As if sensing her gaze, Joel glanced up, one eyebrow lifting in silent query.
‘I’ve retrieved everything for the date you think Magda got into the system. You’d better come and check if it’s all there,’ she invited, and Joel immediately rose to his feet and came to join her.
She had expected him to sit, but he chose to read the screen over her shoulder, one hand resting on the desk, taking his weight as he leaned closer. Kathryn was made very much aware of him. The musky scent of him assailed her nostrils, affording her senses a subtle pleasure.
‘Let me just…’ Joel began, reaching round her to take the mouse, and suddenly Kathryn found herself trapped between both his arms, with his torso pressing against her head and shoulders. Her breathing grew ragged as her heart slipped into a higher gear. She had an almost overwhelming urge to lean back against him and have those strong male arms enfold her. She might even have done it, except that the tone of Joel’s voice altered, bringing her back to sanity.
‘That’s odd,’ he murmured shortly, and she could tell from his tone that he was frowning.
She sat up straighter immediately, pushing all wanton thought aside. ‘What is?’
‘The files I’ve been working on aren’t there,’ he told her, and she frowned, too.
‘Are you sure? What name are they under?’ Joel told her and she took the mouse from him and started clicking. It only took a minute or two to confirm he was right. Those files were missing. ‘I’ll go back over my tracks. Perhaps she got in more than once, and those files have a different date. Give me some time to check it out.’ Without waiting for his agreement, Kathryn started to hunt down the missing files.
Half an hour later she sat back with a grim expression on her face. Folding her arms, she turned to where Joel stood waiting by the window. He looked round at once, his shoulders tensing as he saw the serious set of her mouth.
‘They’re not there,’ he stated shortly, and she nodded.
‘They’re gone, all right. Was the information on them vital?’ It wasn’t mere curiosity. She needed to know in order to think of what to do next.
Joel dragged a hand through his hair. ‘They were highly confidential, concerning some new projects I’m working on. I used them all the time. She probably guessed that the files I used most often were current and wiped them totally,’ he said in a voice that threatened retribution if he ever met up with the lady again.
Kathryn shivered. She wouldn’t want to make an enemy of him. Unfortunately, what she had to say next wouldn’t improve his mood, either. ‘There is another possibility, and only you will know if it’s feasible,’ she ventured, and his eyes narrowed.
‘And that is?’
Looking him squarely in the eye, because she had discovered it was better to deliver bad news without dressing it up, she gave him her worst case scenario. ‘She may have copied the files onto disks, then deleted them permanently to make you think just what you have,’ she said, and caught her breath when he seemed to freeze, a stunned look crossing his face.
‘The devil!’ he exclaimed through gritted teeth, and she could see his brain suddenly working like fury to follow that line of reasoning to its conclusion.
‘It’s possible, then?’
‘More than possible,’ Joel agreed wrathfully, and she winced.
Kathryn watched him, unblinking, then gave a tiny cough before posing her next question cautiously. ‘Er…just how well did you know Magda? I hate to be the ghost at the feast, but was this an act of pure serendipity, or did she get to know you as part of another agenda, to get the information on your projects?’ she asked, and could swear she heard his teeth grinding.
‘I’m just beginning to wonder that myself,’ he returned grimly, dragging his hand through his hair again as he paced back and forth across the room. Finally he came to a halt before her. ‘OK, get your coat on. We’re going for a walk. I need to think and I need fresh air to do it.’
Though she raised her brows in surprise, Kathryn didn’t argue. The man had problems, and right now he didn’t need her adding to them. Perhaps she might even be able to help. Without a word she quickly shut the computer down and hurried upstairs to change into jeans and a thick sweater. Tugging on her boots, she gathered up her coat and went down to find him pacing the hall impatiently. He had donned a thick, fleece-lined coat, pulled a woollen hat onto his head and wound a scarf around his neck. When he saw her slipping into her woollen coat, he tutted and strode to the closet, returning with several items in his hands.
