Oh, Jesus. She was right in their line of sight as they burst in the door, already arguing.
“…the hell you think you’re doing here, anyway! Have you gone completely insane?” Mathes hissed.
“But they sent us all the data on the blood and tissue typing!” The woman’s voice quavered, verging on tears. “You’ve seen it! The girl is a perfect match for—”
“And you trust their doctors? Their paperwork? Their lab equipment? For the fees we’re charging, I cannot have the slightest doubt about any of the details. We test, we check, we double check, and then we triple-check. Is that clear?”
Becca couldn’t breathe. Her mouth shook. She was afraid that if she unlocked her lungs, and tried to suck in air, they would convulse, make a sound like a barking sob. She couldn’t risk it. Air could wait.
She slid, very slowly, her back against the door. Trying not to rustle, not to squeak. Until she was down, behind the water cooler, curled up, trying to be as small as possible.
The woman gulped back tears, audibly. “But Richie, I can’t—”
“What do you mean, can’t? We have Edeline Metgers scheduled for two days from now!” The violence in his voice punched against Becca’s jangled nerves like the blows of a fist. “Along with four other recipients. You made the arrangements yourself!”
“You don’t understand,” the woman whispered brokenly. “Y-you have to come with me to do this, Richie. It’s too hard to do alone. You’re the one who makes me strong. I can’t—”
“Bullshit. We’re miles deep in this, you stupid bitch. We can’t go back now,” Mathes snarled. “God knows, I would prefer to do it myself, but I’m stuck here and you know it. I’m giving a fawning speech for that pompous old dickwad in exactly…ah, great. Yes. Exactly nine minutes and counting. Great timing, Diana. You show up here, uninvited, in a trench coat and diva sunglasses at nine o’clock at night, and make a fucking spectacle of yourself at Harrison’s party—Jesus Christ, did you think my wife wouldn’t notice? Everyone noticed!”
“But I—”
“Go, and do as we agreed.” The steely note of menace in the man’s voice sent a shudder up Becca’s spine. “It has to be you and it has to be now. Tonight. No other options. Do we understand each other?”
“But Richie, I’m telling you—”
Crack, the sound of a vicious slap to the face. Followed by the sound a dog made when its tail was stepped on. Then muffled sniveling. “You are such a prick, Richie,” the woman whimpered.
“I know. That’s why we get along so well. Now get out, and do your job. The time to have a breakdown has passed. Understood?”
There was a muffled sob, then a whimper and a guttural moan. Becca leaned forward just long enough to see that the man was kissing her. His hand gripped her crotch, working it. The woman writhed, clutching him around the neck as if she were drowning.
Becca jerked back, feeling slimed and fouled for having witnessed it.
The woman stumbled back with a sob and bumped into Marla’s desk. Mathes had evidently shoved her away from himself.
“Be good, Diana,” he warned. The door snapped shut behind him.
Diana blubbered noisily for so long, Becca actually started to get bored. Her legs went to sleep from being folded up so tightly. She was intensely grateful when the woman pulled herself together and stumbled out the door, still sniffling.
Becca fell forward onto her face and struggled up onto numb legs. Stomping and staggering until the pins and needles subsided enough so that she could actually walk, she flung her purse over her shoulder, and peered out the door in time to catch the flash of Diana’s beige raincoat, disappearing down the staircase that led to the back parking lot. Where Becca’s own rental car was parked.
She didn’t dare to examine the impulse, or she’d lose her nerve. It has to be you, and it has to be now. Tonight, the man had said.
Funny. Go figure. The exact same thing held true for her, too.
She took a deep breath and followed.
“Um, excuse me? May I ask you a technical question?” the soft, faintly accented female voice asked.
Josh Cattrell readjusted the fan inside the computer’s hard case, and groaned inwardly at this hundred and fifty thousandth interruption. He would never get this damn computer assembled before closing time unless he could get people to leave him the hell alone. “Miss, why don’t you talk to one of the other guys out on the floor?” He looked up. “One of them can answer your…uh…”
The distracted words disintegrated in his mind, like a smoke ring coming softly apart in the air until it vanished completely. Leaving the slate of his mind wiped clean. And his mouth dangling wide open.
