Sex, Lies and Surveillance (4 page)

She’d always had a thing for smart guys. And this one came wrapped in a body as fine as any gold-medal swimmer’s.

For a few seconds, she let herself think about what she could do with that naked body and a few hours. Jeez, she’d take a few stolen minutes.

With only a few minutes, she wouldn’t stop to kiss his lips. No, she’d go straight for the smooth skin of his throat and let her hands settle on that broad chest.

Then maybe she’d rip his clothes off so she could feel his warm skin against her own.

She’d had another dream last night. A dream about him and her and a bed. He’d settled his body over hers, held her hands above her head and kissed his way from her throat to her breasts and lower—

Blinking, she felt a blush roast her cheeks. What the hell had they been talking about?

Oh, yeah. How hard it was for her to be a girl in this family.

Dropping her gaze, she stood and straightened her skirt. “Um, yeah. My parents and brothers are a little overprotective.”

And that hadn’t lessened with age.

She’d chafed against it as a teen. But even then, she’d understood. After what had happened to her as a child, she figured her parents had a right to be overprotective.

Just as she had the right not to let her kidnapping at age five affect her.

Still, she needed to remember that Mal was her parents’ employee. She shouldn’t even think about him outside work. Especially not naked and kissing her between—

“So, I should get back to work.” She backed toward the door, not meeting his gaze. She couldn’t. Because if she did, she might just throw caution to the wind and jump him. “Thanks again, Mal. I really appreciate it.”

***

“Hello, Janey. You’re looking beautiful as always.”

Mal’s fingers froze over the keyboard, where he was attempting to pry the information out of the hard drive Janey had given him.

It’d taken him a whole freaking hour after Janey had left his office to get his head cleared enough to get some legitimate work done. An entire hour where he tried not to think about Janey. And failed miserably for the most part.

Now, this unfamiliar voice with the arrogant edge made the hair on the back of his neck rise.

“Thank you, Mr. Bennett. I’m sorry, but my mother hasn’t returned from lunch yet.”

And what was up with Janey? She sounded…uptight. Unfriendly. Definitely not the Janey he’d come to know.

“No problem,” the man said. “I’ll just hang out here until she returns. Or better yet, why don’t you let me take you out to lunch?”

“That’s not possible, Mr. Bennett. I’ve got—”

“There’s this great little Italian restaurant down the street. Or we could do dinner tonight, say around seven?”

“No, I’m sorry—”

“I’ll pick you up, six-thirty or so.” His voice oozed sleaze. “Honey, this is an awfully lonely town if you don’t know anyone. No one will know. It’s just dinner.”

Dinner, my ass
.

Every muscle in Mal’s body tensed as his hands curled into fists. The asshole in Janey’s office wanted her in his bed. And he wasn’t about to take no for an answer. Even though Janey had absolutely no interest in the man. He could hear it in her voice. Who the hell was this Bennett prick?

Screw him. Mal would make him take no if he had to shove the words down the guy’s throat. He didn’t care if the guy was a client. Janey didn’t deserve to be treated like this.

And if anyone’s getting her in bed, it’s going to be you, right, son?

Damn right.

Easing out of his office and down the hall, Mal heard the guy continue to talk right over Janey’s rejection.

“I know this great little place around the corner from my hotel,” Bennett continued. “We could have dinner and a couple of drinks. My latest picture’s playing in town, so we could catch a late showing of that.”

His picture? What the hell was he talking about?

“I’ve already seen your film,” Janey said. “It was very…fast-paced. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man decapitated by a truck door. But I’m afraid dinner is—”

“It’s a romantic little restaurant…”

Mal reached Janey’s office door and stepped into the doorway.

Standing behind her desk, arms crossed over her chest, Janey looked mad enough to spit. But he didn’t think she’d be able to because her mouth was pursed so tight.

Mal wanted to put himself between her and the asshole leaning on her desk who’d put that look on her face.

“Janey, I hate to interrupt but—”

The balding little prick whipped around, small eyes narrowed and a smirk on his face. “But you
are
interrupting. Come back later. She’s busy.”

Mal’s spine stiffened. He caught himself before he blew his cover completely and decked the guy.

