Boiling Point (3 page)

“Did you just make a joke?”

“Not if you have to ask.”

“You did. You just made a joke,” she declared.

He looked at her, expressionless. “Did you want to go over the blueprints, or not?”

Fauna frowned, confused. “Yeah, okay.”

“This juncture, here, is where we need to watch for outside access points to the mainframe of the security system we’re setting up.”

Fauna studied him. Normally when a guy flirted, they kept on flirting, even when they were pretending not to. Cooper had turned off like a light switch. Teasingly flirtatious one moment to coolly businesslike the next. It didn’t compute. Weren’t computer guys supposed to be logical and nerdy?

And how the hell had they let Cooper graduate from
any
computer programming college? He was far too hot to qualify as a—a—a—
qualified
computer geek, damnit! She needed to find out where he’d gotten his degree and complain. Hell, have his diploma revoked.

“Don’t you think?” he asked suddenly, ripping her from her thoughts.

“Huh?” she asked, impressively.

Cooper sat back in the wicker chair, folding his arms across his chest. Brown fringe fell over his brow and the unusual reddish tints in his eyes almost seemed to glow in the low light. “What were you thinking about?”

Fauna’s eyes widened. “Uh. Blueprint stuff.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Must have been fascinating. You weren’t listening to a word I said.”

“Of course I was.”

“Uh huh. What did I say?” he asked.

Heat suffused her cheeks. She dropped his steady gaze and caught her bottom lip with her teeth. Fauna shrugged minutely, scrounged around for her boss’ voice, and cleared her throat. “It’s not important. What is important is that we go on-site and see what we’re really up against. These blueprints are old. There could be structural updates that aren’t on here.”

“Which,” he said calmly. “Is what I just said.”

“Oh.”

Cooper winked. “Just kidding. But your expression was priceless.”

Fauna grabbed a pillow from behind her and whipped it at his head. Cooper ducked and her shot went wide. They both laughed, and Fauna felt the tension drain out of her.

Figuring out Cooper wouldn’t happen overnight, it seemed. He wasn’t like any other man she’d met before. He could compliment her and call her bluff. He also didn’t seem the least bit fazed by her disappearing act. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. What is was, was intriguing. She wanted to know more about Cooper Blank. She didn’t want him to know she wanted to know more, which was all very high school. But the giddy little girl crush feeling in the pit of her belly felt juvenile and free.

She liked it. She liked it a lot.

Cooper was the sexy lifeguard sitting up on his tower, unreachable but in full view. He was the school jock to the chess club nerd. He was the power player business man to the entry level phone operator. He was all those images of untouchable hotness that she’d never considered attainable, except this super stud had scoped her out and focused all his attention on her.

It was heady, unnerving, intimidating, and damn if it didn’t make her more than a little interested in finding out exactly how far he’d want to take things—if she let him. And she wouldn’t. Because that would be unprofessional.

And invisible-making.

Which would suck. She sighed audibly, garnering a curious smile from Cooper. She waved off his unspoken question, and dragged her index finger along the main hallway indicated in the blueprints.

“Cameras here, for sure. I think we’re going to have to block off this area completely, next to the lab,” she said, pretending to have been in deep thought about the project throughout the lengthy silence.

“It’s all guesswork and raw planning until we see the place.”

“I wish we could go now.”

“We can. What better way to check the current process than to attempt our very own break-in.”

Fauna’s eyes widened. “We should call that in. Let them know.”

“What’s the point in that? You don’t tell them you’re coming, you just come.”

Oh, God, was that a double innuendo?
She shot him a look. His open expression suggested the statement had been innocent enough, though she sensed he’d meant every meaning of that last comment.

“That’s great. When the campus security and the local cops come screaming in on us, that’s what we can tell them,” she answered sarcastically.

Cooper held up his company badge. “That’s exactly what we tell them.”

Excitement burned softly in her belly. Could they? Did they dare? Traipsing around campus in the dark, breaking in without actually breaking in with Cooper sounded like fun.

“Wanna?” he asked, wiggling his brows.

She smiled back just as eagerly. “Yeah. I really, really do.”

Chapter Two

Asking Inviso-girl to dress in her darkest colors had been a thing of genius, Cooper decided. While they couldn’t depend on her to disappear on cue, seeing her rounded ass in form fitting black yoga pants definitely made for an interesting view. That she wore g-string underwear, judging from the lack of a panty line, only took his imagination into overdrive.

Fauna trotted on ahead toward the dark building. Two spotlights on each corner provided the only defense against theft. From looking at the blueprints, Cooper knew there were no sirens, only warnings posted that there were sirens on the premises. Considering the sensitivity of the upcoming plans in this building, they definitely had their work cut out for them.

