by Lucy Monroe
"I'm sure she's a lot more fun," she couldn't help saying cattily, remembering Marcus's many jokes about her being a human robot.
She had never felt like a robot around him.
In fact, right now her body was reacting in a most human, most feminine way to the slight touch of Marcus's hand against her face. She should have slapped his hand away or, at the very least, jerked her face from contact with that clever finger, but the feel of his casual touch had sent a sharp ache of longing through her.
She wanted to reach out and grab his hand, bring it back to her face and let it rest there against her cheek indefinitely. How pathetic was that?
Marcus's inner laughter was even more blatant now. "Well, she's interesting. I'll give her that much, but you were definitely more fun."
What did he mean? Did he want to imply he'd slept with the new secretary too, but she wasn't as good in bed as her? Or did he mean that she had held out against his flirtations, unlike herself? The tormenting thoughts chased through Veronica's head and absorbed her concentration so that he had almost made it past the gray walls of her cubicle before she realized he was leaving.
"Wait," she blurted out before thinking.
He turned, his body already halfway into the corridor. "Don't worry. You can take your time looking into office accommodations for me this morning. I'll be busy getting a feel for a couple of other departments. I'll get back with you around lunch-time."
And with that he was gone. She stared at the open doorway and wished she had a real office, something she could shut herself up in and collect her thoughts without risk of interruption. That wasn't going to happen.
Besides, she had work to do. Not only did she have her own work to finish, an unending task, but now she had to find and furbish office space for Marcus. She picked up the phone to call a friend in space allocation. Even with Mr. Kline's personal approval, getting Marcus set up in an office that morning wasn't going to be easy.
Fifteen minutes later, she barely controlled the urge to slam her receiver in its cradle. The only office space available on such short notice was kitty-corner to Veronica's cubicle. For the time Marcus would be at Kline Tech, he'd be working mere feet from her. He couldn't have planned a more effective torment if he tried.
And the worst of it was that she knew he hadn't had a word to say about it.
Marcus tunneled his fingers through his hair as he waited for the elevator to reach the floor that housed the design team. Why had he teased Ronnie like that? He had decided last night to tell her that he hadn't meant the blackmail threat. He wasn't sure how he could extricate himself from it without losing some of his pride and she'd already walked all over his ego by leaving him, but he didn't want her back in his bed on those terms.
He shouldn't want her back in his bed at all. She was a spy, a liar… a thief of corporate secrets.
Telling himself that did not lessen the pleasure he'd felt at the evidence of her jealousy of CIS's new secretary one iota. He'd gone on baiting her just to see the way her soft gray eyes turned almost obsidian and her pale skin colored in her agitation. She'd tried to hide it, but he knew her responses too well.
He smiled inwardly. Her little comment about the new secretary being more fun couldn't be fur-ther from the truth. He liked Alex's mom a lot, but he wouldn't describe Priscilla Redding as fun. She'd loosened up since marrying again, but she still exuded good breeding and propriety.
The idea of another woman in his life had really flustered Ronnie, though. Did that mean she still cared about him?
More importantly, did that mean she hadn't replaced him in her life, or in her bed?
He had spent more nights than he cared to admit contemplating that very question. She'd been a virgin when they had started dating, but there was no denying that by the time Ronnie had leftPortland , she had proved herself to be the most passionate bed partner he had ever known.
The thought that now that she had been initiated into physical pleasure she would look for other lovers had kept him awake more nights the past year than the ones he spent angry over her defection from CIS.
He didn't believe in love. It was a weakening emotion, an excuse that people used to hurt themselves and others.
He should know. He'd spent the first thirteen years of his life the despised bastard son of a big man in a small town because his motherloved his father too much to leave her life as the man's mistress and take her son someplace he wasn't known. Someplace where other people didn't care that his dad had not. bothered to divorce his wife and marry the mother of his youngest son.
No, Marcus didn't believe in love, but this feeling of possessiveness he had toward Ronnie couldn't be denied. He had a strong sense that he'd be tempted to get violent with any man who tried to take his place in Ronnie's bed.
Even if he didn't want to be there himself.
Chapter Five
Veronica picked at the chef's salad she'd gotten for lunch from the cafeteria kitchen, her mind on Marcus's strange behavior that morning. At least it seemed strange to her.
After convincing herself that the only way to ensure the safety of her life inSeattle was to call Marcus's bluff, she'd primed herself for a confrontation with him when she saw him next.
Marcus, the wily man that he was, hadn't obliged. He'd known what he was doing when he asked her to arrange a lunch date with Jack instead.
The man was too darn adept at psychological warfare.
She rolled a cherry tomato in the ranch dressing on her salad and then popped it in her mouth, enjoying the way the tangy pulp exploded on her tongue as she bit down.
