Tracy shrugged as she absently ran the tip of her finger along the lip of the beer bottle. “Apparently not. Anyway, these hackers were using your laptop among others to troll still other computers, looking for credit card numbers, bank accounts, things that can enable them to steal identities, empty out bank accounts and God only knows what else. Jewel said that as far as Neal could see, the hackers didn’t realize that there were top secret files and restricted information on your computer. Otherwise, if they had, that information would have been the first thing to go, auctioned off to the highest bidder. The hackers were just using your laptop, just like all the others, as a jumping-off point for their little million-dollar scheme.”
Maybe his brain had slipped behind a cloud, Micah thought, but he wasn’t following this. “And that means?” Micah pressed, frustrated.
Jewel and her update had in turn placed her on the receiving end of a great deal of information this afternoon. By the time Jewel left, Tracy felt as if she’d just attended a technical school and received a crash course in the dark side of having a computer.
“They were using your computer, as well as all the others they initially hacked into, to bounce around their I.P. address so that if anyone does realize what’s going on, they can’t be traced. Instead, you and the owners of those other computers bear the brunt of the blame.” She looked at him pointedly. “In short, you were set up and framed.”
“But if this Neal guy found out that this was what they were doing—that I was a victim like the others—then I’m in the clear.” He blew out a long breath. “God, that’s a relief.”
“Well, relief’s not quite here yet,” she cautioned. She hated raining on Micah’s parade, but she didn’t want him breaking out the champagne bottle just yet. Not when he was still under suspicion.
About to tip back his bottle and take a long swig, he stopped and looked at Tracy. “What are you saying?” he asked.
“That your company and the customer they’re working for—which I imagine has to be the government—” She held up her hand before he could begin to deny her assumption. “It’s okay, I know you can’t confirm that. I’m just giving you my hunch. Anyway, your company and the customer can claim that this is actually bigger than they first imagined and that you could very possibly be part of this network of hackers who had created the botnet to begin with.”
He began to protest that that was absurd. That he had no idea how to do any of this, but he knew it was all futile. She might be on his side and believe he was innocent, but he knew that in the company’s eyes, he was still guilty until proven otherwise.
The light that had completely lit up his face went out. “So, I’m back to square zero.” It wasn’t a question, but a painful assumption.
“No,” Tracy quickly corrected. “It’s not square zero.”
“And why’s that?” he challenged, wanting desperately to have something to hang on to.
“Because,” Tracy patiently explained, “now we know that there’s a ring out there and when there’s this substantial a ring, there’s got to be some kind of an investigation going on, either on the local police level, or the FBI level—or maybe even a joint task force, for all we know.”
He supposed it was something. “And how do you go about finding out if this task force or investigation is going on? Is that what Jewel is going to be looking into?” he asked.
She smiled. “Even as we speak. But I also have a cousin on the police force I intend to put the squeeze on,” she told him. “I’m going to have him ask around for me, see if he can pick up any useful intel about these hackers.”
What she was saying all sounded well and good in theory. But he knew a little bit about how the real world worked. It wasn’t anywhere near as neat and tidy as she was suggesting.
“Don’t they frown on things like that?” he pointed out. “Answering questions for a civilian?”
Her smile widened. When it came to her work, her confidence was unshakable. He had nothing to worry about. “I can be very persuasive when I want to be,” she told Micah.
He in turn watched her for a long moment. There was a determined expression on her face that utterly captivated him.
“I guess I’m lucky that you’re in my corner,” he finally said, and then he paused, his thoughts switching to something very basic. He didn’t like loose ends. “You know, we haven’t even talked about your fee yet.”
“Sure we did,” she reminded him. The beer, she noted suddenly, was hitting her funny. And then she remembered that, as was becoming more and more frequent, she’d had a protein bar for lunch, and breakfast had been a thought that had never been realized. “I told you I was taking the case pro bono.”
He remembered that part. He also remembered what he’d said to it. “And I said no, you’re not. That I pay my own way. I might have to make payments from now until you’re collecting social security checks, but I always pay my bills. Always,” he emphasized.
She laughed and without thinking, she brushed the palm of her hand along his check. “You are a very stubborn man.”
Maybe it was because he’d felt like an emotional yo-yo, first down, then up and then leveled out only to find himself rising up again. That kind of thing made a man lose his bearings. Or maybe it was because he’d just been alone far too long. He loved his sons more than his life, but there was still this void in his life, a void he tried not to think about or acknowledge. But it was still there.
There were a dozen excuses to look to, but for whatever reason, the light touch of her fingers along his skin stirred him. It woke up things within him that were best left sleeping. Best left sleeping because once awakened, they didn’t easily return to a hibernating state.
When he thought about it later, he wasn’t altogether sure if that was the reason, or if there was some other explanation for what he did next. But while it was happening, he didn’t want to conduct a self-examination. There was no point.
