Intimate Caresses (The Love and Danger Series) by Elizabeth Lennox Read Free Book Online Page A

fingers flying over the keyboard and when she reached various points in her programming, she saved her work herself.  So she had manual saves and automatic saves, recorded by the system.  They weren’t a perfect alibi, but the time stamps on the system would show she was working from the moment she arrived home until around one or two in the morning when she fell into an exhausted sleep.  And there would be a record of her changes too, just in case she needed to go back to a previous file and extract code that worked better or differently. 
    Did she dare to show this man her work? 
    Steven’s last words to her broke through her concentration.  “You’re too trusting, Nina.  You’ve got to learn to toughen up and be hard core if you’re ever going to make it in the video game industry,” he’d said sarcastically as he’d carried his suitcase out the door.  Remembering that moment – her mind even recalling how he’d callously left the door open in the winter – brought all of that home once again. 
    Nina squared her shoulders and stared back up into those fascinating green eyes.  “No.  No alibi.  None whatsoever.”
    Brock saw it again.  That challenge, that dare in her eyes.  He loved it and his whole body reacted to it.  He’d always loved a challenge!  “So you have something, but you’re not going to tell me about it,” he said, voicing the thoughts on his mind.  “ You don’t trust me.”
    She shook her head. “Not as far as I can throw you.”  The water started boiling at that point and she turned to pour water over the tea bags she’d already pulled out of the box.  “Here you go,” she said when she was finished steeping the tea.  “What else?” she asked, leaning her hip against the plain, brown countertop. 
    Brock looked down into the cup, not liking what he saw.  Whatever was in the cup…it wasn’t purple….was it?  “This isn’t coffee,” he said warily.  He lifted it up to his nose, sniffing it as if it were some sort of poisonous brine. 
    She smothered her chuckle.  “Of course it isn’t,” she replied, unaware of the soft, pink glow illuminating her cheeks or the sparkle that had entered those pretty blue eyes.  He looked down at her and his body hardened even more. 
    “What the hell is it?” he demanded, moving closer as if he could scare the truth out of her. 
    She couldn’t help the laughter that burst out of her at his expression.  He looked so dubious about the liquid it had been worth every moment of today, just to see that expression. 
    “It’s blueberry tea.”
    He actually jerked the cup out as if it was a snake about to bite him and she laughed harder.  “I didn’t know it was possible to be disgusted by a cup of tea, but you just did it.” 
    Nina covered her mouth, laughing delightedly.  “It won’t hurt you.  In fact, it is much better for you than coffee or caffeinated tea.”
    He rolled his eyes and put it down on the counter.  “No way.”  He liked the way she laughed even though he wouldn’t drink that stuff on a dare.  “A man can’t drink blueberry tea and you should be arrested for even attempting such heresy.”
    That made her laugh even more and she hid her face behind her own cup of tea. 
    “So when are you going to tell me what you’re hiding in your family room?” he asked, moving closer to her and watching her eyes widen.  Bingo, he thought to himself. 
    Nina’s hand was shaking so badly with that statement that she had to set her tea down on the counter or risk spilling the hot liquid on her hand.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    He raised a dark eyebrow and waited.  When she didn’t appear as if she was going to respond, he simply pushed away from the countertop and started walking into the family room to investigate himself.
    “What are you doing?” Nina demanded, putting her tea down on the kitchen counter before racing in front of him and trying to stop him by