Page 9 of Seductive Architect (Grunts of Vanguard #2)

It had been impossible to concentrate since arriving this morning.

Ricardo must have a construction crew on speed dial.

I already had to silence talkative machines.

I didn’t need more noise. Wandering the building throughout the day, I hoped to bump into a certain handsome mailroom employee.

I resisted the urge to scour the security cameras… mostly.

I sat at my desk, spinning in circles as I stared at the code.

Projected across the room, I studied the new feature Arthur wanted installed.

Not only would heroes be able to locate a villain, but it would also offer the fastest route.

If heroes were cars, mapping a path would be easy.

But how did we solve for fliers? Speedsters?

Or that one guy who could only teleport in bodegas?

A simple feature required a lot of variables. That’s why he handed it off to me .

“You missed a semicolon.”

On the next revolution, Hudson breezed by.

I slammed my feet, stopping the spin. As he entered, he stood in awe, jaw hanging open.

When he reached out, his hand passed through the part of the code designed for flight paths.

If Connie hadn’t made plans with her new beau, I’m sure it’d have been functional by now.

The problem had been… a semicolon? I was about to swat away the project when I spotted the error.

All day, the code fought me, crashing whenever it ran.

I quickly added it, turning off the projectors.

“Curious,” I mumbled.

Hudson turned his attention toward me. “I was going to lie and say I had a package for you.” At the mention, my eyes drifted downward.

I might be a recluse, but I would never turn down the opportunity to see how a man filled out his trousers.

When my eyes returned to his, he had a smirk. “From the mail room.”

“Uh…” Quick, think of anything to say. “What brings you up here?”

“I had a craving.”

“Burritos?”

“Not exactly.” The smirk shifted fractions of an inch.

That’s all it took to go from innocent to devious.

Was this flirting? Did I respond with some clever comment about Mexican food?

What about a quick joke about adding a little sour cream to his beard?

Oh no, the easy one would be a comment about coming for the taco and staying for the beef.

Too aggressive? Or not aggressive enough?

Did I want to be playful or let him know I’d be interested in him dropping his pants here and now? Oh! Oh! I could?—

“Do you normally overthink things?”

“Always.” And yet, not one of them had to do with the list of questions next to his photo on my wall. “It’s a bad habit.”

He shook his head. “Not bad. It’s who you are.”

Hudson leaned over the desk while I sat in silent shock. I’m sure once he heard about my theories, he’d change his tune. Outside the office, everybody played nice until they decided to put me in the crazy category. I had grown used to it.

“You’re doing it again.” He inched forward, almost lying on my desk now. A man bent over in my office. I shifted from the tightness in my pants. I prayed Janet didn’t barge in. “Come with me.”

“What?”

He shot upright, holding out a hand. “It’s an adventure.”

Or this was when he got me alone, out of view of security cameras?—

Stepping around the desk, he took my hand, pulling me to my feet. It wasn’t like when Wyatt lugged me around the office, but he had strength. I bounced against his chest, almost certainly jabbing him with my erection .

“I want to show you something.”

It should have set off red flags. He remained a person of interest. He hadn’t let go of my hand, and the strength in those fingers kept my brain cloudy.

I didn’t so much as answer as give a slight nod.

I might die tonight, but at least it’d be with a charming man…

or by a charming man, I’d have to wait and see.

I let him pull me through the office. When we reached the elevator, he had an almost giddy expression. I wanted to be suspect, but he swung our arms back and forth as we waited. When it opened, he jumped — literally hopped— inside the elevator. I shook my head, giving in to his antics.

He pressed a button for the sub-basement.

When it asked for security clearance, he pressed his hand to the panel and let the laser read his eye.

We installed the measures to prevent espionage.

Competitors wouldn’t infiltrate as scientists.

If a company wanted full access, they only needed somebody in the mailroom or one of the janitors.

The doors closed.

“You have access to the entire building?”

“Oh, yeah. Can you imagine those scientists picking up their own deliveries? They get annoyed when I don’t drop it at their door.”

“Sounds about right.”

“It’s not like I’m going to steal secret formulas.”

