by Nana Malone
Jake put up his hands and shook his head. “Easy, Dee. I’m not suggesting you put yourself in harm’s way, okay? I know he’s an ass, but I wouldn’t say he’s dangerous. But your safety is my biggest concern. Right now, I’m going to assign you someone to accompany you to any meetings you have with him.”
She narrowed her eyes. That was his grand plan? To have Willow accompany her everywhere? “That’s the best you can do? I mean Willow is great, and if I’m being honest, she scares me a little, but honestly, Michael won’t be fazed.”
“No. Of course not. Like security. Like a big hulking, Samoan, Dwayne Johnson type fucker. I’m taking you seriously, Dee. It’s just a delicate situation. Can you work with me on this?”
“I don’t want a permanent bodyguard.”
“And you won’t have one. Every time you have a meeting with Michael, we’ll call him in.”
“And if anything unexpected comes up?”
“Then Michael Ross will have to wait.”
Delilah studied him, trying to discern any hint of dishonesty. She could go to legal and file a harassment complaint, but the only outcome involved her paying back a lump sum she couldn’t afford. “That’s a good temporary solution, but Jake, anything else happens, and you need to pull me off this case. Or I swear to God, I’ll walk.”
“Deal.” He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw. “And while we’re on the subject of pain in the ass clients, how do we control Nate Williams?”
She swallowed. “What are you talking about?” She prayed he hadn't seen the article. And hadn’t he been on Nate patrol last night?
“Did he, or did he not, have some words with Ross last night?”
Delilah breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, but I dealt with it.”
“What was it about?”
Damn. “They just didn’t seem to hit it off. But I diffused the situation.”
He nodded. “Good. I saw that bullshit photo on Celeb Juicy. I don’t want that to become a problem. I would have killed for Lachlan Murphy as the replacement CEO. Not this guy. His edges are too sharp for my liking.”
She knew what he meant. “I’ll deal with him.”
“Good. You have a meeting with Michael today, right?”
She bit back a groan. “Yeah, at three thirty.”
“I’ll replace your usual driver with someone who specializes in security.”
It wasn’t the best outcome, but it was one she could live with for now. “Okay. Thanks.”
“It’s just another two months until the release of his movie. You can do anything for two months.”
She had serious doubts about that.
Chapter 12
Do not call Delilah.
Nate tried to force his eyeballs to focus on the screen in front of him. He really did. Problem was, every time he tried to focus over the last day, his mind wandered to Delilah in that storage closet.
“Williams, we got problems.”
Didn’t Nate know it? Instead of sleeping last night, he’d spent hours trying to forget Delilah. Given his lack of sleep, he couldn’t concentrate on the work in front of him. He was supposed to provide a comprehensive financial projection for some investors later, and he had to know his shit to pull this off.
He looked up from the stack of financials to find Taraby in his doorway. “What's up? I'm kind of tied up here.”
“Well, I thought as our CEO, you'd want to know there is a pretty nasty set of hackers bombarding our firewalls right now.”
“What the fuck do you mean?”
Taraby rolled his eyes. “Pretty sure I just said hackers and firewall.”
Nate’s body went stiff. He shoved aside the financials and turned on his laptop.
“You know you won’t be able to see or stop what's going on from here,” Taraby said. “Besides we have a team of developers down in engineering doing their best to thwart the attack.”
Nate didn't listen as he got to work accessing the servers. As calmly as he could, he asked, “And do you know how these hackers have managed to get to this point? I thought your security protocols were state of the art. At least that's what you led me to believe.”
Taraby shifted from foot to foot as he jammed his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “We traced a worm that was sent directly to someone in the marketing department. An assistant who checked her personal email.”
Nate frowned. “Was it intentional?”
Taraby shrugged. “Not sure yet. I came to find you first.”
Okay, maybe that had been the better call. “Get your laptop and come back in here. I need some help. One of us has to stop the malware that's weakening the system from the inside, and someone else has to stop the external attack.”
“Like I said, this is just a FYI. I have my whole team dedicated to stopping the worm and the attack.”
“I heard what you said.” He kept the ‘Douche Bag’ implied for the sake of professionalism. “But I'm also of the belief that in situations like this, all hands on deck. Or is the safety of our customer information not particularly important to you? I'm not trying to be like Sony or Citibank or, hell, even the CIA. I have no intention of having to make some big mea culpa to our customers after only being in the position for a few days. So if you want to keep your job, go get your laptop and join me up here.”
Taraby frowned, and his eyes shifted to the door.
Nate glared at him. Yeah I get it, asshole, you don’t want to have to show me that you're completely useless, but you started this. “Is there a problem?”
“Uh, no. No problem.”
As soon as Steven was gone, Nate concentrated on the code he was looking at. With a smirk, he started building his own line of defense that would keep the hacker or hackers busy for some time. He liked to call it the Great Wall of Nate. It wasn't the first time he'd had to build something like this.
Most hackers were merely testing their skills. Most of the time when they attacked a private site or business, they were just curious if they could.
When Taraby returned, he looked displeased but plugged himself in across the room.
