Maverick
Page 30
They were doing really well. They’d moved into new premises, in this swank high-rise near Crystal City with three times the space he’d had before. Roxanne now oversaw an office with two receptionists and four secretaries. Dan had six men on retainer, all ex-Marines, all excellent, for jobs that required physical security. More were in the pipeline.
Though Claire never took credit for bringing Bowen down, letting journalists think it was an FBI sting, the top echelons of government knew. They were grateful, and threw work their way whenever they could.
Even the New Day Foundation’s backers showed their gratitude by offering a very lucrative contract.
They were starting to get feelers for jobs abroad, mainly in Latin America, though Dan was ambiguous about that. The thought of leaving Claire for even a couple of days was painful. But they were growing fast, and soon travel would be routine.
His men were top-of-the-line when it came to planning and executing a security program in a dangerous world, and word had gotten around. Dan was going to have to expand the company once again in a couple of months.
Weston & Weston Security was a runaway success.
But what W&W was really good at was computer security, and that was all Claire. Nobody could beat her. Nobody could even touch her. She was the rainmaker of the company.
Dan had landed the contract because the computer security program he had outlined for the bank was a deal-maker.
Actually, it was Claire’s program. By all rights, it was Claire who should have gone to the incredibly plush office of the CEO on the 41st floor to hear praise and then sign on the dotted line—but that way lay disaster. They’d tried it a couple of times, but the instant Claire opened her mouth, she lost the client.
The client would try to follow the first sentence or two, then his brain popped, whirred, shorted, then just shut down. Claire danced rings around the men at the top and they didn’t like it, so she stayed in the office, where she was happiest.
It was what she’d done as a DIA analyst, and it was what she did in her own company and she loved it like that.
It all worked out just fine.
They’d been married a year, and Dan had no idea that happiness on this scale was even possible.
He loved her and she scared the shit out of him. Particularly when she smiled like that.
He dropped a kiss on her perfect little nose. But before he could get tempted to kiss her mouth—once he did that, he was a goner—he pulled away and looked sternly at her. Or tried to.
“What were you doing when I walked in?”
She batted her eyes at him and reached up to kiss him, knowing that would be the end of the interrogation.
But Dan was tough. He was a Marine, after all. He held her off.
“Come on… tell the truth. You were cracking some site, weren’t you?” He rolled his eyes at her innocent expression. “You know, honey, you’re going to end up in jail if you don’t watch out. I’ll spend the rest of my days bringing you cake and books in the brig.”
“Well, I did get some interesting info.”
“Interesting enough to go to jail?” he asked glumly, and she laughed.
“And here I thought you were so brave. Tough guy, my ass.”
“Okay, I’m a wuss. Particularly when it comes to the thought of you being incarcerated. So… spill it. Who were you cracking?”
Claire twined her arms around his neck and kissed him, pulling away before he could take control of the kiss.
“I was… um… visiting the records of a lab in Baltimore. You know which one.”
Oh, God, he did. His heart started thudding. His mouth went dry. “Yeah? And what did you find out?”
She kissed him again. “Congratulations, Gunny. It’s a boy.”
ALSO BY LISA MARIE RICE
Men Of Midnight Series
Midnight Man
Midnight Run
Midnight Angel
Midnight Quest
Midnight Vengeance
Midnight Promises
Midnight Secrets
Midnight Fire
Midnight Fever
Midnight Renegade
Midnight Kiss
Midnight Embrace
Midnight Caress
Midnight Shadows
Her Billionaire Series
Charade
Masquerade
Escapade
Dangerous Passions
Reckless
Hot Secrets
The Christmas Angel
Murphy’s Law
Woman On The Run
Fatal Heat
A Fine Specimen
The Italian
Don’t Think Twice
Port Of Paradise
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Marie Rice is eternally 30 years old and will never age. She is tall and willowy and beautiful. Men drop at her feet like ripe pears. She has won every major book prize in the world. She is a black belt with advanced degrees in archaeology, nuclear physics, and Tibetan literature. She is a concert pianist. Did I mention her Nobel Prize?
Of course, Lisa Marie Rice is a virtual woman and exists only at the keyboard when writing romance. She disappears when the monitor winks off.