The Price of Secrecy

by The Price of Secrecy [Evernight] (mobi)

  She drank first, savoring the taste, and then she put down her glass and took a deep breath. “Dominic, I am really grateful for the job. Honestly. But what is all this? You take my arm inside the building, I’m in a ridiculously expensive restaurant with you, and this feels more like a date than a business lunch.”

  It was one of the boldest questions she’d ever asked of an employer. Then again, she’d never worked for anyone like him, and she’d never been so obviously hit on by any of her bosses.

  He took another sip of wine while he held her gaze. It was impossible to read the expression in his eyes, but she didn’t think he was angry. Rather that he was carefully choosing his next words.

  “All right.” He placed his glass on the table and fixed her with a neutral stare. “Time to stop dancing around and come clean. Angela, I have a confession. It’s going to be very difficult for me not to want more from you than a work relationship. I think you’re beautiful and intelligent, and I also sense something mysterious in you that intrigues me. You’re quite irresistible.”

  She swallowed hard. There was something mysterious about her all right, but God help him if he found out because then he’d be in danger, too.

  “Surely I’m not the first man to have told you that.”

  “I’ve um … I’ve avoided getting close enough to anyone to get to that point.” That was the most she dared to spill her guts to him about why she kept people at a distance.

  He frowned. “None of my business, and you really should slap my face for asking, but are you a virgin?”

  She smiled. “I won’t slap your face for asking. It’s a legitimate question under the circumstances. No, I’m not a virgin.” She might as well be. Did it grow back when you didn’t have sex for close to a year?

  “Why have you avoided getting that close to anyone?” His tone changed. It was subtle, but she caught the sudden sharpness in his voice, and the way his body shifted slightly.

  “It’s a long story.”

  He watched her for a few moments, sipping more wine, and then she saw resignation in his eyes, but not complete acceptance. Rather, it was as if he’d decided to let her win the battle, but he hadn’t yet surrendered the war. This man was too powerful to let him get that close to the truth. She couldn’t put him or his company in danger. What the hell was she going to do here?

  “I’d like to know the answer to one question.”

  “All right.” What if it was not something she could tell him? Was she going to have to lie to her new boss on the first day? She’d already told one tiny white lie about why she spoke Italian. You’ve been lying to everyone since you were eight years old.

  “Do you find me attractive at all, or am I wasting my time here?”

  What? Was he out of his mind? She was grateful she hadn’t taken another sip of wine or she’d be choking on it right now. Angela blinked a few times, certain she’d misheard him, but the look on his face told her she hadn’t. He looked like a high school boy asking his crush out on a date, and her heart melted. “Dominic, I find you very attractive.” She took a quick sip of wine for courage. “If we’re being brutally honest here…”

  “It would help if we could be.” His voice was quiet and unsure, and that shocked her.

  “Then let me rephrase that. I think you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in person, and you overwhelm me, but in a good way. You’re charismatic and powerful, and that’s a difficult combination to resist. I have images of jumping across this table to kiss you racing through my mind right now.”

  That may have been a mistake to admit.

  He covered her hand with his, and she resisted the urge to grab his arm and pull him across the space between them. His touch sent tiny jolts of electricity up her arm and back down again to her throbbing clit. “Perhaps we shouldn’t try to resist it, then?”

  Hellfire! “Perhaps not.” Now, in addition to her wet panties and all-consuming horniness, she was sweating. That might be the effect of drinking wine before noon, but probably not. More than likely it was Dominic’s dark gaze, full of lust and determination. Fuck. What the hell had she just started?

  Their server returned, and the spell was broken. She ate calamari that tasted better than anything she’d ever eaten, and drank two glasses of water to cool off inside. It didn’t help. She still wanted to fuck him into next week.

  “Is the sauce too hot?” he asked.

  “No. It’s fine.” You’re too hot. “It’s delicious. I love the way they haven’t put too much breading on it. Usually when you have fried calamari at a restaurant, there’s more coating than squid.”

  He chuckled softly, nodding. “I agree. Thank you for this, Angela. It’s been a while since I’ve had such an enjoyable lunch companion.”

  She swallowed the food in her mouth. “Seriously? I mean come on. You can’t tell me you don’t have women throwing themselves at you.”

  His gaze turned dark and thoughtful. “That may be true, but it doesn’t mean I respond to all of them.”

  “I didn’t mean to insult you. It’s just that you’re rich, powerful, and ridiculously good-looking.” He averted his gaze for a second, and now she was really confused. Surely the man had been given compliments by every woman who glanced his way. “Not it’s my turn to call bullshit. You can’t tell me you haven’t heard that before.”

  “I’ve heard it.” He lifted his gaze. “What you just said makes me a magnet for unscrupulous people. You’d be surprised how many women I’ve dated who don’t look past any of that. Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised. It’s difficult to get to know anyone on a deeper level than surface attraction when their agenda becomes all too clear in the first five minutes.”

  “They want you for your money.”

  “That, and for the resources I control. For the power.”

  “It’s intoxicating to most people.”