Nate waved him to his desk. “No, Steve, why don’t you join me? Since you built the system, I'd love to see the kind of code you put out.”
The other man's eyes widened, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. “Oh, I don't code anymore. I'm here to observe my team as they fight what this is. If you want, I’ll just keep you posted.”
Nate had to stop himself from laughing. “So all that posturing and telling me that this should be your job, and you can't even code anymore?” When the other man remained silent, he nodded and continued. “That's fine. Unlike you, I actually do still code. And I've already started on a wall of defense that will attack any system that tried to get too close. Just have your guys focus on the work and cleaning it up. Then we figure out how something like this could have happened on your watch.” Although, Nate already had a good idea.
“Y-y-yeah. Fine.”
Nate dismissed him with a look then went back to work. He missed this. Pitting his brain against others, testing his skill to see if he still had it. He loved programming games, but he preferred hacking. Too bad that in all instances but this, who he had been and who he was could never co-exist.
After several hours of shoring up the company’s firewalls, a knock at his door had him tensing. He really didn't need any more bad news today. “What?”
The door opened, and Delilah stepped through with a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry to just drop by, but your assistant said your schedule was clear, and I had a list of participants to review with you, if you have the time.”
Nate couldn’t help the jolt of elation once he saw her. But then she’d always affected him like that. “Hey, Lila.” He immediately relaxed. “Sorry for barking at you. Crazy day. I spent half the day chasing down a worm trying to hack the system and—” Nate stopped talking and cocked his head. He studied her carefully. Even though she wore a semblance of a smile, something was...off. Her eyes w
ere unfocused, and her smile tight. “What's the matter?”
She opened her mouth, then sighed. “Nothing. Just a hell of a day. Sorry to pop in on you like this, but I was going through the list and figured you’d be better at it than I would, so I took a chance that you’d still be here.”
He narrowed his eyes and studied her. He knew that look. She was going to attempt to shove aside whatever was bothering her and grind through her day. Classic Delilah. “Want to talk about it?”
She laughed without humor. “Actually no. The last thing I want to do is talk. Sort of been talked to death all day.”
Just like always, his body gravitated toward hers, but right now, he just wanted to hold her. And just like always, the moment he tried to fight the feeling, it felt like someone carved his heart out with a dull instrument. Danger. “Can I help?”
“Do you have chocolate or a very large, medieval goblet-sized glass of wine?”
“Sorry, no. But how about a ride?”
Delilah blinked up at him. A light flush dusted her cheeks. “I—”
Nate chuckled. “Mind out of the gutter. I meant on my motorcycle.” Okay, so not entirely true. Every time she was near, he almost always had a mental image of her riding him, her full breasts overflowing his hands. He cleared his throat deliberately to clear the image.
She shook her head. “I’ve never been on a motorcycle before.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything. C’mon. You’ll have fun.” And it would help him keep his hands off her. If they stayed here, he’d be tempted to pick up where they left off last night. And they had to work a couple of things out before he did that.
Delilah’s lips tipped into a smile. “Fun. I could use some fun.”
And he wanted her to have fun. Problem was, he also wanted her to have fun with him. “Then by all means, let’s go for a ride.”
###
Maybe this was a mistake. The moment Nate had handed her a helmet, Delilah had wondered about her sanity. She eyed the metallic monster of a bike. Was that thing safe? Hell, she’d never seen anything like it. And no wonder. When she’d seen him on it, she’d looked it up with Willow. It was worth over a hundred grand. She shouldn’t be looking at it, let alone riding the damn thing.
He climbed on, and she hesitated. “I’m not sure about this.”
His smile was calm and easy going. This wasn’t the over-charming confident Nate she knew. “It’s okay, Delilah. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. All you have to do is trust me.”
Trust. The one thing that didn’t come easily. Especially with him. She swallowed. She could hand him back his helmet and head home. Maybe finally get some sleep. Take the weekend to herself and go see her family and recharge. Or, for once, she could allow herself a little fun.
Despite their past, she wanted to trust him. Underneath the time and distance, new clothes, and new job, he was still the same. The one who’d taught her to throw a punch so she wouldn’t break her hand and helped her drive a stick shift when her father had been too frustrated. Nate would keep her safe.
She slipped on the helmet and slid onto the bike behind him. He’d given her a hoodie to wear, despite the warmth of the night. He’d donned a light leather jacket, but had left it unzipped.
She slid her arms around his waist, and they both stilled. Under her palm, his hammering heart beat a speedy rhythm into her flesh, tattooing it.
“Oh, and Delilah?”
Thanks to both their helmets, his voice was low and muffled. “Yeah.”
“Don’t close your eyes. You’ll miss all the fun.”
From that moment on, the roar of the engine made it impossible to speak. But words weren’t important as they whizzed around the streets of uptown. Admittedly, she had to close her eyes a couple of times when they’d gotten too close to a taxi or two, but mostly she’d listened and taken in the whirling lights of the city. Nature wove in with concrete and created a blurred tableau of buildings and trees as they whizzed through Columbus Circle, then briefly through Central Park before they headed back toward downtown.