This girl was beautiful. So outlandishly beautiful, it was like she was from another planet. Long, swinging white blond hair, huge, dark blue eyes, bee-stung lips, flower-petal-smooth skin.
And it only got more outrageous from there. He rose to his feet so that he could send his peripheral vision downward and catalog the rest of her supernatural perfection. Double D’s that defied gravity beneath a tight white tee, tiny waist with a bare midriff, pierced navel. Super lowrise jeans, clinging for dear life to the curve of a world-class ass.
He forced himself to look at her face again. He had no idea how long he’d been gawking. She was smiling at him. That mouth was amazing, full and perfect and sexily shaped. Angelina-eat-your-heart-out lips. She glowed. She shone. She was a miracle of nature, right here in Eric’s Electronics Barn.
“I am so very sorry,” she said, those long dark lashes sweeping down, casting fan-shaped shadows over her cheeks. “I disturbed you, from your work. Please excuse me, I will simply go and ask that other man, no? The red-haired man standing by the counter? Perhaps he can—”
“Oh, no! It’s no trouble at all!” Josh said. “Ask away. Anything you like. Anything.” Aw, shit. He was babbling, like an idiot. He hated himself when he did that.
But she was still smiling, amazingly. A tender, radiant smile, like he’d just offered her the moon.
It took all his brainpower to actually listen and understand her computer problem, with the combined difficulty of her accent and her unbelievable, insane gorgeousness, but eventually he started to get a vague clue: a desktop publishing program which went into conflict with other stuff on her computer and froze her system.
“Bring it in for me and I’ll take a look,” he suggested. “Did you buy it here?”
She looked suddenly worried. “No, it was a used computer.”
“Aw,” he said, crestfallen. “So it, uh, won’t be covered by the warranty, then.” Damn. He totally wanted to solve her problem, save her money, be her hero. “Um, I guess you could still bring it in to me,” he suggested. “I could still take a look. Completely free of charge, of course. I’ll do it after hours.”
She looked radiantly hopeful. “Oh. You are so very kind. But if I may ask…I hope you do not think I am asking too much…”
“Ask! Anything,” he said rashly.
“Could you perhaps consider, ah, coming to my house, to see it?” Her words came out in an anxious, embarrassed little rush. “Like a consultant? I have no car, you see, and the computer is very big and heavy for me, and I have no one who will help me here—”
“Sure! Yes, absolutely!” He was practically dizzy. Her house? This was too much. Holy crapola. He was going to blow a gasket.
“I will pay you for your time, of course,” she said earnestly.
“Oh, God, no. Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “It’s my pleasure. It’s just…uh…when?”
Her fathomless blue eyes blinked. “As soon as convenient for you?”
He swallowed, hard. “Um, how about now, then?”
Dimples suddenly appeared, and a laughing sparkle in her eyes. “Do you not have to work?” she asked gently. “I do not want you to have trouble with boss because of me.”
“Oh, not at all. My hours are sort of flex, anyhow,” he lied. “And I was already planning to leave early, so my boss will be OK with it.”
That was kinda true. Joe had given him leave to go early so he could get a good start driving down to Olympia to pick up Carrie.
Abrupt change of plan. His little sister was just going to have to understand. A chance like this rolled around about once a millennium.
“May I ask you a personal question?” he asked.
Her lips tilted at the corners. “They are the only interesting kind.”
His fingers and toes practically buzzed at the caressing tone of her voice. “Your, uh, accent,” he mumbled, blushing. “Where is it from?”
“Moldova,” she said. “I am here on a student visa.”
“Oh, I see,” he said. “I’m, uh, Josh.” He stuck out his hand.
She took it, and held it. “Nadia,” she offered him the name as if it were a jewel lying on a little velvet pillow.
Nadia. Wow. It dazzled him. He mouthed the name. Shivers of delight went up his spine at the feel of it in his mouth.
