Page 40 of Dangerous Temptation
A breeze sent a chill down his back. He’d sworn to himself he wouldn’t trust anyone ever again. Not partners, not family, and certainly not a seductivefemme fatale.
He shoved back the covers and began stamping towards the other room but pain shot through him unexpectedly. Sucking in a breath, he reached for the bedpost. The bruises on the bottom of his feet looked like storm clouds.
He muttered a curse under his breath.
She made him forget himself whenever she was around. His goals, his promises to himself, his self-defence mechanisms … The ache in his groin was all that mattered.
‘Damn hormones.’
He hadn’t even considered taking her someplace else. He’d wanted her in his bed. He hadn’t given a thought to the risk he might be taking.
His fingers wrapped around the doorjamb as he swung into the next room. His gaze scoured the office, moving fast and then going back for a second, slower pass. On the surface, everything appeared as he’d left it. The chair hadn’t been moved, the drawers were shut tight and there was no way she could have gotten into his computer. Still, prickles bit the back of his neck.
His gaze landed heavily upon the red notebook that sat open next to his laptop, and his vision turned nearly the same colour. He slapped the doorjamb viciously, then stalked over to his desk, the pain in his feet fitting his mood. He stared down at the narrow-ruled notebook. It was still open to the page where he’d blacked out most of his notes because he’d been going down a rabbit hole. There wasn’t anything to see.
But she’d been in here. He knew it as well as he knew his own name.
He began flipping jerkily through pages. That’s what he got for letting his dick lead him around. His teeth gritted until his jaw popped.
She’d been through the notebook. He had no evidence, no proof, but he knew it. It would be unintelligible to most, but she wasn’t most people. She was as smart as she was beautiful, and she was willing to use that sweet face and hot body to slip by his defences.
‘God dammit.’
He’d known he shouldn’t trust her. What was her game here? Had she not gotten her fair share? Had daddy told her there was more for the taking? Had someone made her an offer she couldn’t refuse? Appealed to her sense of ‘patriotism’?
He dropped the notebook with a splat against the desktop. So help him, he was not going to be played again.
He swept up the desk phone, called his top security guy and skipped right over the niceties. ‘I want Elena Bardot checked out.’
He didn’t let the man even get started about the first background search they’d conducted.
‘Deeper,’ he demanded. ‘I want to know if she has any connections to the Feds or reporters – television, print, internet, radio or otherwise. Find out how close she was to that bastard of a father of hers. Check her financial situation and if she’s ever taken any programming classes. I want to know what kind of toothpaste she uses, damn it.’
He’d nearly hung up before he pulled the phone back to his ear.
‘And I want the names of every man she’s ever slept with.Ever.’
He jammed the phone into its charger base and looked over his desk one last time. He’d brought her here. He’d escorted her right into the room.
He spun away and headed back into the bedroom. The chill intensified.
Frowning, he looked at the sliding glass door. He didn’t remember leaving that open.
Mood darkening, he walked over to roll it closed. He was going to have to start locking things, a step he abhorred. If he couldn’t stay away from her, it would be the only way to keep –
She was on the balcony.
The sight was enough to temporarily shut down his brain. There she was, plain as day. She hadn’t left. She’d stayed with him.
The angry thoughts in his head jumbled.
What the hell?
She looked so young and innocent standing out there, wrapped in a blanket and wearing his slippers. His gaze stuck on the outrageously large footwear adorning her tiny feet. She was making a habit of commandeering his clothing. As adorable as it looked, she made the ensemble sexy.
He felt himself getting hard, and it annoyed him.
He stared at her, trying to use his head – the one atop his neck – before he lost the capacity. Had paranoia gotten the best of him? Or was she really that good?