  He gave her a long, searching look. “Is that why you’re here?”

  “No. I’m here because my hot boss invited me to lunch, and because my willpower is just about gone. Your power and your money are what make your company so successful, but they don’t define you. The person inside. That’s who I want to get to know.”

  “Thank you for saying that.”

  “It’s the truth, but it’s not easy for me to be so bold. I prefer to fade into the background and not draw attention to myself.”

  He laughed softly. “Is that why you wore a red suit today?”

  Heat rose to her face, and she took a long sip of wine. “No. I wore it because it looks good on me, and I was hoping you’d notice.” Can’t get any more truthful than that.

  “How in the name of all that’s holy could I not notice you, Angela?”

  She swallowed hard as their gazes locked. It would be so easy to throw caution to the wind. Surely a man like him had layers of protection around him, so any danger she thought she might put him in was insignificant.

  The obvious solution came to her once again, as it had every single time she’d wanted to go deeper into a relationship with a man. Tell him the truth. That was against the rules, but how could she live a lie with someone?

  How could she have a relationship that might potentially lead to marriage and children? Legally she was Angela Davidson. According to the fake documents the US Department of Justice and the US Marshals Service had manufactured she was, but inside she wasn’t, and she never would be. Every single minute of her life she lived a lie, and she couldn’t tell anyone about it. “I don’t know what to say right now.” That much, at least, was the truth.

  He caressed her hand, and she had to bite back a moan. “You haven’t been treated right. I can see that now. I assumed a woman with your looks and your intelligence had men lined up waiting to be with you, but I understand now I was wrong.”

  Every instinct screamed at her to end this now, before he talked her into going out with him again. Before he talked her into bed with him, which wouldn’t be difficult to do at all. But as she gazed int
o those expressive dark eyes, all the years of self-imposed loneliness came crashing down. The weight of those years was oppressive and evil. She didn’t want to hide anymore, and she was tired of denying what should be a normal part of her life.

  She wanted to go out on dates, and she wanted to have sex. She wanted to do both without fear or suspicion. The little girl who didn’t understand why she could never see her father or uncles again, or why she and her mother had to move and pretend to be different people for the rest of their lives was in the past, and that’s where Angela wanted to keep her.

  She was a grown woman now. She had a career and a kick-ass job. Her gorgeous boss wanted to fuck her, and she wanted to fuck him. Angela had never wanted any man more than she wanted Dominic right now. There was no reason to deny her needs. She had to have him. It was just that simple.

  Chapter Six

  “It’s complicated,” said Angela. “Or maybe it’s not. Maybe I just never met a man who knew how to treat a woman?”

  Dominic was now convinced that he’d been right. Angela was hiding something, but he had no clue what it was. One thing he knew for certain. He wanted her, but first he had to make sure he hadn’t hired someone who could hurt him or his company. “If you had met such a man, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

  Their salads arrived, and Dominic was grateful for the distraction of eating. The salad was perfect, just like everything he had hoped this afternoon would turn out to be. He decided to change the subject. If he could get her talking, he might uncover something about her mysterious past. “Why did you major in IT in school? Was it something you always knew you wanted to do?”

  “Yes, ever since middle school when I sort of accidentally hacked into the school’s grade system just to prove it could be done.”

  He nearly choked on a mouthful of lettuce and tomatoes. “Excuse me? Have I hired a criminal?”

  She laughed. “No. It really was a stupid thing to do.”

  “I’ll say. Were you expelled?”

  “Almost. A group of boys in my pre-calc class were misogynistic idiots who liked to make everyone believe they were super smart about coding and hacking already in eighth grade. They would bait the girls by saying things like we couldn’t code to save our lives, and that no woman would ever amount to anything in the world of cyber security. I think they watched a lot of old movies about teens who hacked into government computer systems or something.”

  He smiled and nodded. Even in this day and age, men outnumbered women in the industry, and there was still an unspoken attitude that they weren’t good enough for the work. It was pure bullshit.

  “So one day our teacher got called out of the room to take an emergency call from a family member, and the guys were bragging about having figured out how to hack into the grading system to change their grades. I called bullshit on it, and they dared me to do it to show it could be done, and also because they said a girl wouldn’t be able to figure it out.”

  “Had they actually hacked in, or were they just setting you up?”

  “They were just setting me up, but of course I didn’t see that at the time.”

  “Your pride was hurt.”

  “My girl pride, yes. Exactly. You know how it is when you’re fourteen. If someone dares you to do something, you’re going to do it.”

  “I understand completely.” She was right. Most of the incredibly stupid things he’d done in his life had been done between the ages of eleven and eighteen.

  “So not only did I do it, but I did it in less than ten minutes. Unfortunately the principal walked in just as I finished, and it took my mother calling every one of those boys’ parents and threatening them before they all finally confessed their part in it.”

  “Were they expelled?”

  “No, but all of us had to attend a seminar on cyber security and write a paper about what we had learned. Actually, this is going to sound really geeky, but I thought the seminar was fascinating. It opened up a whole new world to me that I hadn’t realized existed, and that’s when I knew I wanted to explore careers in IT. I knew I was good at it, but I didn’t have enough basic knowledge to also be safe about it.”

