AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I hate that you’re afraid of me,” Eleanor said.
He couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not afraid of you, Butterfly.”
“Hey, I can be scary. I have a pocketknife, and I never shut up. One of those things always scares men away.”
“It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me,” Wes said. “It’s my lack of control that scares me.”
Eleanor stared at him. “You really wanna fuck me, huh?”
“Yeah, I really do,” he said. “C’mon, let’s get in the house. I have a guest bedroom you can use.”
He opened the car door and stepped out, first inhaling deeply and then scanning the darkness for any sign of the man who’d attacked Eleanor earlier. There was no sign or smell of him, and Wes grabbed their bags from the trunk. Eleanor followed him up the sidewalk, and he unlocked the door and ushered her inside.
She toed off her shoes as he set their bags down and flipped on the lights. She walked down the narrow hallway that opened up into the living room and kitchen. “This is lovely, Wes. I like open-concept homes.”
“Thanks,” he said. “The living space and kitchen used to be separate, but me and Boone tore down the wall a few years ago when we remodeled the kitchen.”
“Ooh, I love me a handy guy,” she said. “You should give me Boone’s number.”
The growl slipped out before he could stop it, and she grinned teasingly at him. “Kidding, big guy. You know you’re the only handyman I want to fuck.”
His purring was so loud, it was embarrassing. But it made the pinched look disappear from Eleanor’s face, so it was worth it.
“Do you have a laptop I can borrow?” Eleanor said. “I want to see what’s on the flash drive.”
“Yes, but we can check it in the morning if you’re too tired,” Wes said.
“I’d rather look at it now. If I don’t, I’ll just lie awake all night wondering what’s on it.”
“Okay. Follow me.” Wes headed down the hallway just off the kitchen, opening the first door on the left.
“Combination office and workout room. I like it,” Eleanor said as she studied the bookshelf stuffed full of books and the small desk on the right side of the room. The left side had a heavy bag hung from the ceiling, a small rack of free weights, and an exercise bike.
“Thanks,” Wes said as he opened the laptop sitting on the desk. He punched in his password and pulled out the chair. “All yours.”
“Thank you.” She sank into the chair and plugged the flash drive into the computer before glancing at the bookshelf. “I read a lot too. Almost two books a week.”
“My record is five books in three days,” Wes said.
“Show off,” she said with a grin before turning back to the computer screen. “Okay, let’s see what this is.”
She opened up the flash drive folder. There was a single pdf document labeled with her father’s name, and she double-clicked the document. “Man, I hope you have a good virus protection program. My dad doesn’t seem like the type to infect a document with a virus, but I don’t know him that well. Or maybe a computer virus is what they’re after. Maybe this thing is going to, like, take down the city’s power grid through your computer or -”
She closed her mouth with a snap and said, “Sorry, Wes.”
“For what?” he said.
“I’m yammering away like I always do.”
“I don’t mind,” he said.
She studied him. “You actually don’t. Do you?”
Before he could reply, the document opened. He leaned over her shoulder to study it, his lion purring happily at Eleanor’s scent and the light touch of her shoulder against his chest.
They looked at the document in silence for a few minutes before Eleanor stared up at him. “It’s a formula, right?”
“Yes, I think so,” he said.
