“I’m going to take you to bed, Selena…”

“You’re very direct,” she said in a near whisper.

“Looking at you makes me feel I don’t have time to lose.” Edison shrugged. “Besides, I know what I want.”

“And you take the quickest route to get it?” she asked breathlessly.

His voice was suddenly silky. “No woman trying to stay out of a man’s bed wears a dress like that.” He eyed the filmy creation, and savored a fantasy about how he’d circle a taut nipple with his tongue until she writhed from the pleasure. There were many things he had in mind for Selena. Oh, yes… He could be as imaginative as her erotic diary.

“You’re very sure of your ability to get a woman into bed.”

He grinned. “It’s what happens after she’s in bed that interests me.” He lightly traced her bare shoulder with one finger. “Of course, if you need to talk first, we certainly can. Some women call it foreplay.”

Selena’s lips twitched with a smile. “How obliging.”

He tugged her closer. “I can be much more obliging than that….”

Dear Reader,

First, I want to thank you for taking Night Pleasures off the bookshelf! Just like you, I love to be entertained by a strong, sexy man who spices my fantasies, something that’s naturally led me to want to try my hand at Temptation’s sexiest books, the HEAT miniseries.

In this story, code-cracker Edison Lone solves word puzzles, and he loves discovering and fulfilling a woman’s secret passions. When he’s asked to crack the code of a steamy, erotic diary, how could he and his fantasizing lady love share anything but pleasure at night?

Needless to say, I truly hope you’ll laugh, cry and be breathless with suspense—all in anticipation of that final wonderful moment when you just know these two people are perfect for each other!

Enjoy!

Jule McBride

Books by Jule McBride

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

830—A WAY WITH WOMEN

Night Pleasures

Jule McBride

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Epilogue

Prologue

“WE’VE REACHED A CRISIS point,” she said, pretending to nibble a sandwich, her lips barely moving. “We’ve got to get rid of Edison Lone. Now.”

He sat beside her on a park bench, wearing one of his many finely tailored suits, the uniform of what he was—a major power broker in the most power-hungry city in America. As her low, husky voice rippled through him, he decided that some men would be threatened by her raw sensuality, others by her intelligence, and still others by the power the woman wielded in Washington; he was simply aroused. He was her lover, and each word affected him like a slow-drip aphrodisiac feeding straight into his veins. Slowly, he turned a page of the classified ads in this morning’s free tabloid. “Any suggestions about how to rid ourselves of Lone?”

“Oh,” she purred. “I’ve got a few.”

“Care to share them?”

“Only if you’re good.”

A mental vision of how she’d looked last night, stepping naked from the octagonal swimming pool in her estate in Arlington, made it difficult to hide his surging arousal. “Last night I was good, wasn’t I?”

“Or bad, depending on which way you look at it.”

“I looked at it from every angle.”

“You mean you looked at me from every angle?” she murmured.

“That, too. And I didn’t see any part of you complaining.”

Her trace of a smile vanished. “No, but we’ll both be complaining if Edison Lone gets any closer to finding out what we’re up to.”

Actually, they’d be tried for treason. Glancing from the tabloid, he stared past a fountain toward Pennsylvania Avenue. “Speaking of breaches in security, are you sure you weren’t followed?” While they interacted in business contexts, they’d never been seen together socially.

“Of course I wasn’t. But we had to meet. Phone lines are never secure. And we’ve got to get Edison Lone out of the picture.”

“Permanently?”

She considered. “No…at least not yet. That would look suspicious.”

“Later?”

“Later, if we have to, we’ll make…arrangements.”

“Permanent arrangements?” he echoed, his neck prickling with a sudden chill. “You think the man’s that dangerous to us?”

“He could figure out what we’re doing. He’s the best code cracker in Washington.”

Edison Lone had also been a child prodigy, an early Harvard graduate, and was a Mensa member. He was more patriotic than George Washington, too. “Rumor has it he’d send his own children to the electric chair if he thought they were messing over Uncle Sam.”

“Not his children. He doesn’t have any. Nor ex-wives. He’s a confirmed bachelor,” she told him.

“Maybe we’ve found his Achilles’ heel. With any luck he’s secretly gay. We could use that against him, couldn’t we?”

“Edison Lone? Gay?” She nearly choked. “The man possesses so much testosterone he’s probably taking supplements.”

“I said secretly.”

“Everybody knows he likes women.”

The words rankled. “You know that?”

“I’m just offering common knowledge about the man.”

He sighed heavily, well acquainted with Edison Lone’s considerably thick dossier. Six foot one, thirty-five years old and blessed with jet-black hair and blue eyes, Lone had once upon a time been a foster child who’d exhibited such unusual aptitude in school that he’d wound up getting a first-rate education privately subsidized by benefactors. Off the record, Edison Lone was reputed to be one of those enviably rare, lucky men who drew women to him like an MRI magnet.

