* * *
Back at the hotel, Arizona headed for the restaurant. She hoped Braden didn’t follow, that he’d go up to their room and give her some time alone for a while. She could use a reprieve from his frequent glances, as though he were contemplating something. Ready to pick a fight. Or drop the pretense of distance they’d erected ever since sleeping together.
He followed.
Instead of staying, she decided to get something to go and take it up to their room. Braden ordered what he wanted and they sat at the bar to wait. She ordered an island drink. He ordered whiskey.
When the bartender deposited his short glass in front of him, she eyed him, full of incredulity.
He sipped while he met her gaze with grievance leftover from bad sex. Watching him down the glass belligerently, she smiled and took a big sip of her drink.
He grunted his cynical humor. “Weak.”
What was he after, a drinking war? She lifted her glass and sucked on the straw, rolling her eyes as she drank to see his crooked, mocking grin.
It took her longer to drain her glass.
He raised two fingers to the bartender, who brought two more without a flicker of judgment.
He drank his glass.
“I’m not drinking this like a shot,” she told him. “If you want to get sloppy, you go right ahead. Just remember you might kill brain cells you need for your job.”
One of his eyebrows lifted. “I know lots of engineers who drink.”
“I haven’t met any.”
“Didn’t Trevor drink?”
Derision rolled off his tongue, lingering especially long on Trevor’s name. Arizona took in his injured ego and marveled for a moment. His ego was fine in all other areas other than his sexual encounter with her.
“Not accustomed to being with a woman who doesn’t respond as expected, huh?” She had to rib him.
“I can make you respond.”
Oh, that made her tingle. Maybe she shouldn’t provoke him. “What makes you so sure?”
“I’m not Trevor.”
No, definitely not. Trevor had been sophisticated and conforming to society. He’d been smart. Handsome, too. Braden was all those things except conformed. He paved his own way in life. And his handsomeness had a rugged edge to it. Rock-hard abs. Muscular shoulders and chest. Rigid jaw, and stubble. He was smart, but he was also a freethinker. He didn’t treat people as though they were beneath him. He didn’t hold people above him. He was just Braden McCrae, happy with who he was and what he had in life. Enviable. Except for his hang-up on performance in bed.
“Why is sex so important to men?” she blurted.
He grinned. “It feels good?”
“Aside from that. Why is it so important?”
He stared at her, trying to figure out what she was fishing for. “It feels good.”
Laughing, she pivoted on her chair to face him. “Come on. Be serious.”
“I am serious.”
He was serious. Was it that simple? It didn’t explain his ego. “I think you have complexes about women because they’re trickier to please than men.”
“Are we talking about our disaster in bed?”
Of course they were, but she wasn’t going to acknowledge that. “Do you have to feel like you’ve performed admirably?”
“I’d be an ass if I said no. What man doesn’t want to please the woman he’s making love with?”
She loved it that he said with instead of to. “So it’s about pleasing women?”
“And feeling good.”
“So what if you don’t make a woman feel good? What if you’re the only one feeling that way?”
“You really want me to answer that?”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t feel good when the woman I’m with isn’t responding the way I am. It tells me she’s not that into me. At that point, I’d rather not be naked with her.”
She leaned forward, putting her face close to his. “Are you saying it’s a turn off?” He hadn’t been turned off with her.
“Not always. Only with women I know I can’t please.”
Did he know he could please her? He had until thoughts of Trevor had interfered. The bartender dropped a bag of food in front of them.
Saved by the interruption, Arizona wrote their room number on the receipt and stood. She was uncomfortable with the way she felt right now.
He walked with her out of the restaurant, carrying the food, eyeing her triumphantly. He knew it meant something to her that she was among the women he wanted to please. And she’d like him to. The idea of taking that pleasure to the next level tantalized her. Procreation. Isn’t that what it was ultimately all about? How would it feel to procreate with him?
At the elevator, she stopped, frozen with what had just gone through her brain. Procreation meant babies. Kids. Screaming. Crying. Irrational tantrums. Clumsiness and messes.
What was it about Braden that had her entertaining even the slightest possibility of having babies with him? It was rash. Her father often told her she was impulsive. She didn’t think before she jumped. She had no patience. No fear. She landed on her feet no matter what came in the wake of her decisions. The idea of being that intimate with Braden enticed her that much. Enough to make her jump.
“I could please you if you let me.”
While Arizona gaped at him, the elevator doors opened and two couples stumbled out, laughing in drunken humor. Arizona was barely aware. She followed Braden into the elevator. He leaned against the opposite wall, wholly confident, hands hooked in his front pockets, ankles crossed. Waiting. Smugly.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, engineer.” She kept her tone teasing, while temptation intensified.
“I could remove him from your mind.” He pushed off the elevator wall and stepped toward her. “I could make you forget him so that the only thing in your mind and body was me. I’d be all that was inside of you.”
