The Geek Job by Eve Langlais

Chapter Six

The next morning Lexie packed as Anthony showered. The night had been chaotic with her making love to Anthony and then rendering him unconscious as she dealt with the factions trying to kill and/or kidnap him. She’d prevailed of course, but it pissed her off.I’d kind of hoped we could just fuck like wild animals all night long.

She’d managed a few, pussy clenching rounds in between ass kicking, the final one occurring less than fifteen minutes ago while under the hot spray of the shower. At least while they were fucking, she didn’t have to think of what she had to do next. She dreaded the imminent goodbye. Stupid since she should have celebrated her fat bank account. The geek job hovered on the edge of completion, successfully so, so why did she wish Frederick would call and extend her use?

Just the fact she even thought of it made her lips tighten. Anthony was simply a target that required protection and no matter the fun they’d had—and orgasms she’d enjoyed—he didn’t belong in her life, and she didn’t belong in his. Even if he could look past the fact she’d initially seduced him as part of her protection plan—a hard thing to overlook for any man with pride—her very heritage made it impossible for her to contemplate a future with him. Already, she had to fight her urge to love him more roughly. Hell, she’d almost lost it the night before and counted her lucky stars she’d only bruised him. Never before had she needed to fight her wolf like she did currently. Her inner bitch paced restlessly even now, urging her to bite and mark Anthony as if he were a shifter, a fucked up conundrum indeed. She needed to get away before she lost control and treated him like her body increasingly urged. Her violent brand of love was not something she recommended given his fragile human status. She’d maim him at the least, kill him at the worst.

The best thing she could do for him was walk away. Now, if she could only find the words to make him understand.

I am, of course, assuming he’ll have an issue about us parting ways. Heck, for all I know, I was just a fun conference fuck.But she knew better. She saw how he watched her and came to life when she was near.

With a curse, she zipped her suitcase shut as Anthony strode out just wearing a towel around his hips while he used a smaller one to dry his hair.

“Thanks for letting me use your shower,” he said softly. “Weird how the plumbing in mine got all messed up. So, what’s the plan?”

It was her turn to end up tongue tied. “Um, my cab is coming in about twenty minutes, so I need to get downstairs.”

Anthony peeked at the clock. “Shoot, my boss’s limo will be arriving in fifteen. I better get a move on. Wait for me, we’ll go down together.”

He dashed through the adjoining door and she heard the sounds of him rapidly packing, their last sweet love making session this morning having put them both behind schedule. The minutes to their departure crept by quickly, and it was in silence that they left their rooms with suitcases rolling behind them to the elevator.

Anthony wore what she liked to call his pensive face, his head slightly dropped as he tumbled a thought over in his mind. When the elevator doors closed behind them, on impulse she dropped her suitcase handle and pressed herself against him, her mouth seeking his hotly. He returned her embrace fiercely, his timidity of the first day, completely vanished.

The bell dinged and the doors slid open. Lexie broke off the kiss and grasped her suitcase before she stepped out. She immediately noticed Frederick’s men—Lycans like her—waiting by the glass doors and her stomach plummeted. The geek job was officially over.

Her throat tight for some strange reason, she gave Anthony a smile that shone perhaps a tad too bright and managed a low, “Thanks for everything. Bye.”

She turned and began to walk. Of course, escape wasn’t that easy.

“I want to see you again.”

Lexie froze mid step. Despite her half-baked theory this was just a weekend thing for him, she’d—hoped—expected this. With his simple statement, he dangled temptation before her, and for a moment she reacted; her body tingled in pleasure, her heart stuttered and her mind screamed ‘Yes, I want to be with you, too’. Then reality intruded as she reminded herself, he was simply a job. Fun as the sex had been, they both had their lives to return to. He to his lab, and her to, well, doing whatever paid the bills in between full moons.

She turned back to face him, steeling her face and resolve. “I can’t.”

“Why not? I-I thought we had something going.” His face showed bewilderment.

“The sex was great, thank you.” Her cheeks warmed as did her pussy. “Very fun, but really, you can’t tell me you expected this to continue beyond the conference? You’ve got your work you need to get back to and I’ve got a life, too.”

She hated the hurt and confusion clouding his blue eyes, but he’d get over it. And once she got back to her home and day to day world, she would as well.

“But—”

“It was nice knowing you.” She turned to walk away and, to her shock, her eyes brimmed wetly. However, tears and a strangely aching heart didn’t prevent her from scenting the danger. She recognized the distinct odor of Fae.

She whirled back around screaming, “Duck.” But her sweet geek regarded her with incomprehension, so she did the only thing possible. She dashed toward him, and when the Fae assassin stepped from behind the column in the lobby, she dove in front of Anthony whose eyes widened even as he still didn’t recognize the danger.

The missile hit her in upper chest, splitting open her flesh with barely a sound, but the arcing blood made up for it. The fiery touch of the projectile immediately sent her into convulsions.Damned Fae and their poisons.She hit the floor hard, not that she noticed having already blacked out.

