Rules of Engagement
Carla Cassidy
FROM THE DESK OF EMILY WINTERSBachelor #5: Nate LeemanTitle: Senior VP of TechnologyThis month's scheme: Hire his old flame–the only woman who can drive this exec crazy.Lone wolf Nate Leeman must have an iceberg in place of his heart–I bet the hunky executive wouldn't notice if Miss Universe hit on him! But there is one woman who can melt his insides–the love he let get away. Sparks are gonna fly when Nate discovers I've hired his archrival, fiery beauty Kat Sanderson, to help us catch a computer thief. Working closely should fan the flames of passion that I hope still burn between them!
“Tell me the truth, Kat.”
He reached out and took her by the shoulders, his piercing green eyes glittering dangerously. “You didn’t love me five years ago. You played with me. You found me vastly entertaining, but that’s all it ever was for you, right?”
“That’s not true.” The pain of that day when he’d gotten on a plane and flown out of her life radiated through her now.
Nate snorted derisively and dropped his hands from her shoulders, as if he couldn’t stand touching her. “Sure, you loved me so much you weren’t willing to sacrifice anything.”
“You asked me to be someone I’m not. But I did love you. I loved you like I’ve never loved anyone before…or since.”
And she still loved him. But it didn’t matter. He hated her and she loved him and the duration of her stay in Boston promised to be sheer heartbreaking torture.
Dear Reader,
I’ve put together a list of Silhouette Romance New Year’s resolutions to help you get off to a great start in 2004!
Play along with our favorite boss’s daughter’s mischievous, matchmaking high jinks. In Rules of Engagement (#1702) by Carla Cassidy, Emily Winters—aka the love goddess—is hoping to unite a brooding exec and feisty businesswoman. This is the fifth title in Silhouette Romance’s exclusive, six-book MARRYING THE BOSS’S DAUGHTER series.
Enjoy every delightful word of The Bachelor Boss (#1703) by the always-popular Julianna Morris. In this modern romantic fairy tale, a prim plain Jane melts the heart of a sexy playboy.
Join the fun when a cowboy’s life is turned inside out by a softhearted beauty and the tiny charge he finds on his doorstep. Baby, Oh Baby! (#1704) is the first title in Teresa Southwick’s enchanting new three-book miniseries IF WISHES WERE… Stay tuned next month for the next title in this series that features three friends who have their dreams come true in unexpected ways.
Be sure not to miss The Baby Chronicles (#1705) by Lissa Manley. This heartwarming reunion romance is sure to put a satisfied smile on your face.
Have a great New Year!
Mavis C. Allen
Associate Senior Editor
Rules of Engagement
Carla Cassidy
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CARLA CASSIDY
is an award-winning author who has written over fifty books for Silhouette. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance from Romantic Times for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from Romantic Times.
FROM THE DESK OF EMILY WINTERS
Two
Six Bachelor Executives To Go
Bachelor #1: Love, Your Secret Admirer
Matthew Burke—Hmm…his sweet assistant clearly has googly eyes for her workaholic boss. Maybe I can make some office magic happen.
Bachelor #2: Her Pregnant Agenda
Grant Lawson—The guy’s a dead ringer for Pierce Brosnan—who wouldn’t want to fall into his strong, protective arms!
Bachelor #3: Fill-in Fiancée
Brett Hamilton—The playboy from England is really a British lord! Can I find him a princess…or has he found her already?
Bachelor #4: Santa Brought a Son
Reed Connors—The ambitious VP seems to have a heavy heart. Only his true love could have broken it. But where is she now?
Bachelor #5: Rules of Engagement
Nate Leeman—Definitely a lone wolf kind of guy. A bit hard around the edges, but I’ll bet there’s a tender, aching heart inside.
Bachelor #6: One Bachelor To Go
Jack Devon—The guy is so frustratingly elusive. Arrogant and implacable, too! He’s going last on my matchmaking list until I can figure out what kind of woman a mystery man like him prefers….
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter One
Nate Leeman stood at his office window and watched as big, fat snowflakes drifted lazily down from an overcast sky. It always surprised him when somebody mentioned how beautiful Boston could be in January.
As far as Nate was concerned, snow meant only one thing…longer commutes to and from the office. Many a wintry night he had camped out at work rather than fight traffic and inclement conditions. Of course most nights he’d just as soon be here as at home.
Here, was his office at Wintersoft, Inc. As Senior Vice President of Technology, he commanded a large office outfitted with a wet bar he’d never used, an ornate armoire containing a television, stereo and DVD player he’d never touched and a sofa sleeper he’d never unfolded.
All he cared about sat on his enormous desk—his state-of-the-art computer and supporting equipment. The computer and its programs and files weren’t just his work; they were his life and, despite all the security precautions, somebody had violated it.
Now his computer wasn’t alone on his big desk. A second monitor and keyboard sat next to his and the sight of it only served to heighten the irritation that had been with him since the moment he’d awakened that morning.
A knock sounded on his office door. “Come in,” he called and turned away from the window.
Emily Winters, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and the boss’s daughter, entered and immediately sat on the burgundy sofa opposite Nate’s desk. “The forecast is for two to four inches by midnight.”
“What time does her plane arrive?” he asked. Kathryn Sanderson was a private investigator specializing in tech crimes and a part of his past he’d just as soon never encounter again.
Emily looked at her watch. “In an hour.”
“Then there shouldn’t be any problems,” he replied. He hoped his personal feelings about the subject didn’t color his words or tone. As far as he was concerned he wouldn’t care if bad weather kept Kathryn’s plane circling Logan International Airport for days.
