Erin McCarthy - Bad Boys Online

Back inside, he sprayed a little disinfectant and felt better about the whole thing. The kitchen was almost clean now. Halley would be proud of him.

He was eating a bowl of corn flakes with a spotty banana when someone pounded on his door. Furiously.

Could it be? No, she wouldn't come back. Would she? Evan ditched the corn flakes after one last big bite and nearly tripped over his bare feet to get to the door. If this was Halley, if this was his second chance, he was going to pull out all the stops and charm her right out of her tank top.

No, no, he was going to apologize and keep his damn hands to himself. Scout's honor.

He pulled the door open.

Only Evan had never been a Boy Scout.

Halley looked like a hot fudge sundae on a spoon. And he wanted to lick every inch of her.

"Back so soon?"

Halley's hands were on her hips, causing her tank top to shift and bunch in various delicious places. Her lipstick had been bitten off, and her foot tapped up and down restlessly. A desperate passionate sort of gleam radiated from her green eyes, and Evan wasn't idiot enough to think that passion was for him.

Halley looked pissed off and ready to take names.

"Okay, here's the deal." Halley placed her hand on his chest and gave him a healthy shove to push him out of her way as she charged into the apartment like Xena, Warrior Caterer.

He had no idea what she was going to say, but he knew, just knew, it wasn't going to be what he wanted her to say. Which was, Rip my clothes off me, sport .

Halley's lip quivered. "That picture of me has been there a week, Evan. A week! A client canceled on me, my employees are printing pictures of me, and my dad saw it. My dad!"

Her glassy eyes were huge.

No, not what he wanted to hear. And shit, she was having a breakdown in front of him. For Halley to lose control was more than a little alarming, it was damn scary.

Evan put his hands on her arms and rubbed in a gentle and hopefully soothing manner. "Shh, sweet stuff, it's alright. I fixed the site. Everything is normal again."

"Thank you." She sniffled, then gave him a ferocious stare, clamping down on her lips to stop the trembling. "But now I want revenge. Just like you said. I want the Three Commandos to hang."

Evan was stunned into momentary silence. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Maybe releasing all that anxiety would be a great relief for Halley. Or it might send her over the edge into a place that required antidepressants.

A little unsure, he said, "I thought you said that you were busy."

She shrugged, and he released her arms. The tears and trembling had stopped, and she looked in control of herself again. "My inventory spreadsheets can wait."

Evan studied her carefully, wishing she wouldn't use words like spread . She seemed to have forgotten that a few hours earlier he had tried to do just that to her.

Aside from the hysterical reaction to her website, she was acting normally toward him. Did that mean he was forgiven for trying to jump her bones?

"Listen, are we okay? You and me."

Halley's cheeks went pink and she blew her hair out of her eyes. "Why wouldn't we be? Oh, you mean because of earlier. That ."

Yes, that. Her embarrassment was obvious, and he couldn't stand that. The thing he loved about his friendship with Halley was how comfortable they were with each other. That was exactly what he didn't want to lose, and why he had never confessed his feelings for her.

He said, "Look, maybe we should just forget it, forget that anything ever happened."

He brushed the uncooperative hair out of her eye in a very platonic fashion and gave her a slow smile, meant to reassure her that he would stick to business. "We'll just get straight to the hacking."

Halley swore to God, if he only knew what he was doing to her. Now that she'd put a twisted perverted spin on the word hack , every time he said it, she shivered right down to her toes in orgasmic anticipation.

But at least he was letting her off the hook. They were going to forget her overenthusiastic response to his kiss and go on like normal. "Okay, good, great, yeah, definitely. We'll forget all about it."

Since when had his eyes turned that exact shade of hot chocolate before you added the marshmallows? Forcing herself to focus on the more important thing hereher career she said, "So let's get hacking. I want to do something really bad."

It wouldn't bring back the clients or restore her dignity, but it might make her feel less like she'd swallowed a peach pit.

Evan's jaw clenched. Halley became aware that he was only a foot in front of her and that he still wasn't wearing a shirt. Her fingers jerked in eagerness to touch.

"Really bad?" His voice sounded funny, as if she had stepped on his foot in heels.

Somehow that sounded faintly suggestive. Of course, she suspected he could be talking about sewage and somehow she would find a way to be turned on. It was pathetic.

"Yes. Bad. Really bad." Halley wanted to kick herself. She sounded like the Dustin Hoffman character in Rainman .

"Okay." He shrugged, giving her a wicked grin. "So, like what? Doctor their website so they're wearing dresses?"

That was appropriately horrible. She liked it. "Do you know who they are?"

"Yeah. My friend Kirk knows one of them. They're three twenty-something computer geeks who do web design. One of them was fired from Microsoft, and they're all college drop-outs." Evan shrugged. "You know the kind. Almost too smart to be normal. A couple of people told me the same thing, that they're hackers on the side, mostly for fun, for the challenge of besting security."

Evan frowned as he spoke, and started down the hall.

"You're mad because they hacked your site, aren't you?" she asked, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants and following Evan into his bedroom.

"Hell, yeah, I'm mad. Besides, they got you naked. If anyone's going to get you naked, it should be me."

Halley froze. What the heck was that supposed to mean? Evan wasn't facing her, but his voice sounded light, as if he was joking, but still . She thought about his behavior that morning, and his… tongue sliding into her. Maybe she wasn't the only one with a sudden case of lust.

He had been a long time without a date, longer than anytime since she'd known him. Maybe she had been a convenient sexual release.

She didn't bother to answer him, since she had no clue what to say.

His bed still wasn't made. She was tempted to do it herself, just to get the view of those wrinkled sheets out of her sight, but that would mean leaning over the bed. Smelling his masculine scent on the sheets and being far too close to a vertical position were dangerous.

Evan had the website up in a minute. Halley studied the three men over Evan's shoulder. They looked a little on the geeky side, one wearing glasses and all three in need of a wardrobe consultant, given the overabundance of plaid. But they also looked a little brazen, as if they knew the world would dismiss them on appearances, but they had gotten the last laugh.

"I've never seen any of them in my life, so I don't why they did this to me. And why do three men have a personal web page together? That freaks me out."

"Who knows?" Evan shrugged, his hand moving the mouse around. "So what do you think? Floral dresses for them?"

"Just for the one with glasses." Halley narrowed her eyes as she took in the cocky stance of the taller one on the left with dark hair, as they posed in front of a brick building. "For him, I think you should make him naked. Skinny, hairy, and naked."

Evan laughed in surprise. "Are you serious?"

"Very." Let them see how it felt.

He turned and gave her a searching look, before breaking out into a grin that made her forget all about revenge. "Then I have a better idea."