‘You’ll freeze in just that coat,’ he declared tersely, and proceeded to pull a cream woolly hat onto her head and, before she could protest, wound a matching scarf round her neck.
Feeling very much like a small child being dressed for the outdoors by an adult, Kathryn couldn’t help grinning as she swayed back and forth under his ministrations. When he noticed it, he stood back and frowned.
‘What’s so funny?’ he asked, and she giggled.
‘I was just imagining you doing this to your own child. I bet you’d make a good father,’ she pronounced just a little huskily.
Still frowning, Joel began pulling on a pair of gloves. ‘You decided that on the basis of my putting a hat and scarf on you?’
Kathryn nodded. ‘Because despite you being angry and upset, and having a million more important things to think about, you were still concerned about my well-being. It’s called caring, in case you don’t recognise it,’ she added ironically, and he shot her a darkling look.
‘Don’t read anything into it. I just don’t want you getting sick on me. Do you have gloves? Put them on then,’ he ordered when she produced them from her pockets, magician fashion.
‘Yes, Papa,’ she returned demurely, and this time when he looked at her his mood had lightened slightly, enough for a faint glimmer of amusement to appear in his eyes.
‘Cut it out, or I’ll do another fatherly thing and box your ears for you!’
Ducking her head to hide another grin, Kathryn subsided obediently and meekly followed him out of the front door. The cold hit her immediately, and she was instantly glad of the hat and scarf. It was snowing only fitfully at present, but the wind had picked up considerably, and she could well imagine that they were soon going to get the promised snowstorm.
Joel set out at a brisk pace down the hillside towards the lake. Kathryn had to hurry to keep up with him, but she made no complaint, for he was already deep in thought again. She could barely imagine what he must be thinking, but she knew it would not be pleasant. The ramifications of their suspicions were enough to set her own stomach churning. If someone had broken into her computer and stolen files, she knew she wouldn’t just mourn their loss, she would feel violated, too, for a computer was a very personal thing. Right now Joel must be feeling betrayed. It was no wonder he had some serious thinking to do.
Which was why she said nothing when she began to struggle with the pace, merely put her head down and battled to keep up with him as he followed a barely visible path through the trees to the lake shore. There, without warning, he stopped. The move was so sudden she had no time to avoid him and careened into his back.
‘Oh! Ouch! Sorry,’ she apologised as she bounced off him and stumbled backwards.
One long arm snaked out and grabbed her before she fell, steadying her. He noted the way her chest was heaving with her effort to keep pace with him, and frowned.
‘You’re out of shape.’
The comment, when she had been doing her best to be reasonable, stung, and she brushed his hand away. ‘I’m in fine shape, thank you very much. You should have warned me we were in a race. Funnily enough, I assumed a walk meant just that!’ she returned indignantly, and he had the grace to look a little shamefaced.
‘Sorry,’ he apologised in turn. ‘I forgot you were there.’
Oh, this just got better and better! ‘What an insult! You order my presence like some olde worlde potentate, after which I become instantly forgettable!’ she gibe
d, and was a little surprised at how relieved she was to see him smile, however faintly.
‘Now, that you could never be,’ he said, then shook his head. ‘Would you have kept on at the same pace until you collapsed from exhaustion?’
Her shoulders rose and fell. ‘Like a faithful hound. I was banking on you being sorry when you realised what you’d done. I pictured you bent over my unconscious body, damning your selfishness.’
At that he shot her an old-fashioned look. ‘Why didn’t you just tell me I was walking too fast, hmm?’
She waved a hand airily. ‘I wasn’t really worried. I knew I’d get my second wind. By the way, I think I should point out that you’ll never outrun the problem. But, if you’re determined to walk your legs down to stumps, I’ll keep you company.’
He gave her a strange look then, as if he didn’t quite know what to make of her. ‘The faithful hound?’
Kathryn smiled up at him. ‘Something like that. Is the air fresh enough for you to think clearly?’ It felt cold enough to her to do physical damage to metal monkeys.
