“Family. The one I picked. Although, it sucks that we have to pretend we are hopelessly into each other.” I gave him a flirty smile. “This is seriously bordering on ince—”
My thoughts drifted away as my eyes connected with rich amber ones. Everything inside me clenched, and my heartbeat accelerated.
Fuck.
The man I couldn’t have. The man I couldn’t let go.
The pain, the need, the longing of the last few weeks roared to life.
God. He took my breath away.
Where his brothers gave the edge of danger when they polished up, telling the world they were outsiders among them, Samir King was the actual dangerous one, the most ruthless, the one who seamlessly blended in. His chiseled good looks and tailored clothing gave him an aura of refined elegance. Then, when someone looked deeper into those mesmerizing eyes, there was no mistaking the intelligence taking in every detail of every situation.
The desperate need to touch him pulled at every fiber of my being. The ache, almost visceral and unexplainable, burned in my chest. It had been like this from the beginning with us.
No matter where we were in a room, the draw made us seek each other out.
Sam continued to stare at me. The pulse of energy between us charged deep into my soul. Logic screamed for me to look away. Too much teetered on the edge.
As sense finally penetrated my mind, I refocused on Neil. “What was I saying?”
“You were about to call what we are doing incest.”
I released a deep breath as I realized everything that had passed between Sam and me had happened within mere seconds.
“You have to admit it’s a bit messed up.”
“Yeah, well, we shouldn’t have joined the circus if we didn’t want to have weird shit happen to us.”
My phone beeped, saving me from responding and giving me the cue to move to the hotel lounge to pick up some microchips from my favorite hacker.
“Time to go powder my nose and grab a new shade of lipstick.”
* * *
I walkedinto the private lounge I’d received as the meeting location for the rendezvous with the Little Rabbit, aka Danika King. Who also happened to be my closest friend. In the last year and a half, though, I’d taken a more cautious approach to our friendship for both our sakes.
She’d married into the King family, and as far as the world knew, Danika and I were socialite enemies. A rivalry due to some made-up bullshit from our teens that never happened, as far as we could recall.
Sometimes I wished things were simple again between us. When Danika pretended to be the poor Shah relation by day and hacker extraordinaire for hire by night. And I was the ambitious Solon agent trying to climb the Solon leadership ladder.
Long before I knew she was the Little Rabbit, a legendary underground hacker wanted on six continents for her vigilante ways. Though most people thought she belonged to the male persuasion. Because, of course, only people with penises had the brains to hack and be badasses.
I could admit that when I’d learned she’d kept her secret identity as the Little Rabbit from me, I’d wanted to punch her in the nose.
I was her ride-or-die, the person who taught her how to protect herself, and she’d kept that shit from me. Finally, after I’d calmed the fuck down, I understood her reasoning.
We all had our demons and secrets.
I was definitely no saint when it came to mine.
I could admit that I had gotten an IOU out of her for the incident. One I had yet to collect. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever collect.
She was the best in her field. To describe her skills as dangerous when given a laptop was an understatement. But she wasn’t an agent, no matter how much time I’d spent making sure she could take care of herself. Plus, she had a baby on the way, and I couldn’t risk her safety.
She’d given up her revenge against Shah for the new life she had today, for Nik.
Never would I bring her into the thick of it.