Without a word, he slipped his arms under her and lifted her off the mattress. She squawked in surprise but relaxed in his grasp when she realized how erotic it was to have the wiry strength of him supporting her while their naked bodies touched in interesting ways.
It was a short experience since he simply walked around to the other side so he could reverse her position and deposit her on the bed again. He nudged her over and lay down beside her, his weight compressing the mattress as he pulled the covers up over both of them.
She braced to fight the clutch of panic when he came up on his elbow and loomed over her to press a kiss on her mouth, but the mild flutter in her chest was banished by the warmth of his lips on hers. He looked down at her. “You are one amazing lady.”
His eyes held admiration and heat. His voice brushed over her like velvet. His words she discounted because he’d just had an orgasm. “Thank you,” she said nonetheless. “I think we were mutually amazing.”
He laughed, a deep rumble in his throat. “It does take two to generate that level of mind-bending pleasure.”
Mind-bending. She liked that because his brain was so powerful. It was saying something that she’d bent it.
He kissed her again, a soft, tender exploration. She answered it with the same slow, mellow mood. They hadn’t had the patience for this earlier. She nibbled along the strong line of his jaw, feeling the scruff of his late-night beard against her lips.
He touched his forehead to hers with a rueful sigh. “Darlin’, I wish I could keep this up but I have to get some sleep. I’m not in the same peak condition you are.”
“If I keep training you, you will be,” she teased.
“Which kind of training are you talking about?” His smile was slow and sexy.
“Whatever kind motivates you.”
“How about you not wearing any clothes while you train me? That would get my heart rate skyrocketing.”
“I’ll have to ask Ramón if he’ll allow that.”
He laughed and lay down fully, snaking his arm around her waist to spoon her up against him. She no longer worried that she would react badly, even when he tucked his hand under her hip, its weight caging her to keep her pressed back against his hard, hot body. She reveled in the solidity of his chest and thighs against her back and legs, the way his cock nuzzled against her buttocks, and the whiffle of his breath across her hair.
His breathing deepened and slowed while his arm relaxed over her waist as he slid into sleep.
But she didn’t want the oblivion of sleep. She wanted to stay awake to the wonder of Leland’s presence enveloping her in a way that made her feel safe, not threatened.
Yet the question of why she felt that way nagged at her. Natalie had pointed out that Leland with his brains and success and confidence was more likely to trigger the opposite effect. Yes, Dawn had controlled their intimacies to a certain extent and Leland had responded to her cues—because he was a smart guy and she’d learned how to manage the situation with a certain subtlety. However, that didn’t explain her lying cradled against his big, heavy body without even a small tightening of her throat.
Maybe it was better not to delve too deeply into her reasons. There might be some emotion there that she didn’t want to acknowledge. This was supposed to be about sex with a man she had the hots for, nothing more. Smarter to keep it that way.
She shifted in response to her uncomfortable thoughts. Leland responded in his sleep, crooking his knee to rest on top of her thigh, trapping her even more thoroughly.
And she let him.
A shriek of music jolted her awake. But she couldn’t sit up because Leland was still wrapped around her, a confinement that sent a spear of fear through her not-quite-awakened brain. “What the—?” She started to shove against his weight but he was already pulling away.
He rolled out of the bed and mumbled, “Sorry, my alarm.” He found his jeans, yanked his cell phone out of the pocket, and silenced the music.
“What was that?”
“Nerd music. The original Star Trek theme.” His grin was charmingly sheepish.
She held the sheet to her chest as she pushed upright, her heart rate settling back to normal. “What time is it?”
“Midnight. I need to get back to the office.” He pulled on his briefs.
“The office?! It’s the middle of a Friday night. That’s called the weekend.”
He had his jeans zipped and buttoned. “I have an RFP due a week from today, on top of a lot of other projects.”
Guilt poked at her. She’d piled on another one, a job that didn’t pay. “Don’t worry about the gym. It’s no big deal. Vicky will get it straightened out.”
The angles of his face hardened and she saw what Natalie had warned her about. This man would always attack a challenge. “There’s something not right going on there. That can’t be ignored. I’ll be at our training session tomorrow.”
He yanked on his T-shirt and ran his fingers through his hair, which only made the bed-mussed waves stick out at different angles.
“You can use my brush,” Dawn said. “It’s on the dresser.”
“That bad?” He ducked down to check his reflection in the mirror and grabbed the brush. “Thanks for the loan.”
He collected his sneakers and socks before sitting down on the bed next to her. She scooted over to lay her cheek against his back, feeling the flex and stretch of his muscles as he tied the laces. He smelled like clean laundry, a touch of garlic from the restaurant, and sex. She turned her face to inhale more deeply.
“Are you sniffing me?” he asked, a laugh of delight in his voice.
“You smell fantastic.” Her stomach grumbled and she remembered that they had skipped dinner. “Good enough to eat.”
He reached around and pulled her onto his lap, the covers falling away so she felt denim against her bare bottom. His gaze burned hot. “I want to taste you again.” He skimmed his hand over her thigh slowly enough to give her time to stop him.