Joel glanced about him and took a deep lungful. ‘It’s certainly brisk,’ he admitted, tongue-in-cheek. ‘We’d better get moving or there’s every possibility we’ll freeze on the spot.’
No kidding, she thought wryly.
This time they set off at a more reasonable pace, which caused her no problems. Joel soon plunged back into thought, and Kathryn left him to it. She knew he would speak when he had something to say. For herself, now that she had caught her breath, she had ample opportunity to study the stark beauty of the lake in winter. It could have been alienating, but to her it had a kind of magical quality. In a frosty, mystical landscape like this it was easy to imagine oneself lost in the deep reaches of Middle Earth.
She was busy visualising conflicts of good and evil swaying back and forth over the lake when Joel’s footsteps began to slow, and with a shake of her head she returned to the present. Crunch time. Turning to face the water, he shoved his hands into his pockets and stared out across the chilly expanse. Kathryn found a conveniently tumbled log, brushed off the snow and made herself comfortable on it, her gaze locked on his back as she waited. It wasn’t long before Joel spoke.
‘This is something I should have been expecting, but the last incident was so long ago I got sloppy. I failed to see it coming,’ he explained, convolutedly, and her brows rose.
‘You expected this?’ she asked in surprise.
‘Not this specifically, but something like it. Before we get to that, I’d better explain Magda’s involvement. I met her about a month ago. She backed her car into mine. At the time I suspected it was a deliberate accident to catch my attention, but that isn’t unusual,’ he revealed with a heavy dose of self-mockery.
Kathryn could easily picture the scene. Blonde beauty in severe distress over the shunt. Strong handsome type offers comfort, tells her not to worry her pretty little head about it, and…meeting achieved. ‘Now you don’t think it was that innocent?’
With a growl of disgust, Joel turned and looked at her. ‘Not considering the timing. I’d forgotten, but now I realise we’re coming up to the anniversary. This isn’t about business at all. It’s about one man getting revenge on another.’
‘Revenge for what, exactly?’ she queried carefully. The plot had thickened and she felt all at sea. Joel sighed heavily.
‘For something I did wrong a long time ago. Gray, the man I believe is behind this, used to be my best friend, until I walked off with his girlfriend. What I didn’t know was that he was in love with her. What he didn’t know was that she threw herself at me, and, being stupid, I caught her instead of throwing her back. The long and the short of it is, she was out for what she could get. But it was no use my trying to tell him that. He refused to listen. All he knew was that I had stolen the woman he loved. Ever since then he’s been doing his best to score points off me in whatever way he can. This little stunt is just the sort of thing he would do. I’d be willing to bet that somehow he persuaded Magda to do it for him.’
This had all the makings of an off-off-Broadway stage play. ‘I see. The chickens have come home to roost with a vengeance this time. The big question is, can he make use of what’s on the files?’ She homed in on the important point, but Joel swiftly shook his head.
He came to sit beside her and propped his elbows on his knees. This close, Kathryn could see his breath freezing in the air as he spoke. ‘No. We’re not in the same line of business. My guess is Magda took the files because they were what I was working on, not because of what they contained. Gray will know the importance if he reads them.’
‘And what will he do with them?’
Joel ran a hand around his neck tiredly. ‘I have no idea. But I wouldn’t put it past him to hold them over my head until he has exacted what he considers a fitting revenge.’
‘Hmm, looks like he has you over a barrel. If you do whatever he asks, will he return the files?’
‘I believe so. He just wants to make me suffer for a while,’ Joel explained grimly. ‘I have to hand it to him; he was clever. He knew me so well, he chose the one way of getting someone into my home without making me suspect anything.’
Kathryn shuffled her feet, which were beginning to feel the cold, and wisely chose not to comment. ‘What are you going to do?’ It didn’t seem to her that allowing this man called Gray to get away with it was Joel’s way, and he confirmed it in the next minute.
‘Get the files back, of course,’ he said grittily, and his strength of purpose was underlined by the hard set of his jaw.
