She groaned. “It isn’t, but we’ll be fine.”
I watched as she tried to get up, but I rolled her onto her back and climbed on top of her with a smirk.
“You just said we have fifteen minutes!” she screeched with a laugh.
“True, but I also would hate for that mess between yourlegs to bother you. I should clean it up,” I replied as I kissed down her stomach and along her hips.
“Wyatt! Fifteen minutes!”
I scoffed. “I only need about a singular minute for this, thanks.”
“Ha, yeah right,” she said in clear disbelief.
But as I kissed along her hips and pulled her thighs up on my shoulders, I had her coming on my tongue in roughly forty-five seconds.
“How arethings on the app going? Have you noticed any more problems?” I asked. We were only two weeks away from official launch, and I knew he was stressed about this going well.
The hype was there, the members were excited, but there were a great deal of things that could, and more than likely would go wrong with it—that was just the life of technology. Julian knew all of the possible drawbacks and potential issues we could have with it, but it didn’t stop him from worrying.
“Everything seems fine for now. We’ve had people test every feature we’ve provided thus far, as well as fill out their first encounter feedback surveys. It’s all been good, quiet even.” He was leaning back in his desk chair, his elbows resting on each armrest, his hands clasped in front of him.
“You’re still worried about something,” I said cautiously.
Julian chuckled. “Always, that’s why I’m the boss.” He cleared his throat and leaned forward, shuffling around some papers across his desk that we’d been looking at before. “There is some chatter from New York that has my guard upa bit higher than it normally would be. Would you mind keeping an ear out for me?”
His dark eyes peered at me from the few feet between us, and I attempted not to shift uncomfortably. Those eyes of his? They said nothing, gave awaynothing.I was typically a good judge of character, someone who found others to be easy to read. But Julian? Blank canvas. I had to go with my gut alone, which tended to be quiet with this man.
“Is there anything I should be listening to?” I questioned.
He chuckled. “You’re smart, Wyatt. You’re starting to build a name for yourself in my world, whether you know it or not. You know what to listen out for. Let me know immediately if you get approached. I’d like to keep you on retainer, app updates, and overall security for Silk and Spice. The digital aspect of it, obviously. I have men a bit more…beefy for the other type of security. Speaking of beefy, what’s your brother doing? He’s done with the military, right?”
Shrugging, I arched a brow in question. “No idea what Theo’s plan is. Why do you ask?”
“Like I said, always in need of beefy men who like to throw a punch, Wyatt. Would be nice to have one Carragan man on the digital side and another on the more…physical side. They don’t make loyalty like they have in your family these days, and having someone who knows how to take and throw a punch? Useful. No offense, of course,” he explained.
I shook my head with a smirk. “None taken, Julian. I’d rather use my workout time for more nefarious activities.”
Part of me wondered how he knew so much about Theo and what he did in his spare time, when, as his brother, I had not a single clue lately, but I wasn’t going to tell Julian that. The man could sniff out a weak spot, and I had no intention of giving him one.
He nodded, a knowing smile on his face. “How is it going with your darling Ember?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised that he knew about Ember. We had been talking onhisapp after all, and he had the same access I did. It made sense that he’d be looking into my communications to ensure I was doing what he asked me to do, but it still made me uneasy.
“It’s going well. She’s, um, well, she’s everything and then some. I’m—” I drifted off, at a loss for words on how to even begin to describe how I felt about this woman.
“Besotted, it would seem,” Julian finished for me, his dark gaze staring at me intently. “What’s that like? Being in love?”
I chuckled. “I’m not—I mean, I haven’t—” I stuttered before clamping my mouth shut because this wasn’t the time or place to have this conversation, let alone this revelation.
“Didn’t mean to break you there, Carragan, relax. I’ve always been curious. The feeling of wanting to put someone before yourself? Body, mind, and soul? Fascinates me. I’m happy for you and I’m glad to have been such an integral part of the process in you finding the lovely, spirited woman that could rival your own complex spirit.”
I swallowed roughly. “I—yes. Well, thank you, Julian. I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”
I’d spent the majority of the morning after Ember went down to work fast-forwarding through the tapes. I was still kicking my own ass over this entire situation. I’d taken a call for all of three minutes. Three minutes of pacing the length of Ember’s living room while I went over with this man why he needed to hire me instead of calling me to phish for information on how to handle his business’s security problems.
How to handle it? Let me do it correctly.
I’d been able to freeze the frame, doing a quick screen grab, and it was added to the ongoing file I had put together.
