Rhonda Nelson - Jingle Spells

“Hello, Miss Harper. You have a visitor. Shall I send him up?”

She gulped. “Yes.” The elevator was fast. He’d be here in no time. Running into the bathroom, she finger-combed her short curls, but she couldn’t change clothes or put on makeup, or—damn it! Her doorbell was already chiming.

Heart pounding, she made herself walk back to the front door, but she was shaking. She fumbled with the lock and finally managed to open it, but her head buzzed from a massive adrenaline rush. “Cole?”

Those emerald green eyes hadn’t lost a fraction of their intensity. His gaze swept over her in typical Cole fashion, as if he were taking inventory. “Hello, Taryn. May I come in?”

“Sure.” Doing her best to breathe normally, she stepped back from the door.

He strode through it confidently. His long wool coat, black as his hair, carried with it the cool tang of December in Seattle. There was another scent, too. Apparently he still wore his distinctive peppermint aftershave.

In college he’d shaved twice a day, especially if they were spending the night together. Judging from the smoothness of his square jaw, he’d used a razor sometime in the past hour. One whiff of his freshly applied aftershave rocketed her back to long winter nights spent in his bed.

Dear God, her physical reaction to him hadn’t changed. He showed up and instantly her body became welcoming, yielding and decidedly moist. How inconvenient, especially because he didn’t look particularly happy to see her. No smile, no warmth, only a strong sense of purpose, which she recognized from the old days.

He’d identified a problem and he’d come up with a solution. Once Cole Evergreen saw his way through an issue, he proceeded with single-minded intent. But she couldn’t figure out why he had come here instead of contacting her by phone or even by email. That didn’t seem particularly efficient.

He pulled off his black leather gloves and turned to her. “It’s about the database.”

“I figured.” She noticed he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, confirming her intel about him not being married. The coat underscored the drama that had always lurked beneath the surface of this complicated, beautiful man. As he unbuttoned it, her quick survey confirmed that he hadn’t let himself get soft in the middle. “Can I take your coat?” she asked.

“I’m not here to chat, Taryn. Obviously I need your services. Knowing your talent, the job shouldn’t take long. Two or three days, at most. Can you leave tonight?”

She stared at him. “I beg your pardon?”

“I want to hire you, exactly as you suggested. You’re the only person who’s ever hacked into my database, so I want you to fix whatever weaknesses are there. The situation is critical. I’d like you to start tomorrow. Can you do that?”

“No, I can’t do that!” She’d expected a response, a conversation, maybe even a request that she correct the problem, but not with this kind of urgency. “Look, Cole, I—” She’d thought bringing up the past would be relatively easy, and maybe it would have been on the phone. But face-to-face, her courage failed her. “Just because I did it, don’t get paranoid and think you have a huge security problem. You don’t. I was able to get in because I know your design habits, which made it easier for me.”

“What prevents you from coming with me tonight?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“You hacked into my database. That makes it my business.”

She wished that his forceful pursuit of a goal didn’t turn her on so much. But she remembered he’d been that way in bed, too. Her pleasure had been his goal at all times, and wow, had he delivered on that promise.

He sighed and glanced away. “I’m sorry. I’m going about this all wrong.”

Oh. Her heart gave a familiar lurch, as it used to do anytime he revealed the vulnerability beneath his determined exterior. With a flash of insight, she understood the motivation behind his steamrolling behavior. She’d embarrassed him by hacking into a system he’d designed.

Chances were he hadn’t kept the situation to himself, either. “Who knows I hacked in?” she asked gently. “Besides you, I mean.”

His attention returned to her, his expression resigned. “Everyone at the administration level of the business, which includes both my brothers, my sister and our new head of security. I had to tell them.”

No, he didn’t have to tell them, but she should have guessed that he would. His unflinching honesty and sense of responsibility would have forced him to admit that his database wasn’t a hundred percent secure, no matter how painful that admission had been for him to make.

She hadn’t thought of that possibility. She’d somehow imagined this would be a little game between the two of them, but instead his whole family was now involved. That was unfortunate.

“I regret pulling such a stupid stunt, then,” she said. “I have no defense, really. I was curious about what you were up to, so I poked around until I found your company, and then I couldn’t resist trying to crack your code.”

For the first time, a spark of humor lit his eyes. “Well, that’s typical.”

“I know. And I have to say, it was fun figuring out how to unlock the database.”

The corner of his mouth curved in something that resembled a smile. “You always did relish the idea of outsmarting me.”

“I did. It gave me a challenge.” She’d missed their intellectual sparring more than their sex, and that was saying something. “But I’m sorry you’re on the hook because of my prank.”

“Then get me off the hook, Taryn. Come to Colorado and strengthen my security so even you can’t get in.”

It was a gold-plated opportunity to have her personal question answered. But if she was still attracted to him, and he was over her, spending a few days working together could be hard on her ego.

He cleared his throat. “You do realize I’ll compensate you for your time, right?”

“Well, yeah. You said in the beginning you wanted to hire me, so that usually involves money.” She wished she could figure out what was going on in that excellent brain of his. “Unless you had some other type of compensation in mind?”

Heat flared in his eyes for just a moment. “No.”

Interesting. That bit of heat had indicated he wasn’t totally immune to her. But he might not be available. “Forgive me if that was inappropriate. You probably have a steady girlfriend. Maybe even a fiancée.” She could at least satisfy her curiosity on that score.

“I don’t.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

She waited to see if he’d ask about her love life. He did not. So if she’d cherished a tiny hope that he had something besides business on his mind, she should kill that hope right now. Once she’d thought he was in love with her, but then he’d abandoned her without a word. She’d been hurt and confused, but she hadn’t been able to convince herself that his feelings had been bogus.

Perhaps she should finally face the possibility that he’d grown tired of her and hadn’t wanted to say so. Honest as he was, he would have blurted the truth if she’d asked him. She wanted to ask now, but she hesitated. Sad to say, he still had the power to hurt her.

He focused his green eyes with laser precision. “Are you in the middle of a project you can’t leave for a few days? Is that the stumbling block?”

“As it happens, no. I only take small local jobs in December, so I have time to celebrate Christmas and my birthday.” It was the truth, but she didn’t mind that it also served as a little dig. Ten years ago she’d invited him home for Christmas and her birthday, and he’d accepted. Then he’d bailed without an explanation.