Her hand was so soft. And her slender, cool fingers were curled around his, holding on. Gently, trustingly. For so long, he didn’t know quite what to do. Take his hand back? He didn’t want to risk hurting her feelings by pulling it away. Maybe it was one of those culture clash things. Maybe Moldovans gave really long, intimate handshakes.
The effects of which went straight to his dick. Whoa. Woody alert.
“I better tell my boss I’m leaving,” he said, flustered. “And, uh, if you don’t mind, could you wait outside? My excuse for leaving looks really bogus if he sees me taking off with a gorgeous blonde.”
She gave him a secretive smile, an under-the-lashes upward peep. “Sweet,” she murmured. “I shall see you outside then. Josh.”
Josh watched her go out, wondering when he was going to wake up. Holy moly. He yanked the tail of his crumpled orange uniform shirt out of his jeans to cover up this boner and any possible future ones that might pop up in that unbelievable girl’s vicinity. He loped over to his boss Joe’s office like he had springs in his shoes.
“Yo, Joe,” he said. “I’m cutting out.”
Joe frowned, glanced at the clock. “Already?”
“I told you, remember? I’m leaving early. Gotta drive down to pick up my sister. It’s only an hour. I’ll make it up next week.”
“You better,” Joe grumbled, waving him away.
He pulled up Carrie’s number as he headed into the employee room to pick up his jacket and keys. The original plan was to drive down to Evergreen to pick up his sister, and then they would all-night it back up to Seattle, blasting rap on the iPod dock in the dash and plotting their intervention in the life of their dizzy older sister, who was showing serious need of sibling supervision.
They were arriving unannounced. With luck, they might even catch her with her thug so that he and Carrie could scare the guy away, if he was unworthy. Which seemed likely.
But it would have to wait. For Nadia, the whole freakin’ universe would have to just cool its heels, and wait. Becca got one more day to misbehave with her thuggish boy toy before he and Carrie came down on her like a ton of bricks. He pulled up Carrie’s number on his cell.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang. That was weird. He tried the wall phone number in Carrie’s dorm.
“Who’s this?” asked a husky female voice.
Josh recognized Elyse, who lived one room down from Carrie. “Hey, Elyse. It’s Josh, Carrie’s brother,” he said. “Is she there?”
“Oh, hi, Josh. I don’t think so. I thought she was with you. Wasn’t she supposed to meet up with you tonight to drive up to Seattle? Some big hairy emergency about the sister’s new boyfriend?”
“Yeah. That was the plan,” he said. “It’s just that I can’t make it tonight, and I can’t reach her cell. Have her call me if you see her, OK?”
“Will do. Bye, Josh.”
That was weird. He stared down at the phone, startled out of his horny daze. Carrie was hypervigilant about being reachable, and making sure her brother and sister were too. Being out of touch, even for a short time, really freaked her out. Abandonment issues, because of how they’d lost Mom, he and Becca believed. They both made a big point of keeping phones charged up, providing contact numbers, yada yada.
Damn. That worried him. But when he stepped out of the store, Nadia was waiting for him, and the blinding force of her beauty hit him again, canceling every other thought in his head. Wow.
She walked towards him, a slow, seductive, hip-swaying walk. She wore high-heeled boots over her jeans. Those legs just went on and on.
In fact, there was nothing about her that was not perfect.
She slid her arm through his. “Shall we go? Where is your car?”
Her accent was gorgeous. The skin on the inside of her elbow was so soft where it touched his arm. The softest thing he’d ever felt.
“Aren’t you, uh, scared?” he blurted. He was abruptly horrified at himself for saying it. Screwing his own chances. Dickbrain chump.
But her eyes just opened wider, limpid and glowing. “Scared? Why? Of who?”
He gestured, helplessly. “Oh, I don’t know. Of, uh, me, I guess. Of letting a strange guy come to your house. I mean, I could be anyone.”
Her smile widened, shone, dazzled him. “But you are not anyone, Josh,” she said, her voice low and caressing. “You are you.”