“That’s what a thief would say. ”

“I should say I am going to steal stuff?”

“Also, what a thief would say.”

When the doors opened, I could hear the rush of technology.

Determined to mimic superpowers, Synergy had expanded its cybernetics division.

The technology in my suit had been liberated and improved after borrowing it from their labs.

I guess I shouldn’t throw stones when I walked a fine line between friendly acquisition and theft.

We walked down a sterile hallway with white walls.

I had never been to this part of Ricardo’s operation.

I had read the files and reports they produced.

I imagined it to be robots with flamethrowers and people having limbs replaced with metal.

It served as a reminder that not all of my research could be done remotely.

That’s how I found myself with this rule breaker.

“Do you come down here often?”

He slowed his pace, putting thought into his answer. “Not as often as I like. I don’t like coming here when everybody is at work. People kind of ruin it.”

“I can empathize with that.” Both of us had a loner attitude, but I suspected it was for different reasons. “I’m not much of a people person.”

“I hadn’t noticed.”

For a second, I thought he might be taking a jab.

Nothing on his face suggested anything but straightforward honesty.

He stopped walking, his hand tightening mine.

I glanced down as he moved from average human strength into the super territory.

Just when I thought he might give himself away, he eased up.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say he intentionally teased my curiosity.

We stood without speaking until it became uncomfortable. He chewed his lip, as if he wanted to say something, but hadn’t quite found the words. Is this where it happened? He took a step closer, almost forcing my back to the wall. Would this be where he whipped out a knife, and we’d wrestle to the?—

He leaned forward, and I jerked back. He froze, lips puckered.

It took a second for my brain to transition from death to… whatever this was. Just like before, I misread the situation, and Hudson considered this a romantic interlude. My inability to read people had turned what should have been a sweet gesture into something weird.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

He hadn’t pulled away. “Don’t be. I thought you… we…”

Had I ruined the moment? I should have let it go, but I wanted to recover from this. I’d put my life on the line if it meant those lips touched mine.

“Can we try that again?”

“You sure?”

No. I wasn’t sure. I had no idea what I was doing. “Positive.”

Hudson took another step forward, leaving me nowhere to retreat.

Pinned to the wall, I didn’t care about his military training, nor his curious lack of a past. The only thing that mattered was the upward curve at the edges of his lips and the heat of his body.

He could have stolen a kiss without resistance, but he dragged out the moment as he found the perfect position for maximum body contact.

If he hadn’t noticed the stiffness before, he certainly did now.

He leaned forward, hesitating. The last few inches might as well have been miles.

I had an unfamiliar ache… a need to close that distance.

If I could find my voice, I’d have given enthusiastic consent.

I’d have all but begged. All I managed was a hand on his chest, creeping up the side of his neck.

As my thumb drifted along his jaw, the hum of code returned. I didn’t care, not now.

Just as I decided he had specialized enhanced interrogation training, his lips pressed against mine.

Strawberries. It started softly, a tender exchange as if this were our maiden voyage.

I pushed back, parting his lips as I explored his mouth.

What started as a beautiful moment had been left covered in slobber.

Handsome as he was, our first kiss had been less than momentous.

“Wow,” he whispered. “That’s going on the list.”

“Making out at work?”

“Kissing.”

“You’ve never…” He avoided eye contact, as if he had been caught in an uncomfortable truth.

First time with a man… surely? It would explain why I needed to wipe down my f ace.

It opened questions, a lot of them. I should be asking each one of them.

If I were going on the list for his first kiss, we were going to get this right.

“Let’s try that again.”

The blush reached his cheeks, making his beard almost glow red. I wrapped a hand around his neck, guiding him close. Now it was my turn to build the suspense. He tried to swoop in, and I pulled back, denying him an easy victory. When he bit his bottom lip, I let the moment drag on long enough.

We kissed… again.

It started tender, innocent, and reminded me of a strawberry milkshake. When he tried to intensify, I drew back, acting like I had become an expert in kissing. Once upon a time, a high school senior had done the same for me. It only felt appropriate to pay it forward.