But his words sent desire pulsing through her. She opened her legs to allow his hand between them, her head falling back as he eased first one, then two fingers inside her and rocked the heel of his hand against her clit. “Leland,” she breathed on a long exhale as tremors of pleasure vibrated through her. “That feels so good.”
“Yes, yes, it does. So hot, so wet, so smooth.” He nipped at the spot where her neck and shoulder met. “So frustrating that I have to go to work. But first . . .” He withdrew his hand and sucked on his long fingers with a lascivious smirk. “So delicious.”
“Hey, no fair starting something you’re not going to finish.” She grabbed his wrist and tugged it back toward her thighs.
“Oh, I’m going to finish it,” he said with a low, lewd chuckle even as he resisted her grasp. “I’m just going to let you wonder exactly how for about ten hours.”
Joy exploded in her brain. He was coming back!
“You’re a tease.” She took a small revenge by wiggling seductively against the partial erection she could feel pushing against his jeans.
“Who’s teasing whom?” He kissed her lightly on the lips and set her back on the quilt.
“Such good grammar from that fancy private school.”
He stood up. “You don’t know how hard this is.”
“Actually, I do. I was sitting on it.”
He groaned and briefly cupped her cheek as she swung her legs off the bed. “Don’t get up. I can find my way to the door. And if you walk there naked, the temptation may be too much for me.”
She wanted to lure him back into her bed—just to curl up against his strength and warmth—but she knew how selfish that was. He needed to go back to solving his corporate clients’ issues for heaps of money. Although she had an idea that the money wasn’t what drove him—it was the sense of responsibility. He’d made a promise to help them, so he wouldn’t stop until he had solved their problem. That certainly applied to the gym’s weird issues.
She crooked her f
inger so he would bend down before she gave him a long kiss that had him seizing her shoulders to bring her in closer. Then he released her and stepped back, her effect on him visible under the denim.
“Work. I have to work.” His voice was a rasp. “I’ve got to go.” He spun on his heel and strode out of the room as though the hounds of hell were chasing him.
She fell back on the bed, a delicious lassitude seeping through her arms and legs so that she couldn’t force herself to get up to lock the dead bolt and set the alarm. Yet.
Her body hummed with the satisfaction of two fantastic orgasms, but that wasn’t what made her hug a pillow to her chest and grin like an idiot. No, the joy bubbling through her was because she’d fallen asleep with Leland’s arm locked around her waist, yet she’d only wanted to snuggle closer to him.
She’d been wrong all these years. She hadn’t needed a weak, controllable man to feel safe. She’d needed a powerful man who could help defeat her fear. She just wasn’t sure how that had happened.
Leland rummaged in the limo’s insulated storage compartment to find a container of lasagna. He pulled a fork from a felt-lined drawer of utensils and dug into the still-lukewarm pasta. The first meaty, garlicky bite made him groan with appreciation before he shoved another one into his mouth.
Forget hunger . . . great sex was the best sauce.
He focused on the food, trying not to think about Dawn in hopes that the erection smashed inside his jeans would subside.
However, images of her head thrown back as she came with his name tearing from her lips or the way she’d cupped her breasts and offered them to him or her peaked nipple parting the long, silky fall of her hair kept his cock hard, no matter how he fought to banish them.
“Oh, hell!” he muttered, adjusting the denim in an effort to ease the pressure.
He polished off the lasagna and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler, sipping it as he sagged back against the seat to analyze the real problem.
Why had it been so hard to leave? Work always took precedence in his life. His mother had held three jobs in order to get him the best education she could. His father’s family, who could have spared private school tuition without even noticing it, considered him an unfortunate but minor consequence of a spring-break romance. They pretended he didn’t exist.
He didn’t care about their acknowledgment, but his mother’s life would have been a hell of a lot easier if his father had shown the smallest amount of guts in forcing his family to offer some financial support.
So his mother had dedicated her life to proving that Leland not only existed but was valuable. He owed his success to her. Even more, he owed her his success. He couldn’t fail because that would make all her efforts meaningless.
The headlights from other cars strobed through the limo’s windows, illuminating the rack of wineglasses, the burnished wood paneling, and the hand-rubbed leather of the seats. Riding in this luxurious car, driven by a man who was paid to wait hours for Leland’s convenience, heading back to an office stocked with tens of thousands of dollars of cutting-edge computer equipment purchased for his sole use: This was where all that work had gotten him. And it had been what he wanted.
Until tonight.
He braced his elbows on his knees, lowered his head into his hands, and massaged his temples as a wave of longing swamped him.
Longing for how Dawn had made him feel for a few hours. As though he didn’t have to prove anything. As though he could simply be a man who wanted a woman.
And God, he wanted her.
Chapter 9
Dawn had leaped out of bed, filled with energy after a night of sleeping without nightmares. She’d eaten her granola and yogurt with a smile as she replayed various moments of the night before. Slinging her gym bag over her shoulder, she’d walked to her front door and realized the dead bolt wasn’t shot home and the alarm wasn’t set. She’d fallen asleep without ensuring that her sanctuary was secure.