He didn’t want her here. He didn’t need her help. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the boss. Emily’s father, Lloyd, was and it had been his and Emily’s idea to hire outside help. It had been sheer serendipity that they had chosen a woman—the only woman with whom he’d shared a tumultuous history.
“I’ve booked her a room at the Brisbain so she’ll be close to the office.” Emily tucked a strand of her shoulder-length brown hair behind an ear, her blue eyes troubled as she gazed at him.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of this, Nate. We’ve got too much time and too much money tied up in the Utopia program for it to be tampered with and leaked to our competitors.”
“Trust me, I’m as upset about this as you are,” he replied.
She stood and smoothed the skirt of the sapphire dress that perfectly matched the hue of her eyes. “Father and I are confident that you and Kathryn will be able to get to the source of the security breach. You’re two of the best in the business.” She headed for the door. “I’ll send her in as soon as she arrives so you can put your heads together and find the hack who’s creating our problems.” With these words she left the office.
Nate sank down at his desk, a frown tugging his features. It wasn’t just some hapless hack who had managed to breach the main computer and break into the Utopia program and personnel files. It had been somebody with considerable computer savvy.
From his bottom desk drawer he withdrew two magazines. Both were computer tech periodicals and each had an article on Kathryn Sanderson…aka Tiger Tech. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, in the past five years Kathryn had made a name for herself in catching computer criminals. She’d not only worked for big business but had also consulted with several police departments as well.
Accompanying one of the articles was a small photo. Although the picture was a little bit fuzzy, it depicted a young woman with a slender face, large eyes and short auburn hair.
The picture didn’t do her justice. The way he remembered, her face was slender but always animated with an abundance of confidence, laughter and life. There was no way a photo could capture the exact color of her hazel eyes for they were always changing—sometimes blue, sometimes green, and always sparkling.
And that short auburn hair was shot through with sun-kissed highlights that glistened and shone, adding a multitude of dimension to the color of auburn.
He slammed the magazine shut and stuffed it back into his bottom drawer. He’d told her goodbye five years ago and had assumed he’d never see her again. He didn’t want to see her again. She’d been the one risk he’d taken in his life…the one and only gamble he’d been willing to take. He didn’t take risks anymore—the outcome was far too painful.
He frowned and rolled his shoulders to release some of the tension that had taken root in a spot in the center of his shoulder blades.
All he needed was a little more time and he could figure out, on his own, where the breach in the program was coming from.
He punched up his computer, all set to get to work. Maybe he could have the problem solved before Tiger Tech even got off her plane. Then she could just climb on the next flight back to California.
He’d only been working for a minute or two when another knock on his door broke his concentration. “Come in,” he said in frustration.
Carmella Lopez, Executive Assistant to Lloyd Winters, entered carrying a fruit basket tied up in pretty cellophane. She smiled, her natural warmth radiating in the depths of her chocolate-brown eyes.
“Mr. Winters thought it would be nice if you’d give this to Ms. Sanderson when she arrives.” She set the bountiful basket on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
“How nice,” Nate said, trying to ignore the irritation that rose inside him. Maybe he should just roll out a red carpet. Certainly everyone in the entire place seemed eager to make Kat feel welcome. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”
“We appreciate her coming all the way out here to help us,” Carmella replied.
Nate knew he was being rather childish, but he couldn’t help it. Utopia was his baby, and Lloyd and Emily Winters were telling him to hand over his baby to the woman who’d once broken his heart. Of course, nobody knew about his former connection to Kat and he didn’t intend to share the information with anyone.
Carmella glanced out the window where the snow was falling at a faster rate than last time he’d looked. “They’ve changed the forecast to four to eight inches by evening. I hope Ms. Sanderson knows how to dress for winter weather.”
It was just like Carmella to worry about such a thing. She was always fretting over somebody. She often made Nate rather uncomfortable by straightening his tie or brushing lint off his jacket. He wasn’t accustomed to being touched.
Carmella looked out the window once again and muttered something in Spanish beneath her breath. He looked at her quizzically. She smiled. “I said, beautiful but treacherous. And now I’ll let you get back to your work.”
When she left, Nate stared at the basket of fruit. The staff of Wintersoft, Inc. could welcome Kathryn Sanderson to the fold all they wanted. But they didn’t have to work with her, he did.
Beautiful but treacherous. That not only described the snow falling outside the window but could also apply to Kathryn Sanderson.
He walked over to the window and drew a deep breath, steeling himself for the experience of seeing her again.
Emily Winters was waiting for Carmella when she stepped out of Nate’s office. She grabbed the attractive Hispanic woman by the arm and pulled her into an empty conference room.
“What’s wrong?” Carmella asked.
“I think it’s time we stopped our little research plot. With Kathryn and Nate trying to find our hacker, we just can’t risk accessing any more personnel files.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Carmella agreed. “We only have two men left anyway.”
“And the odds of Nate Leeman and Jack Devon getting married anytime soon are astronomical,” Emily replied. Nate Leeman didn’t seem to realize women existed and Jack Devon always had a different model babe on his arm at company functions.
The two women parted and Emily went into her own office and closed the door. She sank down at her desk and thought about the scheme she’d hatched with Carmella five months before.
It had been Carmella who had overheard Emily’s father in a phone conversation indicating that he meant to hint to the bachelors in the top positions of his company that it might be a good idea to take an interest in his daughter.
