Intimate Desires (The Love and Danger Series) (16 page)

Nina noticed the police cars surrounding the building, but she didn’t really connect their presence with anything relevant to her life.  She lived a pretty boring existence, so she continued to walk towards the entrance, mentally dismissing the police officers.  Of course, the line of people trying to get into the office was different, but even that didn’t break through her consciousness as she hurriedly typed notes into her cell phone, trying to remember all the things she’d thought of during her commute that morning. 

The long line of employees trying to get into the building was yet another irritation to her day and since she was already late for work, this was not turning out to be a very good morning.  She blew a puff of air upwards, causing her bangs to lift, then float back against her forehead. 

She vaguely heard the murmurs of the others in line, but her mind was more focused on getting her thoughts down than on heading into a job that she hated.  Every morning, she wondered how long it would take to get out of this dead-end job and away from a boss that made her skin crawl.  “I wonder why the ambulance….don’t they need sirens?” someone behind her asked.

Okay, that peaked her curiosity.  An ambulance?  What in the world…?  Nina turned slightly and saw the ambulance driving away with lights flashing, but the sirens were ominously silent.  The sight sent a shiver of apprehension down her back, but she shook it off and focused back on her cell phone.  Unfortunately, her thumbs couldn’t type fast enough to get all of her thoughts down. 

Glancing up in irritation, she looked around, trying to see if there was a slight bit of shade coming up.  It was only eight o’clock in the morning, but the summer sun was high and hot, and the humidity was making her silk shirt stick to her back uncomfortably. 

Why was there even a line?  Normally, people simply walked into the lobby, scanned their ID badges against the badge reader and they were allowed access to the building and the elevators. 

Something mysterious was going on.  The combination of the slow line and the silent ambulance managed to finally pull her focus away from her notes.  And then she felt something else, something strange.  Looking around, she saw that there were police officers everywhere.  In fact, there were police reviewing everyone’s ID badge as they entered, which was why the line was moving so slowly. 

Hmmmm…she thought, then dismissed the issue since it didn’t have anything to do with her day, except to slow down the entrance process.  She looked back down at her cell phone, continuing to type, trying to remember the details of the idea she’d had at one of the stop lights.  Unfortunately, that sense was still there, distracting her.  Sort of like a mosquito that kept buzzing around her.  It was there, but she couldn’t really see it.  Couldn’t actually smack the sensation away. 

She finally looked up and that’s when she saw…HIM.  He wasn’t in uniform, but he was significantly taller than the others and he had that look about him. 
That look that shouted out, “I’m in control here!”  Wow!  Those shoulders couldn’t be real, could they?  But the man wasn’t wearing a suit jacket that would add padding.  He was wearing a black tee-shirt with a black, cotton shirt over top with the sleeves rolled up because of the heat.  Her eyes traveled lower, noticing that he didn’t have the usual stomach paunch.  Wow!  So the guy worked out.  Impressive.

And even lower…her stomach flipped again when he turned his head and looked straight at her.  No longer was she distracted by the ideas she’d been trying to get down into her cell phone.  She was completely distracted by this man.  That was odd for her, because Nina was rarely distracted by anything. 

She felt…captured!  She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think…couldn’t even react consciously to the man’s gaze.  Her heart was reacting, though – it seemed to be trying to pound out of her chest!  Oh, and her knees suddenly weren’t cooperating very well either… 

“The line has moved,” someone said from behind her with an irritated voice. 

Nina heard the words, but they had no meaning. The tall, intimidating man with the piercing eyes and slashing scar on the side of his cheek had complete control of her. 

“You can move forward,” the voice repeated, this time the words were combined with a touch to her arm.

Nina jerked around, startled, her head moving from the person behind her to the person in front of her, trying to figure out how she’d broken that invisible string that had held her connected to… “Oh!  I’m sorry,” she gasped and moved forward several feet. 

