Meredith blinked. “Prince Vlad, the—” Then it came to her. “You mean Dracula?”
“The same.”
She nodded. All right, not a great fate, but she’d still trade Wiznitsky for Crismis any day, especially since her first name wasn’t Vladimir.
“Maybe you could use your middle name,” she said.
“My middle name is my mom’s maiden name. It’s Hungarian. Bela. If I used it, that would make me Bela Wiznitsky.”
“Oh. Not a whole lot better.”
“Tell me about it. Then instead of thinking I was a bloodsucker, they’d mistake me for a girl.”
Meredith gave him a quick onceover. No chance of that. The man definitely didn’t look like he should be called Bela. Not with his broad shoulders and those massive biceps. “All right, I concede defeat. Your problem’s worse than mine.”
He grinned at her. “Let’s just call it a tie.”
She grinned back. “Okay, a tie, it is.” Her eyes, and her libido, focused on his chin dimple just a moment too long. She finally realized what she was doing and forced them away as a silent warning echoed in her mind—
Do not hyperventilate at the sight of a man’s chin
. “Umm, maybe I should show you the computer now.”
He nodded. “Maybe you should.”
“Right this way. In my office.”
He followed her, and when they reached the office, Meredith stepped aside so he could get to work. “By the way, where’s Randy? They usually send him to fix our computer.”
“Strep throat,” he said.
“Oh, sorry to hear it.”
“So was he. He had tickets to a concert Friday night. Now he can’t go.” He put his case on her desk and pulled the computer around.
Meredith settled herself in one of the visitors’ chairs located behind him and subsided into silence so he could concentrate. Also so she could watch his perfect butt as he leaned over the machine and periodically shifted his body this way or that.
The last time she’d had a boyfriend with a backside like that was…Well, actually, she’d never had a boyfriend with a backside like that. In fact, the last permanent man in her life lasted a full four months before he decided to ditch his law career and join the circus so he could finally fulfill his fondest childhood dream. Not that she cared. At this point in her life, men weren’t important. Her company was. Which meant she needed her computer. And she needed it
now
.
“So what’s wrong?” he asked. “I mean besides the fact your computer obviously had a nervous breakdown.”
“Besides that, nothing’s wrong. It’s perfectly fine, except that first the screen is blank, then it barks at me and flashes colored sparks, then it goes blank again until its next barking fit. In other words, it refuses to work and is taking the future of my company into the toilet with it.”
He smiled at her over his shoulder. “Can’t let that happen, can we?”
“Sure hope not,” her mouth said automatically while her mind continued to fixate on something else entirely.
Him
.
Nice lips. Great eyes too. And that butt was just about perfect. She blinked and quickly forced away the thought. Stupid. Unnecessary. And completely inappropriate. But, oh, that firm, lean butt.
“Virus,” he said, turning to her.
Meredith blinked as she tried to break her concentration on his butt and pick up the thread of their conversation. “Randy’s strep?”
He grinned. “You really are tech-challenged, aren’t you? I’m talking about a computer virus.”
“Oh, sorry. Obviously we’re on different wavelengths.”
“Obviously.” He went back to work.
A few minutes later, his voice rang out, telling Meredith that success was at hand. “Oookay. Got it. From what I can make out, this isn’t a vicious virus, more a nuisance one that can drive you slowly batty. So you’re lucky there.”
Meredith stared at his downturned head.
Going slowly batty was good, or at least better than a fast trip to the asylum? She doubted it, but since he seemed pleased with the situation, she’d take his word for it. At least the machine hadn’t barked at him. That was a hopeful sign. It must mean he had a way with computers. Either that, or he was sneaking the thing dog biscuits as a means of sucking up to it and making it behave.
Sighing, she reached over to the desk to retrieve her half-finished mug of hot chocolate. “Do you think you can fix it?”
“Sure, but it might take time.”
“I’ve got time.” She lifted the mug to her mouth to polish off the last rapidly cooling remnants of her drink. Actually, she didn’t have time, but her future was in that damn computer, so she’d have to put up with a delay.
“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.” She pushed to her feet and headed for the door. “Just follow the sugary smells and you won’t have any trouble finding it.”