Emily had been appalled, especially since she’d already married a company man and the end result had been a divorce more than four years ago. To counter her father’s plans she and Carmella had devised a plot of their own.
It was a crazy plan. Carmella had agreed to research the six bachelors in top company positions and it was Emily’s job to find them the perfect match.
So far their plan had worked unbelievably well. Four of the six bachelors had found love, leaving only the loner Nate and the elusive Jack unattached.
But now she had bigger problems than her father’s matchmaking. She didn’t want anyone to know it had been her and Carmella who had accessed the personnel files in order to marry off the men. She would be humiliated if that information became common knowledge.
It wasn’t as if what they had done had been illegal. Certainly it was within Carmella’s job description to have access to the personnel files. But, she and Carmella had snooped and, even though everything had turned out well for everyone so far, Emily didn’t want to press their luck any further.
However, more important than any humiliation she might suffer was the genuine threat to the company by a hacker who had managed to access some of the Utopia files.
Utopia was the working name for a revolutionary financial software program that Nate had been developing on behalf of Wintersoft, Inc. It had been in the works for months and months and the projected date for completion was fast approaching.
She only hoped Nate and Kathryn Sanderson could find the hacker who threatened to destroy not only months of work but the company’s reputation and financial platform.
Kathryn Sanderson stood on the sidewalk on Milk Street in downtown Boston. Directly in front of her was the fifty-story glass-and-steel building that housed Wintersoft, Inc.
She knew they would be waiting for her arrival, but she wasn’t ready to go inside yet. She couldn’t believe she was actually in Boston, home of Paul Revere’s midnight ride, the Boston Tea Party, baked beans and a little tavern where everyone knew your name.
She tipped her head back and allowed the big, fat snowflakes to tickle her eyelashes, light on her cheeks and melt on her mouth.
Snow was a glorious, wondrous sight and sensation for a woman who’d never been out of California before. The novelty of the weather pumped her full of adrenaline, chasing away the exhaustion left behind by the long plane trip.
She knew it wasn’t the snow alone that had created the new burst of nervous energy. It was a combination of the snow and the anticipation of seeing him again.
Nate. It had been over five years since they’d parted. She’d just turned twenty-six when he’d come to Silicon Valley to take some computer courses she was enrolled in as well.
They’d dated for four months before it had all fallen apart and he’d returned to his life in Boston and she’d continued her life in California.
She looked up at the top of the fifty-story building. She’d been told his office was on the forty-ninth floor. “Senior Vice President of Technology,” she murmured aloud.
Apparently he’d achieved his dream of a position of power in the corporate world. She wondered if he’d also attained a corporate wife to go with his position.
No sense in putting it off any longer, she thought. She had a job to do. She shifted her suitcase from one hand to the other, then headed into the office building. She chose the express elevator and was whisked silently and efficiently to the forty-ninth floor.
A secretary who introduced herself as Mary Sharpe greeted her and accompanied her down a long hallway. “That’s Nate’s office,” she said, and pointed to the door at the end of the hallway.
For a long moment Kat stood outside the door, surprised to discover that what she thought might be pangs of hunger were actually nervous butterflies.
It was ridiculous to be nervous about seeing a man she had dated so many years ago. But it had been more than just dating, a little voice whispered inside her head. It had been your future, and you blew it.
She shook her head to quiet the tiny voice. It hadn’t been her future. Nate had been a dream, an extended dream that had eventually turned into a nightmare of heartache and false expectations. And now he was the man she would be working with to solve a company problem.
With a deep breath to steady her nerves, she knocked briskly on the door. She had no preconceptions about the man he’d become in the past five years, but when he opened his office door his appearance sent a small shock wave rippling through her.
It was like stepping back in time. His hair was as rich and black as she remembered. The brilliant green of his eyes was just the same. The gray suit he wore seemed to love the lean fitness of the body it hugged. He hasn’t changed a bit, she thought with a small sense of wonder.
“Hi, Nate.”
He nodded, his eyes revealing no emotion whatsoever. “Kathryn.”
Kathryn. Not Kat, like it had always been, but the more formal Kathryn. “May I come in?”
“Of course.” He held the door open wider to allow her to sweep past him. His sensual lips were compressed together in a tight, grim line.
“Wow, nice office,” she exclaimed as she stepped in and dropped her suitcase to the floor. She shrugged off her coat and tossed it onto the leather sofa.
It was a beautiful office, the furniture warm in colors of gold and burgundy and rich, highly polished mahogany wood. She stepped to the huge windows and peered out. Through the falling snow, she thought she could see the distant gleam of the harbor.
“I can’t believe I’m really in Boston,” she murmured.
“I can’t believe it, either.”
She turned and eyed him sharply. His tone had betrayed a hint of displeasure, but his handsome features held an utter lack of expression.
“The fruit is for you,” he said, and indicated the large basket in the center of the coffee table.
“Oh, how lovely. Thank you so much. That was very thoughtful.”
“It’s not from me,” he said hurriedly. “You can thank Mr. Winters.”
“Fine, I’ll do just that.” Kat had been in awkward situations before, but never with the kind of tension that filled the air at the moment.
She sank onto the burgundy sofa and looked up at him. “So, how have you been, Nate? You’re looking well.” That was the understatement of the century. He looked better than well. He looked fantastic and she was shocked to feel an old familiar spark ignite within her, a spark she mentally doused with cold water.
“I’ve been fine…good actually…great, in fact.” His voice was still cool and he seemed to be looking at everything in the office except her. “The only blight in my life at the moment is the hacker who has been wreaking havoc with my program.”
