Nights In Black Leather. Noelle Mack

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СКАЧАТЬ on the information he was sharing, but seemed very pleased at how swiftly she picked up an understanding of the derivatives market. He also liked her ideas for attracting new corporate investors and sovereign capital.

      Plus her hair had defrizzed. With so many computers, the small room was warm and dry. But her brain could have used a fan. Just squirming in a swivel chair right next to a powerful, turbocharged male body made for sex was all the foreplay Lara needed.

      But she had to restrain herself, had to remember that she was essentially a spy—so what had she just seen? Millions being made. A brilliant man in action.

      Yowza, he turned her on. What of it? She had serious competition. Penelope Song. What a wonderful name. His assistant was an enigma, however. A beautiful, couture-clad enigma with a dragon avatar. It was more than possible there was something going on between Adam and Penelope.

      “So. That’s it for today,” he was saying.

      “I’m impressed. You are, like, a genius.”

      “Hardly.”

      “No, really, you are,” she finally said. “But I have to go. It’s late.”

      “Is it?”

      She tapped the corner of the monitor where the screen indicated the time. “They put the hours and minutes right here. Very useful if you want a life.” She smiled back at his smile. “It’s later than you think.”

      “Lara, you may be right. Where do you live, anyway?”

      She mentioned the neighborhood. So far she didn’t know London too well but she had a feeling it wouldn’t impress him.

      He didn’t seem to register it one way or another. Adam leaned back in his chair with his arms folded behind his head. “How about dinner? Every new associate is entitled to a good dinner.”

      How many new associates had there been? She told herself not to even think about it.

      “Have I told you that you’re hired, by the way? I don’t think I did.”

      “Uh—no. Funny. I forgot this was a job interview.”

      “So did I.”

      They exchanged a long look that was charged with something hot and wild on both sides. His hazel eyes held shadows that intrigued her. Lara wanted, passionately wanted, to see his face above hers, at the exact moment at which their bodies united.

      To hell with everything else. The past. The future. Now…she wanted him right now.

      Adam cleared his throat and sat up straight. “And then, well, considering it’s a very long walk or an endless ride on the Tube, neither of which will be pleasant, I’ll put you up in a hotel. Wonderful little place. You’ll like it. Don’t say no.”

      “I can’t—”

      He put a finger to her lips to hush her. The light pressure was magical. It was amazing how good it felt. His eyes held hers for a long moment. “Say yes, Lara. You know you want to.”

      He took his finger away and she opened her lips to whisper, “Yes.”

      “Wonderful. That’s settled then.”

      “Do you—go there sometimes?”

      “Yes, I do.”

      With Penelope? A tag team of strippers? Who? Fascinating questions that she couldn’t ask.

      “I guess you don’t you live around here.” Lara couldn’t help asking.

      “No. I have a loft in the Docklands. Penelope’s close by, in Canary Wharf.”

      “Oh.” That was far away from the heart of the city, she knew that much, and she wasn’t familiar with the area at all. So Penelope lived near him. That sucked big scaly dragon dick as far as Lara was concerned. He wasn’t forthcoming about his relationship with Penelope and she couldn’t exactly ask. London geography was a safer topic.

      “So…isn’t that to the east?”

      “Yes. You can see the building from the Thames.” He described it.

      “Oh, I know it.” The tour boat guide had pointed it out on her first day in London. It was new, sheathed in shimmering blue glass, with wraparound views of London to the west and the river, the guide had said.

      Not even remotely in the same league as her dreary temporary flat in Clerkenwell. Lara had hoped to do better but she couldn’t. London was more expensive than Chicago, even more expensive than New York, that was all there was to it, and you didn’t get much for the money. The cramped flat had only two windows and one overlooked an alley filled with marauding cats. They were experts at knocking over garbage cans, when they weren’t frantically mating, yowling with feline glee.

      Her landlady had let her know that there was to be no cooking after 9 P.M. because, she’d whispered, of them narsty smells. Fine with Lara, who wasn’t exactly a card-carrying member of the Pots and Pans Club. She hated the cleaning up afterward and she always got the measurements confused.

      “I’ll go talk to Penelope.”

      “Is she still here? I thought she went shopping.”

      “She usually comes back and then she goes home when I do.”

      “Oh.”

      Adam got up and headed to wherever it was that his beautiful Chinese assistant hung out.

      “Might be a few minutes,” he said when he popped his head back in. “Can’t find her.”

      “Okay.” Lara needed something to do in the meantime so she eased her laptop out of her purse. Good thing that the laptop was small and the purse was ridiculously big. Jason Pratt III hadn’t been willing to spring for a BlackBerry for her, and she hadn’t bought one on her own, realizing how easy it would be for him to drive her crazy if she did have one. So her smallish laptop became her personal digital assistant or whatever it was that PDA stood for.

      In a couple of minutes, Lara was able to check her e-mail. There were goofy I-yam-so-jellus-yr-in-the-Big-Gooseberry-and-I-yam-not messages from friends, one from her mom, and one from a former boyfriend in Chicago wondering if she wanted to go out and get fucked up and listen to blues at the Sun Club.

      She told him she was in London, then answered the one from her mom.

      Bing. In came a new one. A message from Gemma.

      Found out anything about our boy?

      Lara frowned and rested her fingers on the edge of the keyboard. What should she say? The answer drifted to the surface of her wandering mind.

      Adam is totally hot, Gemma. I wish I could get him on webcam for you. She waited for a reply. She could practically hear Gemma panting.

      Me too, Lara. Me too.

      Me first, Lara answered mentally. She wasn’t going to let Gemma get her claws into Adam. She added a smiley face, guessing that Gemma detested them.

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