Her brows rose. ‘Fine words, but just how do you intend to go about it?’ she asked curiously, and he turned those piercing blue eyes on her, capturing her gaze.
‘I’m not going to do anything. You are,’ he said softly, taking her aback. The steadiness of his regard sent her a clear message, and her eyes rounded into saucers.
‘You’re not seriously suggesting…?’ The remainder of the sentence tailed off into nothingness. Her teeth snapped together and she sat up straighter. ‘I can’t do that!’
He sat up, too. ‘Of course you can. You told me you were better than Magda. What she did, you can do in reverse,’ he argued firmly, and her eyes narrowed as he totally missed her point.
‘I’m not saying I can’t do it, I mean I won’t do it,’ she refused bluntly. Maybe in her early days at university she had enjoyed the thrill of hacking into different systems, but those days were long gone. She was a respectable businesswoman now. ‘It’s not ethical.’
‘Ethics be damned!’ Joel countered explosively. ‘I’m not asking you to break into the system of a rival in order to steal. All I’m asking is for you to do what has been done to me. This isn’t going to end up in court with your reputation in shreds. This is private, between the two of us, and will go no further whatever happens. Now, I believe we have time on our side. I’m betting Gray doesn’t expect me to link it to him—at least not yet. So far as he knows, his tracks are still covered. Ordinarily I would be prepared to let Gray get away with it, but not in this case. I need those files back, and you’re the only person who can get them for me.’
‘Rubbish! There’s any number of people out there who would be only too happy to do it for you,’ Kathryn insisted, but Joel was having none of it. He caught her by the shoulders and forced her to face him.
‘Maybe there are, but they aren’t here and you are. You have to help me, Kathryn. Please. I need you.’
She’d been about to refuse yet again. Those three simple words kept her silent. Her heart seemed to give a crazy lurch and she bit her lip. Oh, damn. He had had to put it like that, hadn’t he? He needed her help. He had even said please! How could she refuse him? She worried her lip some more, and caught the faint sound of a stifled groan. She blinked, and discovered that Joel’s eyes were no longer looking at her own, but had dropped to her mouth and were locked there in fatal fascination.
‘Do you have any idea what it does to
me when you do that?’ he asked in a low growl that set the fine hairs on her flesh rising.
Kathryn was very much aware that though her extremities were feeling the cold, parts of her were definitely warming up. ‘You don’t have to try and persuade me. I’ve already decided to help you, though it goes against the grain,’ she admitted, finding it incredibly difficult to speak when he was looking at her like that.
A faint smile curled the edges of his lips and made her knees melt, so that she couldn’t have moved away if she wanted to. ‘Then I think I should thank you properly,’ he declared thickly, drawing her towards him as he angled his head, the better to take her mouth.
In the back of her mind sanity urged she put up a fight, but Kathryn wasn’t listening. Forgetting everything she had told herself not to do, she sighed and shivered with pleasure when his lips claimed hers, but it was a fleeting caress that was over much too soon. In dismay she blinked at him when he pulled back.
‘Thank you, Kathryn,’ he murmured softly, a dangerous light glimmering in the depths of his eyes.
‘Is that it?’ she asked, unable to hide her disappointment, then caught the tiny flash of triumph in those incredible blue orbs and knew that she had been successfully reeled in. ‘Oh, you rat!’ she exclaimed, and would have fought him then. He defeated her by the simple act of taking her mouth again.
Only this time it was completely different. He captured her lips with a passion that stole her breath away, and as she gasped he growled, and his tongue claimed her honeyed sweetness, plundering it remorselessly. Swept away on a tide of pleasure, she let her arms slide up around his neck and his arms enfolded her, drawing her as close as their bulky clothing would allow. In seconds they were lost to the world, exchanging kisses that aroused and tantalised, building a fire that threatened to rage out of control.
It was Joel who finally dragged his mouth away. Struggling for breath, he rested his forehead against hers, their frozen breaths mingling like wraiths around them.
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