She didn’t miss the fact that he’d managed to deflect the conversation from anything personal back to the business at hand. “Then I guess we need to start with some information. When Emily Winters contacted me she was rather vague about the specifics.”
“She would have been vague on the phone,” he replied. “The program has been kept under the tightest of security.”
“It can’t be that tight if somebody got in,” she replied wryly.
He was obviously not amused by her observation. He shot her a dirty look and sat down in his chair behind his desk. “I started work on Utopia a little over two years ago. My idea was to come up with a financial program that would streamline cross-functional business processes, eliminate islands of automation and seamlessly integrate enterprise-wide and mission-critical data in real time.”
“I thought that was already what Wintersoft, Inc. was offering its clients.” She crossed her legs, aware that for the first time his features held an expression other than vague displeasure.
“It was—it is—but Utopia does it all more quickly and efficiently.”
As he told her about the features of the beta software program he’d been working on, his features came alive, making him impossibly handsome, making her remember a time when his face had lit up with life just for her. He got up from the desk, pacing as he spoke.
“If time is of the essence, then I guess we should get to work,” she said when he’d finished.
There were a million questions she wanted to ask him and none of them had to do with the program he’d been working on. She wanted to know if he still buttered his toast with the precision of a surgeon. She wondered if his favorite color was still blue, if he was still driven by demons she’d never quite understood.
She wanted to know if he had found happiness. If he had a loving wife and maybe a little boy or girl waiting for him at home.
More than anything, she wondered if he ever thought of her and those wonderful, crazy, intense days and nights they had spent together.
She had a feeling the answer was no. She’d always figured that for Nate she had been like a new computer game, and when he realized he couldn’t program her he’d closed the file and had never opened it again.
“I just want you to know up front, I’m not accustomed to working with anyone. I’m not used to sharing my space.” For the first time since she had arrived, his gaze locked with hers. Emanating from his green eyes was a coolness that blew through her like a wintry wind.
She forced a carefree grin. “Then get used to it, sweetheart, because I’m going to be in your space and in your face until we get this problem solved.”
She stood, straightened her sweater and plopped down in the biggest, most comfortable chair at the desk, the one he had just vacated.
Chapter Two
He couldn’t stand her. At that moment he couldn’t think of what on earth had possessed him years ago to believe himself in love with her.
As she wiggled into his leather chair, he wondered if she’d worn the blue sweater on purpose, if she’d remembered that he’d once told her his favorite color was blue.
The sweater was one of those fuzzy things and looked as if it would be soft to the touch. He also couldn’t help but notice that the sweater emphasized the thrust of her full breasts.
The more he thought about it, the more he was sure she’d worn the sweater on purpose, just to irritate him.
“You’re in my chair,” he said crisply.
“Does it matter? There are two chairs and two computers.” She looked up at him innocently.
“Yes, it does matter. I need to be on my own computer. There are things on it I need to work on that you won’t be able to access, things that have nothing to do with the Utopia program.”
“Oh, okay.” She got out of his chair and sat in the one next to his.
Again settled in his own chair, he couldn’t help but smell her. It was the same way she’d smelled years ago—a blend like sunshine and citrus, fresh and clean and just a bit tangy.
He remembered watching her one morning as she spritzed herself with the scent, amazed to see her spray the perfume not only in the hollow of her throat and behind her ears, but also behind her knees. She’d explained to him that fragrance always drifts upward, thus the spray behind the knees.
“Are we going to work or are you just going to sit there with a half smile on your face?” she asked.
He slammed back to the present. If there’d been a half smile on his face, it disappeared into a frown of irritation.
He was being punished. He wasn’t sure why, or what he had done to spit at the Fates, but they were obviously angry with him. That’s why they had sent Kat back into his life.
“We’re going to work,” he snapped. He opened his top drawer, pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to her.
“You signed all the confidentiality agreements?” he asked.
She nodded. “They’ve been signed, sealed and delivered.”
“This is your password to gain entry into the program. Memorize it and, whatever you do, don’t share it with anyone else.”
“Oh rats, I had planned to meet some Boston boy babe tonight and whisper my password into his ear.”
“I don’t find you amusing in the least.” He slammed his drawer shut.
“Ah, then I guess it’s good that I find myself amusing enough for both of us.” The smile on her face disappeared and her eyes narrowed slightly. “Don’t talk to me like I’m a bubbleheaded bimbo, Nate. I know the importance of keeping a password secure.”
A flush worked itself up his neck. She was right. He’d been condescending. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“Your gracious apology is accepted,” she replied. She looked at the password, a combination of numbers and symbols, then handed it back to him and turned on the monitor in front of her. “Now, what I need to do is take some time to familiarize myself with the system before I take a look at your program.”
He nodded and focused his attention on his own monitor. He could certainly occupy his time while she became acquainted with the particular software they used.
For a few minutes there was silence. If not for the tantalizing scent of her, he could almost forget she sat next to him.
Almost.
He found himself casting surreptitious glances her way, comparing the way she looked now to the way she had looked five years ago when he’d been so besotted with her. Five years ago they had both been twenty-six years old. She’d changed little in the passing years.
Her hair was still a wavy auburn cap, the short cut emphasizing her high cheekbones and dark-fringed, large hazel eyes. She was tall and slender and his mind flashed with a vision of her in the tiny bright yellow bikini she’d worn when they’d gone to the beach together.
