Apollo (Luna Lodge #5)(8)

"Ha!" she cried out in victory.

She had been at it for nearly an hour now. At first, having the large man watch from below had been a little unsettling, but after time, they fell into a sort of comfortable silence. He wasn't a bad man. Maybe a bit of a dick, and he needed to keep his hormones in check, but that didn't really change the root of his character.

She didn't even need to check the feelings she got around him. It was more what he did with those feelings. She knew of his attraction to her. It wasn't her first time dealing with it. And maybe she was slightly attracted to him as well. Or at least she was interested in the object that had started to grow below the waistline.

Still, she didn't have time for that. Like earlier, it was best to keep those sort of ideas out of her head.

Val glanced down at him. He sat off to the side, just out of the direct wind. It was damn cold out. That was likely why she was having so much trouble getting the bolts off. It was either that or some massive man had decided to use super-human strength to put them on. She looked back down at Apollo again and shook her head.

No, if they had used one of their own to put them on, they would have just used that person again.

The camera moved forward, and she stared at the wiring on the back of it.

"Son of a bitch."

"You curse a lot," Apollo said from the ground.

She glared down at him.

"Well, you would too if you knew what I was looking at." She held the camera's wires out for him to look. "Whatever jackass wired this place did a piss poor job. You see this?" She pointed to the large black wire. "Wrong wire for this system. I'll have to rewire the whole thing to start with." 

She shoved the camera hard against the wall and screwed the bolts back into place. Although she was hoping there would be enough that she'd need to work for a few days, this was far more work than she had anticipated. Even if she worked every waking second, it was going to take time. Serious time.

"So what are you saying?" Apollo cut into her thoughts and voiced the very thing she was thinking.

"Well … " She turned and made her way down the ladder. It bounced a little against the wall it leaned against, but she wasn't bothered. Just another day on the job.

Val gasped just a few rungs from the ground when strong hands wrapped around her waist. She took in deep breaths as she tried to steady herself. Her feet touched the ground, and she quickly turned around. This position was almost worse. Face to face with a wall full of chest.

Her face was so close to him that she could smell the spicy soap he used, and it nearly intoxicated her. Val followed his hard expanse up. Were they all this large? She hadn't gone far into the complex, and the only other men she'd seen were one hundred percent human.

Apollo was easily the biggest man she'd ever met. He was certainly the handsomest.

Her eyes landed on his tanned neck, and she watched as his throat bobbed while he swallowed. Involuntarily, she swallowed as well. Suddenly, her mouth was far drier than she remembered.

"I … " She stumbled over her own words. Thanks was at the tip of her tongue, but she froze when her eyes met his. Bright amber, it was hard to see anything else. Something about the look of them froze whatever words she might have inside.

A noise at the gate broke the moment, and she quickly moved away.

"What was that?" she asked.

Apollo looked over his shoulder and down the road.

"Protesters," he said and frowned.

She watched as his jaw twitched and started to worry. If the people in the town were any indication what kind of trouble was outside the gate, then it was no wonder the hybrids wanted to rewire the cameras.

"Should I be worried?"

He turned and held her gaze but didn't say anything. She almost liked it more when he was being a smart ass with her. Tension and concern radiated from him now.

"We should finish up here," he said and nodded to the camera.

Val looked away, grateful for the chance to not have to stare up into those eyes. She wiped her hands on her pants and shook her head.

"That's it for the initial inspection," she said. "Now we talk time and numbers."

Apollo frowned. It was clear by the look on his face and the irritation emanating from him that he was expecting it to be easy. Hell, everyone that hired her expected that. She couldn't help it if her work required more than her clients expected. For some reason, there was this idea that all she needed to do was flip a few switches, and like magic, things would work.

"What do you mean time?" He stared holes into her as she grabbed her tools from the ground.

"Likely two weeks," she said. "I'm about an hour away, but I can make it work."

He was shaking his head before the words were even out of her mouth. "That's not going to work."