"I had a good time tonight," she says, suddenly seeming shy.

"Just good?" I unbuckle my seatbelt and turn to face her fully. "Because I was thinking it was pretty incredible."

The space between us shrinks. I cup her face, my thumb brushing across her cheekbone. "Zoe..."

When I kiss her, it's gentle at first. A sweet goodnight kiss that should end here, should let her walk up to the house with her dignity intact. But then she moans against my mouth, and my legendary control slips and something in me snaps.

I tangle my other hand in her hair as I deepen the kiss, my tongue sliding against hers in a way that makes rational thought impossible. She climbs over the center console without breaking contact as I push my seat all the way back, allowing her to settle onto my lap as I grip her waist.

"This is insane," she breathes against my neck, but she's already working at the buttons of my shirt. I'm rock hard, have been since we left the restaurant.

"Completely," I agree, my voice rough as I find that spot just below her ear that makes her arch against me.

I slide my hands up her thighs, bunching her dress around her hips, and when she grinds against me, I groan low in my throat, the sound vibrating through my chest, and I can feel her responding to it.

"Are you wet for me, baby?" I whisper. "That little clit all swollen and needy?"

Her moans are her only answer. "Yes," she replies softly, moving her self up and down my thigh in search of friction that will allow her to come. This is our fourth date, and I've been the perfect gentleman, but tonight the fairies must have sprinkled their magic dust on us.

The sharp rap on the window makes us both freeze.

"You've got to be kidding me," I mutter, dropping my forehead to her shoulder.

She looks up and I follow her gaze to see Aidan standing beside the car, his expression a mixture of amusement and exasperation. Even through the tinted glass, his disapproval is crystal clear.

I roll down the window, not bothering to fix my disheveled hair. "Before you say anything—"

"Take her to her room," Aidan interrupts, his tone the same one he used when I was sixteen and getting caught sneaking out. "You're not making out in my driveway like two horny teenagers. Why didn't you take her to your apartment?"

"This just kind of came up," I reply and hear Zoe bark out a laugh. Even Aidan chuckles before he can stop himself.

"Well, hold it together until you're in her room, Romeo." There's affection underlying the reprimand. "Hi, Zoe. Did you enjoy dinner?"

I watch heat flood her cheeks as she tries to straighten her dress from her position on my lap. "It was lovely, thank you."

"Good. Now get inside before Eliana wakes up.."

I help her back to her seat, both of us laughing despite the interruption. "My brother, the mood killer," I say, pressing a quick kiss to her lips before opening my door.

As we walk toward the house, my hand warm at the small of her back, I can't shake the feeling that everything just changed. The way I look at her now, the way my body still hums from her touch—there's no going back from this.

Dane holds the front door open for us, shaking his head. "Next time, at least wait until you're parked in the garage."

"There's going to be a next time?" she asks before she can stop herself.

Both Dane and I look at her, and I know the heat in my eyes is unmistakable.

"Oh, sweetheart," I say, my voice low and full of promise. "We're just getting started."

***

The first alarm screams at 2:47 AM.

I bolt upright in my chair, the crimson lights flooding our underground cyber warfare center jarring me and out of the pleasant dream I'd been having about Zoe and me. When all this is over, I'd like to repeat the hot sex we got up to in her room that night. 

Despite three energy drinks and twenty-six hours supporting Declan's Miami operation, I'm catnapping during downtime; my whole team has been. We've been on alert, tracking heat signatures and maintaining secure channels for the thirty-five-man team when suddenly emergency klaxons wail as automated voices boom: "PERIMETER BREACH - LEVEL FIVE COMPROMISE."

"Jesus Christ," I breathe, my hands already moving across the triple keyboard setup.

Six monitors surround me in a semicircle, each one flashing urgent warnings as I watch our digital fortress collapse in real-time. Firewalls that took months to construct dissolve like tissue paper. Intrusion detection systems scream warnings faster than I can process them.

"Talk to me, people!" I shout over the chaos.

Across the room, Teagan hunches over his workstation, sweat beading on his forehead despite the facility's sixty-degree temperature. Dark circles under his eyes betray the marathon shift we've all been pulling. "Someone's steamrolling through our outer defenses. This isn't random—they know exactly what they're hitting."