There was this need within him and it was demanding to be appeased, at least just a little.
The next moment, he took her hand, bringing her to her feet even as he was gaining his. He stood away from the counter where they’d both been sitting, his eyes never leaving hers.
And then, without saying a word, he slipped his hands into her hair, framed her face between them, lowered his mouth to hers and did what men had been doing since the very beginning of time: he kissed the person who held such an attraction for him.
His blood heated instantly.
He deepened the kiss, taking himself with it.
It was then, as his lips took possession of hers, that Tracy realized she’d been waiting for this. Holding her breath for this.
Craving this from the bottom of her very toes—and the soul she rarely even thought about.
Rather than pull away, protesting that they shouldn’t be doing this, shouldn’t be allowing their weakness to get the better of them, Tracy gave herself permission—just for a second—to sink as far down into the kiss as she possibly could.
With any luck, she might not surface for a while.
There was a rushing sound in her ears. Her heartbeat? Or something else?
She didn’t know, didn’t care.
Because this kiss was everything she’d imagined it would be—and more.
Better.
For that split second that she’d indulged herself, her head had gone spinning, and her pulse set a brand new world record for hammering wildly.
Her body leaned into his as she hooked her arms around his neck. She couldn’t remember feeling this wonderful before, this exhilarated. The man certainly knew his way around women, was all she could think of—and be grateful for.
* * *
Strawberries.
She tasted of strawberries.
He had to be losing his mind, Micah thought. This impetuous move wasn’t him. It bore no resemblance to the man he had become. If anything, this was the first-year college student he had once been. Free to follow his sense of
pleasure no matter where it led.
No, this was something more, he argued. Something with substance. He could feel it in his bones.
Didn’t that make it worse? There was no place for this in his life. He’d had love, but that chapter of his life was supposed to be over.
Wasn’t it?
Damn it, man, get a grip, he silently ordered himself.
The order went unheeded. He couldn’t make himself pull back. She made him feel far more intoxicated than the beer he’d been drinking.
Suddenly, there was space between them. Their lips were no longer sealed to each other. For a second, he felt almost disoriented.
Flustered, the imprint of her lips blurred from the pressure of his, Tracy took in a ragged breath after forcing herself to break contact. She struggled, trying desperately to regain some semblance of control over herself.
What had come over her?
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she told him. Near breathless, her voice lacked conviction.
He knew she was right, but he still challenged her. “Why?”
Her mind had been reduced to a single-cell amoeba. She struggled to think. “Because—because it’s a conflict of interest.”
Micah took her protest to mean something entirely different. “Are you with someone else?” he asked.
Stunned by the question, she could only stare at him. “What?” And then she replayed his words. “No,” she declared with feeling.
“Then there’s no interest to conflict,” he maintained, reaching for her again.
Tracy took a shaky step back to keep herself from falling into his arms again.
“Yes, there is,” she insisted. “I’m your lawyer.” God, but she wanted to kiss him again. So badly that her teeth ached. “I can’t be emotionally involved with you.”
Her choice of words surprised him. But rather than retreat or take the way out she offered, Micah looked at her for a long moment before finally asking, “Are you emotionally involved with me?”
Too late she realized that she hadn’t worded her protest correctly. “No,” she insisted, her voice quivering. And then she said, “No, I’m not,” more firmly.
He gazed into her eyes and had his answer. She was protesting far too much—undoubtedly to convince herself as well as him?
Micah inclined his head. She thought he was going to release her. Instead, he stunned her by saying, “Okay, then you’re fired.”
It took effort not to allow her jaw to drop open. “What?”
“I said you’re fired,” he repeated mildly. For good measure, he added, “Your services are no longer needed.” And then he grinned. With a flourish of his hand, he declared, “Voilà, no more conflict of interest.”
Fired? How he could fire her just like that? Was he out of his mind? He could still be in very real trouble here.
“But—”
Her protest died on her lips as, once again, he covered them with his own.
Struggling with herself, Tracy put her hands up against his chest, creating a wedge between them as she managed to push him back. “You can’t fire me,” she protested. “You need me.”
“Lady,” he murmured, kissing the side of her neck, melting her in her tracks. “You don’t know the half of it.”
Her heart raced wildly again, this time pounding so hard and so quickly, she had trouble catching her breath.
Okay, she’d allow herself one more kiss. Just one more kiss, she promised, and then she’d call a halt to this, tell him that he was being incredibly hasty and foolish and a whole host of other things, as well, ending it by saying that one of them had to be sensible. Obviously, that role had to belong to her.
In a second, in just another second, she’d tell him all that and more.
More.
The single word shimmered in her head, a silent entreaty to the man who was knocking out all the carefully laid foundations of her world. Very effectively reducing her to a pile of palpitating rubble.
