Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It (24 page)

So what should she tell Sandy? I love the guy and you'll stay away if you know -what's good for you?

Somehow that message seemed just a little melodramatic. Which did not mean she felt no temptation to send it in an all-caps e-mail to her friend. Maybe if she ignored the message, Sandy would look elsewhere for her information. Maybe she would even go straight to the source and Marcus could tell her he wasn't interested. Then, again, maybe he wouldn't.

The third message started playing. She smiled, her heart picking up its beat. It was from Marcus.

"Hey, babe. I was just checking to see if you were in yet. I missed you this weekend. Maybe next time, we can do your domestic stuff together."

She hit the button to repeat the message three times before finally hanging up without deleting it. That sounded like a man committed to one woman. At least now she knew what to say to Sandy if she did indeed decide to call the blonde back.

She could only hope that circumstances would not drastically change after she dropped her bombshell on Marcus the following night.

Dialing Jack's extension, she simultaneously clicked her e-mail to download messages from the weekend. She got Jack's voice mail and left a brief message saying she was returning his call before hanging up. Then she turned her attention to the e-mail. Making a quick scan of the new project team's e-mails, she noticed that the message implicating espionage had been removed from the server. All of the messages she'd downloaded had recognizable senders and recipients.Thankyou, Lord ,

She skimmed them, looking for required action on her part before deleting all but two off her system.

"Hi, sweetheart. Busy?" Marcus's voice had her spinning around in her chair to face him.

He stood in the opening to her cubicle, looking sexier than any man had a right to look in a garish red Hawaiian shirt and khaki-colored Dockers.

She felt her mouth curve into a smile. "Hi, yourself."

"Did you get my message?"

She nodded.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Next time can we do the domestic bit together?"

The prospect of sharing Aaron with his dad suffused her with a warm glow. "I'd like that very much."

His smile spread that glow into the tiniest recesses of her heart. "Great."

He looked over her shoulder and his body went stiff. "Isn't that e-mail addressed to someone else?"

She turned back to her machine, momentarily at a loss as to what he could be talking about, and then she noticed that she'd left the technical marketing engineer's message on-screen because it was something she had to coordinate with the design team's admin regarding schedules.

She refocused on Marcus, feeling lighthearted enough to tease him "Yes. but you're not supposed to be reading my e-mail over my shoulder."

It was a matter of common courtesy and company security. Of course, by rights, she should have blanked her screen when she heard his voice, but she trusted Marcus.

He shrugged. "You know me. I'm always look-ing."

She felt another silly smile overcome her good sense. "I know. You're an information monger. It's what makes you and Alex so good at what you do."

His frown surprised her. "I'm beginning to wish 1 wasn't so good at my job."

"Why?"

"So whatare you doing with someone else's e-mail?"

Typical Marcus to ignore her question to ask one of his own.

She didn't see any reason not to answer, however. "It's pretty common for admins to be given access to a team's e-mail in order to keep track of schedules and project details. It's kind of like having your mom listening to your messages and writing stuff down on the calendar for you."

"I wouldn't want my mom hearing some of my messages." His sinfully sexy voice had gone low and seductive.

She laughed out loud, surprising herself. "I can imagine. Some of these messages aren't appropriate for moms either. I try not to read anything personal. "

Then her lighthearted mood vanished as she remembered what she'd unwittingly read last week. Maybe she should talk to Marcus about it before she went to Mr. Kline. She chewed on her lip, weighing the pros and cons, and in the end decided she should trust him enough to at least ask his advice, unlike last time.

Only she didn't feel comfortable doing it in her cubicle, or anywhere else at Kline Tech for that matter.

"Do you have plans for lunch today?"

He'd been studying her and she wondered what he was thinking. He looked so serious and almost sad.

His expression turned regretful. "I'm having lunch with Sandy and then—"

She didn't let him get any further. "You're having lunch withSandy , afterFriday night ?"

She tried to keep her voice down but knew it sounded shrill. She felt shrill. She felt shredded. How could he be thinking about dating her blond friend after Friday, after what he'd just said this morning? She spun away from him, not wanting him to see the distress on her face, not wanting to see the cool distance on his.

His hand brushed the hair up from the nape of her neck and then she felt soft lips pressed to the sensitive spot just below her ear. "It's not a date, sweetheart. It's work. You know what I do. Don't read anything more into it than that. You're the only woman I want right now."

Thatright now sounded ominous, and instead of feeling comforted like she was sure he meant her to be, she felt a cold stone form in the pit of her stomach.

"And if that changes tomorrow? What then?"

She'd never asked those kinds of questions of him before. She'd played their relationship by his rules, but that had left her miserable and desperate. She needed more now. She needed to know if he was hedging his bets, or if he was committed to a real relationship—one that included the prospect of a future.

He forced her chair around until she faced him.

He was squatting in front of her, his gorgeous blue gaze eye level with her own. "It hasn't changed in eighteen months; I sincerely doubt it's going to change tomorrow."