The memory made the room feel overly warm and he could almost smell the tang of salty air mixed with the fragrance of the coconut-oil suntan lotion he’d spread on her back. He could almost feel the slick silk of her skin beneath his fingers, the press of her slender body against his own.
“Hey, you’ve got Solitaire in here,” she said with delight.
“There won’t be time for playing games,” he replied, grateful for the interruption in his thoughts. The way they’d been headed, he would have needed to take a cold shower within minutes.
“There’s always time for Solitaire,” she protested. “I do some of my best thinking on other things when I’m playing that game.”
It was exactly the reason he’d loaded the game into the computer, because he found that his mind worked out other problems while playing a game of Solitaire.
He wasn’t about to admit that to her. The fact that they had anything in common appalled him.
It had been because he’d thought they shared a lot of things five years ago that he’d made a fool of himself. He wasn’t about to allow that to happen again.
She pushed back a little from the desk and grabbed her purse. She withdrew a packet of crackers and opened them, gazing at him thoughtfully. “Now, tell me again what makes you suspect a hacker has been accessing the Utopia files.”
He couldn’t believe she was going to eat at his desk. Apparently his feelings showed on his face.
“Sorry,” she said, gesturing to the crackers, “but the food on the plane sucked.” She bit into a cracker and he tried not to focus on the crumbs that appeared on the edge of the desk. “What makes you think somebody is hacking into your Utopia program?”
“Everything seemed fine until about a month ago.” Nate stared at his computer screen in front of him as he explained the situation. It was still too soon not to find looking at her too much of a distraction to his thought process.
“Then, about a month ago I noticed the first segment of the program showed up as having been copied and a string here and there had been changed, making the whole thing unworkable. I thought maybe one of the techs working with me had made some adjustments for one reason or another.”
He rose from the desk chair and paced the floor in front of the coffee table. “I fixed the problem area and made a mental note to discuss it with the techs but then forgot about it. Then about a week later I discovered the same thing, only it was in another segment of the program. At that time I spoke to the tech team to see if anyone was trying to make improvements and was carelessly making errors, but none of them admitted to doing it.”
She popped another cracker into her mouth and pulled a bottle of water from her oversize purse. “How many techs have access to the program?”
“Our five top people, that’s it.” He sat back down and tried not to notice the familiar, delectable scent of her.
“And what do you know about them?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“What do you know about them? You know, their families, their personal lives? What kind of people are they?”
He looked at her blankly. “They’re very bright and hardworking,” he began. “They’ve been with me since I was hired on.”
“What about their personal lives?” she pressed. She looked at him in astonishment, obviously seeing the clueless expression on his face. “You’ve been working with these people for almost five years and you don’t know anything about their personal lives?”
He felt a censure in her words and it irritated him. “I don’t have time to socialize. I work with these people, I don’t visit with them.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” she muttered under her breath.
“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s wrong,” he replied. “I trust the people I work with implicitly.”
“What possible reason could anyone have for copying segments of the program?” She crooked a perfectly formed auburn eyebrow upward.
Had she married? The question popped into his head unbidden. Nothing that he’d read about her indicated she had a spouse, but the articles had focused solely on her work. He quickly checked her left hand, where no ring adorned her finger.
“Nate? Why would somebody be copying the program?” she repeated.
“That’s easy, it would have to be to sell. Wintersoft has dozens of competitors who would love to get their hands on this program before its release.”
“Of course, a copy of this program would be worth lots of money.”
“A small fortune,” he agreed. “We’ve heard through the grapevine that one of our competitors has more information about the Utopia program than they should. I’m thinking someone in their technology department has figured out a way to break into our system.”
“Okay, then I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.” With the lightest of touches, she pulled up the icon for the Utopia program and typed in the password he’d given her.
“Before I can really start any investigative work, I need to spend some time with the program.”
He looked at his watch. “I’ve got a meeting to attend on another matter. I should be back here in an hour or so.” He hesitated, hating the fact that he was leaving her alone in his private sanctum for any length of time and yet desperately needing some space.
“Don’t worry, Nate. I won’t bounce on your sweet leather sofa or drink all your booze while you’re gone. I promise I won’t even open one of your desk drawers.”
He hoped not. The last thing he wanted was for her to open his bottom drawer, look inside and see the magazines that had the articles on her inside.
“I’ll see you when I get back,” he said tersely, and left the office.
He’d lied. There was no meeting to attend, no reason for him to have left. Rather, he’d needed to get some air, get the smell of her out of his nose, calm the nerves that she’d seemed to get on from the moment she’d first entered his office.
He stood in the hallway, for a moment unsure where to go. He didn’t even know where the employee lounge was. He’d never been there.
Taking the elevator, he went down to the bottom floor of the building and stepped outside, where he hoped a blast of frigid air would freeze out all thoughts of a beach, a blanket and a woman named Kat.
He’d been brilliant five years ago when they’d both gone to the same specialized school in California. She’d been there as a scholarship student and he’d been there under his own financial auspices.
Although she’d immediately been drawn to his brooding, dark good looks, his mind had attracted her as well.
As she worked through the Utopia program files, his brilliance was evident once again. If he was independent, this program would make him a multimillionaire, as it was she could understand why Wintersoft was worried about a breach in the security of the program.
As she scanned the files, she tried not to notice the subtle scent of expensive cologne that still wafted in the air. It was a different scent than what he’d worn five years before, but certainly just as appealing.