  He leaned back, impressed. “Very introspective and mature for a girl of fourteen. I mean that.”

  “Thank you.” When she was given a compliment her entire face lit up, and the gesture mesmerized him. She had a vulnerability that made him want to protect her.

  “What about you?” she asked. “Why telecommunications?”

  “Because it’s the one industry that will never fail. No matter how many ways we can think of to upgrade devices, or build smaller ones, larger ones, even devices that think for us, now that we have them we’re never going backwards. It’s a sure thing.”

  She nodded. “That makes sense. Did you inherit your company or this something you built on your own?”

  “I did not inherit it. I did this on my own.” He had inherited the money, but she hadn’t asked about that. Not yet, anyway.

  “What business was your family in?”

  This information wasn’t public knowledge or he was certain she’d have already found it, but he couldn’t discuss his family with her. That was off limits. So instead he winked. “I have my secrets, too.”

  “Ah, I see. Forgive me for prying.”

  “You weren’t prying. It’s simply not a topic I discuss.”

  “Okay.” She went back to her salad, finishing it in three bites. “Delicious. I wish I knew how to make dressing like this. My mother is the cook in our family. She can make a rock taste good.”

  He tilted his head slightly. “Does she also speak Italian like you do?”

  She drained her wine glass, and he refilled it for her. “She taught me. We still speak it to each other to keep up our skills. It’s like our secret language.”

  He watched her face blanch and knew she’d just said something she’d never meant to, but why should it matter that she and her mother were bilingual? Or was she thinking of the obvious lie she’d told him earlier about the college roommate? He decided not to call her on it because he wanted her to keep talking.

  “It helps her at her job. As a medical coder. To be able to speak another language. Actually she speaks several. She studied them in school.”

  He sensed that wasn’t a lie, but the tone of her voice and the nervous way she played with the corner of her napkin told him she was trying to recover, and that tugged at his heart. What the hell was this girl hiding in her life that had her so damn frightened to spill even a tiny part of it accidentally?

  She had no dating or sex life. That much he’d deduced. Which meant she kept people, and men especially, at arm’s length. The only reasons he could imagine why someone would do that included fear, or a secret that was life and death. “Do you also speak other languages as well?”

  “A bit here and there, but the only one she taught me was Italian. The rest I’ve picked up listening to her. When I was still in school, she would do extra work at home dictating discharge instructions into charts for non-English speaking patients.”

  “I see. So it’s always just been you two?”

  A quick flash of terror swept across her face, but then it was gone. “Yes. Just us.” He heard the subtle change in her voice and knew she’d just told him another big fat lie.

  Dominic hadn’t gotten this far not being able to read people, but he be damned if he had any idea what was going on here. It unnerved him, but he was now fairly certain this girl wasn’t out to hurt him or his company. She was definitely terrified of something or someone, and he certainly understood that from an insider’s view. He’d lived with that kind of fear all his life.

  When their entrees arrived, he changed the subject once more to work-related issues, and his heart skipped a beat when he noticed how she visibly relaxed. Her voice no longer held that note of hesitation. She was on solid ground where her work skills were concerned, so whatever had her afraid had nothing to do with school or her degrees. He was
determined to uncover it, but he was also fighting his hormones with each passing minute.

  She was so easy to be with when she was relaxed like this, laughing and smiling. Her warm, smoky voice sent shivers down his spine as he imagined listening to it in a dark room, their bodies covered in sweat and the air scented with the remnants of hot sex. He longed to pamper her and show her how much fun sex could actually be, because he doubted anyone had ever been able to get that close.

  The wine bottle was empty by the time they finished, and she declined dessert. “I swear if I try to eat one more thing I’ll burst. That was seriously the most delicious meal I’ve ever had. Thank you.”

  “You are very welcome.” He signaled for the check. “Now if only we didn’t have to work.”

  She giggled, and instead of annoying him, the sound was endearing. His cock was rock hard, and he had no idea how he’d walk. “I might fall asleep.”

  He could think of more atmospheric places to fall asleep than her office or a conference room. Like his bedroom, after they fucked each other silly. Once he’d signed the credit card receipt for the meal, he covered her hand again. Her skin was warm, but the touch sent chills through his entire body. “Then maybe we should begin work in the morning instead?”

  She blinked a few times. “What, seriously? It’s my first day. I don’t want you thinking I’m slacking off.”

  Dominic caressed her skin. Her eyes went all soft, and she took a deep breath. “I’m the one who invited you to lunch and got you drunk.”

  “I’m not drunk.”

  “All right. A bit tipsy, perhaps.”

  “Not enough that I can’t work.”

  He had cleared all his meetings to spend the afternoon with her, but he didn’t want to work. “I’m not in the mood to return to the office.” He took out his phone. “It’s already two in the afternoon.”

  “You’re kidding…” She pulled out her own phone and stared at it. “I’m so sorry.”