Encryption of the Heart (Love, Tech, & Magic #1)

Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

They took their time with the passcodes, neither wanting to risk entering the wrong element in case that sent an alert to Etzel. Which meant that, frequently, they took breaks so Casimir could focus and put himself in the mindset of Etzel. Every time he had to stop and consider what cruel, inside joke Etzel would have for each of the people he enslaved, a bit of the light went out of Casimir’s red eyes.

She wished she had a password hacking program, or that her magic could somehow crawl through the wires to dismantle the passwords from within. But her skill and magic could not help in this instance. Each time she watched Casimir struggle to return to himself after another knot twisted in her belly.

Olline tried her best to distract him with pleasanter things in those moments, stories about Lochan and Goswin, and what an adorably odd pair they made. Or little anecdotes about Darrin and her father and how Darrin desperately wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps in literally everything—from where he worked to even how her father dressed. Casimir would smile, ask what her brothers and father did for a living, even chuckle over Goswin’s dry humor. Sadly, those stories were only effective and grounding for so long.

They were, perhaps, a quarter of the way through when Casimir squinted at the screen. He mumbled the file name quietly to himself, then shook his head and shot to his feet.

She watched him from where she sat on the couch, her feet tucked under her as she worked on writing the code for the clone program. It was something to keep her hands and mind busy, to keep her from feeling too helpless while Casimir tortured his mind. He raised his arms over his head, stretching and curving, easing the tension in his arms and back.

His form fitting shirt rose a fraction with the action, showing the irresistible muscle that peeked just above the belt line of his pants. His muscles were taut, his skin so smooth that Olline had the sudden urge to run her fingers over every contour, curious to see what kind of touch would make a man like Casimir squirm.

Olline sucked in a breath, startled by the thought and the delicious, tingling warmth it had spreading out from her core. Get a grip, Olline. It hasn’t been that long since you touched someone. The man has been through enough without you ogling him.

And yet, Olline couldn’t help herself.

Despite what he had gone through, Casimir was still so magnetic, a powerful allure born from assurance. Confidence in his appearance, in his skills, in himself. Olline suspected, whether or not Casimir was aware, that it was those qualities more than his connections that put him in Etzel’s crosshairs. It was the quality that, the longer Olline remained in his path, pulled her closer and closer. It was an attraction, no, a distraction, she couldn’t afford, and that was before she found herself coiled up in a blackmail scheme.

But maybe . . .

With how Casimir flirted with her, she knew he wouldn’t be opposed to a casual fuck. Clearly, there was some mutual attraction there. But they were working together now; it changed everything. What if the sex brought them closer and then something happened? That was a complication she didn’t want again; she knew from experience.

Her gaze lingered on the muscles of his back as he twisted again. When, suddenly, there was this tug pulling at the molten core of her magic. Her attention snapped up to the base of his strong back, to the curve of his neck, where the tug was strongest. Her eyes widened as she realized it was her magic reaching out to the control chip buried in his spinal column, as if, now that she knew it was there, her subconscious activated her power. She had to stop herself from rubbing the base of her own neck in sympathy. Olline had experienced hurt and betrayal, yes, but Casimir’s reality was on a scale that went beyond comprehension. On a scale no one should ever experience.

No one should feel such lacerating anguish from someone they trusted.

“Like what you see, Tav?” Casimir said, voice low and inviting as he looked over his shoulder and caught her staring.

Her cheeks were instantly hot, her lips parting as she tried to find the words to explain her thought process and how yeah, it started as ogling, but that wasn’t why she was still staring. Or not the only reason. They didn’t have that kind of relationship—they had no kind of relationship, more aptly—so she couldn’t just explain herself. That would be mortifying .

So instead, she blurted, “I think that goes without saying. You know exactly the effect you have on people, Cas. You’re distracting me. So can you,” she waved vaguely, gesturing up and down his lean body, “stop doing whatever that is.”

He chuckled, low and deep, like his whole chest was rumbling with a pleasure he was trying to contain. Then, abruptly, he stopped. Raising a brow, he turned to give her every ounce of his attention. “Cas, huh?”

A scorching heat filled her, and her mouth was suddenly dry. Olline was too breathless to answer. Too late, she realized she had given him a nickname. That was too intimate, wasn’t it? Too casual for what this was? Which was nothing. Absolutely nothing and it would stay that way. She was a professional, dammit.

He stalked closer to her, sinking to his knees at her side, close enough for her skin to prickle with the warmth. His enticing scent of eucalyptus and lavender tickled her nose, and she had to fight the urge to close her eyes and inhale, savor his heat. This was neither the time nor the place—for either of them.

Olline’s tongue felt heavy in her mouth, but she couldn’t take the way he was looking at her with that burning gaze. “If you’re going to call me Tav, or Ollie, I reserve the right to call you Cas,” she answered, her words wobbly as she tried to sound playful. But then she remembered who she was talking to and her heart sank. “Unless you don’t like the name?” Olline stammered, her breathing becoming rushed. “I should have asked. If you don’t like it, or don’t want a nickname, that’s okay! I just thought—” she cut herself off, noting the way his smile changed while she stammered through her apology.

His smile started slowly, but it grew until his pale skin was flushed. He moved even closer, so close to touching, and yet there was that made Olline’s chest and joints ache. Electricity crackled between them. How did he not feel that? Or was he just messing with her for fun? Was she going crazy?

Probably. That seemed the safest explanation.

“You’re sweet, Ollie,” he said, his mouth parting ever so slightly, and Olline wanted nothing more than to rub her thumb over his full, lower lip.

“And brilliant. Not enough people mention that about me,” she said, losing her inhibitions. And she hadn’t even had anything to drink! She licked her lips, trying to get control but failing miserably. Maybe she didn’t want control to begin with. Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to fuck and get it out of her system . . .

