Erin McCarthy - Bad Boys Online

She looked fantastic. Gorgeous. Edible.

Damned if he wasn't the only one to notice it either. Half the office staff was sniffing around her. The male half.

Mack stood over Jim's desk, wishing Jim would put his doughnut down so they could solve the problem they were working on. Bright laughter floated over to them. Mack gritted his teeth and turned.

It was Kindra perched on the reception desk, surrounded by three guys. Mack rubbed his forehead. When Kindra had seen him this morning, he had gotten nothing more than a cool hello.

He'd seen her naked. He had been inside her.

But these geeks got her smile, her full attention, and her laugh.

Kindra had a great laugh.

"Damn," Jim said around a mouthful of doughnut. "Something is different about Kindra this morning. Maybe she finally got a little action over the weekend." He snorted in laughter.

Mack turned and glared at Jim. "Watch your damn mouth."

Jim stopped laughing. "What's the matter with you?" Then his eyebrows rose. "Oh, I get it. Kindra was with you this weekend, wasn't she?"

Mack didn't answer, but turned back to watch Kindra and her entourage.

Jim said, "I've never seen you look so ticked off. Has the great Mack Stone finally fallen?"

Like a boulder.

Without thinking, he marched himself over to Kindra and interrupted rudely by elbowing past Bob from payroll.

"I need to talk to you."

Kindra flushed. She darted her eyes around and her shoulders tensed. "I'm busy right now."

"I don't care."

Kindra glared at him, held her chin up high, and walked away, her hair swinging.

Mack stood there flabbergasted. She had walked away from him.

A hand touched his arm. He looked down at Ashley, who was tugging him away from the crowd.

"What?" he said, trying to pull his arm away.

"Get a clue, Mack," she whispered. "You can't just embarrass the hell out of Kindra by acting like a total cretin and then expect her to listen to you."

She pointed her finger at him. "Now you listen to me. How do you feel about Kindra?"

Sick with love. He tugged at his tie. "That's none of your business."

"Do you love her?"

He couldn't say yes, but he couldn't say no either. He looked at Ashley in agony.

She nodded in satisfaction. "Good. She loves you too, you know, but she thinks you were in it for the sex."

"I never said that!"

"You never said otherwise," Miss Wisdom pointed out to him.

Mack ran his fingers through his hair. Could it be true? Did Kindra love him? Hope rose like a hot-air balloon.

But what if she didn't?

"Do you think I should tell her how I feel now?"

"No, I think you should both spend the rest of your lives miserable for being so stupid." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, you should tell her!"

Mack barely even noticed Ashley's sarcasm. If Ashley was wrong about Kindra's feelings, he certainly couldn't feel any lousier than he did right now.

And if she was right…

Oh, man. Bliss.

Mack had an idea. He bent and squeezed Ashley by the shoulders. "Thanks, Ashley. I owe you one."

Then he turned and headed to his office, telling himself that Kindra was worth all the embarrassment he would suffer if this didn't work.

Kindra was still in shock an hour later. What exactly had Mack been doing?

Had she wounded his male ego by telling him one night was enough?

Rubbing her temples, she spat hair out of her mouth. Wearing the hair down was supposed to be symbolic, but it was just getting on her nerves. She was constantly pawing it to get it out of her way.

The words on her screen were blurring in front of her. She'd been hiding in her office since she had walked away from Mack, and she couldn't concentrate on anything.

She'd been staring at the same proposal for a solid thirty minutes and the words were dancing tiny tangos with each other.

Frustrated, she clicked to check her e-mail. Anything to distract her. It was possible there would be another pleading message from Russ begging her not to sever their relationship.

Those had been his exact words after she had e-mailed him the night before telling him she wasn't interested any longer. The word relationship made her snort out loud.

Talking about sex in a chat room was not a relationship.

Neither was one night together.

She groaned. This wasn't distracting her from thinking about Mack.

She was a federal disaster area. Hurricane Kindra.

Then her eye landed on her new messages. There was one from Mack Stone.

"Oh, no."

If he talked dirty to her, she was not going to be able to resist.

One eye closed, the other covered by her hand, she clicked to open the e-mail. Then she spread her fingers and held her breath.

The message was short.

Marry me.

Kindra dropped her hands and gripped her desk. "Ohmigod, ohmigod."

Was this some sort of cruel joke from Mack or Russ or some office prankster? Her vision went blurry.

Her stomach lurched like she'd had bad calamari.

The door to her office opened.

Frantic, she bent her head and scrolled down so her screen was blank. Praying it was Ashley, she said, "Yes?" in a bright fake voice.

"Woof."

What the heck was that? Her head snapped up. She turned, blinking hard.

Now she'd seen everything. Truly. Mack was standing in her doorway with a fluffy white poodle sticking out of his computer backpack.

"What are you doing?" she blurted out.

"Hoping like hell I'm not making an ass out of myself."

No comment.

Kindra thumbed back toward her screen, her heart pounding way too fast to be normal. If she passed out, she hoped Mack would think to call 911. "Did you just send me a message?"

"If it said 'Marry me,' then yes, I did."

That's it. She was gone. Tears raced down her face and she struggled not to blubber. "Why?"

"Kindra." He took a step forward. "Because I love you."

"No, you don't." Now why had she just said that? Hadn't she learned anything? If the man of her dreams proposed and said he loved her, she needed to latch on and ask questions later.

"Yes, I do." The fluffy little dog put its paws on his shoul-der and panted. "Come on, I have a freaking dog on my back. With pink bows in its hair. Doesn't that tell you anything?"

It told her volumes. That Mack did love her. The pink bows confirmed it. She laughed. "I love you too."

"Whew." He grinned. "You had me worried there. Does that mean you'll marry me? We can live in your house and raise Bitsy together?"

"Yes." But the dog's name had to go.

Kindra stood up and went to Mack. Right into his arms. Where she belonged.

The kiss he gave her was long and passionate, moist lips and groping hands. His hot tongue lapped against hers.

"Oh, baby," he groaned.

Oh, baby was right. Kindra snuggled up against his hard chest and tugged on his cranberry tie. She absolutely loved the way he looked in a tie.

Mack gestured to her computer. "You have to tell cyber-Romeo to take a hike. Then we'll change your e-mail address. Maybe to IbelongtoMack@hotmail.com."

She laughed. "I already did. Yesterday. Told him to take a hike, that is, not changed my address."

His eyes burned. "You know, we should take the dog home before she has an accident down my back."

"Oh, good idea." Kindra was due a long leisurely lunch, since she'd never had one in four years on the job.

Feeling fabulous and daring, she let her hand slide down past his waist. She squeezed him and grinned in satisfaction when he went hard.

He said in a tight voice, "Want to have a nooner?"

Yes, please.

"Sure. Let me grab my purse." Kindra rubbed the little dog's head over Mack's shoulder and said, "She really is cute."

Bitsy barked.

Mack shifted the pack on his back. "You know, I never did get to watch that little video we made. Maybe we could do that first. Did you save it?"