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CHAPTER1
Ethan
The elevator doors slid open near the reception desk, where a tall, stacked blonde with a headset was bent gracefully at the waist, poking at buttons on the phone console.
Regal posture. Endless legs. Amazing ass.
Wow.
I wrenched my attention back to Hugh Clemens, who was blocking the elevator door with his broad, bulky frame and shifted discreetly sideways for another glimpse of the blonde. Suddenly unable to focus on whatever Hugh was yapping about.
Hugh was easy to tune out, but I’d been more or less distracted ever since Shane’s abduction, and my little sister, Freya’s recent near-death experience hadn’t helped matters. Lately, my brain had been stuck on the setting of constantly evaluating potential threats. Filtering out what was irrelevant to survival, or else obsessing over trivial things, like the fact that Hugh’s deodorant was not working, and neither was his mouthwash.
I didn’t know Hugh Clemens that well, hadn’t seen him in years, but I bitterly regretted having agreed to this meeting. I vaguely remembered the guy had always talked too much, but today the verbal fire hose was unrelenting, and his eyes seemed to be bulging out of his head. It was only 9:28. Too early in the day for that much nervous tension. As if Hugh was scared about something. Or high, maybe. Odd.
“…opportunity to partner with such an innovative thinker! Everyone wants to be on your wavelength, you know what I mean?”
“Ah, yeah. Right,” I said. “I look forward to meeting your team.”
And to getting off the damn elevator. But Hugh was still blocking me.
“They want to grill you about the Masters Effect,” Hugh rattled on. “One of my engineers read about you inWiredand he says to me, didn’t you go to business school with that guy? Aren’t you supposed to exploit those contacts? Call him! So, I say to him, hell yeah, you are so fucking right!” Hugh planted a meaty hand over the elevator door to keep it from closing.
I let out a silent sigh. My fight-or-flight system should relax. The only danger Hugh posed to me was the very real possibility of boring me to death. Which is why I’d left my security detail outside, until after this meeting. The last thing I wanted to do was explain my complicated corporate security issues to a bloviating gasbag like Hugh Clemens.
“…just need to make a quick stop here, so I can tell the girl to forward my messages down to the conference room on the eleventhfloor,” Hugh said. “And I need to run into my office to pick up the project specs. Why don’t you just go on down to the eleventh floor right now? I’ll tell Mitch and Follett to meet you when you get off the elevator and they can take you to the conference room and start showing you the plans.”
Yes. Please. A moment alone. Beautiful idea.“Sure, no problem.”
Hugh headed into the reception area, and a burbling sound hit my ears. It was a fake waterfall pattering into a mosaic tile pool, competing with the buzzy hum of the pump that cycled the water.
Then I caught the blonde’s scent, wafting over to me. It wiped my brain as if I’d been tased.
I acted on raw impulse. Stuck out my hand, blocked the elevator door an instant before it closed, and followed Hugh back out into the reception area.
Hugh looked baffled, and alarmed. “Ethan? Hey. You were going on down to the conference room, right? I was just calling Mitch to meet you down there. Uh…Ethan?”
That scent. It pulled me. Sweet, but subtle. No perfume, just shower soap and shampoo and warm, nameless female pheromones that pumped primitive awareness through my body.
Whoa.Lust, mixed with my current whacked-out hyper-vigilance, was a wild combination. I was staring at her. Blatantly. Hungrily. Like a fucking caveman.
Stop that shit. Act civilized. Come on. Seize control, bonehead.
She was long and lithe and strong-looking. Crisp white blouse and snug wool skirt, cut to fit her fantastic curves. Thick, straight hair, chopped off jaggedly below the chin. Minimal makeup, which left her skin smooth and glowing. Full, soft pink mouth. Her blue-green eyes had long, sooty lashes. Straight, well-defined dark brows.
I shifted my briefcase to the other hand to discreetly mask the effect she was having on my body, and stood there at a loss. Belatedly remembering I’d agreed to go somewhere, do something. With Hugh, ahead of Hugh, what had I said I would do?
Fuck it. Not now.
Not yet.
CHAPTER2
Kat
I’d had a strange feeling about this gig from the start. I’d pulled some really spectacular duds as an office temp in my time, but never one like this. From the moment the office manager got all sphincter-mouthed and tense when I asked about a closet for my coat and a fridge to stow my plastic tub of leftovers-for-lunch, I’d been uneasy.
No, the woman had said, all snippy-like,“Keep your things under your desk.”
