Chapter Reveal: Sexy Liar
Hi Lovelies!
We’re only 7 days away from the release of the first book in the Dirty Hacker duet, Sexy Liar! Remember the hacker, Alex from Dirty Little Secrets? This is her story. Yah!!
Today I’m super pumped to share Sexy Liar’s first chapter! I LOVED Alex while writing Dirty Little Secrets, and I had so much writing her and Rowan’s thrilling story. If you love suspense weaved into H-O-T romance, this duet is for you!
I hope you’re all enjoying your summer. August 6th will be here before we know it! And don’t forget, the conclusion of the duet, Risky Love is out August 20th!!
Ready to meet Alex and Rowan? Keep on scrolling ↓
From USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy comes a brand new romantic suspense duet, featuring a brilliant hacker with trust issues bigger than the deep web, a CIA agent who loves a challenge, and enough heat between the two of them to melt your hardware.
Five years ago, hacker Alex McCoy had a hot-as-hell week in Paris with a CIA agent she was teamed up with, before a final night that neither of them would call their finest hour. Now, Alex’s life is spent hunting down classified information behind her screen and working too many hours to count. She’s miles past burnout and has decided to escape to New York City for a much-needed vacation.
CIA Agent Rowan Hawke never thought he’d see Alex again after his “midnight tiptoe” on their last evening together in Paris. But his sister has been abducted and he’s desperate for the help of the best hacker he’s ever met, especially when he finds out she’s in New York. Hoping to use all his previous skills of seduction to get her assistance, Rowan isn’t prepared for the immediate sizzle that springs back to life between them. Lost in the moment, he takes what he wants—Alex’s lush body bending to his will.
But when the lust is sedated between them and he admits he purposely scouted her to help him find his sister, he’ll need more than charm to win over the mistrustful hacker. He’ll need the truth. As the case becomes increasingly dangerous, the stakes ratchet up alongside the heat between Rowan and Alex. But when Alex discovers a link between the killer and the FBI, she must decide if she can trust Rowan to protect her or if he’s the man her heart needs protection from.
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READ CHAPTER 1 NOW!!
On the crisp autumn night in the heart of Manhattan, Rowan had a new assignment: Secure his target—former lover, Alex McCoy—to help catch New York City’s latest serial killer, recently coined by the media the Casanova Sadist. Of all the assignments he’d taken since the last time he saw her, this one filled him with the most dread.
When he arrived at the Cool Cat’s Piano Bar in New York City’s Theater District a little after nine o’clock at night, he noted how the jet-black walls, the cushy booths, and crystal chandeliers set the mood of older, classier times. Alex sat at the bar, drinking a martini. Her long dark hair flowed down her back over her black leather jacket, her tight ass in her blue jeans drawing his attention. He’d remembered that body, every spectacular inch of her.
He never expected to work with her again. Let alone see her again.
Five years had gone by since they had spent that week together in Paris. Five years since he’d smelled the captivating spring-like scent that belonged only to her. An aroma that had a slight similarity to when the sun came out after it rained. Five years since she set those gorgeous intelligent amber eyes of hers on him. Five years since the unexplainable passion burning between them made him hard in a single breath. And five years since he’d told himself not to go to San Francisco to apologize for running out on her, when he very well knew she’d begun to care for him. Alex had been his biggest regret. The only woman he thought about after he left her. Maybe because she’d had a hold on him too.
He moved closer, the chatter from the busy bar brushing over him. While Alex still worked for Blackwood Security in San Francisco, she’d come to New York City for a vacation, which put her on his radar. He learned through the CIA’s undercover New York location where he’d been earlier today that she’d landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Alex was one of the best hackers out there. When she moved, the CIA kept a close eye on her, and her arriving in New York City set off alarms throughout the CIA. But the second he heard she was in town, he knew she could help him crack this case.
Only problem?
He’d run out on her without a word.
The man at the piano on stage played a soft, sensual song, setting the right mood for what exactly Rowan needed to do. He could manipulate easily. That was his job, and he needed to get her back on his side before asking for her help. Alex was smart. He knew he needed to tread lightly when he slid on the stool next to her. “Whiskey on the rocks,” he said to the bartender.
He noted the hitch of Alex’s breath before he caught the surprise in her wide eyes, which she controlled in an instant. Her gaze lingered on his mouth long enough to let him know she hadn’t forgotten him—or the sensual pull they shared—either. A bonus for him, making this seduction easier.
