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All this time, he’s been carrying around this pain and guilt. And yet at fifteen, while most kids worried about pimples and proms, he became a vigilante hacker set on trying to make sure no one else had to go through the agony of losing their loved ones, like he did.
Eli is crying so hard that he’s having a hard time catching his breath. I act instinctively. I kiss him. The move shocks him enough that he’s able to catch his breath. Once his breathing is under control, he chases my mouth and kisses me. His lips are frantic against mine. I know this isn’t about passion. Not really. He needs to feel anything but the total emptiness inside of him right now.
I’ve been there before. Spent years in that space. Maybe right up until I walked into Cash and Daisy’s place and met a snarky, antisocial hacker who, when all of his intensity was focused on me, warmed up all the frozen parts of me.
I can try to return the favor.
“Take what you need,” I tell him. And he does.
He ruts against me, furiously chasing his release. My hands travel along his body, trying to let every part of Eli know I’m there for him. With a shuddering cry, he comes against me. I drop light kisses over his face, tasting the saltiness of his tears. Finally exhausted, he falls asleep, and as I hold him against me, I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to let him go.
Chapter22
Eli
Washington
It’s been almost a month since my meltdown, and Jeb is driving me crazy.
The day after I told him about my family, he sat me down and told me that, as my partner, it was his job to take care of me if I wasn’t taking good enough care of myself.
The worst of it is he got the rest of the crew involved. Daisy and Brady, along with a few more hackers that I’ve vetted from Archie Hendrix’s covert team, are running the day-to-day security while I focus on new tech, data analysis, and the runs we’re making against Patriots Now.
Then, on an unplanned detour to Chicago, he pulled up to a tall building and told me that on the twelfth floor, was the office of a therapist whose specialty is victims of hate crimes.
“I wasn’t the victim of the hate crime,” I told him haughtily. “It was my family.”
He pulled my resistant limbs into a hug that, though I fought it, I desperately needed. “Oh baby, you need to realize you were as much of a victim as your family,” he said and then walked me into that building and up into the therapist’s office.
I’ve agreed to attend in-person appointments with Dr. Radi once a month and meet with him remotely twice a week. I’m also taking some light mood stabilizers to help deal with the anxiety that regularly confronting my past produces.
The therapy and revised work schedule still isn’t good enough for Jeb. He insists that I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, bitches when I don’t take screen breaks, and put me on a sleep schedule.
Well, I guess the sleep schedule isn’t that bad because it involves sleeping in his arms, which often involves him taking me apart with his wonderfully talented hands and mouth.
And that’s what’s driving me crazy. Since that first day, he hasn’t let me do more than kiss him. It’s always me who is coming undone as he somehow keeps bringing me to new, higher states of bliss. As excruciatingly pleasurable as it is, it’s not enough for me anymore. I want to see him detonate in my arms. So I’ve decided to do what I do best.
I’m going to hack Jebediah Jones.
After all, hacking at its most root level is identifying and exploiting weaknesses to get deeper into a system. I look forward to finding Jeb’s sexual weaknesses. The moves that will make him cry out my name. The tiny secrets that will send thrills through his nervous system.
He won’t know what hit him.
Especially since I’ve picked the perfect setting to enact my plan.
I’ve found an abandoned bank. There are currently plans to turn it into a hipster bar, but for now it’s still in its original condition. Jeb thinks Patriots Now are storing some important documents there that we need, but there are no important documents. It’s just the scene I’m staging for my seduction.
I know that I’m putting a lot of time and effort into this plan that Ishouldbe directing toward Patriots Now’s take down and other emerging threats, but just for tonight, I want to make Jeb my priority.
Chapter23
Jeb
Washington
Eli dismantles the security system to the bank with a few buttons pushed on his phone. He’s traveling light. He usually insists on a backpack full of hardware, but tonight, he’s just carrying a small bag of tech he stuffed in his jacket.
That’s another thing. He’s not wearing his usual hacker uniform of an oversized hoodie and loose jeans. He’s dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a dark, tight-fitting t-shirt and jacket. It’s very criminal chic and my cock isextremelyfond of Eli’s new look.