“Yeah, well.” He forced himself to nod once in the guy’s direction, then ignored him to focus on Janey. “I need to talk to Janey for a second.”

And damn if that didn’t put a slight smile on her face…that quickly turned into a fierce scowl.

Whoa, what—

“Hey, Bennett. How’s it hanging? Saw your film. I don’t know about you, but I never get sick of gratuitous violence.”

Dominic DeMarco, the oldest DeMarco sibling, slid into the room.

Six feet two inches of rock-solid muscle, Nic gave Bennett a look that should’ve made the man’s balls try to crawl back into his body. Combined with the pitch-black hair that brushed along broad shoulders and the wicked slash of a scar across his neck, Nic looked like the former Army Ranger he was—someone you didn’t want to meet in a dark alley.

Apparently the man standing by Janey’s desk agreed, because he seemed to shrink in Nic’s proximity.

“I understand your wife’s doing much better after her hip operation,” Nic continued, coming to stand next to Mal. “Your children must enjoy having her home during the day.”

Finally, the name clicked. Randy Bennett was Hollywood’s flavor-of-the-week action director whose last picture had made more than $100 million and had been cited by Capitol Hill for peddling violence to children.

The Hollywood magnate stammered out a reply, thanking Nic for his interest.

Nic just nodded. “Why don’t you let me take you up to Mom’s office? I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable there.”

“Don’t you have a client coming in a few minutes, Nic?” Janey said. “I know you don’t like to keep your clients waiting.”

The tightness of her voice drew Mal’s gaze back to her. His eyebrows lifted at the anger in her tone. Hell, if her eyes were lasers, Nic would be a little pile of dust on the floor.

What the hell? Mal glanced back to Nic, who shrugged, as if his sister didn’t want to strip the skin away from his body with a dull knife. “I’m good. My clients are late. I’ll keep Bennett company until Mom gets back.”

Like he was at a tennis match, Mal flipped back to Janey for her response. Eyes still narrowed, she paused for five full seconds. Finally, her tone sweet as sugar, she said, “I’m sure Mr. Bennett will appreciate that.”

Mal stepped into the hall as Nic waved a much-subdued Bennett out of Janey’s office and toward the stairs at the back of the building.

Crisis averted. He stepped back in her office—

“Whoa!”

Mal dodged a speeding legal pad headed straight for his head, then stared wide-eyed as Janey swept her arms across her desk and knocked the stack of folders off her desk and onto the floor.

They fell with a thud and split apart, scattering paper everywhere.

She stared at her desk for a few minutes before she gave a purely feminine growl of disgust and spun to face the windows, hands on her hips.

He listened to her breathe, deep and uneven, for several seconds before he opened his mouth.

“Um, Janey? You okay?”

She stiffened at his voice but nodded, her ever-present braid flipping back and forth, barely brushing the center of her back. “Yes. I’m fine.”

Ooh-kay. “Can I give you a hand picking those up?”

“I’m not sure I’m done.” And to prove her point, she spun and picked up a couple more notepads from her desk and flung them across the room. After a few seconds, she turned to face him, chin held high, eyes blazing like the blue of a child’s crayon.

Oh Christ, she was beautiful when she was angry. Mal’s gut tightened into a hot ball and he dropped his gaze to the floor, swallowing hard.

“Done now?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.” Her voice was cool. “That was childish. Normally, I don’t let him get to me.”

“Bennett seems like a slime.”

Her lips twisted with disgust. “Yeah, Bennett’s a jerk. I was talking about Nic.”

His brows rose as he sought her gaze. “Nic? What’d Nic—”

“Damn it, he knows I hate it when he treats me like a child.” She started to pace, hands on her hips, her mouth pursed in a scowl. “I can handle Bennett. I don’t need my big brother—” she flung an arm in the general vicinity of the door, “—to save me.”

Well, shit. That was exactly what he’d been about to do. Mal couldn’t decide whether to be happy she wasn’t angry at him or pissed that she hadn’t considered that he would come to her rescue.

So he took the easy way out. “Janey, I don’t think Nic treats you like a child.” He reached for her elbow as she paced by him. The move was a reflex to get her to stop, but the feel of her skin against his wiped everything else out of his mind.

