Wait. Had that moment only been for the benefit of the cameras? A small, sharp pain slid under her skin. A pain she tried to tell herself she didn’t feel. “Oh,” she said, not quite able to keep the edge from her voice. “And here was I thinking that was just for me.”
He paused, his tie half undone, revealing the tanned skin of his throat. Shot her a glance. “Shit, I didn’t mean it like that. It
was
just for you.”
Pandora tore her gaze away and turned to stare at the city outside. “Right.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“It’s fine, Jax.”
But it wasn’t fine and she didn’t know quite why.
*
After they’d arrived home, Jax stalked into the penthouse behind Pandora, feeling like the world’s biggest prick.
He’d fucked up and he knew it. That brief, intimate moment at the gallery opening had clearly meant something to her and he’d made it all about their show for the press. And, what was worse, he resented being made to feel that way because it gave this pretend engagement of theirs far more weight than it had any right to be.
Unfair, you bastard. All she wanted was a friend.
Yeah, he knew that. Which only made him feel like even more of a prick.
Dumping his keys on the console table in the hallway, he turned to her, reaching out to pull her against him, make it up to her in the only way he could think of, with a kiss that would blow her mind, make her forget his mistake. But she was already moving toward the entrance to the bedroom, her red gown billowing out behind her in a swirl of gauzy silken skirts.
“Pandora. Wait.”
At the sound of his voice, she stopped. Turned. “What is it? I’m kind of tired, Jax.”
“I’m sorry. That moment wasn’t only about the press, okay?”
She shrugged. Like it didn’t matter. “Yeah, I get it.”
But he remembered that flicker of hurt in her eyes in the limo. It did matter.
He gritted his teeth, a part of him wanting to go to her and put his arms around her. Hold her like he had most of this evening. Not for sex but for comfort. But comfort implied there was more to their relationship than sex and he didn’t want to get any more involved than he already was.
You can still be her friend, asshole.
Jax shoved his hands in his pockets to stop them from reaching for her again. “Come and have a nightcap with me. We can talk.”
She gave him a guarded look. “About what?”
“About anything you want.”
She let out a breath, then came over to put the beaded clutch she’d had with her on the console table next to his keys. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
For some reason he didn’t like that answer. “Why not?”
“Because it’s just to placate me and I’m too tired to deal with that right now.”
“It’s not—”
“Do you really want to sit around talking to me?”
Her perfume wound around him, sweet and familiar, making his mouth go dry and his cock get hard. Because right now? No, he didn’t want to talk. He wanted to fuck her into insensibility. Then maybe he wanted to hold her. Talk to her. Comfort her
.
Be the friend she wanted.
But that was a goddamn terrible combination. Especially when what he should be doing is putting as much distance between them as he could. Before he did something stupid.
“Well, I guess that’s clear,” Pandora said flatly when he didn’t say anything.
“Pandora, I—”
“Spare me.” She turned in a flurry of red silk and started marching down the hallway to the bedroom.
“I’m not looking to get involved. You know that,” he said.
“I didn’t ask for involvement, Jax. Just sex.” She paused in the doorway, looking back toward him. “And speaking of, I’m going to bed. Are you going to come or what?”
His libido roared in enthusiastic agreement, because there was nothing it wanted more, especially after holding her close all evening, feeling her silky skin under his fingertips and the warmth of her body against him.
Then again, maybe that wasn’t a good idea. Their chemistry was volatile enough as it was and with this kind of tension between them, who knew what could happen. Something that wouldn’t be good for his detachment, that was for fucking sure.
And he had to maintain that detachment, especially while they were in private. How else could he handle those public moments when detached was the last thing he was supposed to be?
“No,” he said, ignoring the disappointment he felt. “I’m going to have that nightcap instead.”
Her gaze flickered away from his. “Oh, okay then.” That same disappointment edged her voice. But she didn’t try to change his mind. All she said was, “Well, good night then.”
The door shut with a definite
click
after her.
Fuck.
