Unexpected Temptation

by Samantha Hunter

  Perhaps, if she were stronger, she would have resisted him last night. If she were a better woman, Vanessa wouldn’t be thinking, right now, about joining him in the shower. Letting him wash her back, press her up against the tile and get between her thighs, letting him deep inside....

  “Oh, dear,” Vanessa said under her breath, fanning her face, her body all of a sudden aching in a different way.

  This was bad. Leaving him when the time came would be difficult. She needed him so much already.

  But it was only physical. That’s what she told herself.

  Seconds later, Luke appeared in the doorway, wrapped only in a towel.

  “Good morning,” she said, her voice calm but her heart beating so hard she thought she might pass out.

  Everything about him was so male and perfect that she stared, committing him to memory.

  “Good morning. How are you?” he asked, searching her face, his eyes dropping to her side.

  “I’m fine,” she said, waving off his concern.

  He stepped in closer.

  “I meant otherwise, too. Did you sleep? Are you okay?”

  His eyes told her that maybe he was having the same thoughts and the same doubts that she was. Maybe he worried she was going to mistake their intimacy for something more, or worried she was going to suddenly freak out about their incredible night together, but she wouldn’t. And if she did, he would never know.

  To prove it, she lifted up, put a hand to his freshly shaven face and kissed him.

  “I’m fine. Really. Except that apparently, I woke up about twenty minutes too late to join you,” she said.

  She wasn’t going to play games, either. She wanted him, and why not let him know it, at least for now.

  “We could go back in. I might have missed a spot,” he offered, returning her kiss.

  The heat built quickly, and she forgot her earlier misgivings when he slid his hands up under the robe and touched her in a way that made her tremble under his hands.

  How frightening it was to be so susceptible to a man’s touch. And how wonderful, she thought, as she dropped her head back, letting him have his way with her neck.

  A rude sound interrupted her bliss, and Luke straightened, keeping an arm around her, looking around the room.

  His phone.

  Kissing her quickly, he crossed to the table where it lay, and answered.

  Saved by the ringtone, Vanessa thought, though she really didn’t feel saved.

  He studied the phone, frowning. “I have to go to my computer. A friend sent me some files I need to review right away.”

  Vanessa wrapped the robe back around her, disappointed, but also curious. “Sure, no problem. Can I help?”

  “I’ve got it. Relax, get some breakfast. We should hit the island by tomorrow morning, and then we can finally move forward with all of this,” he said absently, still glancing at his phone.

  “Yes, definitely,” she agreed.

  He sounded all too eager to leave and be off the boat. Vanessa knew it was foolish to take it so personally, but he went from hot to cold so quickly, it was hard to adjust. He left, forgetting his clothes, or that he was wearing only a towel. He went right past her and out the door without so much as one more word or a kiss goodbye.

  Vanessa stood in the middle of the room for a few seconds, gathering her wits about her, and then she pulled her spine up straight. What did she expect? It was one night of convenient sex that they both wanted. It wasn’t as if they were lovers in any emotional sense of the term. She was acting like a lovesick teenager when she had no reason to. She was a grown woman who had had a night of fantastic sex. She wasn’t going to ruin that by moping or expecting things she had no right to expect.

  Mind made up, she took a quick shower—banning any thoughts about what might have happened if Luke’s phone hadn’t rung—and put on a bikini she found in a drawer. It fit, mostly, though it was skimpier than the bathing suits she would normally wear. Pulling a loose, white blouse out of the shopping bag that Luke had given her, she put that over it with some sandals and went to find the kitchen.

  Tomorrow, they would be on the island, and her search for her sister would commence. Today, she was going to do exactly as Luke said, and relax, sit in the sun and ease her aching muscles. She intended to enjoy this luxury.

  All she really wanted was for life to return to normal. She needed to find a place to live, to get back to work and to remember who she was. The woman who had been with Luke last night was an imposter—a fantasy—and it had been wonderful. But it wasn’t who she was. Not really.

  In the galley, she found a buffet of food set out. Helping herself to a plate and a big glass of juice, she stepped onto the sunny deck and found a chair to lounge in.

  The ocean surrounded her, nothing visible in the distance. The water was calm, the boat moving with only a gentle rocking over the waves. It was hard for her to believe that some people lived like this every day. That someone owned this boat for their private pleasure. That Luke had owned this boat, and he had simply given it away.

  She shook her head in amazement at the thought as she ate. When she was done, she pulled her phone from her pocket, giving in to temptation. Typing his name into the search field, she waited for information to load about the man she’d known more intimately than any other man, and yet, whom she didn’t know at all.

  The number of links that came up was staggering. Luke with numerous corporate and technology titans. Luke with any number of politicians, women and of course, with Julie. Luke being given awards for his innovations. Luke with the head of Homeland Security.

  She couldn’t help but be impressed, and then clicked on later articles, the ones on the scandal and the suicide.

