When I released his hand, he hesitated. “Is this all right?”
His hand hovered over my thigh, skin bared through the slit. “Yes.” The feeling of his hand on my skin was the equivalent of a heated blanket. He may have hesitated for my consent, but there was no hesitance now. His grip on my thigh was firm and possessive. Comforting in its own way.
“Why hacking?”
His thumb rubbed back and forth on my skin, distracting. “What do you mean?”
“If you’re that good at computers, you probably could have done anything you wanted. Why choose something illegal?”
“It’s not always illegal.”
I laughed. “I’m a reporter. I can tell when someone’s trying to dodge a question.”
He was silent for a few seconds, but it wasn’t a harsh silence. “I’m trying to figure out how to word this.”
“It’s that bad?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s… I grew up in an environment where laws were optional, and there were certain expectations of me and what I would do. Computers and hacking were the best way to extricate myself from that environment. Hard to make someone stay if they don’t have any leverage on you.”
The way he worded it told me he was avoiding some of the details. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“It was a long time ago. But thank you.”
I put the pieces together in my head. The defense systems and the obscured past. The people he left behind weren’t people he ever wanted close to him again. But he also said he tried not to cause harm.
The way the DuPonts described him seemed spot on. Honorable, but willing to color outside the lines if necessary.
“Sure you can’t tell me where we’re going?”
“It won’t take too long to get there,” he said. “So I’m not going to tell you. But I think you’ll be able to guess in a minute.”
He was right. We were nearing the coast a bit north of Clarity, where there were more cliffs and fewer beaches. There were things to do, but they were more in the DuPont’s price bracket than mine.
But he’d called them to get my sizes…
I turned in my seat. “Are you taking me to The Grotto?”
Aiden smirked, but didn’t take his eyes off the road. His hand still rested on my thigh, completely comfortable. “I knew you’d put it together.”
“Whatever you promised the DuPonts for my sizes, double it for getting you into The Grotto.”
The restaurant—which was in a cliff cave that was open to the sea and had been converted—had one of the longest waitlists in the country. It was supposed to be incredible. I made good money, and I was more than comfortable, but I wasn’t going to places where the bill for dinner could be four figures.
“They didn’t get me in.” A quick glance and a smile at me. “And no, I didn’t hack the waitlist to put us on it.”
“Then how?”
We were pulling up to the valet now. Aiden stepped out of the car and held out a hand to the young Beta about to open my door. He did it himself, taking my hand and lifting me out. “Forgive me. I don’t want another man touching you tonight. Even for something as small as this.”
“I don’t mind a healthy dose of possessiveness. As long as that’s all it is.”
“It is. As far as getting into the restaurant.” A grin. “I’m a man of many secrets. But mainly, though I left the life I told you about behind, I still have connections through it. People know my family.”
“You’re only making me more curious.”
“A reporter through and through.”
We approached the entrance, his hand once again on my lower back. The woman at the host stand looked up and smiled. “Welcome, Mr. Fletcher. Your table is right this way.”