Still muttering under his breath, Jax turned and went to have a nightcap and nurse his hard-on by himself.
“How’s the job hunt coming along?”
Pandora, sitting cross-legged on the couch and reading yet another “this position has already been filled” response in her inbox on her phone, didn’t look up, scowling at the screen instead. “Bah, don’t ask.”
“The position doing filing in my HR department is still open.” Jax’s voice was entirely neutral.
Thing was, when she’d asked him for help, she hadn’t meant “give me a job.” It had been more along the lines of advice.
She tossed her phone onto the coffee table in front of her with some disgust. “Being employed by you does not make me independent.”
“You’re being stubborn.”
Yeah, she knew that, but still. She was already dependent on him enough as it was, let alone getting her income from him as well.
The main problem was not many employers were keen on hiring people with no experience and no references. Also, since the news of their engagement had broken, Jax had been adamant that he didn’t want her waitressing or bartending or any other job that might negatively impact her public profile. “My fiancée can hardly been seen working in McDonald’s,” he’d told her coolly.
Pandora decided to ignore him. She sat back against the couch and kicked her feet up onto the coffee table, crossing them at the ankle. After the Barneys shopping trip she’d assembled quite a wardrobe of sexy dresses and today she had on one of her favorites, a stretchy white minidress that clung to her slight curves. She’d always hated the way her father had dressed her for display, but she’d found the person she was displaying herself for made a huge difference.
That person stood not far from her now, all tall, dark, and roughly handsome good looks in his charcoal suit and crisp white shirt. His intense, blue gaze kept flicking to her bare legs, which was incredibly pleasing and the main reason she’d put on the dress.
Made a nice change from the detachment she’d been getting since the night of the gallery opening, the first night he hadn’t come to bed and taken her. In fact, he hadn’t come to bed that night at all. Or the couple of nights since. He’d made the excuse he had had lots of work in the evenings, but she was starting to think that was bullshit.
For some reason, he was holding out on her. Distancing her.
It hurt, not to mention frustrated the hell out of her.
Pandora gave a subtle shift of her hips, allowing her dress to slide a little higher. “So, popping in for a lunchtime quickie?”
“No.” With a visible effort, Jax lifted his gaze from her legs, his jaw firming.
“That’s disappointing. All that night work you’ve been doing tiring you out?”
“I’m busy during the day, too, Pandora.”
Of course he was. Except it was so not what she’d had in mind when she’d first agreed to stay with him.
Annoyed, she folded her arms. “So, why are you here then?”
“I brought you something.”
Belatedly she saw he was holding a bag, which he put on the coffee table, slipping a white box out of it. A white box with a familiar logo on it.
Her annoyance instantly vanished. “Holy crap, is that what I think it is?”
Jax put the box in her hands. “Happy birthday, Pandora.”
It was what she thought it was.
A minute later, Pandora had the gleaming silver laptop open on her knees. “You shouldn’t have,” she said reverently, gazing at it as it booted up. “You really shouldn’t have.”
Jax sat down, the heat of one powerful thigh resting against hers, the touch making her heartbeat accelerate unreasonably. “You said yesterday you missed your laptop so … ”
A glow of warmth uncurled in her chest. God, how was she supposed to remain pissed with him about his detachment when he did things like this for her?
She grinned. “This is going on my tab, right?” She was keeping a list of expenses she’d incurred, wanting to be able to pay him back the moment she started earning her own money. Whenever that was.
“It’s a birthday present and I never got you one. So, no.”
“Jax—”
“Let me, okay?”
Pandora decided she wasn’t going to argue. “I think I can handle that.” As birthday presents went a laptop sure beat the things she normally got from her father, things that had never been about her, only about him splashing around his money as a sign of his power.
“You know what you’re doing with that thing?” he observed.
Her fingers flew over the keys as she began setting it up. “Yeah. Going online was pretty much the only way I got any freedom. Plus Dad didn’t know what I was doing so that was an added bonus.”