“You know I don’t believe in coincidences,” she finally said.
Rowan didn’t either. He also didn’t believe in lasting love. He trusted no one, and most times people around him got killed, which didn’t lend itself well to long-term relationships. But lust was real, and that red-hot sexual energy still pulsed between him and Alex, almost so tangible he could taste it in the air. “Yes, I do know that about you.”
She didn’t even miss a beat, glancing down at her drink in her hands. “How did you know I was here?”
“Your arrival at JFK raised alarms.”
Alex snorted. “Are you here to check up on me, then?”
The bartender placed his drink down in front of him. He nodded his thanks and left a ten-dollar bill on the bar then lifted his glass to Alex. “I can certainly think of better things to do than check up on you, can’t you?”
Instant heat flared in her eyes in the same way it had five years ago. Rowan wanted desperately to drink it in. And that had nothing to do with the reasons that brought him there tonight.
But that heat also made his job easier. He’d play on that desire, getting her to reconnect and forget that he’d left her once. She had no reason to help him. Christ, she had no reason to talk to him. He had to give her one. So he’d come up with a plan: seduce her, earn her forgiveness, find the killer.
Rowan lifted his glass. “To old times.”
She clinked his glass with a sexy smile. “To old times.”
They hadn’t stayed for a second drink.
An Uber ride later, and with heat burning in the air between them, Rowan followed Alex through the hallway of Langdon Bridge, the swankiest hotel in New York City where Alex had checked into. “Nice place,” he said, entering the room after her.
She shut the door behind him and then locked it. “I’m supposed to be pampering myself on vacation.”
He couldn’t help himself, and a grin tugged on his mouth. “I promise you’ll be pampered tonight, McCoy.”
She returned the grin, though her smile dripped with lust. “Classy, Hawke.”
“Always.” He took in the lavish modern suite, finding they stood in a small living room, while she strode by him and dropped the key card on the table by the door. The bedroom was in the next room with double doors and a large king-size bed with a white duvet. Obviously, her boss paid her well, as he should. Good—honest—hackers were hard to find. Rowan began to glance over at her, when he caught sight of her laptop sitting on the coffee table near the large row of windows by the wingback chairs. A laptop that he knew she could do things with that nearly no one else could do. There was no place that Alex could not get into. No person she could not find.
That’s why he needed her. He sought answers about the Casanova Sadist that no one had been able to give him. A killer that he’d been hunting for weeks now. A killer that had taken the lives of five women, leaving their naked bodies bound and displayed like they were a disturbing piece of art. A killer that still had three more women in his grips.
But first, he needed Alex on his side. He needed for her to want to help him, instead of flipping him off and telling him to find someone else. Which was exactly what he deserved.
Determined to reconnect and put his plan into action, he yanked her lithe body up against his and ravished her with his mouth, pleased when she kissed him back with equal fervor.
But soon that wasn’t enough. He needed…more.
With every bit of clothing he removed from her body, he knew the deeper he was getting himself in this. Touching her reminded him of the exact reasons he’d run. She felt too good…too real…too dangerous. But there was no turning back now, not with lives on the line.
He lived his life in the shadows. He’d spent so much time pretending to be other people to catch criminals, he couldn’t even remember the man he was meant to be. Until Alex. And that rich sensation of home that she pulled out of him would not wait. He wanted her. Every goddamn perfect inch of her.
With each kiss, her mouth molded to his. Her body bent to his will, reacting to every one of his touches, urging him on like a drug he couldn’t get enough of. He wanted her like he hadn’t wanted anything for a long time. She tasted sweet and yet sinful, and he ached to drink her in. Every brush of her lips, swirl of her tongue, only made him thirstier. She held his T-shirt tight, yanking him closer, until she removed his shirt and then pushed him away a moment with a gasp.
He met her lust-filled eyes, and his cock pressed painfully against the zipper of his jeans. “Still so dangerously sexy, I see,” he told her huskily.
She licked her lips. “Likewise, Hawke.”
His muscles felt rigid beneath his skin as he scanned over her creamy flesh to her black lace bra covering a perfect handful of breasts.
“Don’t get any ideas about this,” she said, drawing his focus back to her face. She kicked off her red high heels. “We’ve got tonight, then you forget me again.”
That seemed to be their thing. When someone saw the darkness that lurked beneath people’s skin, that’s all they saw. Trust came hard after that. “I’ll take tonight.” He stalked toward her. His target. “But you won’t get any agreement from me that I won’t want more or that I’ll forget you.”
