Synthetic Dreams by Kim Knox Page B

The man who was risking security with his deal is…gone. He caught the agents, can hold them until their bodies wither. He could do the same here.”

    “He wants to break something in the Corporation. I don’t know what. But a senior security officer and a rival CEO? It could bring it all down.” Paul stood at her shoulder. “The event will be witnessed by both boards. Maybe that’s what he wants.”
    “You’ve attended here before.”
    “Once or twice.”
    A wry smile cut over her mouth. “You’re very high-level security, aren’t you Paul?”
    “Yes, I was.”
    Vyn glanced at him. The soft light from the ceiling lit gold in his eyes. She wanted to survive this and she wanted him at her side, but the knot in her stomach didn’t believe they could survive. Ossian was playing them from every angle. And the Tydeus Group would most certainly have claws in the security, claws in her. Ones she couldn’t begin to suspect because Lucas had been selling off information. Rescuing Liam had given her a stupid burst of overconfidence. It was a little late for that reality to hit.
    “So he wants the Tydeus people to see a senior security officer take out their CEO.” She frowned at the realisation that protocols existed in the Mind for just that action. “And you already have permission to do it.”
    Paul nodded. He gave a quick wave of his fingers and a personal opaque screen shimmered before him. His fingers moved quickly, tapping out information before another wave closed it.
    Vyn lifted an eyebrow.
    “I’m dumping my houses, my Goodman stock. I don’t want to be sucked into the implosion.” He gave her a hard smile in return. “I like being rich.”
    She let out a laugh. “Always prepared, aren’t you?”
    “Yes, I am.”
    Vyn paused. Her heart hitched up, beating too hard, her skin itching. It had nothing to do with the simulacrum. Goodman was a perfect fit. She turned to face Paul. Fear burned hot. He’d prepared for a future. But he knew as well as she did how completely fucked their situation was. Her shoulders dropped. “We’re not getting out of his alive, are we?”
    “Honestly?” He held her gaze, calm and resolved. “No.”
    “Then I have to do this.”
    Her hand framed his jaw and she leaned in, covering his mouth with hers. He didn’t resist. Even as her own palm felt large and thick on his cheek, the pads of her fingers too smooth. As a stranger’s tongue slid over the hard line of his teeth and the rasp of her bristled jaw and chin met his. Paul tasted the same. Delicious, hot, and the incredible pleasure of something so simply him sank through her flesh.
    Her suddenly hard and painfully aroused dick jerked her back. She froze and her face flushed. The simulacrum of Lucas worked too well.
    Paul wiped his mouth, a slow deliberate action, and closed his eyes. “I may have nightmares for the rest of my short life.”
    “Paul…”
    “Vyn.” A soft laugh escaped him. “It’s fine.” He straightened her tie and brushed a quick hand over the shoulders of her jacket. “Ready?”
    She pulled in a breath, still tasting him on her lips and tongue, mixed with Goodman’s own scent. She wasn’t ready. She lied anyway. “Yes.”

    “Good. We go in, you buy me time, I enact the protocol and you try to get us out. The minute Mylonas goes down, it’s going to get fierce. They will have their own security, equal to my skills, my access.” He didn’t look at her. “And access to you.”
    “Understood.”
    “All right then.” He waved a hand at the wide doors. Hinges groaned and the doors parted. “Good luck.”
    “To us both.”
    The conference room was a vast space, open to the sky under a great curve of glass, with the sun just climbing up from the flat horizon into a cloudless dawn sky. Clean air wrapped around her, unlike any she had ever tasted, sweet and warm…
    Vyn remembered who she was and strode towards the knot of people on the far side of the open room. The simulacrum of