Jax shifted, his body warm against her and she let herself lean against him a little, wondering if he’d pull away. He didn’t, watching the screen over her shoulder. “Show me what you can do,” he murmured.
The deep sound of his voice so close to her ear was incredibly sexy and she had to fight to keep her focus on the computer screen. “Like what?”
“Well, did you only play games or were there other things?”
“Oh, a few other things. Watch this.” She slid a finger over the trackpad. “Here’s the Morrow Web site. Pretty nice, huh?” She opened the command line window and began typing.
“What are you doing?”
“Wait and see.”
It didn’t take very long. The Morrow firewall was impressive but she’d seen similar architecture before and she knew its weaknesses. It didn’t matter how good a company’s security was, there were always weaknesses.
“What the fuck?” Jax breathed in her ear, his voice full of shock. “How did you get access to my e-mail account?”
“A little thing known as hacking.” Pandora grinned, pleased with herself and trying to ignore the feel of his breath against the sensitive skin at the back of her neck . “Your security sucks, Mr. Morrow.” Then she squinted at the screen, an e-mail subject header catching her eye. “Hey, isn’t Sean your brother?”
He ignored this. “What else can you do?” His voice was suddenly businesslike. Sharp.
So he wanted to be impressed, did he? Well, shit. She could
so
do that.
Pandora thought for a minute, then brought up another Web site.
“No way,” Jax said. “No fucking way.”
She grinned and proceeded to hack her way into the FBI’s mainframe. She’d done it once before and though it hadn’t been easy, it hadn’t exactly been difficult, either.
As a list of highly classified files began to unreel on the screen, Jax said curtly, “I think you’d better get out of there before someone spots you.”
“They won’t,” she said with absolutely certainty. “At least they didn’t the other time I got in.”
“Jesus, Pandora. Shut that bloody thing down before I pull the plug.”
She got herself out and as she did so he leaned forward, the hard heat of his body pressing against her spine, reaching past her to firmly close the laptop.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
One long finger caught her beneath the chin, turning her to face him. “That is one hell of a skill set you’ve got there.”
She caught her breath at the touch. God, it had only been a couple of days but already she was desperate for him. Forcing herself to pay attention to what he was saying, she replied, “Well, yeah. I did say I wasn’t bad with computers.”
“I think I may have a job for you that isn’t in our HR department.”
“I told you, I don’t—”
“Hear me out. I always thought my IT department was the best and so was the security of our systems. But clearly it’s not.” The expression in his eyes now was measuring. Calculating. Looking at her like she was a potential employee. Which for some reason got her even hotter for him. “Tell, me, did you do a lot of this type of stuff?”
“What? Hacking?” Her voice sounded a little thick, much to her irritation. “Yeah, but I never did anything malicious or stole anything. It was more like a dare or a challenge, just to see if I could.”
“And Garret doesn’t know you have these skills?”
Pandora quelled an internal shiver. She’d hidden what she could do from her father for years, mainly because if he’d known, he’d no doubt have put her to work. “No. I didn’t want him finding out. I never wanted to get into corporate espionage or anything.”
“Okay then. I’d like to employ you as a security consultant. I want you to assess all Morrow’s security plus give my IT team a full rundown on how they can improve it.”
She blinked. “But I—”
“You have skills, Pandora. I want to use them.”
A flush of pleasure warmed her skin, drowning out her previous hurt. Well, she knew she had skills, she’d just never thought she’d be able to use them. A career was another thing there hadn’t been much point thinking about, not when her future had always been to be the wife to whichever of her father’s colleagues had earned her.
“I’m still not sure. I want to be independent, you know that.”
“So, why not set up your own consultancy?” His thumb ran along the line of her lower lip in an absent, caressing gesture that made her mouth go dry. “Having Morrow on your books will get you shitloads of clients, I can tell you that right now.”
The flush of pleasure began to grow. Her own business? Where she called the shots and got to make all the decisions? Hell to the yes. Without thinking, Pandora leaned forward and brushed her mouth across his before he could move. “You have some truly fabulous ideas, you know that?”