What was his game? Did he or did he not want to blackmail her? A more important question, one she had better figure out before calling his bluff would be: Did he or did he not want her back in his bed? In the very unlikely chance that this blackmail threat was about more than revenge and rejection, she had to tread very carefully.
Yet, they had to work through her betrayal somehow. And she had to know what he planned to do with the information about her past before she told him about Aaron. She'd like to think she was strong enough to risk a custody battle, but she didn't know if she was. She'd used up her emotional reserves during Jenny's long battle with illness.
Could she tell Marcus about his son with the risk that he might use that information to hurt her hanging over her head? Did she have a right to put her own happiness above that of Marcus's right to know about his child?
The thoughts were a confusing whirl in her head when a familiar voice sounded from over her left shoulder. "Is this seat taken?"
She looked up from her salad and forced her lips to tip in a welcoming smile. "No. Have a seat.Sandy ."
The willowy blonde slid gracefully into a chair opposite Veronica, setting her plastic tray loaded with what appeared to be a very healthy lunch on the table as she did so. "Whew, it's been nuts trying to get Cougar launched. I'll be really glad when this product goes to market."
Veronica nodded in understanding. A technical marketing engineer, Sandy had a very hairy job toward product launch time, and Cougar had had more than its share of troubles.
"I still can't believe that information about
Cougar's problems with the new high-speed chipset got released to the press. It makes you wonder if we've got moles working in our department or for the design team."
Veronica shook her head, chewing another bite of salad before speaking. "More likely we've got some loose-tongued engineers who share info with their buddies from college over a beer after hours."
"Yeah, and when those buddies just happen to work for rival firms, our secrets get leaked to the press. It could happen that way, I suppose."Sandy laid her utensils out neatly and put her paper napkin in her lap, almost covering the short black skirt she wore. "But haven't you noticed how many times this past year we've had confidential information leaked to the press, or our competition has beaten us by less than a day in announcing similar technology advances?"
Veronica real
ized her friend was serious. "You really think Kline Technology has some sort of corporate spy in its midst?"
"It wouldn't be the first time such a thing has happened in our industry. Computers and their peripheral technology are a hotbed for that sort of game playing. Someone could make a lot more money selling secrets than their nine-to-five salary."
Chills of cold dread crawled up Veronica's legs and into her spine.
A corporate spy at Kline Tech? She didn't want to believe it could be true, butSandy 's words couldn't be denied. There had been a lot of information leaks over the past six months… since Veronica had come to work for the company, in fact.
Having worked at CIS for so long, she knew firsthand how easily information could be obtained by those who knew how to go about getting it, men like Alex Trahern and Marcus Danvers. She had never stopped to think that the wealth of information on Kline Tech's products might have an internal source… a leak.
She and Sandy ate in silence for several seconds while Veronica tried to comprehend the significance of her company's setbacks in the past few months and what it might mean to her newfound security.
From the contemplative expression onSandy 's beautiful face, Veronica thought the blonde might be doing the same thing. Only she undoubtedly wasn't plagued with the worry that she could be accused of the crime because of past actions.
Marcus's blackmail threat took on more sinister tones, and, for the first time, she contemplated running. Perhaps coming back to thePacific Northwest had been every bit as stupid as letting herself fall in love with Marcus in the first place.
She took a small sip of her iced tea, wanting desperately to calm her own nerves.
"Is there room at the table for one more?"
At the sound of Marcus's voice, she inhaled and swallowed wrong, throwing herself into a cough-ing fit as her lungs refused the tea. Marcus dropped his lunch on the table and started slapping her back with strong, firm strokes until she stopped imitating three-pack-a-day smoker after hiking to the summit ofMount Rainier .
"Take deep breaths, honey." Marcus had stopped patting her back, but instead of moving away, he stood there and rubbed gentle circles between her shoulder blades. "You need to relax."
Relax? She was supposed to relax when he was touching her and talking to her in that tender voice she hadn't heard since the last time they had been to bed together?
"Are you all right?"Sandy 's concerned voice cut through Veronica's thoughts.
She stiffened, pulling forward, to let Marcus know he could stop rubbing her back, and instantly regretted the action when he did. Darn. She needed to get a grip.
"I'm fine. I just swallowed wrong."
Not that they required the explanation. It had to be pretty obvious what had happened.
From the thoughtful look in Sandy's eyes, Veronica knew that the other woman was speculating aboutwhy she'd lost her ability to control her basic drinking skills rather than what exactly had gone wrong. Feeling heat creep up her neck, she attempted to ignore Marcus's legs so close to her own now that he had taken a seat at their small table.
She consciously ignored the look of interest onSandy 's face as well.