His low, deep voice was cocky with confidence. Though it was his ego talking, he stroked a warming reaction from her. He could obliterate Trevor and the stigma she’d created because of his death. And he’d use sex to do it. Sex was what made him propose to both of his ex-wives.
“Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe you should step away from sex when you’re trying to seduce a woman?”
That only fueled his grin. “Afraid I’ll do it?”
Afraid he’d bring her to orgasm without so much as a flicker of a thought for Trevor interfering? Yes, she was a little afraid of that. And as the idea took root in her, she was more afraid than she’d anticipated. More than she’d ever acknowledge, not with him.
“It’s what you need.”
Mind-altering sex? “Who doesn’t?”
“You can make light of it. I understand you lost someone you loved.”
“I did love him. That’s what made having sex with you so different.” She loved Trevor. She didn’t love him. What she didn’t say was that it had the beginnings of what she’d had with Trevor.
He reached over and pressed their floor button, setting the elevator into motion. She’d been so immersed in him that she hadn’t noticed neither of them had pressed the button.
“I’m impulsive about most things, just not that.”
“You’re afraid.” He sounded amazed.
She could jump out of planes and go on a spontaneous night scuba dive but she couldn’t risk her heart for love. Is that what he was saying?
“The worst that could happen is we have a brief affair. The best is you’d have a faithful man and a six-year-old boy.”
He didn’t mean they’d have a future, he only meant to force her to face what he interpreted as fear of what sex with him might bring.
The elevator doors slid open and she stepped o
ut ahead of him.
He caught up with long strides, leaning his head toward hers as he walked beside her. “Sleep with me again. I dare you.”
“No.”
“It’s not that I’m an engineer that bothers you, Arizona.”
“No, it’s your first two marriages.” That wasn’t it, not completely, but she wanted him to stop. “You know what they say about people who can’t stay married.”
She jabbed the card key into the door.
“No, what do they say?” he asked, anger lacing his tone.
“Damaged goods.” She pushed open the door and entered.
The door closed behind him. He said nothing.
She turned and saw him standing with his arms at his sides, eyes full of lively energy. But there was more. Her cutting words had hurt him. He wasn’t going to engage with her. Doing so would mean he’d stooped to her low level.
“I’m sorry.” She hadn’t meant to hurt him. “Really, I...” How could she explain? There was no excuse for her behavior.
“It’s all right.” His eyes cooled and calmed. “It’s obvious you’re being defensive. And why is that? You can’t let go of Trevor. I get that. What I can’t figure out is if it’s out of guilt or love.”
“Guilt?”
“Hasn’t your brother explained it enough for you?”
She felt guilty for not being able to save Trevor. She felt obligated to devote the rest of her life to helping victims. To try and make up for her failure.
Braden moved toward her. Defeated, she stood still as he leaned down and kissed her. Only once.
That was all it took. One touch, and her heart tripped into excited beats and her skin prickled with delicious anticipation.
He kissed her again, fanning flames that wouldn’t stop flickering. He didn’t touch her anywhere else. Only where his mouth pressed to hers. Sweetly. Proving a point, but a gentle one. He wouldn’t take it any further. Just far enough to make her see what he meant.
She’d cut him down and he responded with this. Passion. Love. Not the marrying kind of love. New love. The potential for it. And that is what they had going between them.
He could make her forget Trevor.
With the slant of his mouth, he kissed her more fully, caressing, melding. Then he lifted his head, breathless and burning.
As sweet as this was, she could not let him win that easily. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“I got as far as I wanted tonight.”
He was so sure he’d have her flat on her back again, so into him that no one else would matter. Instinct warned her to allow that to happen. There may not be anything wrong with him for divorcing twice, but he was right about one thing. Feeling too much for him scared her. Not just because of the way she lost Trevor. She didn’t think he was ready. He had a son he loved more than anyone and an ex-wife he was still raw over.
Would she be able to hold back if he seduced her the way he intended? Did she even want to?
Chapter 10
Braden’s cell phone rang, waking him up. Arizona was sprawled on the other bed, covers askew. It took him a moment to move for the phone. Long, bare legs, smooth and tan, peeked out from the covers. Contrasting with the sexiness of that were her twisted nightgown, open mouth and hair sticking out at radical angles.
He stood and went to the table where he’d left his phone the night before.
“Braden.”
“It’s Sampson, Braden.”
His boss was calling him?
“I know you took a few days off to look for your sister, but I’m going to need you to come in today if at all possible, tomorrow if not.”
He needed him to go in to work? Today? “Is something wrong?” Something had to be. He’d left everything in good order before he’d taken personal time off. There were no components in Test, no anomalies. He refused to give in to the foreboding he felt that this was related to Tatum’s disappearance. But what else could it be?
“We had a break-in last night. Someone used your badge.”
