Page 49 of Dangerous Temptation
The stiffness left his face, but the relief lasted only a brief second. It was quickly replaced with serenity, but the expression looked forced. His eyes were too bright. Bright and alert.
Grabbing his hand, she dragged him over to the coffee table. ‘It’s had that hourglass for the last fifteen minutes.’
He stared at it for a moment longer than was comfortable. ‘You want me to look at your computer.’
She shifted uneasily. ‘Yes. Everything is on there – my notes, my bibliography, the first draft of my dissertation. Everything!’
‘Me,’ he emphasised.
Her hold turned vice-like on his warm hand. Well, no, but yes. He was the last person she wanted around her files, but he had the expertise she needed. ‘You seemed like a good choice. You are the CEO of a software company.’
She dropped her gaze. ‘And I am sleeping with you.’
He caught her chin and made her look at him. His gaze bored into hers, but the hard suspicion gave way to surprise and that seemed to unsettle him. He cleared his throat, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. He nodded grimly. ‘OK. I’ll see what I can do.’
‘Thank you.’ She wrung her hands as he took a place on the sofa.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘It’s been acting funny for a few days. Today, it just started closing down programs. Now it won’t boot up again. I just get that stupid hourglass.’
He nodded, his brow furrowing. ‘OK, let’s see if I can get to a command line.’
He rolled up his sleeves. She didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one, but his fingers were confident as they moved over her keyboard.
She sat on the couch next to him, her legs folded underneath her. She didn’t know what she was going to do if he couldn’t fix whatever was wrong.
He looked at her again, his grey gaze considering. After a moment, he reached out and squeezed her knee. ‘Breathe.’
Heat flowed from the contact, startling her but focusing her.
Breathe. Yes, she’d done enough yoga to know that her breaths were too shallow and her body was strung like a wire. There was nothing she could do but let go. She had to trust him in this.
Keeping her gaze locked with his, she inhaled deeply. Her lungs filled and she let the air out through her mouth. It wasn’t good, but it was a start.
‘Better.’ His expression turned contemplative, and he focused on her ailing machine.
Elena fought to keep her breaths even. His presence seemed bigger here in the tiny cottage. Almost overwhelming. The last she’d seen of him, they’d been cuddled up together on his bed. Naked.
‘I may be a bit rusty,’ he confessed.
‘Rusty? Why … oh.’
It was ironic, but there were times when she forgot how he’d spent his last years.
‘Sorry,’ she murmured.
Eighteen months wasn’t that long except in the software field – and most likely – prison. For him to admit that his skills were out of date, though … He was less cocky than he’d been before the trial and harder. Scarier, to be truthful.
And sexier. Her mother wasn’t blind.
She watched his muscled forearms and big hands as he worked, remembering how they’d felt on her body. Her belly squeezed, and heat settled between her legs. She tugged the nearby pillow onto her lap.
He wasn’t rusty with anything.
She hugged the pillow so hard the filling plumped out the corners. Sometimes she felt so naive around him. Forget the scandal. He was a world-renowned business innovator, while she was just a student. Then there was his wealth and the way other people treated him. When he was in a room, there was no doubt who was in charge. Nobody in her sphere came close to him, and sometimes she didn’t know how to act around him.
Other than when he kissed her.
