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He also terrified her. So much so, she knew she had to exonerate herself. This very second.
But she couldn’t.
“Look,” she said, as she attempted to balance out her mind, her emotions and her hormones. “You’re offering a simple solution. I hear you. I appreciate it, even.”
He leaned in a bit closer to her, and she felt his heat, his intensity. It stirred her senses even more.
Damen said, “We could end this now.”
“We could,” she concurred. “But I can’t give you my laptop. Understand, Damen,” she said his name intensely, compellingly. “My entire universe is on that computer. I’m a psychiatrist and the most significant breakthrough I’ve ever experienced is my own. It’s on that hard drive.”
“I’m not invading your private space, Nikki,” he averred.
“How can you even say that?”
He groaned. Dragged a hand down his face. “Okay, yes. It is hugely invasive. I will do my best to minimize that.”
“Then let me close all the windows and transfer everything that’s personal to a secure cloud—”
“I can’t do that,” he carefully insisted. He gently gripped her arm and said, “Think this through. If I granted that sort of leeway, you’d have the opportunity to erase the information I’m looking for.”
“But I wouldn’t,” she swore. “I don’t even know what this information is.”
“Nikki, come on…” He studied her closely. “You’re too smart to believe I can just accept this solution as—”
“I don’t have the information you want,” she said as more tears filled her eyes.
“Você tem certeza?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I speak Portuguese, Damen.”
“Sei sicuro?”
“And Italian.”
“Si si istý.”
“Not Slovakian.”
He grinned, though it was grim.
“I’m not some sort of international spy,” she said, “And I can’t just hand over something that represents my entire existence, that holds—”
“Nikki, goddamn it,” he swore under his breath. “You’re not a representation of what’s on that laptop. You’re…so fucking much more than that. I’ve created a dossier on you, I know what you do, I know who you are.” His jaw clenched so hard, it was a wonder it didn’t shatter. “At least…in some capacities. Listen, I won’t look at your private windows. I just need to see if the dongle is lodged in a port on your computer.”
“You know that word is really annoying, right?”
One corner of his mouth lifted in a sexy grin. “Is that your way of trying to distract me?”
“Is it working?”
“Yes. Everything about you distracts me.”
“Oh.”
Her gaze remained on his mouth. He had the most tempting lips. So perfectly proportioned. Not too thick, not too thin. Soft and inviting and—without doubt—warm and engaging.
Nikki had never thought she’d be attracted to another man again. In fact, as her whole past with Connor hung in the balance—as she was negotiating how to keep it personal and private between her and Conner—she felt the infiltration around the cracks and crevices of her psyche, her soul. Because of this new man.
