Obession by Design (3 page)

“Now
we’re each doing the same thing at our individual companies. Comparing names
we’ve found on other parts of our own sites to names we’ve been isolating for
six years on certain message boards. We’re looking for the same usernames, or
other patterns that would lead us to investigate a bit deeper. One of the names
Harper found turned out to be the username of a man who was working for Ace on
his hacker team.”

“Whoa.
That’s not good.”

“No,
it certainly isn’t, but it did help us focus our efforts better, so something
good came out of it.” And now Ace and Harper were engaged. Who would have
believed that could happen? Emmett shuddered at the thought of spending his
life with only one woman.

“I
take it this person who worked for Ace was fired?”

“Yes,
he was. Unfortunately he’s also off the grid and no longer using his prior
name, so we’ve lost him, but we’ll find him again.”

“That
means anyone working for you could be part of the team who hacked into The
Madeline Project to begin with.”

“Yes,
it does. Or
anyone working
for one of my friends.”

She
stared at the tablet again. “You want me to do that, don’t you? Work on your
hacker team.”

“Yes
and no. Your skills would certainly be useful there, but I need something from
you that’s a bit trickier. I want you to build me a database where I and my
friends can store all the information we find. We each have our own databases,
but we’ve never combined them.
Too risky.
Hack into
one, and you’ve got
everything
we’ve
found so far.” He grinned. “But this …
Liane
, you
have the skills to not only build us such a database, but you can hide it from
prying eyes as well.”

She
blinked a few times, and he watched relief and intrigue pass across her pretty
face. “Wow. I never thought that website would come back into my life, and in a
way that lands me a position like the one you’re offering.”

“You’d
be doing the entire planet a world of good.”

“I
realize that.”

“What
do you say? Will you do it?”

Her
smile lit up the room, and his damn dick jumped. “I’d be a fool to turn down an
offer like that.”

Chapter
Three

Liane
glanced around at the dark wood
paneling and somber colors of her new office. This was a fabulous job, and
she’d never had her own office before, but she’d be moody and depressed sitting
in it all day. “May I bring in some artwork to hang on the walls?” she asked
Emmett. “You know, to brighten the place up a bit?”

He
chuckled. “We can always get you a few more sunlamps.”

“No,
I don’t mean it needs more actual light. I mean the colors are so dark.”

“The
entire department is decorated in this way. I like it.”

She
gave him a sideways glance as she laid her bag down on the desk. “Maybe that’s
the reason all your employees look like they need to laugh a bit more?”

“They
maintain an air of professionalism. I expect it of everyone.” His gaze traveled
over her again, more slowly now than it had in his office. “The way you’re
dressed is fine for routine workdays. If you have occasion to meet with clients
or one of my other friends, such as Ace, be sure to remember that as my
employee, you represent me.”

“I
understand, but do I have to smile coldly at others and not shake their hands,
too?”

A
grin played at the corners of his mouth. “Tania isn’t here to make friends.
She’s very busy as my administrative assistant. She also oversees a team of
personal assistants, one of whom will be yours. I’ll send her in to help you
get oriented to our structure here and to the building. She’ll also make sure
you have any supplies you need, as well as take you to HR so you can get access
badges.”

He
pulled a business card out of his jacket pocket. “This has my personal Internet
phone number on it. I’m available anytime for work-related issues.” As she
reached out to take it their fingers brushed, and there was that damn spark
again. He held her gaze. “As for the database, I’ll leave that to your
expertise, but I want to see the progress on it every day for a few weeks.
After that, depending on how far you’ve come, we may drop that back to two or
three times a week.”

“All right.”
She hadn’t realized she’d be
working that closely with him every single day. It was suddenly too warm in the
office.

“Your
work laptop needs to stay with you. I don’t want it left in the building
overnight or over a weekend. Besides, you’ll need to bring it to my apartment
each evening to show me your progress on the database.”

What?
She licked her lips because her
mouth had gone dry. “I’m sorry. Did you just say I need to come to your
apartment each evening to show you the progress?”