The facility's electrical hum shifts to a higher pitch as backup generators kick in. Our normal blue LED strips flicker off, replaced by harsh white emergency lighting that makes everything look like a horror movie set.

"Isolation protocols now!" I bark at my team of twelve specialists scattered throughout the room. "Cut the connections to primary servers before they reach—"

A fresh siren cuts through the noise. Cold dread washes over me.

"They're in," whispers Sarah Chen from station three, her normally perfect black hair disheveled as she pushes wire-rimmed glasses up her nose with shaking fingers. Her face is pale in the monitor glow. "Whoever this is just breached our Level Four encryption."

I launch myself from my chair, racing to her workstation to see the breach details firsthand while my fingers dance across my tablet, pulling up network diagnostics. The display makes my stomach drop—massive data packets flowing outward from our most secure servers.

"They're not just breaking in," I say, understanding hitting me like a sledgehammer. "They're trying to steal everything."

I sprint back to my workstation, dropping into my chair as my hands move across three keyboards simultaneously, muscle memory from countless drills taking over. Left hand isolates compromised network segments. Right hand initiates emergency data purge protocols. Center keyboard frantically types commands to trace the attack's origin.

Despite twenty-six hours without sleep, my movements remain precise and controlled—the same icy focus that's made half my female staff develop hopeless crushes on me, though my cold demeanor keeps them all at arm's length.

But even as I fight the digital invasion, my brother's mission flashes through my mind. Right now, Declan should be approaching Montoya's warehouse complex with his thirty-five-man team. The timing can't be coincidental.

"Teagan, tell me you're seeing this," I call out, sweat stinging my eyes.

"Yeah, and it's worse than you think." His voice carries an edge I've rarely heard. "They're not just after our files. They're mapping our entire network architecture. Every server location, every backup, every emergency protocol we have."

Monty appears at my other shoulder, his tablet showing network intrusion patterns. Despite his stocky build and usually unflappable demeanor, exhaustion shows in the way he rubs his bloodshot eyes. "Boss, they're specifically targeting our tactical communication arrays. This is designed to blind us during field operations."

I nod grimly, watching the attack vectors spread across our systems like digital cancer. Without our surveillance feeds, Declan's team will be going in blind against an unknown number of Montoya's men.

"Sir!" One of our junior analysts, Kevin, practically screams from across the room. The young redhead's normally steady hands shake as he points at his screen. "They just accessed Quinn Technologies' employee database!"

Everything inside me goes quiet. Eliana's information. Amara's location data. Every family member's personal details.

"We're doing an emergency server shutdown!" I roar, slamming the red button that severs all external data connections. The room plunges into temporary silence as our primary systems isolate completely from the outside world.

"Time elapsed from initial breach to shutdown—one minute, eight seconds," Sarah calls out, her voice tight with stress.

Too long. The words echo in my head like a death knell. One minute, eight seconds of vulnerability that gave them access to God knows what.

"Fuck," I breathe, running my hand through my dark hair as the magnitude hits me. "They were in for over a minute. That's enough time to—"

"Caden." Teagan's voice cuts through my self-recrimination. My little brother pushes back from his workstation, fixing me with those eyes that remind me we're family first, colleagues second. "Get over it. This breach was unprecedented. You're only human, and you just stopped something that would have taken most cyber security teams hours to even identify."

I nod curtly, acknowledging his logic, because he needs to see me accept it. "You're right. We contained it as fast as humanly possible."

But it's a total lie and tastes bitter on my tongue. Deep down, my failure burns like acid. One minute, eight seconds. That's how long I failed my family—failed Aidan, failed everyone counting on me to stand between them and digital threats. Like Aidan with his fists and guns, I'm supposed to be the shield protecting our people from the invisible war raging in cyberspace.

I press my lips together, a familiar habit I've had since childhood—the way I always seal my determination before making a silent vow. I'll work harder, sleep less, push my body and mind beyond their limits if necessary. Because if anything happens to Declan, to Eliana, to any of them, it'll be because I wasn't fast enough, smart enough, vigilant enough.

That's why my shoulders stay rigid, why I keep everyone at arm's length. When you're the last line of defense, there's no room for human mistakes, for weakness—for one minute, eight seconds of failure....