She got up from the desk and grabbed an orange from the fruit basket on the coffee table. After sitting back down at the desk, she peeled the orange and stared at the monitor, her thoughts still filled with the man who had just left the room.
The school they had attended in Silicon Valley had been a six-month term and it had taken her two months to get the bright, handsome Nate away from his computer and into enjoying life.
“Ancient history,” she muttered aloud as she finished peeling the orange. As she ate the slices, she marveled at the complexities of what he’d developed and all that was at stake if a hacker was stealing portions of the program.
She lost track of time as she explored the features of Utopia. She had just hit a glitch in the program when Nate returned to the office.
She saw his look of dismay as he took in her orange peels on a napkin in front of her. “Sorry,” she said, and scooped the peels into a trash can next to the desk. “Guess you don’t munch and work in the same place.”
“I never eat or drink at the computer.”
“I always eat and drink at the computer,” she said. She’d forgotten how rigid he could be, how compulsive in habit. “Did you know you have a glitch?”
He stood behind her and saw where she was at in the program. “Yeah, that’s the only problem I have left to solve before it’s done.”
“It’s brilliant, Nate,” she said, and enjoyed the first real hint of a smile that crossed his face.
“Thanks.” He slid into his chair and his features lit with animation, making him not just handsome but sexy as all get-out. “I’ve worked it in my head for months, visualized it for years. I still can’t believe it’s finally coming together.”
“All we have to do is catch one little nasty hacker before he messes it up,” she said.
The half smile fell from his lips and he nodded. “So far a total of five sections have been copied and subtly changed. I haven’t been able to find out how the hacker is entering the system.”
“You must have an open back door somewhere,” she said.
“I’m aware of that. I just haven’t been able to figure out where it is.”
He’d seemed rather churlish to her before he’d left for his meeting and she’d hoped he’d be in a better frame of mind when he returned, but if anything he seemed more tense.
“I’m sure we’ll be able to find the portal and close it up tight,” she said in an attempt to ease his mind. Her words seemed to have the opposite effect on him.
“If I’d just had a little more time I’m sure I could have figured it out on my own,” he replied.
Pride. Good grief, she thought. What she was dealing with here was apparently wounded male pride. “I’m sure that’s true. But, hopefully with time being of the essence and two of us working to solve the problem, we can do it in half the time.”
“Hopefully, we can solve it in no time at all and you can get back to your life in California.”
She was suddenly tired, and more than a little bit irritated. From the moment she’d stepped into his office, he’d done nothing to make her feel welcome. She’d had a long plane ride, hadn’t eaten properly all day and decided at that moment that what she wanted to do was check into her hotel room, get a hot meal and better prepare herself for working side by side with the reluctant Nate.
“There’s nothing I’d love better than to solve this problem right now and get out of your hair, but I’m going to get settled in my hotel for the night and start fresh in the morning.” She stood and turned off her monitor.
She picked up her coat from the arm of the leather sofa and pulled a key from the pocket as he got up from his chair. “If you could just direct me to the Brisbain Hotel.”
“It’s two blocks from here. As you exit the building go left and you can’t miss it. I’ll call you a cab.” He picked up the phone.
“No, it’s ridiculous to call a cab to take me two blocks. Besides, I’d rather walk. I definitely could use some fresh air. I’ve noticed it’s very stuffy in here.” She hoped he got the jab. She pulled on her coat and grabbed the handle on her suitcase. “I suppose you’re in at the crack of dawn most mornings?”
“Nine will be fine,” he replied. Had she ever really heard his voice radiating with warmth? Or had it always held that cold, sardonic tone?
She opened the office door. “See you tomorrow, Nate.” She pulled her wheeled suitcase out into the hallway and breathed a deep sigh.
She was tired, too tired to concentrate on the program with her thoughts focused too intently on Nate. She’d thought she’d see him again and it would be no big deal. She hadn’t expected his surliness and she certainly hadn’t expected the twinge in her heart.
Pressing the button on the elevator, she promised herself that this evening she’d resolve her emotions where he was concerned so she could begin tomorrow focused solely on solving the problem, as she’d been hired to do.
She stepped into the elevator and was surprised when Nate slid through the doors to ride down with her. He’d pulled on a midlength gray coat and looked every inch the successful businessman.
“Going home to the little lady?” she asked as the elevator door whooshed closed.
“There is no little lady.”
“Ah, going home to the big lady?”
Almost…almost he smiled, but it was only a promising glimmer in his eyes before it was snuffed out by a scowl. “There is no lady at all. I figured I’d better walk you to your hotel. It’s late enough you shouldn’t be walking the streets alone.”
He held out a hand for her suitcase. For a moment stubbornness made her fingers tighten around the handle, but she was tired and the suitcase was heavy, so she relinquished it to him as the elevator doors opened.
“So, you haven’t married?” she asked as they stepped out of the elevator.
“No, what about you?”
“Marriage has never been high on my priority list,” she replied.
“Yeah, I seem to remember that.” There was a touch of bitterness in his voice, the first real indication to her that the past they’d shared wasn’t totally forgotten.
A responding swell of bitterness rose in her. She swallowed against it, refusing to give it a voice. There was nothing to be gained in rehashing a past relationship that wasn’t meant to be. There was no reason to bring up old issues that might make the two of them working together more difficult.
As they stepped into the office building lobby, the floor-to-ceiling windows ahead revealed a wintry wonderland. At least three inches of snow had fallen.
“Oh, Nate! Isn’t it beautiful?” She hurried ahead of him and pushed through the double doors and outside. She twirled around on the sidewalk, her arms raised to the heavens, where the snow was still coming down at a good clip.
