The Dare Collection: August 2018. Avril Tremayne

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      “I CAN FIX IT,” I blurted. “It’s just a small area of the code.”

      Chance looked furious. “We thought these wrinkles would’ve been ironed out by now.”

      “I still have three weeks of beta testing before the final deadline.”

      Walter Green, the man Chance had brought with him, frowned. “You said it would be ready, Donovan.”

      “I was assured it would be,” Chance responded.

      I ignored the men and fired up my laptop. Scrolling through the code, I zeroed in on where the problem was. Heart pumping, I forced myself to analyze it line by line. After forty lines, I stopped. “It’s fixable,” I repeated. “But I’ll need time.”

      “How much time?” Chance snapped.

      I bit my lip. “A week. Ten days, tops.”

      Silence greeted me.

      Walter Green rose and left the room without saying a word. The other SDM executives also left.

      Chance Donovan’s gray eyes lanced me. The rest of him looked as harmless as a middle-aged CEO with a wife and three kids could look. But from the moment we met, I’d glimpsed a layer of menace in his eyes that pushed all my self-preservation buttons. “This is disappointing, Lily,” he rasped.

      I forced myself not to waver. “Who’s Walter Green?”

      “He’s the guy who decides whether SDM sinks or swims. Delivering this algorithm, correctly and on time, and earning the freedom you claim to so badly crave, feeds directly into that. Is that clear enough?” he said.

      “Yes,” I murmured.

      “Good. Now, what’s this I hear about a new consultant?” he asked.

      I struggled not to tense up as I trotted out the line Caleb and I practiced. “He’s from LA. He’s helping me with preliminary info on a possible gaming app my team is working on.”

      Suspicion flickered through his eyes. “Why don’t I know about this? And why is he staying at your house?”

      Why wasn’t I surprised he knew Caleb was staying with me? “Because this is still preliminary. And because I don’t need your permission to have a houseguest.”

      His eyes narrowed and he didn’t speak for a long time. “Remember what’s riding on this project, Lily,” he warned, then left without further comment.

      I buried my face in my hands.

      A minute later Caleb arrived, swiveling my chair to face him before tugging my hands down. He’d been listening on my laptop so I didn’t need to repeat what had happened. His solid presence took away some of my apprehension.

      “Apart from my regret that I wasn’t here to punch that asshole in the face, the problem is only a minor bump in the road, right?”

      “Maybe. Maybe not.”

      He frowned, crouching down in front of me. “Meaning?”

      “The mistake looks...sophisticated. I triple-checked everything yesterday. I could’ve missed it—”

      “You think you were hacked?” he asked.

      The icy hand on my nape wouldn’t let go. “I don’t think so but it’s possible...” I stopped as another thought occurred to me.

      “What?”

      “I added a last-minute tweaked version this morning from the team.”

      “Which team?”

      “Sanjeet’s team. But—”

      His fingers brushed my lips, halting my words. “You want to think the best of everyone. I don’t want to take that away from you, but you have to accept sooner or later than not everyone is decent.”

      My heart lurched. “I know, but I trust them.”

      “Give them the benefit of the doubt if you want. Let me worry about who’s at fault here. Okay?”

      Chest tight, my gaze settled on my laptop. “What’s their end goal, Caleb?”

      “The stalking is most likely to keep you off balance while they try to get their hands on what you’re working on.”

      The thought drew a horrified shudder. “That can’t happen.”

      “It won’t,” he ground out. With a decisive click, he shut the lid. “It’s almost eight. You’ve been up since five this morning. I’m taking you home.”

      I shook my head. “I can’t. The team always goes out to celebrate after a presentation. They’ll expect me to be there.”

      “Where’s it happening?”

      “Q Base in Cupertino.”

      He pulled out his phone to relay the instruction to his security team. Then he cupped my shoulders. “You’re officially clocked off for the day. Understood?”

      Feeling numb, I nodded.

      I was grateful when Maggie called and kept Caleb on the phone for most of the time it took to drive to Q Base.

      Thumping music when we entered the club further prevented me from making meaningful conversation with Caleb or my team.

      I exchanged high fives with anyone who stopped at the VIP lounge reserved for SDM, but the first chance I got, I headed to the main bar.

      “You want a lemondrop?” Caleb leaned down to ask in my ear.

      Memories of last night flooded in, knocking aside a bit of my melancholy. “Not unless you’re making it,” I said before I fully grasped how revealing my answer was. His lips curved in a smug smile. “They don’t make it that well here. I’ll have a noche azul,” I added in a rush.

      He ordered my drink and bourbon for himself.

      Since it was early by clubbing standards, we had most of the dance floor to ourselves. But an hour later the place was packed.

      I excused myself to go to the ladies’ room, and returned to find Miranda seated next to Caleb. Frozen, I watched her lean in close and whisper in his ear.

      A smile crept up his face but he shook his head. She leaned in closer, her bare leg sliding against his.

      Hot, green bile curdled in my gut, merrily aided by the two cocktails I’d consumed. I wanted to stalk over, uproot her by the hair and lay my claim on him.

      But other than the two orgasms he’d given me, a few shared confidences and a promise to screw each other’s brains out sometime in the future, what hold did we have on one another? For all I knew, Caleb could be gone from my life this time next week.

      The thought slashed through me, sharp and unexpectedly СКАЧАТЬ