She paused “Maybe, maybe not. I’m not taking any chances. Have you ever opened a champagne bottle before?”
“No. Have you?”
“Maybe, maybe not. I’m not taking any chances.” She winked. “You open it.”
CHAPTER SIX
Lara ordered pizza. By the time it arrived they were onto their second glass of champagne.
“If we’re going to get through this project together,” Draco said, after they’d eaten and were lounging on the sofa together. “You’re going to have to learn to trust me.”
They were flirting heavily and she was aware the fizz was going to her head. “Of course I don’t trust you. I don’t know you. I can’t become complacent. I have to keep watch…” She looked him over deliberately, trying not to giggle as she did so. “You could just take off if you get a better offer.”
He smiled knowingly but didn’t deny it.
“You’re a criminal. I’m taking a huge risk.” Oh but didn’t the risk feel good.
“I’m not a criminal. I don’t have a record. I’m merely functioning outside the law.”
She laughed, she couldn’t help it. “Which is the same thing.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Semantics maybe, but rules are made to be bent, at the every least.”
“Semantics? You’re trying to impress me now?”
“You think because I’m obsessed with code I don’t read books?”
“Perhaps I was guilty of stereotyping you, before I met you. Understandable, surely?”
“What, you thought I’m eternally glued to a Playstation?”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Not so much my thing. It’s figures I’m fascinated by.” His voice dropped into an even more suggestive tone. “What you can do to unravel code…and bend it to your will.”
There it was again. She fanned herself. “This champagne is making me hot.”
He put down his glass. “Look at it this way. If I’m a crim then so are you, because you’re acting outside the rules set up in your own environment by employing me under a false identity.”
He had a point, but she wasn’t about to agree with him. “It’s slightly different. That’s a moral dilemma.”
“There are always situations in life where the rules don’t apply.”
Situations where the rules don’t apply, wasn’t that the truth. She’d already broken a self-imposed rule staying here later than planned. It was getting harder and harder to ignore the way he was, the way he looked, and the way it affected her. She wanted him, badly. Just looking at him aroused her. She couldn’t stop watching him and when she did her body ached to be closer, to touch him, to feel those strong arms around her, holding her.
“You didn’t follow the rules when you hired me. Your goal is outside the boundaries established by your fathers company”
“It’s a means to an end. What’s happening inside the company is outside the rules. I’m fighting fire with fire.”
“Hire a rat to catch a rat?”
There was challenge in his tone now, and it sent shivers down her spine. Why?
“Let’s face it,” he continued, “if people didn’t challenge the law, laws would never be changed and in this country some of them are centuries out of date.”
It struck as hilarious, his logic. “You’re suggesting laws should be changed to accommodate hackers?”
“Not at all. Some things are beyond the pale. In fact I haven’t done any hacking since last year.”