Chapter Two
“You’re sure he knows what he’s doing?” Dana asked an hour later. “He’s been in there a long time, and still nothing.”
She finished piping halos of strawberry frosting on Tori Schmidt’s chocolate ganache-filled cupcakes and slid the last tray over to Meredith.
“He’s an expert or the company wouldn’t have sent him,” Meredith said as she carefully added delicate princess toppers to each cake.
“Yeah, but Randy’s an expert too, and we’re still being zapped by cyber-creeps.”
Meredith sighed, unable to deny it.
Secretly, she had been wondering the same thing. Three hackings in six months did seem a bit much, especially if an expert was rushing in to set things right. And Randy definitely had the credentials of an expert. Besides, she liked the guy and didn’t want to get him fired by complaining. And computers were always being hacked, even if they were owned by banks and government agencies. So her own situation probably wasn’t that unusual.
“All right, if this doesn’t work out, we’ll find a new company,” she told Dana as she reached for the last silk and satin-bedecked princess.
“What’s he look like?” Dana asked. “I mean on a scale of one to ten.”
Meredith blinked, surprised by the change in subject, but not relieved by it. If discussing Vladimir Wiznitsky’s professional ability was hard, measuring his sexiness was even harder. And no way did she want to admit how hunky she found the guy, not even to Dana.
“Maybe a low six,” she finally said.
Dana sighed. “Not even a straight six, huh? Bummer. Secretly, I was hoping for a ten plus.” She shrugged and went to a wheeled cart piled with cake boxes. “Oh well, maybe we’ll get luckier next time. Right now, think I’ll take the muffins to the back door. The company’s sending someone to pick them up instead of us delivering, and they’re due…” She checked the wall clock. “…right about now.”
She wheeled the cart out of the room, and Meredith collected the dirty bowls and utensils, frowning as she began to mentally estimate whether they had enough funds to see them through the next few months. Her frown deepened when the all-too-familiar problem of too much month left at the end of the money raised its head again, as it so often did.
“Ask some of the suppliers to accept partial payment, or beg the bank for an extension?” she murmured under her breath, trying to calculate the best way to handle another shortfall.
Vlad’s voice suddenly intruded on her calculations, and she jumped, almost sending a dirty mixing bowl over the edge of the counter.
“Fixed it,” he said from the doorway.
She turned as he entered the room. He paused at the threshold and looked around with interest. Then he inhaled deeply, and smiled. Meredith couldn’t help smiling in response. She loved it when people enjoyed the odors of her baking.
“It’s working again?” she asked.
“Perfectly.” He set his case on the counter and came toward her. “From what I’ve heard, this isn’t the first computer hacking problem you’ve had.”
“You heard right. It’s the third in six months.”
His brows snapped together in a frown, and he blew out a breath, looking totally shocked. “That’s crazy. But at least you use a good solid backup service, right?”
“I have a webmaster to oversee the company website because being accessible is vital for a new business. But a backup service for my own computer…uh, not exactly.”
“You mean you don’t back up to an external server?” He did an exaggerated eye roll to indicate what he thought of that little omission. “Oh, lady!”
“Look, I’m a master with desserts, not a tech genius,” Meredith said. She meant it to sound reasonable and authoritative. Instead she knew it came out defensive and apologetic.
Obviously he knew it as well, because he shook his head at her and folded his arms across his chest. It was such a superior-guy posture—all high-handed male attitude mixed with unintended sexiness—that for some reason it turned her on at the same time as it aggravated the hell out of her. Which was one heck of a lousy combination.
“Then get someone to do it for you,” he said.
“I’ve only been in business a few months. I have massive bills to pay so my creditors don’t—”
“All the more reason for you to protect your data. You can get a good service for maybe a hundred dollars a year that’ll back up everything…your entire drive, including all your system files.”
Meredith sucked in a breath, so stressed that she was ready to scream. She knew banana pudding cakes, not system files. But even though she hated to admit it, she also knew he was right. So far she’d been lucky. No valuable information had ever been compromised. But that could change in a minute.
“Frankly, I advise you to go through all your important files right away to make sure nothing’s been tampered with,” he said.
