a splash of vanilla.”
I found the ingredients, stirred them into her cup and handed it over. “If it sucks, keep it to yourself.”
She accepted the coffee, took a careful sip, then blinked. “It’s good. Thanks.”
I got mine and joined her at the kitchen island. “Why buy a coffee machine if you don’t intend to use it?” I asked just for something to do other than stare at the mouth whose taste was now stuck in my head.
“I didn’t buy it. It was here when I moved in, along with most of the furniture.” Her reply was the stiff, don’t-go-there kind.
I ignored the alarm bells. “How long have you lived here?”
Her face tightened. “Three years.”
“And you’ve only worked for SDM?”
She nodded and leaned her hip against the counter. I forcefully redirected my gaze up to her damp hair, anything not to stare at the silky stretch of bare midriff skin or the luscious curve of her hip.
“So why not a condo nearer to SDM’s offices in Sunnyvale?” This part of Silicon Valley was CEO territory, usually favored by those with families.
Her long, sooty lashes swept down. “Accommodation came as part of my signing package and this one was available. It was supposed to be temporary until I found my own place but...it grew on me. When the opportunity came up for me to buy it, I did.” She shrugged. “Also saved me time on house-hunting.”
The well-rehearsed answer heightened my suspicion that something else was going on here. I left it alone for the moment.
“Besides swimming, what else takes you outside on a day-to-day basis?”
“Nothing I can’t live without for the time being.”
“Great. So we’re agreed that you’ll give me a heads-up before you head outside?”
Rebellious green eyes met mine across the granite top. “If it’ll stop you from diving naked into my pool, then yes.” Impatiently, she set her half-finished coffee on the counter with a snap. “By trapping me in my own home, isn’t he winning?”
“You’re not trapped. You just won’t be doing stuff by yourself for a while. Besides, if he thinks you’ve got someone else in your life he might show his hand sooner.”
She frowned. “Someone in my life?”
I shrugged. “He doesn’t know who I am. That’ll make him nervous. Enough to show his hand, I’m hoping.”
She absorbed the words for several beats. “And if it doesn’t?”
I felt my face harden. “Then we’ll step up the game, take the fight to him.”
My days of sitting around, waiting for things to happen were long behind me. Trusting other people to do the right thing for my mother had cost her the ultimate price. She’d suffered for years until she’d taken the only option she felt available to her, leaving me to deal with the aftermath.
The bitter pill I’ve swallowed all these years rose to the back of my throat again. Ruthlessly I pushed it back down.
Her gaze dropped for a moment. “The other reason I hired you was because your success rate is one hundred percent. I guess you’re good at what you do,” she murmured as she toyed with the handle of the mug.
I silenced the cocky bastard inside that wanted to strut at the hidden meaning in her words as she tugged one corner of her lower lip between her teeth. “I have a lot riding on finishing my algorithm,” she added.
The admission wasn’t an easy one and I admired her a hell of a lot for voicing it. It was probably why I skirted the counter to stand in front of her. Why I tucked my finger under her chin and raised her gaze to mine. “We’ll catch the bastard. I promise,” I said.
Her nostrils quivered delicately as she took a breath. This close, I could see the faint shadows and fear she was fighting lurking in her eyes. She’d been brave up to this point but the edges of her composure were beginning to unravel. I opened my mouth, to promise fuck knows what, but she stepped back.
“Um, about that kiss...”
The memory of it blazed a path through me. “Yeah?”
“It was out of line. I’m sorry.”
“I’m...not.”
She stiffened. “What?”
I tossed out an offhand shrug, despite the wide pit of what-the-fuck-are-you-doing yawning before me. “Technically, I didn’t break my rules. You got me hard as fuck on the plane. You kissed me in the pool.”
Her eyes widened. “And that makes it okay?”
“That makes me...okay with not losing any sleep over it.” In fact, the more I thought about it the more I grew okay with it.
“Is that how you usually give yourself a pass?” she asked, her face tightening.
“Since you’re the only client I’ve allowed to...handle me like that, I’ll say no.”
Lily’s mouth dropped open.
My answering smile felt tense as thoughts of Kirsten flared up. With her, I did all the chasing, right into the trap she set for me. Since her, my personal encounters had been kept strictly sexual, with a time limit of no more than two months. I’d discovered that was when nesting behavior began cropping up.
One or two women had called me a cold bastard. I’d learned to live with it. I could probably live with Lily’s brand of shutting me up, too, although I was a little unnerved that I was inviting her to smudge the lines. “So if the urge takes you, feel free to go with it.”
She gasped. “Are you serious?”
I shrugged.
“Well, it won’t,” she said briskly. “Are we done here?”
Disappointment cut sharp but I brushed it off. “For now. My team will be here at nine to finish setting up inside. What are your plans for today?”
“I’m going to the office in a couple of hours. It’s quieter on the weekend. I get a lot more done there.”
“We’ll go together.”
She nodded and walked over to the sink with her cup. After rinsing it, she bent over to place it in the dishwasher. I ogled her heart-shaped ass for a cock-hardening few seconds before redirecting my gaze.
“I’ll have the list ready for you in half an hour,” she said as she walked out.
I leaned against the counter after she was gone, willing my hard-on to subside even as I tossed around the rationale I’d given her for bypassing my rules.
Would she take it? Did I really want her to?
Hell, yes!
The powerful need behind the thought propelled me from the kitchen in search of something else to occupy my mind.
For the next hour I explored the two acres attached to the house, assessing possible weak points and compiling a list for the security team to tackle.
In the garage I found a gleaming black single-rider motorcycle with chrome detailing next to a compact Mini. Both were characteristically diverse, but somehow encompassed Lily Gracen’s personality perfectly.
Smiling, I finished the check and returned to the house. I set myself up in the dining room and sent emails to Maggie and the security team. Then I logged on to the security feed, played it through until I reached the moments from the pool.
The cameras displayed shots from different angles, but the one placed in the pergola perfectly captured the moment I reached Lily. It showed the tight expression in both our faces as we talked. Her shock at finding me naked. The moment she pulled my head down