After the tension in the office, the stress of the past couple of hours, she felt like dancing in the street, reveling in the snow that was as alien to her as Nate’s taciturn nature.
“It’s just snow,” Nate said.
“My first snow,” she exclaimed.
“Really? So, you never drove up to Oregon or anywhere to experience snow skiing or snowmobiling?”
“Never took the time. It’s a long drive to the mountains.”
She picked up a handful of the white snow and packed it into a ball, then eyed Nate with a wicked gleam.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.
She didn’t. She threw it and it splatted into the center of his chest. He stared down at his coat, then back at her in disbelief. Slowly he released his hold on her suitcase, leaned down and grabbed a handful of snow.
“Nate, no.” A giggle escaped her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you!” As she saw the intent in his eyes, she turned and ran and was hit square in the back with his snowball.
They made their way toward the Brisbain Hotel one snowball at a time and, more than once, she heard Nate’s deep laughter ring out.
She was pleased to know he still had the capacity to laugh. While they had been in his office she’d begun to think he was anatomically incapable of laughter.
She felt warmer than she had since the moment she’d stepped off the plane, despite the frigid temperatures and falling snow.
They stopped in front of the hotel and he reached out to brush the snow off her hair and face. He’d touched her only a moment when all laughter faded from his eyes and he stepped back from her, tension once again radiating from every pore of his body.
“Here you are, safe and sound.” He held out her suitcase and she took it from him.
“Thank you for walking me here,” she said. “It was quite chivalrous of you.”
“Lloyd and Emily Winters would never forgive me if anything happened to you before the hacker is caught.”
Kat suddenly felt the chill of the air not only around her, but blowing through her as well. For just a moment, as Nate’s laughter had filled the air, she’d almost forgotten he was the man who had broken her heart.
She’d almost forgotten he was the man without a heart, the man for whom life held no meaning outside of his work.
“Thanks, anyway,” she replied. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
With a curt nod, he turned on his heels and left, a gray-clad solitary figure against the pristine snow.
She watched until he disappeared from her sight, then she turned and went into the hotel lobby. Wintersoft, Inc. had spared no expense on her room.
The first thing she did when she entered the luxury suite was order in room service. Only when a decent meal was in the works did she unpack her suitcase and change into an oversize T-shirt that served as her sleeping attire.
She hadn’t really considered that working with Nate would be so difficult. She hadn’t believed that just by looking at him she’d remember the fact that he had been a breathtaking, passionate lover.
But she couldn’t forget that those four months she’d spent with him, months of laughing and loving, of craziness and embracing life had been nothing more than a temporary illusion.
It had been four months that Nate had been able to pretend to be human. He’d managed to make her believe he understood people, that he understood her. Her time with him had culminated in the discovery that he was nothing like the kind of man she’d thought him to be.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” she said aloud as she stretched out on the sofa with her room service table in front of her.
She’d been fooled by Nate Leeman once in her life. She’d thought that if you cut him, he’d bleed blood like normal people, but she had learned that if you cut him, he bled gigabytes and stuffy Bostonian ideals of home, hearth and wife. She hadn’t fit then, and likely never would.
Chapter Three
Nate walked briskly back to the office building, bending slightly into the wind that blew against his face. The only traffic on the street was a city snow truck slowly making its way with a plow lowered against the snowy pavement.
He had no intention of attempting the drive home with the snow still coming down at such a fast pace. The traffic would be horrible now, even worse for the morning commute if the snow continued to fall through the night.
As he walked, he tried to get a mental vision of Kat out of his mind—the vision of her cheeks all pink from the cold, her laughter pealing in the air with abandon, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she formed one snowball after another.
On the journey from the office to the hotel, she’d danced in the snow, fallen down and made a snow angel and had tried to talk him into building a snowman.
He’d loosened up only enough to lob snowballs at her as she squealed and ran ahead of him. Watching her, so full of life, so completely unaffected by what anyone else might think about her childish play, had stirred something inside him…something distinctly uncomfortable.
He brushed the snow off his coat and stamped his feet as he reentered the lobby of his office building. That was her problem—she had too much spontaneity.
She got an impulse and didn’t think, she just acted on it. Her exuberance for life was both infectious and irritating.
He’d always lived in Boston and had never had a snowball fight in his life. Within mere hours of being with Kat, she had him throwing snowballs and acting like a damned childish fool.
“Beautiful but treacherous,” he muttered as he hung his coat in the closet and returned to his desk chair.
How she had fooled him in those four months they’d shared a relationship. For the first time in his life he’d realized there was more to life than just computer chips and programs, a life other than diligent study and hard work.
She’d opened up a whole new world to him, a world where play and leisure were necessary, even demanded if he wanted to spend any time with her.
She’d introduced him to long barefoot walks on the beach, to sleeping late on Saturday mornings. She’d taught him how to play Monopoly and strip poker.
They had explored San Jose street by street, eating in charming little restaurants and shopping in funky stores that sold items he’d never consider wearing.
Nights they usually wound up at the apartment he was renting for the six months of his schooling. She shared a beach house in Santa Cruz with half a dozen young men and women. It was a place that afforded them little privacy and Nate had wanted privacy with her.
She’d made him believe she wanted all the things he did. She’d made him think they were of one mind and spirit when it came to life and love and the future.
When Wintersoft, Inc. had offered him this job, he’d thought it was a perfect beginning for his life with Kat. A great job in his hometown and a lovely wife who would be at his side. Oh yes, he’d been all kinds of fool over her.
