Page 68 of My Craving

Simon makes a sound that could be a sigh or a prayer for patience, and I decide I’ve tortured him enough for one car ride. Owen keeps asking questions about Max anyway, which means I spend most of the drive telling him about the studio and how long we’ve been friends while Simon remains suspiciously silent.

By the time Duncan’s building comes into view, I’m almost certain Max’s attraction isn’t one-sided. Simon may have refused to say a word about him, but he also listened to every damn thing I said.

The second I step into the apartment, whatever amusement I got from tormenting Simon disappears beneath everything I still need to deal with. Duncan is standing near the kitchen with his jacket and tie gone, and the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled to his elbows. I make it approximately two seconds before my attention drops to his forearms.

Fucking hell. I’m about to confess to ditching his security and breaking into Alina’s hotel room, and apparently my dick would still like a moment to appreciate the view.

I cross the room and wrap my arms around him. Duncan pulls me against his chest without hesitation, and I press my mouth to the side of his neck.

“Miss me?”

“Always.”

He turns his head and kisses me before I can make a joke out of the answer. There’s none of the rough possession I’ve come to expect from him. His hand cups the back of my head as his mouth moves slowly over mine, and I sink into it, gripping his shirt and letting myself enjoy being here with him. Taking him upstairs and letting Daddy fuck every thought out of my head sounds like an excellent plan. Unfortunately, I have two stolen drives in my bag and a confession to make first.

I pull away with considerably more reluctance than good judgment and take his hand. “Come sit down. I have something for you.”

Duncan follows me to the couch, and the moment he sits, I climb into his lap. His hands come naturally to my hips while I reach into my gym bag and pull out the smaller bag I brought back from the hotel.

“Before I give you these, I’d like you to remember how charming and useful you find me.”

His eyes narrow slightly. “What did you do?”

“See, that tone is exactly why I was trying to establish the charming part first.” I pull out the hard drive and USB but keep them in my hand. “I found out where Alina was staying. Then I went to Max’s studio, borrowed his car, left through the back so your security wouldn’t follow me, waited for Alina to leave her hotel, and went into her room.” Duncan’s hands tighten around my hips before I even get to the rest of it. “I was inside for nine minutes. Alina was gone the entire time, nobody saw me, and I came straight back. Everything from her laptop and burner phone should be on these.”

I hold up the drives, but Duncan’s attention stays on me. “How did you get into her room?”

“Zee gave me the key and the programs I needed to copy everything.”

“That’s how you found Alina’s connection to Maria?”

“Yeah.” Ronan gave Duncan the information Zee found, but that doesn’t tell him anything about the person behind it. Considering we just agreed we’re doing this together, I should probably fix that.

“He’s been helping me for about three years. I can dig through public records and social media, but Zee handles the things I can’t get into myself. He actually found me when I first started doing this and figured out pretty quickly that I was in way over my head online.” I rest the drives against Duncan’s chest instead of putting them down. “I’ve never met him, and I don’t know his real name, but I trust him. He knows what I do, and he’s had plenty of chances to use that against me if he wanted to.”

Duncan takes the drives from me but doesn’t look at them yet. “He knows about me?”

“He knows I’m helping you and that I don’t believe the allegations. When I asked him to dig into Maria, he found more than the connection to Alina."

I can see Duncan working through all of that, especially the part about someone he doesn’t know having access to his family’s information. If our positions were reversed, he’d probably already have Ronan trying to identify Zee.

“I’m not asking you to trust someone you’ve never met just because I do,” I tell him. “But I’m not going to hide Zee from you either. He’s been part of this almost from the beginning, and if we’re doing this together, you need to know he exists.”

Duncan’s hand moves from my hip to the back of my neck. “If he finds something connected to Alina or my family, I want to know.”

“You will.”

His thumb moves slowly against my neck before his gaze drops to the drives in his other hand. “Now explain why you thought going into Alina’s hotel room alone was a good idea.”

I kiss the end of his nose, hoping it earns me at least a little goodwill. It doesn’t.

“Nash.”

“I checked the hotel before I went inside and waited until she left. I wasn’t just running around without a plan.”

“You deliberately left your security behind before going to the hotel of a woman who has already had you followed and broken into your home. If Alina had returned early or someone had been waiting inside that room, the men responsible for protecting you wouldn’t have even known where to start looking.”

I’m ready to argue until I realize he isn’t telling me I shouldn’t have investigated Alina. He’s pissed because I made sure nobody could help me if something went wrong. “Max knew where I was. I gave him the hotel and room number before I left.”