Read Hour by Hour (Games & Diversions #2) for Free Online Page A

to me.”
    “I was concerned about the hack. Just like everybody else was.”
    “You’re not like everyone else.”
    He shifts his weight and I watch the muscles at his shoulders nearly bristle. He’s like a cat… no , like a lion or tiger—fraught with tension, on the cusp of striking out.
    I swallow thickly.
    “That’s where you’re wrong, Elena,” he says. “I belong in the same category as everyone else. I’m just a regular worker bee trying to protect the hive—like Chris or Foxx.”
    I scoff on a laugh. “ Regular is not a word that I’d use to describe you.”
    He hesitates. “How would you describe me?”
    Intense. Complex. Extraordinary . I sigh. “I don’t know. Just… different.”
    “Why don’t we talk another time?” He starts to walk away.
    “Why don’t you just be honest?” I yell at his back.
    He turns towards me. “Honest?”
    “ Yes ! I’d like some honesty. You familiar with the word?”
    His eyes darken menacingly, flashing an olive green and then returning to normal.
    The party lights only add to his threatening nature. He’s more foreboding in the light than he was in the absolute dark.
    He pulls up his sleeves.
    “Ok, you want honesty?”
    I pull my back straight, meeting his gaze. “Yeah, I do.”
    He steps closer, nearly bringing us chest-to-chest.
    He’s so close that I can feel the heat of him through the sweater he wears.
    But I won’t back down. I don’t move an inch… though I have to squeeze my hands into fists to keep them from shaking.
    He leans into me, his voice rumbling low.
    “Alright,” he says. “ Honestly? ”
    “ I don’t want to talk to you .
    “I’m trying to leave you alone… like you asked.
    I’m trying not to talk to you. I’m trying not to touch you.
    “Because if you keep standing there in that ‘come fuck me’ skirt, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
    He closes his eyes briefly, as if to rein in his control. He opens them again, and they are brightly blazing .
    “So, be a good girl, Elena,” he nearly snarls, “and run along .”
    His words send a tremor through me, a tingle that starts between my thighs and tumbles down towards my toes.
    His voice has a velvety rasp—like sandpaper under silk. It’s deep, yet grating. As if the need inside him is strangling each word.
    His eyes flicker to my bare legs, and I’m suddenly hyper-aware of them—suddenly cognizant of the smooth, shaved skin below my skirt that seemed so innocent just a moment ago.
    I now see them as Lukas must see them.
    As dangerous.
    As silky and naked temptations that were wrapped firmly around his head just a few short weeks ago.
    Fuck, I should’ve worn pants.
    I should walk away. He’s given me an opening to turn on my heel and head in the opposite direction.
    To remove myself from this situation before it escalates.
    But I still don’t have any answers. We’re getting too far off topic, and all of a sudden, I can’t remember what my initial question even was.
    He’s distracting me from the matter at hand, and it’s pissing me off. I stand my ground, defying him.
    “I’ve got news for you,” I condescend. “I’ve never been a good girl.”
    His dark brows lower, turning his bright eyes into slits. I feel a bead of sweat run down my neck as a lock of Lukas’s dark hair falls forward.
    I’m provoking him—I know it. But my curiosity won’t let me stop.
    What will he do? How will he react?
    Right now, he is a caged animal, prickling in its confines, and I’m an inquisitive child, rattling the bars, poking between the open spaces.
    Will he bite?
    God help me, I sure as hell want him to.
    But the bite doesn’t come. Instead, Lukas pushes his body into mine, causing me to walk backwards.
    He backs me into Foxx’s office once again. But the light from the office laptop is not nearly enough to illuminate the way.
    I reach my hands blindly behind me and my fingers find Foxx’s office desk. I grip its edge.
    I am fucking terrified …