Double Dare

Nathan led her to a silver two-seater Mercedes and held the door for her. He watched the swing of her hips, the slide of booted leg and bare thigh as she climbed into the car. She glanced at him as they sped off. He was smiling to himself. He could probably smell the sex on her.

Abby didn't care.

She'd stepped away from her life and she was having an affair with a mystery man.

She gave Nathan her address, then closed her eyes and savored every second over again.

* * * *

Back at the venue Zac once again entered the sequence of numbers into the keypad stage left and walked down the corridor, past the dressing rooms and beyond. He ran nimbly up the narrow flight of stairs to the offices. Another key code entered him into his private sanctuary. The lights went on.

The room was his stronghold. Sparse yet comfortable, two long, leather Chesterfields on opposite walls flanked a large glass desk mounted on ornate wrought iron struts. He put his keys on the surface with a gentle chime and sat down, gazing at the expanse of heavy glass in front of him. He had intended to have her over the desk, but hadn't been able to restrain himself long enough to get her up the stairs. Maybe another time.

He flicked on his PC. The machine whirred quickly, the screen flicking through directories. His eyes narrowed as he located the online Robertson dossier and Abby's corporate image filled the screen.

A knowing smile teased the corners of his mouth.

Her hair was swept up and clipped back, in line with her corporate image. She looked sophisticated, immaculate, but even in this official context he could see the wild side of Abby just beneath the beautiful surface, and within his grasp.

He scanned her credentials yet again, his eyes flickering quickly over the list of accounts she had worked on over the past two years, looking for a clue he might have missed. They were well known corporations. She'd been given challenging contracts and successfully enhanced them.

"Well, well, Ms. Douglas," he whispered to the screen. "Are you truly the portal to all these good things, or are you playing some other game?"

She was intelligent. It wouldn't take much digging on her behalf to find out he was the Ashburn heir. Putting his name into Google would take care of that, a string of old news articles reporting what his mother called his 'gallivanting years,' the times when he concentrated on spending money instead of earning it. He was barely out of the gossip columns for a while back then, until he'd grown to hate that.

If Abby already knew about the connection, why was she still pretending to be a receptionist? He could almost feel his Mother's genes beating out their concern in his blood.

Abigail Douglas was now in charge of the account. She had enough confidence to take down a major corp. single-handedly, and with her sassy sex appeal thrown into the bargain she could be a powerful weapon. Could she have some nefarious purpose in tracking him down, commencing a sexual liaison with him? Something bound to her intentions for the Ashburn account? Could he take that risk?

He had to face it, he already had. And things were getting more complicated by the moment. He'd had a taste of her and he wanted more.

By the time Nathan returned to the office, he'd entered every possible scenario into his analysis and he'd become increasingly tense about the whole set up, because all he wanted to do was fuck her again.

He stood up, pacing the length of the room as he spoke. "Where does she live?"

"The south east, an apartment, Greenwich way."

Zac nodded, both cautious and thoughtful. "Alone?"

"It looked that way."

"I want you to find out for sure. I want to know everything we can find out about her. She works with Robertson, she's actually managing the Ashburn investments and yet she's turned up pretending to be a little nobody out for a good time."

Nathan's eyebrows shot up. He gave a low appreciative whistle.

"I've checked her out and, professionally, she's good at what she does...although she's quite the risk-taker." Zac tapped his chin with one finger. What risk might she be running here, and was it on behalf of her boss, or was she acting alone? Or am I as suspicious of everyone as my dear Mama?

He ignored the mocking voice in his head, reminding himself that he'd given her an invitation. That might be why she'd come. But why lie about her job?

"For some reason she isn't mentioning that she's a money manager, which is odd. I don't know for sure if she is aware of my relationship with the Ashburn Company, but it makes things...complicated."

Nathan nodded. Robertson was under their scrutiny anyway, but what it had to do with the woman was another issue.

"Any reason why you don't confront her, ask her why she's lying about her job?"

Zac shrugged. "I might do that, but I want to find out what she's up to first." He just had to keep his head long enou

gh to find out more, and that might be the hard part.