* * * *

Anthony stared in horror at Lexie’s convulsing body, and his stomach roiled at the messy hole in her chest. Blood oozed from her wound, spreading in a deadly stain that spurred him into action. He dropped to his knees feeling helpless without his lab and equipment. He pressed his hands to her chest attempting to stop the gush. Around him he could hear shouting and the sound of return fire as his bodyguards, who’d waited by the front doors, finally sprang into action.Too late.

“Hold on, Lexie. I’ll get you some help. Why the hell did you do that?” he cried. Anthony wasn’t so oblivious that he’d failed to recognize she’d saved his life, taking a hit meant for him. He just didn’t understand why, especially when she had no problem walking away from him in the first place.

If you didn’t care, why throw yourself in front of me? Why?Tears blurred his vision as the hot liquid continued to seep sluggishly from her chest, staining his hands and cuffs.

Meaty hands grabbed his upper arms and lifted him. Anthony tore his eyes from Lexie to stare in incomprehension at the gorillas on either side of him, guards he recognized from the compound housing his research facility.

“What are you doing?” he yelled as they toted him out the hotel doors as if he weighed nothing.

“Bosses orders. We need to get you to safety,” one replied his cold eyes darting from side to side looking for signs of more danger.

“But we need to help her.” Anthony tried to twist in their grasp, but they didn’t relent and rushed him outside to toss him into a waiting limo. Anthony scrabbled to get out, but they slammed the door shut and the car took off with a lurch.

Anthony lost his temper, a rarity. “Stop this car right now. We’ve got to help her.”

The dark gaze of his guard settled on him. “She’s beyond our help.”

A cold dread settled on him. “No. You can’t mean— No, she’s not dead.”

But the grunt from his guard with the flat, “Sorry,” hit him with the weight of a freight train.

Anthony sank in on himself, horrified he’d caused Lexie’s death. Appalled that even though she didn’t think enough of him to want to pursue a relationship, she’d obviously cared enough to risk and lose her life for him.

I am so unworthy.That thought followed him on the car ride to the airport and during the flight on his employer’s private jet back home. It dogged his footsteps as he dragged his ass up the stairs leading into the compound facility where the top floor served as a penthouse suite for him. It rang over and over in his mind as he ignored the flashing red button on his answering machine and didn’t bother checking his email.

He stood with his shoulders slumped in the middle of his living room, lost and in pain. He raised his hands to rub them against his burning eyes, his tears having dried up hours ago. The rusty color staining his hands and cuffs made him gag as he finally noticed it. He stumbled into his bathroom and retched into his toilet. Once he’d emptied his stomach, his body heaved with harsh sobs.Oh, Lexie.

He showered, the dried blood caking his skin, running down the drain along with his tears. His bloody clothes he left on the floor, unable to deal with their disposal with his grief so raw. He tried to box away his emotions for a woman he’d known only two days. He attempted to not replay over and over her last heroic act. He wished he could forget, but Lexie had touched him in her brief stint in his life.How can I forget the first woman who showed me what love was?

He buried himself in his pillows, trying to erase the mental image of her death, but sleep refused to give him escape. He tossed and turned, his nightmares rehashing over and over those final moments. He couldn’t help blaming himself and not just for the assassination attempt on him, which he didn’t understand. He hated the fact he’d not told her how he felt, that he loved her. He lamented, even more, the fact that despite all his knowledge and brain power, all of it meant nothing when the need for action arrived. Helpless as a newborn, useless as a tit on a bull, he’d stood and watched as the woman he’d come to love saved his life, and as if that weren’t emasculating enough, all his medical knowledge couldn’t stop her from dying. He also cursed the guards who’d dragged him away, the ones who’d used their strength to force him from her side.

If only I were stronger or had that commanding presence like Mr. Thibodeaux, then maybe I could have saved her. Or at least, not let her die alone on the floor.

In the morning, things still appeared bleak. He wanted to do something, anything to remember the most amazing woman ever, but it appalled him to realize that he not only didn’t have a picture, but he’d never even gotten her last name.

No wonder she thought it was just a fling. I never made much of an effort to get to know her.And now he had nothing. With that depressing thought, he dragged himself into the bathroom and noticed his bloody clothes lying on the floor. A light bulb went off. Blood meant DNA.

Anthony scooped up the stained clothing. He skipped his morning ablutions and breakfast and took the elevator down to his lab.

He flicked on the fluorescent lights and didn’t pause to admire the vast space filled with state of the art equipment, all ridiculously expensive but needed for his DNA research. And now even more useful to get a DNA imprint, the only thing left of Lexie.

He separated flakes of her blood onto slides and deposited more into test tubes with various solutions. He ran her essence through a barrage of tests on autopilot.Don’t worry, Lexie. I’ll find some way to keep part of you alive.