“I get that. The last guy I dated was a waiter who was enrolled in the theatre program at NYU. He was a nice guy but I couldn’t exactly tell him about it when I had a bad day. He had no clue what I was talking about ever.”

“Right? That’s a legitimate thing that my family just doesn’t get. Dating someone who has no clue what you do for a living and doesn’t share most of your interests doesn’t really make much sense anyway.”

“What are you saying— we nerds need to stick to our own kind?”

Our eyes meet and I’m suddenly having a hard time swallowing. “Well, I guess so.”

“Good to know.” She finishes the last bit of her burger, swiping a little bit of ketchup off the plate and sucking it off her finger.

The blast of heat takes me off guard. What is it about this girl? She’s not even my type. I usually go for tall, curvy and bold. But Seven has the kind of beauty that sneaks up on you. Even the way she tips her head so her hair covers the scar on her cheek is charmingly self-deprecating. She makes me want to shield her from anything that might scare her. Despite the inner strength I know she possesses, everything about her seems delicate from the graceful curve of her neck to the long, slim fingers that I’m now imagining wrapped around my dick.

I cough and have to grab a napkin at the last minute to keep from spitting my food out on the table.

“Yeah, I think I’m done.” I can feel her eyes on me as I gather up our trash and carry it to the bin near the door.

Helping Seven was the right thing to do and I would do it again in a heartbeat. But there’s no doubt that it’ll be for the best when we catch whoever set her up so she can move on. This girl has my hormones going haywire and she’s only been here a day.

†

My phone rings later that evening. Seven is in the office working on my desk and I’m camped out on the couch. I pick it up absently and then answer quickly when I see that it’s Agent Walker. After we hang up, I walk back to the office and rap on the door. Seven looks up.

“Agent Walker just called. You’re officially off the hook.”

She swivels in my office chair until she’s facing me. “Really? That fast?”

“Yeah, the emails led them back to a fringe International terrorist group that they’ve been tracking for years. They must have gotten frustrated at their inability to gain access and decided to hire someone else to see if they could do it.”

“That’s awesome.”

Strangely, her words don’t match her expression. I’ve been in her position before and there’s no relief quite like knowing that you’re no longer at risk for jail time. Well, in my case I would have been sent to juvie but that was essentially the same thing in my mind. Yet Seven seems kind of underwhelmed for someone who just got out of a pretty serious situation. I would have expected a little more excitement or at least a smile.

“Agent Walker seemed pretty sure that they would get the guys this time so maybe this will turn out to be a good thing.”

Seven puts her hands behind her head and sighs. “It shouldn’t have happened. I’m getting soft. Staying in one place too long does that to you. You get too comfortable. Complacent.”

Her words make me think. Over the years, I assumed that her moving around wasn’t something she enjoyed but it was just the hand she’d been dealt being in the foster care system. But now that she’s on her own, she could settle in one place if she wanted.

If she wanted. The question is whether she even wants to stay. Will she leave now that she’s not under investigation anymore?

“Is that why you said no? Because it would have tied you down?” I lean back against the door jamb, resting my head on the frame.

She watches me with wary eyes. “You know why I said no.”

“I would have been cool with it. You could have just told me.”

She gives me a get real look. “Being taken seriously is hard enough but when most of the people I deal with online have the maturity of a twelve-year-old boy, it’s even harder. That’s about how old you were when we met by the way. Do you really think your ego could have handled knowing the person teaching you all that stuff was a girl? Or would you have been scared of catching cooties?”

She’s right but it doesn’t mean I’m ready to admit it.

“Anything would have been better than blowing me off and leaving me to wonder why.”

Her face softens at that.

“Why do you think I came here? I came to make it right. But that was just as stupid as this fantasy of being a part of a family. Because I was right to be scared to tell you. The way you looked at me when you found out. The way you’re looking at me right now. It’ll never be the same, will it?”

Her words give voice to the same fears that have kept me up at night. No matter what else has happened, I don’t want to lose the special connection we’ve always had. It shouldn’t matter what she looks like. She’s still C7pher.

“It won’t be the same, no.”

Her face falls. I push away from the door and kneel next to her. When I take her hand, she tries to pull it back but I hang on tight.

“It doesn’t have to be the same. It can be better. It can be whatever we make it.”

Her hand flexes in mine and then she turns it over until we’re palm to palm. It’s a shocking intimacy to feel that heat, one I like way more than I expected. When she goes to pull her hand back, I let her even though part of me wants to hang on.

She looks around. “So is that offer to crash still open?”

“You want to stay here?” The shock is evident in my voice and I’m sure the expression on my face completes the picture.

“That was the deal, wasn’t it?”

“Well, yeah but …”

 I extended the invitation to stay with me while working on the project back when I thought she was a guy. I figured it would make the most sense. When developing software, I tend to work around the clock and I’d assumed it would be the same way while we developed the curriculum for our classes. Staying together would make collaboration easier.

But that was before I knew that I’d be in danger of a constant boner every time she’s around.

“But what?” she taunts. “You said it shouldn’t matter who I am, that you’d still have made the same offer anyway. So, I’m saying yes. Is the offer still open? Or am I booking a ticket back to New York?” Her left eyebrow ticks up in challenge.

I can tell by the set of her mouth that she’s already planning her trip home. She thinks she’s calling my bluff and that I won’t want to work with her now.

What she doesn’t know is the real reason I want to rescind my offer isn’t because she’s a girl but because she’s a gorgeous girl and I truly can’t see how us working together is going to work.

Besides me walking around with a permanent hard-on.

I’m tempted to just let her think I’m a misogynist instead of a horny bastard but then I remember her face last night looking into the bakery. Seven Parker has known too much disappointment in her life already and I don’t want to be one more person who lets her down.

“Yes, the offer to crash is still open. We’ll work on the project. It’ll be fun. No funny business, I promise. I’ll treat you the same way I would have if you’d been a guy.”

Surprise and delight shines in her eyes before it’s banked behind her usual expression of distrust. “Really?”

“Yeah, but don’t get too excited yet. You might change your mind and book that ticket to New York when you see how much work we have to do.”