What would she do if he grabbed her and pulled her against his body? If he buried his nose in her neck so he could inhale the fragrance on her skin?

Janey stopped, looked at his hand on her arm, then up into his eyes, head tilted to the side. Trying to get a read on him.

He released her elbow and shrugged, trying to maintain his geek persona. “You shouldn’t have to put up with that crap from Bennett. I wanted to toss him too.”

It took a few seconds but finally her lips curved upward.

“You’re not my brother.”

And the bottom fell out of his stomach.

Oh, baby. The temperature in the room shot up about a hundred degrees. He definitely was
not
her brother. Blood began to pump through his veins, straight to his groin.

Son, stand down. Or you’re gonna melt into a puddle at her feet and beg her to do you.

At the moment, that was exactly what he wanted. With her gaze stroking like a physical caress against his skin, he wanted to press her body against the length of his, crush his lips to hers and—

“What did I tell you about that guy?” With a deadly silent stalk, Nic raged back into the room and the spell was broken. Mal stepped back as Nic closed in. “He’s a snake. You are
not
supposed to be alone with him.”

Janey’s gaze darkened to the color of a stormy sea as she turned toward her brother. “I’m not a
child
, Dominic.” Her words sounded sharp as jagged ice. “Where do you get off thinking I need a keeper?”

Nic’s hand slashed through the air to cut her off. “You’re being unreasonable. I don’t want you to have to deal with that guy—”

Janey slapped her hands together and Nic stopped midsentence, pulling back as if she’d slapped him. “If you don’t leave my office right now, I’m not going to transcribe any more of your notes.”

Surprisingly, Nic said nothing, just stared at Janey. Though Mal couldn’t see Nic’s face, he could see Janey, her expression stony with determination.

Brother and sister stared at each other for what had to be a full minute.

Then Nic shrugged. And took his life in his hands. “Fine, we’ll talk about this later since you’re obviously in a mood, brat.”

Janey’s mouth dropped open as Nic turned and headed out the door, winking at Mal on his way out.

Mal was surprised when the desk chair didn’t fly out of the room, aimed at Nic’s head.

Silence filled the room with an almost palpable presence. Mal knew enough about women to keep his mouth shut right now.

She looked mad enough to explode. Her cheeks red, her eyes narrowed, her mouth… Damn, that mouth.

Absolutely gorgeous.

After a few seconds, she focused her gaze on him and he thought he might have to duck and cover. Then he watched her throttle back all that anger until no trace of it showed. She was damn good at it.

When she finally spoke, her tone was even. “Sorry about the fireworks. I love my brother, but he’s a control-freak, pain-in-the-ass
moron
.”

He shrugged, wanting her to keep talking. “Family’s like that. Can’t live with them. Can’t shoot them. Every now and then you can get away with maiming them a little, though.”

She laughed, almost as if the sound was startled out of her, and his libido—and everything attached—jumped up to say, “Yes, yes, yes!”

He smashed the hunger back down, but not before something of it must have shown in his expression, because she caught back her laughter with a hitch and stared at him. Hard.

“Thanks for
almost
coming to my rescue, Mal.” Her tone was playful but full of husky undertones. As if she was coming on to him.

He swallowed. “You’re welcome.”

Son, you better get your ass back to your office before you fuck up and spill something you don’t want her to know.

She moved closer, walked right up to him and looked into his eyes. He froze, unable to move. Waiting. Trying to remember how to breathe.

Because every time he breathed in, his brain cut out. The light scent she wore wasn’t anything as simple as roses or lemon. No, it was some wicked combination of spice and floral. Something that made mouth water to taste her and his hands itch to wrap around her waist and bring flush against his body.

And when she leaned close and pressed her lips against his cheek, he very nearly did exactly what he wanted.

Her lips brushed against his skin for two seconds at the most. But for those two seconds, he fought the fiercest battle of his life. Trying not to show how much she affected him. How much he wanted her.

She drew back slowly, an odd hitch in her breathing. As if she’d been just as affected by his nearness as he was by hers. Her gaze didn’t meet his right away. Instead, it focused on his neck. On the pulse that throbbed with desire for her.