Those
ice blue eyes were as dark as sapphires now, and every inch of her skin felt
alive, as though an electrical current had passed through the room. “I don’t
have time during the day,
Liane
. It’s not unusual for
me to take work home. You’ll grow used to long hours, too. However, since you
have a new place to organize, I won’t expect you at my place after work until
tomorrow evening.” He cut his gaze to the card she still held.
“My address in on there.”

She
didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Her mind reeled with everything he’d just
told her.

“I’ll
send in your assistant. Keep me
apprised
of the
situation at your new apartment, and let me know if I can help in any way.”

“Thank
you.” Her response came out in a squeak.

“Any
questions before I go?”

About
a dozen.
“Yes.” He’d never answered this question, and she had to know. “Did you hire me
to try to get me into bed?”

He
didn’t look even slightly embarrassed. In fact, she could swear he was
delighted she’d asked. “I never hire anyone to try to get them into bed,
Liane
, but if it happens, I don’t fire them either, if
that’s what you’re afraid of.”

Oh, what arrogance!
“I’m not afraid of being fired
for sleeping with you.” Why the fuck had she said that? It made it sound like
she’d be open to hopping into bed with him.
Well,
are you?

“Good
to know. I’ll remember that.”

Fuck
. He was nothing but a game
player. The predatory look was back, but she still found it difficult to glance
away from that ice blue gaze. His eyes really were stunning, and they pulled
her right in.

She
forced herself to blink. There was one more question she’d filed away to ask
later. She knew there was, and she struggled to remember it. Finally, it came
back to her. “Why did you tell me about the NSSL servers being hacked into?”

His
grin made her pussy wet. This man had sexual charm like no one she’d ever met,
but she wasn’t here for that reason. She had to get a grip. This wasn’t a game.
She was stronger than this.
“Because I trust you.”

She
had no response this time, but she knew that no one trusted someone so quickly.
His reason for drawing her into his confidence had nothing to do with trust. He
turned to go, and she followed him to the door of her office. “Thank you again
for this opportunity, Emmett.”

He
faced her before opening the door. “You’re welcome. Don’t let me down,
Liane
.”

“I
won’t.” Not where work was concerned, at any rate. If he was hoping to seduce
her, he was in for a disappointment.

They
locked gazes for long moments, and
Liane
knew that
despite her resolve, she’d have to do more than keep a tight rein on her
emotions not to end up in bed with this man. She’d need to build a cage around
her body. All the determination in the world couldn’t erase that slight stubble
on his chin, or the way his gaze held her spellbound.

She
wasn’t used to such an immediate visceral reaction from any man, and she didn’t
know how to handle it. She had no frame of reference. It hadn’t been this way
with Keith. They’d eased into their sexual relationship. Both had been virgins,
and it had been the first time she’d loved a man that deeply. What their
relationship lacked in heated passion it made up for in faithfulness and
devotion.
Liane
truly believed that in time, their
marriage would have grown stronger.

She’d
never know whether she was right. All that had been snatched from her hands in
a matter of minutes, and ice blue eyes coupled with a sexy grin couldn’t bring
it back or take its place.

When
Emmett finally left her office, she stood with her back against the closed door
until her breathing was under control. It took some time because of the erotic
images dancing through her head, and
Liane
jumped
slightly when someone knocked.

Thinking
it was Emmett again, she opened the door quickly. “Oh…” It wasn’t Emmett. It
was a woman with short jet black hair and dark eyes, dressed the same way Tania
had been. “You must be the assistant.”

The
woman actually gave her a warm smile and stuck out her hand. “I’m your personal
assistant, Miss Peyton. My name is Stacie Baxter.”

Liane
shook her hand, thrilled that at
least one person in this organization knew how to properly greet someone for
the first time. “It’s nice to meet you. Please call me
Liane
.”

“Let’s
get you to HR for the proper badges, and then I’ll help you set up your office
and show you the nuts and bolts of this empire.”

Liane
mentally chuckled at the way
Stacie called the organization an empire. She knew she was going to get along
very well with her personal assistant.

An
hour later,
Liane
had all her necessary access
badges, had her office in working order, and knew where to find nearly every
piece of information she needed on the structure of the company. Stacie had helped
her set up her laptop and then shown her the Intranet and how to access
anything she could possibly need on it.

