Boiling Point Read online

  “Where do you want to set up, boss?”

  Fauna pointed at the dresser top, the only solid surface in the room. “Looks like it’ll be here, or nowhere. Hardly secure for a top priority job. We’re gonna have to find better digs than this one.”

  “After tonight, we can set up a secure space at the university science department near the lab. I’d even recommend securing that room first.”

  “Right,” Fauna agreed. “Can’t secure a site if the security isn’t secure…or something like that.”

  Cooper laughed. “Well, when you say it like that…”

  Awkward silence descended on them. Normally, Fauna would kick off her heels and curl up on the bed with her laptop and begin scouting through the blueprints for points of weakness and a place to make central control for their temporary purposes. Cooper stifled her creative processes. Made her self-conscious and had her second-guessing her plans. The man was way too confident for his own good.

  Still, the bed provided the only other working surface for her. Reluctantly, Fauna picked up her purse and computer bag, took them to the bed, and slipped out of her heels. “There’s a chair over there. If you pull it over, we can review the layout of the lab.”

  Cooper shot her a smug grin, like he knew what she was thinking—that the palpable attraction they shared could be offset by distance. That keeping him in a chair, off the bed, and away from her, would be the easiest way to avoid the obvious chemistry.

  She watched him from the corner of her eye while she set up. Cooper noisily dragged the wicker chair to the bedside. It’s much smaller size brought his chin level with the edge of the elevated bed. Fauna carefully tucked her legs under her and booted up her system. The sooner she got to thinking about work, the less she’d think about him.

  But there he was, looking up at her. His burnished eyes glittered merrily. What was he so smug about?

  “You have cute knees, boss.”

  Her skin tingled seconds before she disappeared. Fauna sighed. “Stop that.”

  “What?”

  “Going off topic. I don’t do well with personal situations and this is already uncomfortable,” she answered.

  “Sure thing.” His smile widened as his gaze never wavered from her face.

  How does he know where to look?

  Cooper’s expression turned markedly serious. “The USB ports joining your upper ambulators with your lower actionary component are visually appealing, from a professionally observational standpoint.” He flipped open the university blueprints.

  Cooper pressed his palms on the paper, smoothing it to the surface of the mattress. Fauna squinted at him, coming back into substance as she tried to figure him out.

  “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.

&nb
sp; 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.

  The door stood ajar, internal lights off but for the soft glow of a lit computer monitor. Cooper poked his head around the corner, but the room remained still. Whoever had been there moments before had already gone. No, that wasn’t exactly right either. It wasn’t a who, but a what.

  No wonder the intruder had been clumsy enough to be seen on the perimeter. He hadn’t worried about being found. Only an elemental could thwart the perceptions of another elemental.

  Cooper retraced his steps, keeping a keen awareness to the elements. He sensed nothing. Whichever element was near, he was in hiding specifically from Cooper’s talents. It could be anyone, even one of his own kind. A salamander could easily offset the perceptions of another Fire based elemental. But the earth gnomes, water undines, and air sylphs could use their own abilities to confuse fire as well.

  Which meant there was a leak in the salamander scientific community Cooper belonged to. Someone, somewhere, had found out what the humans were up to and where the planned experimentation would occur. Securing the university just became a lot more challenging.

  Fauna.

  Cooper raced through the building. Silence no longer mattered. Whoever had snuck in already knew he was there and what he was. Chances were, the elemental knew Fauna was hiding outside, too.

  Cooper began transferring himself into pure heat energy as he approached the window. As he reached for the metal frame, his fingers brushed the glass. Chilled pain shot up his arm, and dropped his core temperature. Heat conducted through the frame at a cooler rate, keeping his molecular structure more solid than it should have been as he projected himself out of the building to reform on the other side.

  Cooper rematerialized, doubled in pain as he stumbled to the place where he’d left Fauna. Muscle spasms racked his body and dropped him to his knees. If he’d been prepared for the fumble, he could have compensated, reheated, and transported. But he hadn’t and the result seized his every cell.

  “Cooper?�
� Fauna called in a harsh whisper.

  “Fauna, you’re okay,” he said, relieved. Cooper fell to his knees at her feet. He tucked his chin to his chest, his hands into his armpits as he folded his arms across his chest, shivering.

  “What happened to you? Are you okay? I saw someone running out of the building just seconds before you. Were you seen? Did he hurt you?”

  A harsh laugh escaped him. “I’m fine. I jammed my hands on the way out,” he lied. He kept his face in shadow. If she saw him now, she’d know what he was. His eyes would be more red than brown, and his skin would appear scaled like the salamander he was.

  Given her reaction to other faeries, he knew she wouldn’t like it. Worse, she might insist he leave the project, putting both their kinds at risk. Cloning was of great interest to all sentient beings. It was a simmering cauldron of research, capable of making or destroying them all.

  Right now, though, he needed heat. Lots of heat. With the lovely Fauna Harper leaning over him, concern dripping from her voice as she hovered to protect him from the unseen enemy, an enemy she had no way of knowing how to fight, he couldn’t help but want to tuck her in his arms close to his heart.

  Maybe she wouldn’t notice the scales if he kissed her in the dark. Maybe he could just sample some of her heat, using intimacy to generate more of it, and sip from her until his appearance had returned to normal.

  There was a lot about Fauna he wanted to sample. A helluva lot.

  Cooper caught her wrist and drew her down. He kept his eyes closed, hiding the bright red he knew she’d see if he let her. It was a risk, but he needed heat. The insulating properties of glass still stung at his cells. It didn’t help that he’d completed the transfer of energy anyway. This wasn’t how he’d wanted to kiss Fauna the first time, or the reason, but he’d take his excuses where he could get them.

  His sharp pull jerked Fauna off balance and a small yelp escaped her as she dumped into his arms.