Watch Me (Phoenix #1) - Stacey Kennedy Page 0,64
a hold on him too.
He moved closer, the chatter from the busy bar brushing over him. While Alex still worked for Blackwood Security in San Francisco, she’d come to New York City for a vacation, which put her on his radar. He’d learned through the CIA’s undercover New York location where he was earlier today that she’d landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Alex was one of the best hackers out there. When she moved, the CIA kept a close eye on her, and her arrival in New York City set off alarms throughout the agency. But the second he heard she was in town, he knew she could help him crack this case.
Only problem?
He’d run out on her without a word.
The man at the piano on stage played a soft, sensual song, setting the right mood for exactly what Rowan needed to do. He could manipulate easily. That was his job, and he needed to get her back on his side before asking for her help. Alex was smart. He knew he needed to tread lightly when he slid on the stool next to her. “Whiskey on the rocks,” he said to the bartender.
He noted the hitch of Alex’s breath before he caught the surprise in her wide eyes, which she controlled in an instant. Her gaze lingered on his mouth long enough to let him know she hadn’t forgotten him—or the sensual pull they shared—either. A bonus for him, making this seduction easier.
“You know I don’t believe in coincidences,” she finally said.
Rowan didn’t either. He also didn’t believe in lasting love. He trusted no one, and most times, people around him got killed, which didn’t lend itself well to long-term relationships. But lust was real, and that red-hot sexual energy still pulsed between him and Alex, almost so tangible he could taste it in the air. “Yes, I do know that about you.”
She didn’t even miss a beat, glancing down at the drink in her hands. “How did you know I was here?”
“Your arrival at JFK raised alarms.”
Alex snorted. “Are you here to check up on me, then?”
The bartender placed his drink down in front of him. He nodded his thanks and left a ten-dollar bill on the bar then lifted his glass to Alex. “I can certainly think of better things to do than check up on you, can’t you?”
Instant heat flared in her eyes in the same way it had five years ago. Rowan wanted desperately to drink it in. And that had nothing to do with the reasons that brought him there tonight.
But that heat also made his job easier. He’d play on that desire, getting her to reconnect and forget that he’d left her once. She had no reason to help him. Christ, she had no reason to talk to him. He had to give her one. So he’d come up with a plan: seduce her, earn her forgiveness, find the killer.
Rowan lifted his glass. “To old times.”
She clinked his glass with a sexy smile. “To old times.”
They didn’t stay for a second drink.
An Uber ride later and with heat burning in the air between them, Rowan followed Alex through the hallway of Langdon Bridge, the swankiest hotel in New York City, where Alex had checked into. “Nice place,” he said, entering the room after her.
She shut the door behind him and locked it. “I’m supposed to be pampering myself on vacation.”
He couldn’t help himself, and a grin tugged on his mouth. “I promise you’ll be pampered tonight, McCoy.”
She returned the grin, though her smile dripped with lust. “Classy, Hawke.”
“Always.” He took in the lavish modern suite, finding they stood in a small living room, while she strode by him and dropped the key card on the table by the door. The bedroom was in the next room, behind double doors and displaying a large king-size bed with a white duvet. Obviously, her boss paid her well, as he should. Good—honest—hackers were hard to find. Rowan began to glance over at her, when he caught sight of her laptop sitting on the coffee table near the large row of windows by the wing-back chairs. A laptop that he knew she could do things with that nearly no one else could do. There was no place Alex could not get into. No person she could not find.
That’s why he needed her. He sought answers about the Casanova Sadist that no one had been able to give him. A killer he’d been hunting for weeks