Summer Heat. A.C. Arthur

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      When Astrid was gone, he moved behind her desk, kneeling to look underneath. There was a panic button. Good. Further inspection yielded a separate computer keyboard that Sam recognized as part of one of the better security systems. This keyboard monitored every employee in the office as they were logged in to their computers. It also monitored each office by using heat and motion sensors so that if someone were in an office that shouldn’t be occupied, a message would immediately appear on a small computer screen.

      Sam knew the system well and pressed a few keys before the screen flashed. The seventh floor was dedicated office space, he noted as he looked at the computerized layout. The larger rooms, he assumed, were conference rooms while the smaller ones were most likely employee offices. Of the ten offices, only two were still occupied. Karena and Monica, he knew without a doubt.

      Tapping another sequence of keys, he pulled up the eighth floor, the gallery. This had additional security. Laser beams crisscrossed from the floor to the ceiling, in addition to the same heat and motion sensors that were on the office level. There were some smaller alcoves which had more security, coded keypads or locked encasements. He figured these probably held the more valuable pieces. He was just about to tap in another code when her voice startled him.

      “What are you doing?”

      His head snapped up, his body instantly warming at the sight of her.

      “I was hungry,” he said as casually as he could manage. “I figured you might be, too, so I came to take you to dinner.”

      She blinked, confusion marring her pretty face. “You’re on the computer.”

      “No. I’m checking your security systems.”

      “Oh,” she said and came around the desk to stand beside him. “The system was just updated two months ago.”

      He nodded. “It’s a really good system, worth the money. How often do you and your sister stay here by yourselves?”

      “We don’t work normal hours, if that’s what you’re asking. But there’s a security guard on the lower level of the garage and cameras everywhere. It’s safe.”

      “It’s not healthy,” he replied, his fingers moving quickly over the keys as he closed the areas he’d wanted to check.

      “It’s after five and you’re still working,” she responded.

      “Yeah, but I didn’t leave my house until well after ten this morning. I’m betting you were here a lot earlier than that.”

      “That has nothing to do with your job,” she said then moved around the desk.

      He smiled at her sarcasm and her attempt to put him in his place. But she had no idea whom she was dealing with.

      “You will find that I’m really into details. Whether they directly relate to my job doesn’t really matter. Now, about dinner?”

      “I’ll order in. You can let yourself out,” she was saying as he approached her.

      “I don’t want to eat alone.”

      “That’s not my problem.” Yet Karena got the sinking feeling that it was. His mouth said the hunger he spoke of was related to food. His eyes said something entirely different. The dark brown grew even darker, lust circling his irises with a smoldering ring. He approached her, and suddenly the reception area seemed too small for the both of them.

      Inhaling sharply, she backed up, knowing instinctively that having him close to her was a mistake. He continued his trek forward, determination giving his tall, broad form an air of intimidation she wasn’t quite sure she could handle.

      “Are you afraid of me, Karena?”

      Chapter Five

      Karena let out a nervous chuckle. “Oh, please. Don’t flatter yourself.” Her back hit the wall and he kept right on moving until his body invaded what she needed to be her personal space. Her heart was pounding and she fought to keep her breathing normal. “I’m just trying to decide what’s more important, getting to the bottom of this stolen-picture drama or kneeing you in the balls. What do you think?”

      At the end of the day, training and upbringing aside, Sam was still a man. As such, he grimaced at the mere mention of the harm she threatened to his most prized possessions. “First, I’m not the enemy, so there’s no need to run from me,” he said calmly because he didn’t know any other way. “Second, finding out what’s going on with the painting is definitely important but not to the point that you neglect your own personal needs.”

      With one more step he was so close her perfume smelled as if it had been sprayed on him instead. She was a lot shorter than him, the top of her head coming to his pectoral muscles. Yet with his continued progress toward her, she’d lifted her chin and tilted her head so that she was staring directly into his eyes.

      Sam realized in that moment that he wanted her beneath him, there was no question about it. He’d thought she was sexy the first two times he’d seen her, in a passing kind of way that all men noticed a good-looking woman. When he’d heard her voice on the phone this morning he’d thought, hell, maybe his chance at getting close to her was happening. Spending the day in Manhattan waiting like a schoolboy with a crush until it was time for her to get off from work to see her again proved he was going to lose the battle of taking things slow, which was normally his repertoire.

      “Besides,” he said, remembering her comment concerning his groin area because all the blood in his head was now rushing to that location, “kneeing me would be a dangerous option. Not to mention painful, and I’m sure it’s not your intent to cause me pain.”

      She lifted a brow and he wanted to touch her there, to feel the smooth hairs just above her eyes. Anything to get his hands on her because his fingers itched to touch, his mouth watered to taste. “I’m hungry,” he said, his voice hoarse.

      Yes, he was, she thought, and so, quite possibly, was she. His body was pressed hard against hers now, his hands at her sides remaining still only by the control she saw straining at the surface. His body trembled with that control, that need to stay still battling with the desire to reach out and touch.

      And, God, she wanted him to touch her. Never had she been weak to the needs of the flesh. With her mind made up about what type of men she would involve herself with and the limitations where relationships were concerned, Karena owned enough sex toys to open her own online sex shop. She used them more than she probably should and often wondered what effect all the electricity moving in and out of her body would have in the long run. Still, she was a woman and a professional who knew how to do what was necessary to survive in the world she’d built for herself.

      Unfortunately, right about now she was so starved for the real thing, if Sam touched her she was bound to spontaneously combust, and then what?

      Hadn’t she just had this conversation with Monica? He was here for business and business only. She definitely needed to keep that thought in mind.

      “Maybe you should leave,” she said finally when the silence was giving her too much think time. “Go home, get yourself some dinner. Call me in the morning.” And she would go home and try to figure out this mess she’d made of her career.

      “I want you to join me,” he persisted.

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