As
Liane
had already known, the Software and Web Design
division was only part of Radcliffe Enterprises. The remainder of the
corporation had its hands in communications and the antiquities market, which
really intrigued her.

When
she asked Stacie how there could still be a market for antiquities, she brought
up that division’s website.
Liane
spent an hour
reading the fascinating stories of men and women who braved the storms above
ground to travel the globe, procuring everything from artwork to antique
pottery, all for a hefty price.

“Surely
some of them die doing this,” said
Liane
.

Stacie
nodded. “More often than the Storm Troopers do from what I’ve heard.” The Storm
Troopers were funded by Radcliffe Enterprises, in addition to receiving funding
from several other multi-billion dollar corporations, including ACE
Communications. They braved the powerful, unpredictable storms ravaging Earth’s
surface as a result of the Tommy Twister virus, collecting data. The hope was
that this data could be used to take back control of The Madeline Project.

“It’s
hard for me to picture,” said
Liane
. “Everything we
knew on the surface is gone.”

Stacie
nodded. “Seeing it firsthand changes your perspective on everything.”

Liane
stared at Stacie. “You’ve seen
it?”

“Not
me.
Your new boss.
Emmett Radcliffe isn’t the kind of
man who sits behind his beautiful desk, which by the way was procured from
Brazil, no less, and dictates orders. He’s been to the surface more than
once,
and nearly died the last time when a tornado formed
just as he and his team were trying to make it to a shelter.”

Liane
had misjudged Emmett. The image
of him risking his life in the midst of such a storm sent a shiver down her
back. “I didn’t realize there were shelters above ground.”

“They
were constructed when the underground cities were built.
BrentCait
Enterprises proposed above-ground shelters in addition to the underground
system, for those unable or unwilling to go underground. But the majority of
the shelters weren’t finished until after The Madeline Project was hacked
into.”

“And
these procurement teams use them?”

“They
do, and so do the Storm Troopers when they can’t get out of a storm’s path.
There aren’t enough of them and they aren’t very large, but they’re the only
buildings left standing up there.”

Liane
clicked through the site a bit
more, until she came across the sidebar article that described how The Madeline
Project was named after the description of the house where Madeline lived in
the books by Ludwig Bemelmans. The article also contained a timeline of events
that led to most of Earth’s population moving underground. It still didn’t seem
real, even when she came face to face with it like this. She’d talked to many
people who felt the same way. Their entire lives had changed, and yet they were
unable to accept it had happened.

There
was also an article about Emmett, featuring a picture of him standing with
other men who each exuded power and wealth. All were smiling and had the aura
of confident men who were used to getting what they wanted, when they wanted
it. She frowned at the caption, which identified them as the Weathermen.
“The Weathermen?”

Stacie
chuckled. “You’ve never heard about this? Emmett and these men have all been
friends since high school or college.” She pointed toward the screen. “That’s
Ace, otherwise known as Arturo Charles Easton. He owns ACE Communications. Next
to him is Kane Bannerman, who owns Bannerman Investments. His
great-great-great-great grandfather or something started it.
Strictly
a family business.
That imposing man is Dominic Greco, who owns Greco
Communications. His and Ace’s companies were actually rivals before the world
moved underground.”

“Are
they still not rivals?”

“Now
it’s more like they’ve joined forces.”

“That
sounds ominous.”

“No, just smart business on their
part.
Because
most of the traditional business relationships changed in a short amount of
time once everyone moved underground, Ace and Dominic jumped on the opportunity
and drew up an agreement. Between the two of them, they serve over ninety
percent of clients in the western hemisphere who need their services. They
split up the clients according to market share. If they could have figured out
how to get the clients from the other side of the planet under their control
quickly, they would have taken them, too.”

“Do
they live in the same city?”

“No.
Dominic lives in
CentralWest
and Ace lives in
NorthCentral
.”

Liane
scanned the other names in the
article. She’d heard of each of them, but this was the first time she’d seen a
picture of some of the men. “So they’re friends, each is as rich as Croesus,
they’re all sexy as hell, and they own most of the planet.”