Without Regret
Page 38

“Oh, I don’t mind making this a group thing,” she said, shooting Ephraim a pleading look.
“Chris?”
“We’re more than fine, dad. Izzy and I are just going to have ourselves a little talk and then we’ll make that call to Eric and figure out where she’s going,” Chris explained. Even Isabella, who just barely stopped herself from reminding him that her name was not Izzy, wasn’t buying his little calm facade. The man looked ready to kill something and thankfully Ephraim seemed reasonable and probably wouldn’t leave so”Call me if you need me,” Ephraim said, sighing as he left faster than her eyes could follow.
“What? I need you!” she called out. “Get back here!
Don’t leave me alone with him!”
“If I didn’t know better I’d think that you didn’t want to be alone with me,” Chris said, drawing her attention as he gave one of her long strands of hair a slight tug to turn her so that she was once again facing him.
She blinked. “Because I don’t?”
He simply shook his head slowly as he sighed long and heavy. “I’m just going to pretend that you didn’t say that because I know you didn’t mean it.”
“Oh no, I meant it,” she admitted as she tried to look around for a way down or help. At the moment she wasn’t choosy as long as either option helped her get back to solid ground.
Chris chuckled softly as he leaned in until he was cheek to cheek with her, further unnerving her since she couldn’t really tell if he was angry when he spoke. She needed to keep an eye out for that angry tick beneath his eye so she knew when to shut the hell up.
“Now,” he said, sending a delicious wave of his warm breath over her neck, “why don’t you tell me about this little meeting and what they wanted?”
She opened her mouth to answer him when she felt the first brush of his lips against her neck. “Oh god,” she muttered, gasping when he pressed another kiss against her neck, careful of the shallow cuts that marred her skin.
“Izzy?”
“Hmmm?” she asked as her eyes threatened to close from pleasure. Who would have guessed that such simple chaste kisses could set her body on fire? She certainly hadn’t. She could almost forget that she was livid with him for everything he’d put her through, including scaring the hell out of her tonight.
Almost.
“You were telling me about what they were after,” Chris said softly against her neck.
“I was?” she asked, feeling a little confused.
“Mmmhmm,” he said, tracing a line to her ear with his tongue before taking her small lobe into his mouth and lightly suckling it, making it hard for Isabella to breathe never mind think.
A small embarrassing moan escaped her lips before she could stop it, but really when he did that little grazing thing with his teeth she could really care less. She blindly reached out and grabbed his biceps, needing something, anything, to keep herself grounded as he continued his sensual assault. His muscles tightened beneath her touch and she wondered if she affected him as much as he affected her. When she felt the soft gauze pad beneath her right hand she shifted her hand to a gauze free spot.
“What did they want, Munchkin?” Chris asked in a husky whisper that sent chills down her spine. She licked her lips as his biceps bulged even more as he reached up and slid his fingers through her hair. His small groan of appreciation did wonders for her already too sensitive body. She felt her ni**les harden almost painfully and her stomach tingle in anticipation.
Somehow she managed to speak even though the way his head was brushing against her right breast was making her crazy, but she knew she had to answer the questions if she wanted to make any progress here.
She’d planned to answer their questions anyway, granted on her terms, but right now felt like a good time to talk, especially if it meant he would continue to kiss that surprisingly sensitive spot just below her ear.
“Um,” she said, absently giving his arms a gentle squeeze to encourage him. Not that he seemed to need much encouragement. She licked her lips as she forced herself to concentrate on his questions and not on how good his warm wet mouth felt on her. “They contacted me two days ago to buy my program.”
“What’s so special about your program?” he asked, taking his lips away from her neck and she almost cried until he moved to the other side of her neck and started making if feel all nice and tingly.
“It’s um, it’s um,” she swallowed, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she continued. “It’s called Tattletale. I started it over a year ago when I was bored.
I just wanted to see if I could create a program that could learn from its mistakes as it was used and send constant updates between the source and the application so that every time the program was used anywhere it was up to date, but without human interference.”
“I see,” Chris said, pulling back from her neck and tilting his head slightly so that he could press a kiss to her forehead. “And did it work?”
“Did what work?” she asked, feeling slightly dazed and on fire, needing him to continue kissing her, touching her and doing all the things that she’d always hated and a few that she never allowed any man to do.
He chuckled lightly as he pressed a kiss against her chin. “Did your program work, Izzy?”
She had to snort at that. “Of course my program worked.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she chewed on her bottom lip and let out a long drawn out sigh before she admitted, “It actually did a lot better than I expected.”
“What can it do, Izzy?” he whispered softly, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth.
“Everything,” she admitted on a small gasp as he kissed her bottom lip before he flicked it with his tongue.
“What’s everything?” he asked, brushing his lips against hers slowly, teasingly. When she moved to return the kiss he pulled back and she was tempted to tighten her hold on his arms and take what she wanted, but all his attention, her exhaustion and hanging upside down was really taking its toll on her so stayed where she was, hoping he’d return those surprisingly warm soft lips back to hers.
“It can find out anything about anyone. The Tattletale can break into any file, program, and track activity no matter what. Encryption no longer works against it.
Actually, it becomes stronger when it comes up against an encrypted file because it learns and remembers everything adding to its program. The best part is it’s undetectable. It doesn’t work like a virus so all the scans miss it,” she said excitedly. For a year now this had been her secret, and other than the FBI agent and a few colleagues she’d stupidly hinted at her program to, who’d apparently sold her out, she hadn’t spoken about this program in great length with anyone. It was actually kind of nice to be able to speak so freely about her greatest creation.
“And what did the men who contacted you want with it?” he asked as he framed her face between his large warm hands and rewarded her with a brush of his lips against her mouth before pulling back to study her as she answered.
She hesitated, but for only a second. At this point it really didn’t matter what this man and his friends knew. It wasn’t like she was going to give it to them.