Home For The Holidays

As the un-appointed leader of said group, I was expecting sir Jared to wear rolled up slacks with Argyle socks showing, a button-down cream shirt with some kind of stain somewhere on it, and of course, glasses. My Jared, ahem, I mean, this Jared wore Armani from head to toe, glasses included, but there was nothing remotely nerdy about them. He looked fresh off of someone’s catwalk, and if those things under his shirt are real, I’ll give him all the babies.

“How many?"

“How many what?”

“Babies.”

“What? What babies?”

“You said you’d give me all the babies, and by the way, yes, they’re real.” He actually had the nerve to flex his muscles playfully.

“Are you reading my mind?” Yes, I whispered those words because I’d obviously lost my mind. He’s going to have to stop with the damn sexy smirk.

“Of course not, you spoke out loud.” Even his voice sounded hot. I stood rooted to the spot. “Are you coming?” He looked back over his shoulder once he reached his desk, and I took a tentative step inside. “So, tell me, what’s so important that you had to see me?” I was having second, third, and fourth thoughts about this. My body, heart, and mind were acting weird as hell, and I’m pretty sure it had something to do with him.

“Is it hot in here? Can you ask someone to turn down the thermostat?”

“It’s already on sixty-one; I’m a bit hot-blooded myself, so I like to keep the air cool in here, but if you’d like…” He left the sentence hanging while giving me a knowing look. I know we were having a late heat snap since summer was long gone, but this is ridiculous.

I tried my best not to fan myself as I wracked my brain for an excuse to get the hell out of here. There’s no way I can go through with this. I started to leave the seat that I’d just taken, hoping against hope that I didn’t make a complete ass of myself on my way out. “On second thought, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…”

“Why? You don’t want to use me to bring down Tessa any longer?” I’m pretty sure my chin hit the floor. “You really are a mind reader; how did you know that?” I dropped back down on the chair and clamped my lips shut. Admit nothing. I don’t trust that look on his face or that easy, relaxed stance of his.

“I’m no mind reader. I hacked you.” My eyes grew to the size of saucers. “Come again?”

“You don’t think I invite just anyone to my office, do you? I had to see who this person was that claimed they had a proposition I couldn’t resist. It helps that you contacted me at the perfect time. I was growing bored with things around here.”

“The game, as I’m sure you know, is doing well; I have all the updates in place for at least the next year and a half, and part two, three, and four have already been produced, so I have nothing to do for the next two years at least.”

“What a nerd!”

“Excuse me?”

Shit, I did it again. “Nothing, I didn’t say anything.”

“Anyway, when I got your message, I was a bit intrigued, so I went digging. Imagine my surprise when I found that you’re almost more reclusive as me when it comes to social media. My people couldn’t get any pictures of your face beneath those hoodies you’re so fond of, and no one knew who you were. Since I couldn’t find anything that way, I did the next best thing. Speaking of which, I like this look way better than the one you used on the dating app.”

“You saw all of that? How did you find me, anyway? I don’t have that much of an online presence.” “Yes, and I must say, for someone with your tech knowledge, you aren’t very careful when breaking the law. Even though you cleaned up your tracks, you used the same IP address to do everything.”

“Well, technically, I wasn’t breaking the law,” I mumbled that statement feeling just a bit put out by his know it all attitude.

“So tell me, why have you changed your mind about wanting my help?”

I was still dealing with the fact that he’d hacked me. “You know it’s against the law to hack into people’s shit, right. I can have the Feds here in no time.”

“No, you won’t because then you’d have to explain why you cloned that Troy guy’s phone and how you got the information from your brother’s, among other things.” He had the nerve to smirk at me after saying that shit.

“What else did you find?”

“All of it! Your message said, and I quote, ‘I have a proposition that you won’t want to miss. Though I’ll admit, I don’t see what any of this has to do with me. From what I can piece together, following the crumbs you left behind, Tessa broke up your brother’s marriage, and you want some kind of revenge. The truth is, the thing that caught my interest is how you found me and the way your mind worked around to using me to get back at her.”