  Her heart squeezed at a picture of him looking wrecked as he left the funeral for his colleague. He was so different. Hollowed out, haggard. Vanessa put a finger to the screen, touching his face. He didn’t seem at all like the man she knew now.

  That was what Julie had done to him. Irrational anger filled her.

  No wonder he’d left it all behind and hated her sister so much. But did he really hate her as much as he said? Maybe that would all change when he saw Julie again. If he cared for her, did that really just go away?

  Clicking out of the article, she looked through the Berringer Bodyguards website—not much there, not even pictures. Just a list of services, names and a phone number. She supposed it made sense that a private security service would want to maintain a low profile.

  From tech-boom millionaire to bodyguard. Luke Berringer had lived quite a life and one very different from her own. Vanessa wanted to live a simple life. To teach and hopefully find someone she might marry someday and have her own family. Especially if she never found her lost siblings.

  She clicked back to a picture of Julie with Luke. Her sister was gorgeous, but Julie looked cold and somewhat vacant. Her smile didn’t meet her eyes, and there was something forced or sad about her. As if she were a mere shell of a person. Vanessa had seen that before, in foster homes and orphanages. It was what people did to protect themselves from the outside. Her heart broke for her sister as it had a million times before. Julie had not been as fortunate as she had.

  She could only assume that Julie had led a much more difficult life than she had after they were forced apart. Vanessa had been the lucky one, and who knew what had happened to their brother? But when she found Julie—when, not if—she would do everything she could to help her.

  Not even Luke could come between them, Vanessa resolved as she glanced out over the ocean. Settled in that, she rested her head back on the chaise and let the sun soak into her body, falling asleep again with the promise in her mind that her sister came first. Soon they would be together again, and that was all that mattered.

  7

 
LUKE DIDN’T EVEN realize what time it was when he looked up from the computer. He was still sitting on the sofa in his damp towel. He’d popped into the shower an hour before to freshen up, but then an idea had struck and he returned to the computer before getting dressed.

  After leaving Vanessa that morning, he’d spent the next six hours steeped in computer-programming code. He hadn’t done that in years. Getting up, he grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and yanked them on, then opened a secure video chat with his friend Jake at Homeland Security and waited for the signal to connect.

  Jake’s face appeared on the screen; he appeared even more haggard than Luke felt. Jake had to have been working on this case for several days straight.

  “Jake. You look like hell.”

  “Thanks. Is that file what we thought it was?”

  “Yeah, it’s mine. It’s incomplete, but it’s the satellite-imagery software that was taken.”

  There was no doubt about it—this was Luke’s former company’s work. His work. The software was intended to help satellites scan the earth at a very fine scale—to the degree of homing in on faces, individuals, and tracking them. Luke had developed it after 9/11 to spot terrorists in places where human operatives couldn’t go. In that way, it was meant to save lives. In the wrong hands, however, it could also track any target the user desired—presidents, prime ministers, anyone—for assassination, for example.

  The code had been changed. It had been camouflaged, mixed in with other nonsense coding and buried under layers of encryption—which was why he’d been asked to try to break it. And he had. Now, thanks to Jake, who kept him in the loop, they knew who had bought it, too. NSA filters had caught the files being uploaded in Asia. Some of it, anyway.

  “Incomplete?” Jake asked.

  “Yeah—this is only the imaging code—the section of the program that would be loaded up to the actual satellites is still missing.”

  “Maybe we got lucky and they didn’t get it or it was corrupted.”

  “More like this is the bait to prove they have it, and they’re waiting on payment for the rest. Or using this to interest various buyers, inspire a bidding war.”

  “That makes sense. The uploads happened all over the place, Asia, Middle East, the US... We’re attempting to track all of them to locate the buyers and hopefully disrupt further transmission.”

  “Any chance any of those transmissions happened in Puerto Rico?” Luke asked.

  Jake’s eyebrows flew up. “What are you, psychic? That’s the common location among all of the transmissions. How did you know that?”

  “A hunch,” Luke hedged. “I’d suggest checking travel manifests once you know the buyers.”

  “Already in process. Hey, did you buy your boat back?” Jake had been on the yacht a few times and probably recognized the background in the video. He was trained to notice those kinds of details, after all, so Luke wasn’t surprised.

  “No, only borrowing it.”

  “Where are you?”

  “On my way to Puerto Rico.”

  Jake frowned deeply. “Bad idea. Let us handle this. I know you have skin in the game, but you need to step aside. I shouldn’t have told you this much.”

  “But you did. I have a lead I want to follow. The operation is yours. I’m only after one thing.”

  “Let me guess. Nicky Brooks?”

  “Bingo.”

  “And how do you know you’ll be able to get her? We’ve been searching for her for years with no success.”

  “I have an ace in the hole.”

  “Yeah, what’s that?”

  “I’m here with her sister.”

  Jake’s eyes went wide again. “Wait—that video footage I sent you—that’s Nicky’s sister?”

  Luke nodded.