"I arranged for your office space this morning. I can show you your cubicle after lunch, if you like." She turned to Marcus as she spoke, trying very hard to pretend she was no longer blushing.
His blue eyes, which had warmed with concern for that brief moment during her coughing fit, were now cool and unreadable once again. "That'll be fine, Ronnie."
She nodded, not knowing what else to say.
Sandywasn't so handicapped. The gorgeous blonde always knew what to say around men.
"You certainly were quick to the rescue a moment ago. Did you take CPR classes or something?"
Marcus turned his lady-killer smile onSandy and Veronica was surprised the other woman didn't melt into a puddle at his feet from the warmth of it.
"Actually I did, years ago, but when I heard Ronnie choking, I acted on instinct."
"Thankyou," Veronica said, knowing it was expected of her and realizing she should have said it right away rather than bringing up his office space first.
The man had a way of sending her normally organized thought processes into chaos. He inclined his head. "No problem."
"So, do you have any concrete plans for Kline Tech's expansion yet?"Sandy asked when the conversation lagged again.
Once again, Marcus smiled, this time with amusement. "I'm fast, but even I'm not that fast. It'll take while to get a feel for the company and then I'll start doing preliminary information gathering on possible investments. Kline isn't sure if he wants to bring in new projects to his current technology line or branch out in different directions."
"I can't wait to hear what is decided,"Sandy said, her eyes warm and compelling. Was she interested in Marcus? She had every reason to be.
Veronica had gotten to know the technical marketing engineer rather well over the past few months and had no doubt thatSandy and Marcus would make the ideal pair. In fact, anyone seeing them together would think they made a fair imitation of Barbie and Ken. They were both fun loving, gorgeous and had many of the same interests.
She didn't know if she could bear to sit at the small table and listen to them discover that information for themselves.
She pushed her salad around on the clear plastic plate and wondered what excuse she could make to leave the two alone. Not that she wanted to.
As painful as it would be to sit and watch the friendship develop and know it would probably turn into more, she couldn't quite stomach the idea of just leaving them to it either. She knew she couldn't have Marcus, but that didn't mean she wanted to watch him find someone else.
"You'd better start eating that rather than playing with it if you're going to finish sometime before the next century," Marcus teased her.
She shrugged. "I'm not all that hungry, I guess."
Sandyshook her head. "You must eat your lunch in order to have sufficient energy to finish the afternoon with a clear head. The last thing you need to do is drink that caffeine-laden tea without eating nutritious food to counterbalance it."
Marcus laughed. "Don't tell me you're one ofthose ."
Sandy's smile was definitely inviting. "One of those what?"
"A health food fanatic."
Sandy's laugh was soft and entirely too appealing. "You bet. You don't think I look this good without working at it, do you?" she asked, with guileless assurance.
As Marcus gaveSandy a flirtatious once-over, Veronica couldn't help comparing what he saw when he looked at the willowy blonde with what he saw when he looked at her.
At five feet eight.Sandy would fit Marcus to a tee, while Veronica's own five feet, four inches made her feel tiny next to his muscled height.Sandy also dressed in a way to attract men, with short skirts and bright, appealing tops that highlighted her blond hair and fair skin
Veronica's own black skirt reached past her knees. She'd paired it with a plain silk shell, the color ofSeattle 's skyline—dull gray.
She felt like a drab little wren next to a peacock as Marcus winked atSandy . "1 guess there's something to be said for bean sprouts and granola."
Sandylaughed, obviously pleased by Marcus's compliment. 'That's what I keep telling Veronica, but she won't even venture to low-fat salad dress-
Marcus turned his attention back to Veronica and she braced herself for the critical comment
Sandyhad unwittingly set him up to make. She knew her friend hadn't meant to criticize her. Sandy's health food habits were a source of a running joke between the two of them, but Marcus didn't know that and even if he had, would it have stopped him from making the sarcastic comment she was sure was coming? She didn't think so.
"Ronnie looks pretty damn good to me. Regular dressing must agree with her."Sandy sighed. "You may be right, lucky girl." Veronica said nothing. She felt as if her vocal cords had been frozen by Marcus's compliment.
She hadn't expected it
and was even less prepared to respond to it.
Then he shocked her further by taking her fork from unresisting fingers, filling it with a bite of salad and saying, "Open up."
She did so without thinking and then felt another embarrassing blush crawl up her face, as she realized what she'd just allowed Marcus to do.Sandy would think their relationship was much more intimate than it was.
He smiled.
The fiend. He knew exactly what he'd just done and was enjoying her discomfort.
She snatched the fork from his hand and concentrated on eating the rest of her salad while Sandy and Marcus discussed a sailing competition north ofSeattle the following weekend.