The double lights didn’t even overlap, which created dark strips of shadow right to the center of each wall, and that was only on the main structure. This building had several juts to the side and hidden angles that could hide a lurker from view.

Below ground, a tunnel system led between the lab and the two closest buildings on either side. The few break-ins the university had so far, compromised information, not equipment. But it was the quality of the information stolen that had the university worried. As one of the security team entrusted to keep the information safe, Harper Security had been given access to superficial information about the projects.

Cloning of any kind made for a hot topic of debate in a conservative town. Cloning of human DNA incited anger and violence. Cloning human DNA at an elected lab, chosen by the United States government for undisclosed purposes, would have the conspiracy theorists, the right wing, hell, everybody, in an uproar.
That
would be national news and coverage no one wanted.

Unfortunately, some of the stolen information hinted at the upcoming plans. That’s where Harper Security came in. One of the best privately owned security companies in the country, it hadn’t been a surprise to hear that they’d been retained by the government. As far as Cooper could tell, Posada, Texas had been chosen for its small town and out of the way location. Likely, the university had taken the challenge in order to secure government funding for the school in a failing economy.

Everyone had something to gain in an arrangement like this. Unfortunately, everyone also had something to lose. The university could lose other funding sources, garner scorn from the local community. The university would be left holding the bag on the moral and ethical dilemma of a lifetime.

But that wasn’t why he was here. Not really. The elemental community had concerns too.

Personally, he knew he was supposed to be objective, but the subject both fascinated and horrified him. He was also a little surprised that Harper had elected to take the job. The fallout of leaked information associated with the Harper Security name, could have a devastating effect on their future jobs. Thankfully, the little that had leaked out hadn’t spread to the larger community.

Ahead of him, Fauna stopped with a huff. She put her fists on her hips and her sleek pony tail practically shivered with annoyance.

“What is it?” he whispered.

He liked looking at her. All angles were equally appealing, but there was something about the set of her shoulders and the way her windbreaker disguised the sexy lines of her back while stopping short on her ass. Damn, he could look at her curved ass all day and then some. He even liked the way her pants rode up in the middle. Nothing hidden and all of it delectable.

“This is too easy,” she complained, swinging her head around to look at him, and successfully swatting him in the face with baby-soft black curls from her ponytail. She held out an arm to the building. “They might as well have put out the welcome mat.”

“You wanted it to be complicated?”

“More complicated than this. They have
nothing
in place to discourage theft.”

“That’s the point, isn’t it? That’s why they hired us,” he suggested.

“I know, but…”

“…But you wanted some fun tonight and you feel ripped off,” he finished for her.

Fauna pursed her lips, fully visible in the direct light of the building. “Yeah.”

A movement caught Cooper’s eyes as a shadow skirted the building. He didn’t like the low skulk of it, and he sure as hell didn’t want Fauna caught up in something dangerous. He had to make her disappear.

Cooper hooked her arm and dragged her into the shadows several feet from the building. Fauna opened her mouth, as though she intended to object.

“God, you’re one sexy lady,” he murmured. “Do you have any idea how tempting your ass is in those tight cotton pants?”

Fauna’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened. Cooper moved in, crowding her space.

“I’ve been tempted all night long to pull them off and run my tongue along the slit until I find something juicy and sweet between your—”

Fauna zipped into nothingness. Reddish orange shimmered where she’d stood seconds ago. To anyone else, Fauna was invisible. To Cooper, her heat signature was anything but, and damn if he hadn’t made her hot. He couldn’t stop the smug smile from curving his lips into a smile.

Cooper took his eyes off her for a second, checking for the figure. The other person had moved around the far side of the building and out of sight.

“Sorry about that, boss. We aren’t the only ones sneaking in the shadows.”

“What?” Fauna stammered.

“Someone else is here, too. I didn’t want him seeing you.”

Fauna stayed stonily quiet.

“He’s around back. You stay here. I’ll come get you as soon as it’s safe.” Cooper didn’t wait for her to answer, he took off, edging around the walls the way the other man had. Cooper, however, stayed out of the light. Whoever was breaking in wasn’t doing a great job of being stealthy.

Out of view from Fauna, and he glanced back to make sure her heat signature remained stationary, Cooper laid his hand on the open metal window sash of the building. Using the conductive properties of the ancient frame, Cooper willed himself into pure heat energy and rematerialized inside the science building.

He didn’t have any cool tricks like the Harpers did, but Cooper wasn’t a faery. He was an elemental. Using his senses to detect subtle fluctuations in air temperatures, Cooper moved through the building until he found the shimmer of a trail, charged particles of body heat having passed through recently, leading to the office of the Dean of Science and Technology.