The energy of the city helped her drown out everything else. The people became a sea of faces and colors and swatches of fabric billowing in the breeze of the early evening.
Even though the Tomahawk seemed huge to her, they were still able to whiz between traffic, making their progress significantly swifter than if they’d been in a car. It wasn’t long before they hit midtown and were bombarded with billboards of models advertising the latest perfume or jeans or fashion line. The show crowds were starting to fill the streets as tourists crammed the sidewalks and hustled to their early dinners that would precede their Broadway experiences. When was the last time she’d seen a show? Years certainly, and only when her parents came to visit.
She and Willow always talked about going, but of course, she was always working. How much of her life had she wasted because she’d been chasing after the Michael Ross types and cleaning up their messes? She’d certainly lost enough sleep. Maybe Jake was right. Maybe she needed to create some emotional distance and focus on herself.
Once they hit Soho and Chelsea, the streets became so crowded they couldn’t fly through with ease anymore. Now people stared at them. Well mostly the bike. She and Nate were anonymous. When Nate finally turned them back toward his apartment, she held on to him a little tighter, finally letting herself feel what she’d been afraid to acknowledge. She was happy he was back. Grateful that he was okay. And she wanted him. Even more than the shy, sixteen-year-old her had wanted him.
And for once, she wasn’t going to do what she should. She was going to do what she wanted.
Chapter 13
Two hours with Delilah wrapped around him had been simultaneously exhilarating and torturous. It certainly didn’t make Nate want to keep his hands off of her. After their ride, he’d taken her to his apartment. He told himself it was because he wanted to talk in private. Away from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears. The moment they were back in his apartment, though, the confines felt too small and constricted, like there wasn’t enough air to go around.
Delilah took in his apartment, and he wondered how it must look to her. It was the first time he’d given any thought to the impersonal prints he had on his walls, or the stark modern furniture, or the complete lack of warmth. He’d lived here for two years, but part of him had been afraid to settle in, in case it was only temporary.
She smiled up at him. “It’s different than I pictured.”
“Oh? What did you picture?”
She laughed. “Wires. Lots of wires.”
He couldn’t help but return her easy smile. “In my spare bedroom. My whole setup’s in there. I learned from your folks how to keep a place clean. Sorta stuck with me, I guess.”
She glanced around again. “Yeah, I can see that. Not a stich of clutter anywhere. My place would drive you nuts.”
With a sudden pang of longing, he found he really wanted to see her place. “I doubt that.”
Her tongue peaked out to moisten her bottom lip. “Thank you for the ride, that was...” She exhaled. “Awesome. Unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It was just what I needed.”
“Anytime.” He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from reaching for her. “So do we have a new convert?”
Her eyes went wide. “I definitely want to ride again. It’s terrifying, and awesome, and calming all at the same time.”
He grinned, knowing exactly how she felt. “That’s how it starts. Before you know it, you’ll be asking me to borrow the bike.”
“Oh, I don’t think so. That thing is terrifying. But maybe something smaller. Though, I like the idea of living dangerously.”
He could tell she was on edge about something. Her whole body practically hummed. Maybe she was feeling it too. Primed. Ready. Like she’d spent the last two hours with his chest beneath her palms and she couldn’t take it anymore either. Nate rocked onto his heels. “You’re staring.”
�
�I guess I am.” Very deliberately, she stepped in front of him. Holding his gaze, she placed her palms on his chest.
His muscles gave an involuntary leap, and he barely stifled the groan. “Delilah, what are you doing?”
Her dark gaze met his, and he clenched his jaw against the need. With sheer force of will, he managed to keep his hands in his pockets. And he might have been at least twice her size, but he didn’t have the strength to push her away. He wanted her to want him. Needed her to want him. Needed to know he wasn’t the only one losing sleep.
Her voice was soft but firm when she spoke. “Living dangerously.”
With shaky hands, she lifted the hem of his T-shirt and slipped her hands beneath. Her feather-soft fingertips scorched a path of heat from his waist to his pectorals. She pulled him to her, flicking her gaze to his briefly before her eyelids fluttered closed and she pressed her lips to his.
It wasn’t quite a kiss, just a whisper of lips meeting, really. But as he breathed out, she breathed in, and vice versa. It wasn’t long before he started to feel like he might die without her to supply him with air. “What do you want from me?”
“I want what I’ve always wanted. You to make love to me. I used to think about you touching me. Kissing me. Back then, you starred in every one of my fantasies.”
Oh shit. His hands trembled, and Nate struggled for control. “And what about now?”
“You still have this way of making me ache.”
She was barely touching him, and he was already so close to losing it. He wanted to pick her up, back her up against the wall, and bury himself so deep inside her that they couldn’t separate themselves for a week. He needed her like he needed his heart to keep beating. But he didn’t want to give her the wrong picture. He wasn’t the kind of guy she’d want in the long run, and he didn’t want her getting confused.
She nipped his jaw, then followed the love bite with a small lave of her tongue. His knees almost buckled. He dipped his head to meet her gaze. “I want to give you what you want. To help you alleviate that ache. But I want to make sure this is what you want.”