Stupid. Just because Leland had made her feel safe for a few hours didn’t mean her world had changed. Her goofy smile evaporated as reality slammed into her. He’d climbed out of her bed and gone to work in the middle of the night. What did that tell her about his priorities?
That he was a man who kept his promises, who did the right thing by the people who trusted him. That was why she felt safe with him, so she had no right to complain.
She needed to remember that his promises were at a level far beyond hers. Once he had fulfilled his commitment to solving the gym’s problem, he would probably go back to breathing the rarefied air of an international consultant, taking her sense of safety with him. After all, there was nothing profound between them. Their connections were sex and an IT problem that would be resolved one way or the other in a matter of days. She shouldn’t expect him to stick around.
She punched in the code to arm the alarm and yanked open her door as its beeps counted down the time she had to close it again. Slamming it shut, she twisted the key to lock the dead bolt and trudged down the stairs, her buoyancy gone like her smile.
But she had her own promises to keep. Maybe her clients weren’t giant corporations, but they counted on her for their physical health. Sometimes they even depended on her for emotional reasons, confiding secrets about their marriages or their children’s problems because they needed to share the burden and they trusted her discretion. When you worked one-on-one up close and personal on a regular basis, it built a certain intimacy.
That could explain some of what had happened between her and Leland. But not all. She’d never dated a client before this. In fact, she’d considered it bordering on unethical, although Ramón had never specifically forbidden his trainers to get involved with clients. She knew a couple who had, and it had resulted in their losing the clients when they broke up.
The likely outcome of her own relationship sent a chill shivering through her. Although at least she wouldn’t have to feel guilty about Leland dropping his gym membership.
However, she walked through the door of Work It Out determined not to let memories of the night before distract her from doing her job to the best of her ability. She owed her clients just as much as Leland owed his.
She mostly succeeded in her goal, sometimes almost forgetting the glow of satisfaction that still permeated her body.
Until something crackled through the air while she was spotting a client through a set of skull crushers. Dawn glanced up to find Leland standing in the door to the weight room, his gaze locked on her.
He wore a pale blue T-shirt that intensified the blue of his eyes and navy shorts so she could see the chiseled muscles of his long legs—the legs she’d felt between hers as he drove into her.
Reality flew out the window, banished by a desire that electrified her nerve endings. She had no idea how he could read that on her face, but she saw heat flare in his eyes before he nodded toward the big space holding the treadmills. She dipped her head in response and checked her watch. Exultation poured through her veins.
He’d come thirty minutes early.
Maybe he wanted to warm up. Maybe he wanted to run programs on his phone to check the data traffic. Or maybe he wanted to see her as much as she wanted to see him.
The possibility bloomed in her chest. Leland had left his job before he absolutely needed to in order to come to where she was.
She floated through the rest of the training session.
“You’re in a good mood today,” her client commented as he zipped up his gym bag. “Usually you scare me into working hard with that challenging glare of yours. Today you kind of coaxed me into it.”
“Which do you prefer?” Dawn was curious for future reference.
He considered that for a moment. “I think Scary Dawn is easier to deal with. I kept wondering what evil plans Happy Dawn was hiding behind that smile.”
She laughed. “Next time Scary Dawn will be back, I promise. See you Monday.”
She forced herself to clean and stow the mat at a s
eminormal speed. Then she walked—not jogged—to the treadmill room.
And stopped dead when she saw Leland running, his legs moving like pistons, the cotton of his shirt darkened by sweat down the middle of his back. She wanted to rip the shirt off and lick the salty sweat from his skin.
Not a useful thought.
She closed her eyes to block out the sight until she got a grip on her unruly imagination. Then she walked across the wood floor to Leland’s treadmill.
“I’m glad to see you got here with plenty of time to warm up,” she said, feeling like an idiot.
He kept running. “I had to force myself not to come any earlier.”
She couldn’t stop her grin. “I like your honesty.”
“I’ve been thinking about having your hands on me for our training session. I can’t decide whether it will be torment or bliss.” He brought the treadmill to a halt and scrubbed his face with his sweat towel.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been debating the same question.”
He finally looked at her, his eyes blazing with the same hunger she felt. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say it will be combination of the two.”
“Let’s get started and find out.” She gave him a sideways smile and nodded toward the weight room.
He stepped off the machine and spoke in a low voice. “We need to talk about the gym’s router. Since we’re on a tight time line I’m going to accept your help with getting into the office. Then you will leave immediately and pretend you were never there.”
Right. The reason Leland was at the gym. The haze of lust enveloping them had nearly made her forget about it.
“I meant it when I said you don’t have to do this,” she murmured as they walked. “It will get taken care of on Monday.”
“I meant it when I said that I can’t let this go if it’s dark web activity that I have the opportunity to stop.” His voice was edged with something like anger. “But I won’t know until I get into that router.”
The Hacker Page 11