  “Wow, that’s some powerful bait. Smart thinking, bringing her along.”

  Luke started to say something, when he heard a sound behind him. He turned to find Vanessa at the door, looking horrified. She turned and ran.

  “Luke, either way, you can’t—”

  “Gotta go, Jake. Whatever happens, I’ll keep your name out of it, don’t worry.”

  Luke slammed the laptop shut and then took off after Vanessa. She had to have heard Jake’s comment.

  “Vanessa!” he called out as he roamed the halls.

  She had to be on the boat somewhere. He stopped by her cabin to find it empty and then moved on to search the others.

  As he got to the upper deck, he noted a change in the wind, the dark gray of the sky. They were heading into a storm.

  “Vanessa,” he said again more softly, finally spotting her at the far end of the bow, leaning against the rail. The thin, white shirt she wore whipped around her body in the wind. She was barely covered by the flimsy material of a brightly colored bikini. As she turned to face him, Luke caught his breath.

  She was so damned beautiful.

  She was also very, very angry, the look of betrayal on her face cutting into him.

  “Vanessa, let me explain.”

  “How dare you?” she spat.

  “I know you overheard Jake’s comment, but it’s not like that. He assumed how things were, and I set him straight.”

  “But that’s how it really is, isn’t it? You might be protecting me, but all you want is to use me to lure my sister out so that you can put her in jail. And for sex, as it turns out. Well, forget it. I’m out on both counts.”

  Tears welled and dropped down on her cheeks, but Luke could only afford so much sympathy. Taking her shoulders, he pulled her back around to face him.

  “I didn’t use you for sex. I didn’t plan on that. I wanted you. You wanted me, too. And that had nothing to do with any of this. Nothing,” he bit out.

  “Right. And going to bed with me wasn’t about making sure I’d cooperate? Not get in the way of you arresting my sister? Maybe sway me to your side more?”

  Luke hesitated, offended by her accusation but also searching his conscience to make sure she wasn’t right. He wanted to find Nicky so bad that he wasn’t always sure he could trust his own motives. But then he shook his head.

  “No. I didn’t even want to bring you along, remember? If you’d listened to me back in Tampa, I’d be here alone, and you’d be back there in police custody.”

  She blinked at that, the logic reaching through the emotional response.

  “That’s true. I’m sorry. I just, what that man said on the computer—” she stopped, her voice choked off. “It made it sound like it was all part of a plan or something.”

  She wiped away some of her tears, still looking incredibly upset. And incredibly gorgeous.

  “I can see how that sounded, but it wasn’t the case.”

  “Who was he?” she asked.

  “A friend at Homeland Security.” He shouldn’t tell her, but he had to prove to her that he was on her side.

  He’d rather be here alone, knowing Vanessa was safe. He would rather face Nicky by himself and not hurt Vanessa in the process. But when she was close to him like this, he couldn’t imagine her being anywhere else.

  “I didn’t even consider using you as bait. I wouldn’t put you in that kind of danger. It’s my job to protect you, remember?”

  Vanessa looked as confused as he felt.

  “And last night...”

  Luke took a chance, drew her in and wrapped her against him as the winds picked up. The skies were getting darker.

  “Last night was incredible,” he said against her hair. Lightning flashed in the distance. “Come on, we have to get inside.”

  Once they were in the main cabin, Luke closed the weather-tight door. The boat could handle most rough weather, but they might still get tossed around a bit. He sat Vanessa down, trying to ignore the lovely shape reveal
ed by the scant fabric she wore—and also the bruises and bandages she’d accumulated over the last few days.

  “How is your injury?”

  “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  She swallowed hard, looking miserable, and Luke knew he could take credit for that. He shouldn’t have given in to his desires the night before. He shouldn’t have even opened the door for her to think he was using her that way. He was supposed to be a professional.

  They sat, poised on opposite sides of a large, blue sofa, and he resolved not to put her through any more difficulty.

  “Let me tell you about what you heard when you found me earlier,” he said. She deserved to hear it, and so he told her about the software, the theft and what he was doing with Jake. How important it all was to national security.

  After a few minutes, he paused when she held her hand up.

  “Wait. So you’re telling me that my sister is some kind of spy?”

  “In a sense, though not like a government spy. Probably for some corporate or international interests, yes. Or maybe for her personal gain, like an independent contractor. She developed a relationship with me in order to get inside my company and steal the software. And I fell for that, unfortunately.”

  “But that was several years ago. Why is it only coming up now?”

  “Well, for one, it was too hot to put on the market when she first took it, and so she probably had to lay low for a while. She’d also stolen an incomplete project—we were working out the problems. They would have had to find people to finish that work before it could be sold for the highest price. There are maybe only a handful of people in the world who could do that.”

  “Okay, wow,” Vanessa said, shaking her head. “This is so unreal.”

  “Unfortunately, it’s very real. The issue now is to get it back and to stop the people who stole it. This software is still cutting edge—no one has come close to developing anything like this—it could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.”