little longer than usual. I didn’t need her waking up while I was searching her place again. I could have gotten her to finish the wine if I’d needed her to.
Who the fuck was I kidding? The second her soft breasts pillowed against my chest and I had her ass in my hands, I was done for. She’d never taken the initiative like that. I knew Emma liked it when I was in charge. Taking control of her sexually was part of the way I’d hooked her so fast. It was only a side benefit that I liked it just as much as she did.
But her making the first move had knocked me sideways, and I’d lost control. Lost it all the way. Talking during sex? That kind of shit got men killed. Women too, if they were in my line of work. It was sloppy. Stupid. And for some reason, I hadn’t been able to help myself. Emma had been so fucking gorgeous lying back on her bed, her soft, round, lush body mine for the taking, her eyes heavy with desire as she’d watched me strip. She’d spread her knees, I’d caught the gleam of moisture between her legs, and my brain had taken a back seat to my cock.
I liked Emma, I liked her a lot, more than I should. My cock fucking loved her. I’d let it take control, it had buried itself inside her tight, scaldingly hot pussy, and what was left of my brain had leaked out of my ears.
What the fuck was I thinking telling her I was going to keep her? I couldn’t keep her. Best case scenario she was about to lose her job, everything she owned, and would probably have to leave the state. Worst case, she was going to jail for a long time. I’d thought about helping her with a lawyer, but I couldn’t even do that without working against my own client. And I doubted William Harper was going to agree to let me help the woman who’d been selling out the company his grandfather had founded in nineteen twenty-three. Once I was back to being Axel Sinclair, Emma Wright was untouchable. I would have to walk away and let her drown in the mess she’d made. I knew it in my head, I just had to convince my dick.
That was my shit to deal with. And I would. Later. While Emma was still passed out in her bed, I had to get back into her laptop and pray there was something I could use to end this charade before I managed to really fuck it up. I’d gone through the files I’d found the night before, but they’d been useless. What I’d hoped was proprietary information was actually just confidential personal data on Harper Shipping employees. Exactly the kind of thing the head of Human Resources should have had on her company laptop, and exactly what she would have stored in an encrypted file.
I took a second to listen to the quiet apartment, then got to work. For the first time since I’d sweet talked my way into Emma’s apartment, I hit pay dirt right off. A USB drive was tucked into a discreet inner pocket of her briefcase. Ignoring the fine tremble in my hands, telling myself it was anticipation and not dread, I popped open her laptop and plugged it in.
Bingo. Pages and pages of shipping contracts with job dates, client info, including bids. Schematics for the new line of refrigerated trucks Harper had told me they’d been working on. And company cell phone records. I’m not sure how they fit in, but the data on the clients, contracts, jobs, and the schematics was more than enough to hang her.
I sat back, staring blankly at the screen, rage searing through me. It wasn’t until I saw the proof of her guilt that I realized I’d truly thought she was innocent. The whole time I’d been reminding myself I had to walk away, I’d been secretly certain she’d come out of this clean, and she could be mine. Axel’s woman, not Adam’s. Somehow, despite all my years in this job, deep down I’d been certain I’d never find anything on Emma. That I could keep fucking her, would prove her innocent, and we’d live happily ever after. Or something like that.
The USB drive and the documents on the screen tore a gaping hole
Emily Goodwin
Michele Dunaway
Richard Parry
Linda Ladd
Jayne Castle
Ryohgo Narita
William Emms
Aaron Stander
Dee Henderson
Tracy Cooper-Posey