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My grin turned wicked. “You can get to that code if you entice me into taking off my clothes, and there’s only one thing that’ll work.”
“I’m listening.”
“One fact about you in exchange for one item of clothes. Tell me everything I don’t know about you, Wilder Last Name Unknown.” I pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Unlock your secrets, and I’ll unlock mine.”
Wilder raked me up and down, war raging on his face. “This is cruel.”
I laughed. “Your girlfriend getting to know you is cruel? Just wait until we start baring our souls to each other. You’ll beg for mercy.”
“One fact for a piece of clothing?” he dragged out. “And pairs are treated as one?”
“Yes, but you have to make it good. I’m not a cheap date.” I plopped back on my elbows, letting my legs sway and dip, open and shut. “You won’t get my clothes off for your favorite color or Powerpuff girl.”
“Blossom,” he dropped. “Okay, Sinclair. I respect your game. We’ll play by your rules. For now.”
Wilder drew closer, laying me on my back with the linger of his presence alone. Pulling me in, his hand was warm on my thigh. The other gentle and tracing circles on my scalp. My pulse quickened under his touch.
I ached for him fully clothed. Was I ready for what would happen when there wasn’t a barrier between us? Not the physical ones, or the ones he built between us to keep me at arm’s length.
“O’Rourke is my mother’s maiden name,” he said. “My parents never married, but she did name me Wilder Weston after my father. Then she changed her name, and I changed mine to O’Rourke. My family has a long history of changing our identities. People who dig up dirt on the kind of people we do, can’t be easy to find.”
“Wilder Weston,” I tried, rolling it on my tongue. “I like it. Makes me think of outlaws and mercenaries. It fits you.”
I reached for my boots. Wilder grasped my hand, slowly returning it to my side. Holding my gaze, he slid my jacket off my shoulders.
“I taught myself how to hack. My parents both knew how, but in the Weston-O’Rourke clan, nothing is given to you. Not even a computer. I stole my first one.”
“Wow. That’s a lot of pressure.”
“No,” he said, undoing the buttons of my blouse. “It taught me something most people learn too late or not at all. We’re all on our own. We can either make the best of it and come out on top, or we can watch all the people who do pass us by.”
I cupped his cheek. “You can also learn a lesson too soon.”
“Speaking of lessons, I know how to play the tuba. I learned in middle school and got quite good.”
“Were you in—?”
“Band.” He grinned. “Hell yeah.”
I burst out laughing. “You, Wilder O’Rourke-Weston, used to be a band geek. Basically what you’re saying is I should never think I have you figured out.”
“I plan to keep surprising you for a very, very long time.”
Biting my lip, I whispered, “Looking forward to it.”
Again, I reached for my boots. Again, Wilder stopped me. He ignored my shoes—fingers skating over my belt. How cute was I thinking I could tease him into handing over control? My body was his. I was his. Wilder would unwrap me as he saw fit.
“My mother lives in Ireland. My father lives in New York. I was emancipated at fifteen and stayed in Regalia after they left.”
“Why stay?” I was working hard to be calm and chill as he slid my pants over my thighs. I don’t care how much experience I racked up. The first time with the guy I’ve been lusting over since we met, would always be nerve-wracking.
“New York. L.A. Austin. Miami. D.C. To the rest of the world, it looks like those places are the seats of power. But they’re wrong. It’s right here in Regalia where one decision, one business deal, one marriage can turn the tide for the whole country. I dig out corruption where it hides, and we’re standing on a mountain-size pile of it right now.”
Wilder finally took off my boots, but only to tug my jeans all the way off. The wind skated over me like an eager lover, but I wasn’t cold. Up there with Wilder, we were caught in our own world.
“I’ve written two sci-fi novels.”
Vest gone.
“I’m fluent in three languages: English, Spanish, and Korean.”
Blouse tossed over his shoulder.
“I met you before that night we found you with Owen.”
“We did? I don’t remember.”
“It was over summer,” he said. “You were sitting on the beach, staring at the waves while people laughed and ran and had a good time all around you. That’s what drew me to you. You were apart from it all, looking so sad that I couldn’t walk away from you.