He brushed errant cracker crumbs from his desktop into his palm, threw them into the wastebasket, then turned on his computer, consciously attempting to shove thoughts of Kat from his mind.
It was still relatively early, just a little after seven. Maybe if he got back to work he could figure out where the hacker was getting in and where he was coming from before morning.
Then Kat could get back on a plane and take her sparkling hazel eyes, her tantalizing scent and her rich, sexy laughter with her.
A knock on his door pulled him from his thoughts. Emily Winters stepped into the office. “I figured you’d be working late,” she said, and looked around the room. “Kathryn isn’t here?”
“I just got back from taking her to her hotel. She wanted to get settled in. We’ll hit it hard tomorrow,” he explained as he stood.
“That’s fine. I was hoping to stop by earlier and introduce myself to her, but I’ve been in meetings until now.” She leaned against the door frame. “Now that you’ve met her, I’m hoping you two will work together well.”
“Actually, I knew Kathryn already.”
Emily raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You did?”
“We went to tech school together five years ago in California.”
“Really?” Her blue eyes held his intently and he wondered if she could see in his eyes that he knew Kat well…very well.
He knew that she gave the best back rubs in the world, remembered the soft gasps she emitted when he caressed her inner thighs, knew that she could surf the ocean waves almost as efficiently as she could surf the Internet.
“She certainly has made a name for herself in the computer industry,” Emily continued. “There have been all sorts of articles about her in several magazines.”
“She doesn’t exactly shy away from publicity,” Nate said dryly.
“From what I’ve read, she usually works out of her California office. We were lucky we could talk her into coming out here. Hopefully, she’s just the person we need. All that’s important is that she help you get to the source of the problem,” Emily said. “Well, I’m getting out of here. If you’re driving home you’d better get started. I’ve heard the roads are pretty horrible.”
“Okay, thanks.” The moment she left his office he sank back into his chair. It was more than wounded pride that made him irritated that they’d brought her in.
It was the fact that he was supposed to be one of the best in the industry, that somehow he felt he wasn’t living up to his potential.
“A man is only as good as the work he does, the things he accomplishes.” How many times had Nate heard his mother and father say those very words? How good could he be if his company had to bring in outside help?
Thinking of his parents reminded him that he hadn’t spoken to them in almost a month. He made a mental note to call them in the next day or two. They rarely called him. They were busy people with busy lives.
What he needed to do at the moment was go back into his program and find the hacker, solve the problem and get Kathryn Sanderson forever out of his life.
She slept like a baby, but then she always did. It seemed no matter what turmoil took place in her daily life, it left her alone the moment she closed her eyes for sleep.
She knew she was lucky that way, but had long ago realized it was some sort of nice compensation for having to deal with her mother.
As she was growing up, God knows she had needed every ounce of energy to deal with the daily struggles of being her mother’s daughter, and so had gifted her with the capacity to sleep well each and every night and awaken well rested.
She tumbled out of the bed and rushed to the windows to pull open the curtains. She gasped at the sight that greeted her. Milk Street looked more like Frosty the Snowman land.
There appeared to be nearly a foot of snow on the ground and the sun peeking up over the horizon gave the entire landscape a candy-cane-pink kind of glow. She admired the beauty of the scene for a moment then turned away from the window.
The challenges that lay ahead energized her, both the work involved and Nate Leeman himself.
She felt strong this morning, more than capable of taking whatever acrimony he decided to dish out. She knew he could be impossibly closed off from others, as emotional as a rock and downright surly when he wanted to be, but she refused to let him get under her skin.
By seven she’d eaten a Danish and drunk two cups of coffee, showered and dressed and decided that spending another minute in the hotel room was impossible.
She grabbed her coat and left. There was nothing to say she couldn’t get to work early. Nate had said nine, but if she knew him he’d be in early as well.
As she trudged through the snow the two blocks to the office building, she thought about the fact that he hadn’t married. The fact that he was still single certainly didn’t surprise her. It would take a very patient, Milquetoast kind of woman to fit into the ideal he had for his wife.
Five years ago she’d had neither the patience nor the fortitude to become the woman he wanted. Nothing had changed, not that he was asking.
She was greeted by the security guard, who had her sign in, then she stepped into the elevator that would whisk her up to the floor that held Nate’s office.
The hallway held the hush of early morning. No phones rang, no scurrying footsteps abounded, just the stillness of a building holding its breath in anticipation of the day’s beginning.
She was unsurprised to find Nate’s office door unlocked. She eased it open, stepped inside, then went completely still.
Nate was there at his desk. It was apparent from the clothes he wore that he’d been there all night. It was also obvious that he was sound asleep slumped over the keyboard, his face turned in her direction.
At some point or another over the course of the night, he’d taken off his suit jacket. His white shirt stretched across the width of his shoulders.
She knew she should awaken him immediately, but she didn’t. Instead she studied him in his unguarded, unconscious state.
He was still one of the most handsome men she’d ever known. His features were sharply defined, sculpted by an artist’s hands…aristocratic yet utterly masculine.
His dark eyelashes were sinfully long and shadowed the skin just beneath his eyes. His jaw was darkened slightly with the faint growth of a five-o’clock shadow.
His mouth was slightly agape, although no hint of a snore emitted from him. She remembered that mouth on hers, hot and demanding. He may have been unemotional in most aspects of his life, but when it came to his work and lovemaking, he’d been quite passionate.
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