“Well, they should. You’re absolutely magnificent, my dear.” He let his words hang in the air. His eyes flicked to her lips, before he leaned back a breath. Olline already felt a chill without him near, and reminded herself that sleeping with a coworker was a very bad, no-good idea. “Don’t worry, you can call me Cas if you wish. It’s nice you wanted my consent to something so trivial, Tav, but don’t worry about it.”

Her brows pinched together, her mouth falling slightly, hurt that he could even say something like that about himself. As suddenly as it had washed over her, the fiery desire that had her nearly feverish was gone, replaced with a yearning to hold him and throttle Etzel.

“Consent is never trivial.” This time, she did reach out and put her hand over his. She felt his hand stiffen beneath hers for a fraction of a moment before he relaxed. Casimir glanced away briefly before his gaze landed on her fingers, then trailed up to her eyes, as if he couldn’t look away for long. “Your consent matters to me. It will always matter. You never deserved to have it taken away, Cas, okay?”

His face adopted that mask of stoicism again, and Olline desperately wished he hadn’t buried whatever emotion he didn’t want her to notice. His nostrils flared, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed, before abruptly shaking his head. That coy smirk of his returned, and Olline would have given almost anything to bring back that glowing smile from before. “You didn’t know who I was before the control chip. Perhaps I deserved all that came after.”

“You didn’t deserve it, period,” she said without hesitation, emphasizing every word. “No one does.” It was then she noticed she was still gripping his hand, noticed that he was holding hers in return. His gaze remained fixed on her. Something about having Casimir’s complete attention made her dizzy, made her wonder what it would be like to truly have him all to herself.

She sucked in a breath, forcing air into lungs that wouldn’t fill properly in a chest that felt suddenly too tight. He seemed to do that to her a lot, and she wished she minded more. She cleared her throat, moving her hand back to her holo-keyboard with more effort than the action should have required. “Ready to keep going?”

Slowly, Casimir turned his attention back to the holo-screens in front of them. He frowned at the blinking curser that waited for them to input the next password. He sucked in a deep breath, shutting his eyes for a moment, then shook his head slightly. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s incredibly late. We should take a break.”

Panic had her eyes going wide. “We can’t! There’s still too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I’ve no way to tell if new commands have been issued to you, or any of the other chips. What if Etzel is already on to us?”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re an absolute workaholic. Has anyone ever told you that?” She frowned at him, and he sighed. He tapped something into his wrist-comm and a moment later, a live feed of the committee meeting blinked in front of her. “Until now,” Casimir explained, “all the people Etzel was meeting with were in discussions. From the commentary, the discussions weren’t going terribly well, keeping every ounce of the Under Senator’s attention on those talks. Now,” and he pointed to an imposing seersha with cedar-colored horns and flashing yellow diamond eyes, “Etzel is not preoccupied with those discussions. We shouldn’t risk poking into a system he can pay attention to now.”

Casimir’s words reminded her they were now down one more day, creeping closer and closer to when Etzel would return to the Government Plaza. Her chest constricted as if there was a vice around her ribs, slowly crushing them. But the smile he gave her at seeing her reaction . . . It was so tender it hurt just as much. “You’ve given me my freedom already, no matter how fleeting. You’ve given me a gift, even if you didn’t know it at the time. I won’t forget that. So let me thank you, truly, while I have the freedom to do so.”

“But I can keep working,” she said, reaching for her holo-keyboard again.

He snatched at her hand, catching her wrist before she could even blink. She sucked in a breath. But Casimir didn’t seem aware of his reflexes. His eyes were wide, linen white skin pallid with panic. A second later, he dropped her wrist, gave his head a slight shake, and forced a mirthless chuckle. “My apologies, my dear.” He cleared his throat and stood up. “I’d really rather not take the risk, and besides, I did promise to do better after taking you to that garden. Please. Let’s stop for the night. Let me treat you properly.”

Olline eyed him suspiciously for a moment. The paranoia she could understand. But the pleading to take her out again? Why do that now rather than get a good night’s rest instead? But Lochan and her father and even Goswin’s words tickled through her mind again and she no longer felt like arguing.

In truth, she wanted more time for her and Casimir. More time to figure out if the desire was simply that or something . . . more. “There’s more I can do to protect you. To safeguard everyone else trapped under their chips’ influence.” But her words held little of the conviction she had earlier in the day.

“Running yourself to the bone won’t help. We both need to approach this with clear and fresh minds.” When she still didn’t immediately shut her devices down, he gently started doing it for her. “It’s like you said, too much is at stake for us not to be careful and meticulous. We can’t afford mistakes. Working all night and then doing it again in the morning? It’s a guaranteed way to ensure a mistake happens.” With her devices powered down, he reached a hand down to help her up. Olline merely stared at his open palm.

Her mind flashed back to Brayden appearing at her office door because of her decryption program and a lump lodged itself in her throat. Casimir was right, even if she hated to admit it.

Swallowing to ease the tension constricting her throat, Olline took Casimir’s hand, ignored how it wrapped around her own with a tenderness that felt as natural as breathing, and let him pull her to her feet. “Maybe you’re right,” she admitted reluctantly. “And I’m kind of curious to see the effort you’ll put into showing me other places in Antal that’ll top the garden.”

His flirtatious smirk turned a bit more sincere with his excitement, and she couldn’t help but grin back at him. “Show me one amazing thing,” Olline declared. “We shouldn’t stay out late. There’s a lot to do tomorrow, but you have a point. A little break wouldn’t be too bad, right?”

He tugged her toward the door, mischief dancing in his eyes. “You’d be surprised how productive a little fun can be, Ollie.”