything was falling into place now, finally, after all this time, but Barclay knew they still had a long way to go. Yet, to be this close now, made him want to jump out of his skin!

  He sat down at his desk again and began to write, forcing himself to go slowly enough that someone would be able to read it once he finished. He didn’t write in cursive that often anymore. No one did, so he was out of practice.

  Smiling, his mind wandered to the note he’d written Rissa about two hours ago. The urge to wake her up and make love to her again had been strong, but he’d opted instead to come down here and work. Now, he was almost glad he had, but he hoped Rissa would wake soon and join him.

  He jotted down names and dates, going over each line of code more than once to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. Hadn’t Rissa said she’d overheard Rob tell Olivia about this very information? He had said that because they now had his laptop, they also had names and dates. No shit. He’d hidden them well, but this was what Barclay did for a living. It was what his father had built the company to do. This was his area of expertise.

  Barclay finished the names and dates, then put that piece of paper aside and started writing on another one while he looked over the information in the next folder. This one appeared to be saved, private conversations with Rafael Torres, AKA William Santiago, AKA Ernest Hamilton. How long had Rob known this man, and where the hell had he met him? The dates went back over ten years, and there was far too much information to copy by hand.

  He sighed and pushed back from the desk once more. He could print it, but he’d have to copy it to a blank document page first because he couldn’t print directly from this app. He didn’t want to take a chance creating a document on Rob’s laptop, but he could copy and paste all this over to a document on his machine, and then print it from there.

  Why the hell was he wasting time writing all this shit out by hand? Barclay laughed softly. All that fantastic sex had melted his brain cells.

  Barclay pulled his laptop over and opened a blank document. He must have less blood in his brain from earlier than he thought. Doing it this way would mean using a data transfer stick between the two machines, but he’d done that before. It was safe as long as no one was accessing Rob’s laptop at the time. That would create a backdoor into his machine.

  He had enough fail-safes on his laptop that would tell him if someone was trying to get into it, so he connected the data stick and got to work. He’d simply copy all this information over and then he and Rissa could read it easier. Why hadn’t he thought of this two hours ago, or earlier this morning, for that matter?

  He’d been copying data onto a document and printing the pages for about twenty minutes when he looked up and saw Rissa watching him from the doorway, grinning. “Wouldn’t it be easier just to print that from his laptop?”

  “I don’t want any record of a created document on there.”

  She walked into the office, and the smell of sex assaulted him. It still hung around both of them. Memories filled his mind, making his dick hard again. How could he work under these conditions? All he wanted to do was fuck her again, and then hold her in his arms until they fell back to sleep.

  “That makes sense.” She perched on the edge of his desk, and he recalled the sight of her pink ass earlier. Did it hurt her now? He hoped she had enjoyed the impact play as much as he had. She eyed the handwritten pages. “Were you really planning on writing it all out longhand?”

  “Yes, until I found this.” He motioned her over. “Take a look.” She sat next to him, and he handed her the printed page with the names and dates on them.

  “What is this?”

  “You wouldn’t recognize some of the names, but I do.”

  She gave him an exasperated look. “Okay. Are you going to tell me?”

  He laughed. “Maddening, isn’t it?”

  “A bit.”

  Barclay pulled his laptop closer and brought up the folder where he’d saved the information found from the satellite months ago. “This is data we intercepted in December from a satellite that started transmitting again. It’s shut down now, and we have no clue who did it, but whoever was trying to use it as a relay station accidentally encrypted part of their conversation onto it. I found this while up on the surface, and at the same time, my contacts in Homeland Cyber Security came across it.”

  “Wait a minute. You go up on the surface?”

  “From time to time.”

  “Why?”

  “To see if I can find anything. Kind of hard to access the satellites underground.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t believe you go up there voluntarily just to play around.”

  “Well, it’s not exactly playing around. Sometimes I get lucky.” He tapped the screen. “I did this time.”

  “So you’re the one who found this?”

  “The folks at HCS had it anyway, but yes. I found it, too. That was a good day.”

  “So what exactly is it?”

  “We believe it’s a conversation between the hackers.”

  She put a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God. So you actually have their names?”

  “We have eighteen names, but we don’t know what they mean. We don’t know if they’re code, or real names, or even if they’re the people responsible for this. Every Weatherman has a team looking for these names in other places, and until I found this about a half hour ago, I didn’t know if any of those names would turn out to be useful.”

  “The same names are on Rob’s laptop?”

  “Yes, among others, but the same eighteen are here.”

  “Holy shit.”

  They stared into each other’s eyes, and it was difficult for Barclay to concentrate on work.

  “What will you do now?” she asked, her pretty face filled with excitement.

  “Keep looking. I don’t want to alert anyone until we’ve looked through all this stuff and can coordinate it. He has a lot of hidden folders on this machine. Oh, before I forget to tell you, the same information is on both externals and the laptop, so that will cut down the time we have to put into this.”

  Her slight frown at his words confused him. “I thought you’d be happy about that.”

  Her smile was too quick. “Oh, I am. That’s great.”

  “Rissa, you’re a terrible liar. What did I say to upset you?”

  She averted her gaze, so he placed two fingers under her chin and turned her face toward his. “What did I say to upset you?”

  “Nothing. I mean, once this is done, I go back to work for Ed, and I won’t see you like this again.”

  “What are you talking about? You told me you believed me. I’m not that person anymore, Rissa. This isn’t going to end between us when the project does. I’ll likely end up stealing you from Ed’s team for good and put you to work for me directly.”

  A slow, sweet smile spread over her face. Barclay didn’t mind he
r insecurity half as much as he minded the realization he’d done a piss-poor job convincing this extraordinary woman how much she’d affected him already. He’d have to fix that.

  Barclay pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, wishing like hell the call of this work wasn’t so strong. “Now listen to me, Miss Kerry. One more word about me dumping you when this project is over, and your lovely round ass will know what a real spanking feels like.”

  The grin she gave him made his cock ache. At this rate, they’d be done analyzing the data in about three years, if they were lucky.

  “You mean that wasn’t a real one?”

  “Oh, okay. That’s it. You’re in big trouble now. The work will have to wait a while longer.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Rissa squealed in delight as Barclay placed her on her feet. He glared at her. “Do not move. I will be right back.”

  “Yes, sir!” She saluted him, which earned her a look of incredulity.

  He shook his head as he left the room. “You have no idea what you’re in for.”

  She hugged herself as she waited for him to return. This was the most fun she’d ever had, and she now had confirmation it hadn’t been the heat of the moment talking. He wanted to keep seeing her. This wasn’t just a fling during the project. This was real. She was dating the CEO.

  Well, she was having sex with him, anyway. Same thing, no?

  Rissa didn’t have time to second guess herself again because Barclay returned to the room, holding the box of condoms, the lube, and a wooden paddle with holes in it. “Uh-oh.”

  He laughed, but it was sexy, not cruel. “Too late. You brought this on yourself, beautiful. Take off the jeans and lean over the desk.”

  She swallowed hard at the look of lust in his eyes. Her entire body was on fire again, and her pussy was soaked once more. This was unlike anything her imagination had ever conjured up, and she loved it.

  She slid off her jeans and turned around.

  “The panties, too.”

  Rissa slipped out of them, shaking her ass.

  “That just earned you extra swats.”