When he reached her, he grasped her hip. She gasped when he yanked her against him, her face flushing beautifully. He pinned her arms behind her, dropping his head into her neck, inhaling the sweetness of her flowery perfume. He kissed at her flesh roughly, encouraged by the unleashed moan she gave. Hot and hard and ready to give them both a release, he backed her up against the wall. She draped her leg across his thigh, and he took that as an invitation. He ground his throbbing cock against the junction between her thighs, moving his mouth to hers again. Then he devoured her.
Every moan, he drank in.
Each one of her shivers, he owned.
Desperate to have her, he leaned away to drag his fingers over the curve of her breasts and damn near salivated. “Exquisite,” he murmured.
“No, Hawke,” she said, and he lifted his gaze up to her smoldering eyes as she took his hand and placed it between her thighs. “In case you forgot, here is where I’m really exquisite.”
He felt her heat through the denim, and he grinned at the challenge, not minding a little power play between them. He could always give the illusion of control, knowing in the end, he’d always get it back. He flicked the button of her jeans open then yanked them down to below her ass. With his free hand, he slid his fingers into the soft strands of her hair, until he held her tight, right where he wanted her. When he fisted his fingers, her hooded eyes met his. Only then did he slide his other hand into the front of her panties. He met trimmed pubic hair and a soaking wet sex. “I’ve never forgotten, Alex. Not a single thing.” Her taste, her smell, how beautiful she looked when she fell apart, all of it had remained cemented in his mind. He stroked the silkiness of her folds, bringing her arousal to her clit where he circled the bud.
She moaned, her eyes fluttering, as she dropped her head back against the wall. “Don’t stop.”
He leaned in, bringing his mouth close to hers, tasting the passion in the air between them. “Tell me what you want,” he ordered, nipping at her jawline.
She opened her rich, seductive eyes. “Make me come, Rowan.”
His muscles quivered at his name on her tongue. A tongue he wanted back in his mouth and then later on his cock. But it was the heady lust in the single word that drove him to give her what she wanted. He easily inserted one finger into her drenched heat and then another.
Her eyes fluttered. “Fuck yes…”
Captivated by how sensual and free she was, he tightened his fingers in her hair, seeing the swell of desire rushing across her face. Needing to get his cock where his fingers were, he didn’t drag this out. He settled his fingers in deep, played with a few different moves to learn her tells again, and then he quickly found his rhythm. He thrust his fingers fast and hard, working her pleasure until he had full control of her body.
Then he went even harder.
It didn’t take long for her to break apart around him after that. Her breath hitched, muscles tightened, and her expression pinched. For a single moment in time, she hung, suspended on the highest peak of pleasure before she screamed his name and shuddered, coming beautifully against his fingers until the only thing helping her stand was his hand in her hair and his fingers deep in her quivering sex.
Lost in her all the same, he gave her the minute she needed to recover.
When she finally reopened her eyes, giving him a sexy smile, he withdrew his hand from her panties.
“Your turn.” She pressed against his chest, sending him walking backward until she had him in the bedroom. When his legs met the bed, he sat, and she pushed harder until he was lying down. “But first, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“I don’t need a surprise.” He leaned up on one arm. “I want you.” Her cheeks flushed pink and her mouth parted. He remembered how much he liked that turned-on look on her. “Get over here.”
Her smile was pure temptation. “You’ll like the surprise. Promise.” She turned away before he could object again.
He glanced down at his painfully hard erection pressing against the zipper of his jeans while she retreated to the bathroom just off to the right. He anticipated the wet tightness of her sex, hearing those moans she gave get louder.
When the bathroom door finally clicked open again, he found her looking like an succubus in her black lingerie for all the control she wielded over him. He would have given her anything right then as long as she let him have her. She leaned against the doorframe and gave him a devilish smile. “So, Rowan, I’ve got a question for you.”
“Anything, luv.”
She stepped away from the door, and suddenly, he was staring down the barrel of the gun as she said, “What do you want from me?”
And just like that, he realized—more than a little annoyingly—he’d been expertly played. Not only was she smart enough to know he had a motive for sitting next to her in the bar, but she was smart enough to get an orgasm out of him before she called him out. “You don’t want to do this,” he warned.
She smiled again. This time, her smile was deadly.
In that very second, he lurched forward, and in the same moment, he watched her finger squeeze the trigger.