Flustered and irritated with herself for reacting so strongly to a stranger, much less a male, she tucked her cell phone away, no longer able to remember what she’d been thinking about on the drive into work today.  Her mind was completely focused on avoiding that man’s eyes again.  Goodness, she’d made a fool of herself back there.  Thankfully, he didn’t seem like he was an employee, so she wouldn’t run into him in the hallways.  There were small favors in the works this morning after all.  Nina had no idea what his role was here, but she wouldn’t ever have to deal with him again.   

She took a deep breath and kept inching forward, hearing the grumbles of the other staff members behind her who were starting to demand an explanation for the slowdown.

She ignored all of it, but especially tuned out the man who was still staring at her.  She knew he was, because she kept glancing towards him, somehow drawn to him again
and again. And each time she looked, each time she realized that he was still watching her intently, her heart rate cranked up several more notches.  Any faster and she was liable to need that ambulance herself. 

She was almost to the front of the line with her badge out, ready to be reviewed, when that man, the one who had been watching her the entire time, came forward.  “I’ll handle this one,” he told the uniformed officer at the head of the line.

Nina bristled at being “one”.  That felt almost like being an “it”, and she really would object to being an “it”. 

She didn’t follow the man despite his hand indicating she should.  “I’m sorry, but I’m really in a rush to get to work.  I have a meeting in,” she glanced at her watch, “five minutes with my boss.”

Brock looked down at the woman for a moment, assessing her features.  She really was a stunningly beautiful woman.  Her dark hair was pulled back into what he suspected as one of those professional looking styles, but it only made her look like some sort of sexy, naughty librarian.  If she’d been the librarian at his school, he probably would have read a hell of lot more books, he thought.

Taking her badge, he read her name.  “Nina Jansen,” he said and looked back down at her, pulling her out of the line simply by taking her elbow and leading her off to the side. “And what do you do here, Mrs. Jansen?” he asked.

Nina tried to suppress the shiver of excitement caused by his deep, gravelly voice saying her name, but there was just something sexy about his voice.  Something deeply masculine.  It made her feel like…she blushed and quickly rejected the idea of taking her clothes off because it was simply ridiculous!  A voice couldn’t inspire someone to strip naked, she told herself firmly.  What a silly notion.  “Um…I’m a programmer,” she explained.

“And what does your husband do?” he asked.

Nina’s eyes looked up at his, noticing for the first time that his eyes were green.  And the scar on the side of his cheek, well, it didn’t make him look unattractive.  Just the opposite, actually.  The scar was….yikes!  She wanted to reach up and touch it, feel it and caress him gently, as if to take the sting out of the line.  It somehow only added a higher level of danger to the man’s aura. 

She pulled her eyes away from his scar and back to his eyes, trying to concentrate, but it was surprisingly hard when he was looking back at her.  His eyes were a striking color of green, she realized.  Well, not just green.  They were sort of green with fascinating gold flecks around the iris.  Interesting, she thought.  Then shook her head and looked away. 

She suddenly realized that he was standing there waiting for an answer.  What was the question?  Oh yea!  “I’m not married,” she quickly replied and took a step back.  “What’s this about?” she asked, feeling like she was being rude for staring at his scar so intently.  She tried to focus on his eyes, on the green with the yellow flecks. They were quite fascinating! 

Her eyes once again looked at the long scar on the side of his face and her stomach clenched, not in fear, but in horror that someone had hurt this strong man so horribly.  She clasped her hands together, trying very hard not to reach up and touch his cheek, to ask him if it still hurt.  It obviously wasn’t a new scar, because the edges were already healed and the line was white instead of red or even pink.  But there was something about this man that made her want to protect him.  Or maybe she just wanted to protect his heart, because he looked like he was physically able to protect himself.  And if someone had inflicted a scar on a man this enormous, she’d hate to see the other guy.  Whoever this man was, he didn’t look like he would let someone get away with marring him physically without some pretty serious retribution. 