“My...” He hadn’t thought to check for it the night the stranger had tried to burglarize him. Breaking into a secure facility like Hamilton became a lot easier with a badge.
“I’m in Tortola. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
“If you don’t make it tomorrow, I’ll start the termination process with HR.”
He’d fire him? Something serious must have happened. What had the burglar taken?
Ending the call, he disconnected and turned. Arizona sat up on the bed with tired but curious eyes.
“Someone broke into Hamilton Corporation using my badge,” he said.
Her eyes became instantly more alert. The technology theory was back on.
“My boss wouldn’t tell me what, if anything, was taken.”
She flung the covers off her. Someone was trying to steal information from him. His job was on the line. First his sister, and now him. He had to at least consider the possibility his sister had somehow drawn him into her trouble, but he couldn’t believe she’d done it wittingly.
“Oh, my God. What is Julian after?”
“We don’t know if it’s Julian who’s behind this.”
“Come on, Braden, it has to be him.”
He looked away as she dressed. “It might be. I’m not saying it isn’t. I’m just saying there could be another explanation.” One that kept his sister innocent.
“Your sister was caught shipping arms illegally. She went to see Julian and now she’s missing. Someone broke into your house and tried to steal your computer, and then your work. It can’t be a coincidence.”
“My sister didn’t ship arms. If she went to see Julian it was for a different reason, probably the same reason Courtney had for seeing him.”
Arizona said nothing, just finished getting ready to leave. He couldn’t even tell her to stay here.
“You’re forgetting the kind of weapons Hamilton manufactures,” he said, annoyed that he cared what she thought.
“Which makes this a lot more serious than it would be if Julian was siphoning arms off the United States. High-tech weapons are different than your average, everyday gun.”
He had to find his sister. Only she could expose what all of this meant by telling them why she went missing. But he didn’t have that yet. He might never have it. He’d go back to Hamilton and save his job and with any luck, be one step closer to solving this mystery.
* * *
Arizona could tell Braden would rather not have her with him. On the way here, he’d told her twice that she could wait in the lobby. And he was edgy, if not annoyed. He walked into Hamilton Corporation with a grim set to his mouth, brow low. Dressed similarly to the way he’d looked when she’d met him, there was no disguising his sex appeal. His navy-blue slacks fit him well and the tan, long-sleeved dress shirt creased where his biceps tapered in from their bulges. She could work here herself in her knee-length, red bubble dress accented with a silver chain that hung to her belly button, and tan four-inch sandals.
“Braden,” one of three security guards behind a circular desk greeted. The desk was positioned in the middle of an open lobby, brightly lit by a huge skylight overhead. The entrance jutted out from the main building, which towered roughly thirty stories above the ground.
“Mr. Sampson is expecting you.” He picked up a phone and announced their arrival. Then he turned to one of the guards. “Take them to Sampson’s office.”
“She’s waiting here,” Braden said.
The guard gave Arizona a visitor badge. “Actually, he wants to talk to both of you.”
Really? How much did Braden’s boss know about Tatum’s disappearance? When the police responded to the Hamilton break-in, had they discussed the incident with the man in the B
MW and the break-in at Braden’s house? And what would Braden’s boss do if she refused to talk to him? He wasn’t the police. Maybe he thought he was important enough to tell her what to do even though she didn’t work for him.
Taking the visitor badge, she followed Braden to a secure elevator. He entered a code in a keypad on the wall and the doors opened. Stepping inside, she saw him press the sixteenth-floor button.
“How many floors are engineering?” she asked.
“Almost all of them. Corporate is on the top two.”
“Foreign land for you.”
Only then did he catch on to her teasing. A grin poked the corners of his mouth. “You love it and you know it.”
“We’ll see about corporate. Engineering...?” She eyed him suggestively.
“I wasn’t talking about corporate.”
The elevator felt warmer than it did when she’d first entered. Braden was more relaxed now, too.
On the sixteenth floor, they left the elevator and passed one set of double glass doors, behind which was a bustling office center. The next suite over, Braden opened one of the doors. A receptionist led them to the last of a row of offices along the west wall, standing aside to allow them entry. A man with round glasses stood from behind his desk, several feet from the door. His back was to a window that offered a view of the mountains. The perks of sacrificing your life to a corporation.
He came around the desk and offered his hand to Arizona. “Harry Sampson.”
“Arizona Ivy.”
He resembled Iron Man’s Tony Stark, with a stomach and glasses. Average height, dark hair showing hints of gray. Expensive suit.
“I’ve watched some of your father’s movies. He’s quite accomplished.”
Of course, a man like him would recognize Jackson Ivy that way. Even though Harry Sampson probably made far less than her father, he was a businessman. Accomplishments that earned revenue drove him. “Is that why you asked to see me along with Braden?”
“I’d rather that was the reason. Please. Have a seat.” He turned less cordial eyes to Braden, not noticing her deliberate choice to use the word asked.
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