She had one last card to play, however unenthusiastically.
“What about your sons?” she asked as, tapping the last of her strength, she created yet another chasm between their lips.
“Let them get their own women,” he told her, kissing her again.
Melting her again.
Creating complete and utter chaos inside of her.
He didn’t understand, she thought, desperately trying to pull her brain into some kind of functioning order so she could be relatively coherent when she finally did speak.
“No, I mean…”
Her voice trailed off as another assault on her throat rendered her incapable of completing even a single sentence, a single thought.
Everything seemed to be going up in flames.
“I know exactly what you mean,” Micah told her, whispering the words into her ear.
As he did so, he wound up creating yet another tidal wave inside her as his warm breath caressed her cheek and throat, making every fiber of her being yearn for things it had no business wanting.
Oh, but she did.
She wanted them.
She wanted him.
The very next moment she went airborne. She would have let loose with a little shriek of surprise had his lips not been covering hers.
He’d swept her off her feet and up into his arms in a single movement. One more mind-numbing kiss and she was being carried. It was then that she realized her eyes were shut.
Opening them, she found he was carrying her up the stairs. To his room, she thought a beat later. Or maybe hoped.
“Am I really fired?” she asked him hoarsely.
His eyes were dark, unfathomable. Reaching his room, still holding her, he closed the door with his elbow. “Yes. I don’t want you compromising your ethics.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Tracy threaded her arms around his neck and stopped resisting what she wanted more than anything in the world at this very moment.
Him.
Chapter Ten
She felt as if she’d been transported to a timeless place where nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed but the man who enflamed her and everything was wrapped in a warm, hazy blanket.
Tracy was aware of every touch of his hand, every pass of his lips. Acutely aware of the effect he had on her, both body and soul.
There were no alarms in her head, no hesitation, no impeding thoughts that warned her that she would regret doing this, that she needed to retreat while she still could. Those were thoughts for a person who could think rationally, not a woman who passionately missed the feeling of being one with someone, so much so that she ached.
Not that, during her brief marriage, she’d actually felt as one with her husband. Making love with him counted as some of the loneliest times in her life.
But what was happening now, this was what she’d missed about making love. He engaged not just her body, but her mind and every fiber of her being.
Seduced her.
Even the thought that he would actually go so far as to fire her didn’t jar her. She wasn’t altogether sure just how he had managed it, but Micah had taken away any need for her to feel guilty.
But even if she had felt guilty, or hesitant, or could actually enumerate reasons not to immerse herself in him, the spell that Micah’s sensuous lips cast on her would have quickly made short work of any roadblock.
At this point, as he wove his magic around her, Tracy counted herself lucky if she could remember her full name.
She was tingling.
Anticipating.
Her whole body was on fire and there was only one way to deal with that situation. Only one way to put out the fire.
But if he was in any hurry to sate himself, Micah gave her no indication. Rather, he behaved as if time had completely stood still and become his ally. Either that, or he had all the time in the world to acquaint himself with every inch of her body, to explore it in depth, section by section. Inch by inch.
It got to the point that she was
positive she was climaxing just from the mere thought of their ultimately coming together. Little eruptions fed into one another, growing larger and more powerful by the moment. In part that was because her clothes continued to disappear from her body. Micah removed each piece one by one. Methodically. With patience.
Every newly exposed area was touched, kissed and, just like that, very effectively set on fire.
She was twisting in his arms, moaning and breathing hard, all but driving him out of his mind.
It was a double-edged sword.
Micah wanted nothing more than to lose himself in this woman, to physically join with her and become, just for one wild, intoxicating moment, one.
But even as desire slammed into his body, making demands, begging for that final, breathtaking surge of euphoria, he held himself in check, going slow. Pleasuring her, and simultaneously making himself wild with anticipation of the final moment.
But it was far from easy.
Her body was sleek and toned, moving into his touch and then twisting away as enjoyment snaked its way through her.
The look of pure desire in her eyes made it incredibly difficult for him to go at this slow pace. And when Tracy tugged away his clothing from his body, he came very close to losing it. To just tossing his patience to the wind and taking her right then and there, on the king-sized bed where he had spent all those long, lonely nights.
He would have thought, just before the outset, that thoughts of his late wife would have stopped him, would have caused him to get a grip on himself. But just the opposite occurred.
It was almost as if Ella had stepped back and just before vanishing, had whispered her approval of this woman who had so effortlessly captured the hearts of his sons.
And if he secretly expected to be disappointed with this first foray into lovemaking after more than twenty-four months of voluntary celibacy, he was more than pleasantly surprised.
It didn’t happen.
Instead, as he went on kissing her, caressing her, discovering all of her secret pulse points, the intensity of his reaction, his very anticipation, continued to grow. To grow to such a volume that it was becoming increasingly difficult to contain.
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