Brock knew that his last question was probably irrelevant, but it had been important.  To him.  He didn’t really understand why, other than the fact that something in his gut was telling him that this woman was important.  “What sorts of programming do you do?” he asked, ignoring her own question. 

Nina straightened up, her eyes becoming defensive because of all the strange, warring emotions flying around inside of her – simply because of this man’s enormous physical presence.  She never reacted to men this way!  She was always cool and composed, reacting to intelligence and logic.  She’d never had a physical reaction to a man’s presence.  It was so outside of her normal responses, she wasn’t sure how to handle it.  So she lashed out, barely taking the edge off the irritation she was feeling.  “I’m sorry, but my project is top secret.  I can’t discuss the details.”

Red flag there, Brock thought.  “What kind of hours do you work?”

Nina thought quickly and forced her mind to figure out what hours she worked for Trident Systems, and which hours she’d been applying to her own project.  “Um…I work approximately eight to five each day, sometimes a bit later.”  She pushed a hair back into place.  “You didn’t answer my question.”

Brock knew instantly that she was lying.  He had no idea why, but deep down inside, he put her at the top of his suspect list.  Not a problem, he told himself as he looked down at her lovely features.  He was more than happy to question this little lady further. 

“That’s all I need for now,” he replied, handing her back her badge.

Nina took her badge and re-clipped it to the waistband of her slacks, then turned on her heel and walked over to the elevators, relieved to be able to put some space between herself and the mystery man.  The line for the elevators was still long, but once they were past the police line, it was easy to get to the elevators. 

She started to breathe a sigh of relief, but after only a few steps, she felt him move right behind her.  She glanced backwards at him, but he only raised those dark eyebrows at her, as if questioning why she was looking at him.  She moved to the elevators and was only slightly relieved when she was able to join the crowd getting on, but then he stepped on right beside her.  And since there were so many people, the irritating man was pressed against her.  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t put even a few inches between their bodies.

She tried to shift, to make more room.  But every time she adjusted her position, the man seemed to anticipate the move and shifted with her.  So no matter how she moved, he was plastered against her side or her back.  It was even worse when someone needed to get off of the elevator because he pressed himself against her even more, one time even wrapping his arm around her waist!  She gasped as the heat of his arm, as well as the fire on her back as his muscular chest inflamed her senses.  She could even smell the aftershave he wore and told herself that she hated it.  But deep down inside, she knew that was a lie. 

She almost sobbed with relief when the doors opened on her floor and she was able to step off, but then just about lost it when he stepped off right behind her.  “Why are you following me?” she demanded, turning around to confront him with both fury and fear in her eyes.

“I’m not following you, Ms. Jansen.  I’m going to Jared Silverberg’s office,” the terrifying man replied calmly.  “I’m not sure where your office is.” 

Brock almost laughed at her furious expression, her blue eyes shooting daggers at him.  She was smoking hot when she got fired up, he thought.  And damn!  He was actually having fantasies about those long, sexy legs – both of which, in his mind, were wrapped around his waist. 
Or even better over his….

She was a suspect, he reminded himself. 
And a prime suspect at that, if the rumors were true. 

She looked appropriately repentant, but still irritated, and Brock had to suppress a chuckle at her bluster.  She really looked sexy when she was riled. 

“Fine.”  She turned around and walked down the hallway with her head held high, but he could tell that she was having difficulty not looking behind her.  He couldn’t hide his smile, or his admiration as he watched her butt in the low riding slacks.  The slacks were tailored, and probably made with some sort of really expensive fabric.  And he found that he had to revise his opinion about his favorite article of clothing on women.  He’d previously been a jeans kind of guy, loving the way denim clung to a woman’s butt and shaped it, the way he could see the sexy curves of her thighs and even wonder about her calves.  But seeing this woman in the finely tailored slacks, he thought he might have died and gone to heaven.  Her hips swayed and every time she stepped, those high heels enticed him.  Damn!  A pair of jeans couldn’t ever compete with silk slacks and a pair of spike heels!  No sirreee!