At the reminder that he hadn't had anyone else in all that time, she relaxed a little. "I guess not."

"I know not. If there had been any way to eradicate you from my heart, I would have when you left."

She didn't like hearing that and glared at him.

He shook his head, his expression exasperated. "What do you want me to say? That I enjoyed pining for a woman who left me without a backward glance?"

She reached up and touched the firmness of his jaw. "It wasn't like that."

He closed his eyes and turned until his mouth met the palm of her hand. He placed a soft kiss right in the center and then opened his eyes again. Remembered pain warred with an unnamed emotion in his blue gaze and she wanted to comfort him, but didn't know how.

"I understand a lot better, now that you've told me about Jenny, but I'm still having a hard time accepting that you didn't tell me about her to begin with. I don't know what the future holds for us, honey, but I do know that I don't want to face it without you anymore."

She felt a lump form in her throat at his words. "I would have given anything to hear you talk like this before."

He grimaced. "Yeah, I guess I held my feelings pretty close to my chest."

She wanted to ask him what those feelings had been, but this wasn't the time or the place. She could hear her coworkers going about their business, and any second she and Marcus could be interrupted by someone needing to speak to her. The thought of another employee catching her in such an intimate position with him had her scooting her chair back. He seemed to know what she was thinking and understood because he stood up and stepped away as well.

"I'm sorry about lunch today, honey."

She nodded. "Me too."

"What about tomorrow?"

"But we're having dinner together tomorrow night." And she would have already spoken to Mr. Kline.

"Is there any reason why I can't see you more than once in a day?" he asked.

She took a deep breath and let it out, feeling the familiar elation that this incredible man wanted to spend time with her—ordinary, practical Veronica. "No. No reason."

At least she'd be able to tell him about the corporate spy then and maybe get his advice on whatever Mr. Kline said in her meeting with him.

Marcus was smiling again. "Good. I'd better get going. I've got a status report to write before I see Kline tonight."

She smiled back. "Then you'd better get to it."

He nodded and turned to go, stopping in the cubicle entrance. Looking at her over his shoulder, he said, "I wish we were getting together tonight. Friday made me hungry."

Her entire body just melted. "Me too," she whispered.

His eyes dilated with desire. "Tonight…" He let his voice trail off, the suggestion hanging in the air between them.

She wanted to say yes so badly she had to bite her tongue in order to keep herself from blurting it out. She couldn't. It wouldn't be fair to leave Jenny with Aaron again after the teething episode.

"You said you didn't know how late you would be," she reminded Marcus.

He swore, low and under his breath. His jaw set. He didn't like to be thwarted sexually.

"What about tomorrow? Will you come back to my place after dinner?"

She thought about what she would be telling him over dinner and her stomach knotted. "If you still want me to."

His eyes narrowed at her words. "Oh, I'll want you to. Just don't be surprised if I have my own plans for dessert."

She hoped with all her heart that those plans would not change once he learned her secret.

Chapter Fourteen

"You put Allison on your list of suspects?" Kline sounded shocked.

"As your PA, she's had access to all the information leaked by the perpetrator." Marcus hadn't bothered to sit down for this short update meeting with Kline Tech's owner.

He planned to give very little information, but recognized that if he gave nothing, George Kline would grow restive. And restive clients caused problems.

Kline slammed his desk, his expression ferocious. In fact, he looked like Marcus would look if someone were threatening Ronnie.

"She's not your corporate spy."

Marcus shrugged. "She doesn't exhibit the behavior pattern of one, but that could be camouflage."

He knew better than anyone else how capable a supposedly loyal secretary was of hiding her actions and her motives.

"Let me see the rest of your list."

George Kline was not happy and Marcus frowned. "Fine, but I don't want you mentioning the investigation to Allison."

Kline stood up behind his desk. "It's my investigation."

"No, it's mine and if you want me working for you, I call the shots."

The older man nodded. "It's not an issue. I didn't think she needed to know when I brought you in and I don't plan to tell her you suspect her of betraying me."

Marcus was almost positive that Kline had a thing going with his PA. He hoped for the older man's sake that Allison was innocent.

That kind of betrayal hurt and he didn't wish it on anyone.

Eighteen months after the fact, he was just beginning to get his emotions back together and it was because he had Ronnie in his life again. And she wanted to be there.

That made up for a lot.

Veronica waited in a chair near Allison's desk, her palms sweaty and her heart beating at what felt like twice its normal speed. She'd arrived fifteen minutes early for her appointment with Mr. Kline and Allison had informed her that he would be late. She'd been sitting in the barely padded gray chair for half an hour.

The sleek lines of modern furniture in the waiting room would inform any visitor to Kline Technology of its evident place in the world of hi tech, but she had to wonder if the small sofa kitty-corner to her chair and a black melamine table was any more comfortable than her seat. It was entirely too easy to imagine herself sitting on a hard wooden bench outside the principal's office.