Meredith gritted her teeth. Like she hadn’t already considered that without his suggesting it. She narrowed her eyes at him. All right, forget the guy’s great butt and chin dimple. Even forget the fact that he was right. He was still haranguing her. In her own kitchen, too. Well, no way was she going to stand for that. She lifted her chin, frowning to let him know she didn’t care if he was a hunky stud. She wasn’t in the least intimidated by him.
“Look, Mister Nitwit, I’m perfectly aware of that and perfectly capable of—”
“
Wiznitsky
, not nitwit,” he interrupted as he held his hand up like an imperious traffic cop to stop her. “And like your name, mine is a perfectly legitimate name too.”
“My mistake,” she snapped. “It wasn’t my intention to malign your name. I just—”
He held his hand up again, this time more gently. “Wait a minute. Truce?”
Meredith stopped and took a breath, knowing this was silly. She was overreacting in the most juvenile way, and she didn’t know why, except that for some reason the man seemed to be pushing all her worst emotional buttons. Either that or maybe the stress of too much work and too many bills had finally gotten to her.
“Definitely. Truce,” she told him. “I apologize for the outburst.”
“No apology necessary. My fault for lecturing.” He held out his hand a third time. “Want to shake on it?”
She grinned. “That we have a truce, or that it’s your fault?”
He flashed an answering grin. “Both.”
“Deal.”
Meredith grasped his hand, then wished she hadn’t, because it was so large and warm that she was beginning to feel strange.
“Knock, knock. Anybody here?” a familiar voice called from right outside the room.
Meredith immediately pulled her hand from Vlad’s grasp. She hadn’t seen Tippi in months, but now here the lady was, sauntering in on her four-inch heels as her blonde hair swung against her shoulders and her hips performed a definite swing of their own.
“Sorry to intrude, but there was no one outside, though I did hear voices in here. Fairly loud ones too.”
Cringing at the thought Tippi had heard them arguing, Meredith forced a friendly smile. “Tippi, hello.”
“Hi, Meredith. Hope you don’t mind me dropping by unannounced, but I was just passing the building, and I wondered how everything was going.”
“Of course I don’t mind. Nice to see you.”
“Wonderful seeing you, too.”
Then Tippi’s attention and her smile shifted to Vlad. Actually, Meredith noticed it wasn’t exactly the same smile, more an intense version of the one Tippi had given Meredith. “And hi to you too, whoever you are,” she told him, and her tone had changed, going all smooth, syrupy female. “I’m Tippi Turnbull, owner of Tippi’s Treats.”
“Vlad Wiznitsky. Hi.”
Tippi moved closer, looking up at him as her smile grew absolutely flirty. “Fun name. I like it. Are you applying for a job here? Men can be awesome at creating yummy desserts.”
Vlad shrugged. “Sorry. I’m not one of those men. I’m more into tech assistance.”
“Tech? Oh, computers, you mean.” She turned to Meredith, eyes wide with interest. “My goodness, are you having computer woes? Those can be the worst for a business, especially a new one. Hope you didn’t lose anything vital.”
Meredith hoped so too. But she had no intention of telling that to Tippi, so she just smiled sweetly as though her computer problems were a mere microscopic glitch. “Nothing vital. Everything’s just fine.”
“Well, good. I wouldn’t want a fellow business owner to have any trouble.”
Tippi looked around the room, and her attention was immediately drawn to the princess cupcakes. “Oh, that is sweet! Pink cupcakes with princess toppers. Totally adorable. Of course, my creations tend to be a little more adult.”
“They’re for a nine-year-old’s birthday cupcake cake,” Meredith said. “We also create liquor-infused desserts, just not for a nine-year-old.”
“Well, of course not. That could get you into all kinds of trouble, couldn’t it?” Tippi looked up at the wall clock, and her mouth rounded into a surprised
oh
. “Whoops, guess I better be off now. I just wanted to drop in for a tick to see how things are going with…” She shrugged. “…the competition, so to speak.”
“Thanks so much for visiting.” Meredith gave what she hoped was a friendly goodbye wave. She hated the sense of relief she felt at the prospect of Tippi’s departure, but something about the lady tended to set her nerves on edge.