The man sighed again. He’d really hoped Edison Lone might be gay. But even he’d heard the female gossip around Washington about Lone being a wizard under the bedsheets.

Her husky voice broke into his reverie. “He’s convinced someone’s using the classified ads to make contacts and sell information from IBI, so he could find out it’s us. This morning, he said he might take his suspicions to CIIC.”

“If CIIC investigates, we’re toast. Did you try to talk him out of it?”

She nodded affirmatively.

They’d probably talked alone, he thought, in one of those high-tech conference rooms laid out with imported coffee and a fancy silver service. In addition to the stab of jealousy and the threat of being exposed as a traitor by Edison Lone, he decided the mind-boggling acronyms in Washington were enough to make a man’s head hurt. IBI were the initials for the Internal Bureau of Information, the organization that employed Edison Lone. CIIC, the Center for International Informational Control, was the watchdog organization that kept its eye on IBI.

“We’d better do something soon,” she said. “Otherwise he’ll realize we’re selling information from IBI’s database.”

The database included strategic plans for every national emergency from biomedical disaster to nuclear attack, and once more buyers were in place, they could finish unloading what they had to sell. “We’ve got to get Lone out of the picture,” she repeated. “And without drawing attention to everything he’s been working on for the past year.”

“All we need is a week, then we can leave the country.”

“Only a week,” she agreed.

He thought of their new identities, passports and disguises, then of the walled compound they’d purchased in Bali, with its private, white-sand beaches and crystal-clear cerulean waters. “We’ve worked too hard to let anyone get in our way now.”

“Can we get Edison Lone assigned to a case that would occupy his time? Just for a week?” she asked.

“If you’re sure he’s not gay, I’ve got a solution.”

She frowned as if conflicted. “The distraction’s female?”

He nodded. “Her name’s Selena Silverwood.”

“Never heard of her.”

“Of course you haven’t. She’s a secretary at IBI.”

“They’re assistants,” she reminded him, ever the diplomat.

He shrugged. “Whatever. The point is, she’s been bringing a highly personal erotic diary to work—”

“An erotic diary? To work?” She stared at him. “Why?”

“A New York house is publishing her erotic fantasies as a book titled Night Pleasures. Originally, it was a personal diary full of her private fantasies.”

“Fantasies?”

He nodded. “Involving a French courtesan’s sexual encounters with a mysterious marquis. The book’s being released next June, and the publishers have asked her to do some of her own editing. Anyway, because she was working on something other than IBI documents on IBI time, the diary came to the attention of our office. Naturally, we had to check her out.”

“Naturally.” She smiled. “Just in case she really was stealing information from IBI. And you found?”

“That Penthouse Letters has nothing on this girl.”

“Her fantasies are that hot?”

“Satan himself would beg for ice cubes.”

“So, you think this woman can turn Edison Lone’s head and keep him occupied for a week?”

He hedged. “Selena Silverwood’s not much to look at.”

She sighed in exasperation. “Edison Lone goes for pretty.”

“True. But there’s something he likes more than pretty.”

“Ah,” she guessed. “Codes that other cryptanalysts have failed to crack. Still, I’m not following you.”

He flashed a smile. “We’ll make a copy of Selena Silverwood’s erotic diary and tell him it’s in secret code. We’ll pretend CIIC thinks she’s using those steamy stories to smuggle sensitive information out of IBI.”

She shook her head. “Too far-fetched. C’mon, do you really think we can pass off a woman’s erotic fantasies as something she’s written in secret code?”

“Stranger things have happened in Washington.”

“True,” she admitted. “And if it worked, Selena Silverwood could fall under suspicion for stealing from IBI.”

“However briefly,” he replied. “But that’s perfect. We only need to occupy Edison Lone for a week. Just long enough that he can’t keep analyzing those classified ads—and start suspecting us.”

She looked unconvinced. “I don’t know. He’s too smart to fall for this, isn’t he?”

“Not if he’s sure the woman’s a traitor.”

Another slow smile curled her lips. “You’re right. His Achilles’ heel is definitely his patriotism. If he thinks CIIC’s involved, he might believe us. Besides, we don’t have much choice but to try this.” She sighed, switching the subject. “Do you know why I love you?”

“Because I’m brilliant and deviant?”

She nodded. “Yes. And because Edison Lone, as much as I’ve sometimes enjoyed his company, is becoming a thorn in my side. I knew you could get rid of him.”

“Lover,” he murmured, “a rose such as yourself should never have a thorn.”

1

THAT’S WHAT I LOVE about words, Edison Lone thought ruefully. Unlike women, they came with handbooks of rules and regulations. Dictionaries and grammar books told you how to deal with them. They were dependable. Reliable. Predictable. And because he hated to see words spliced and diced, as he so often did while cracking codes for the government, he was extremely careful when choosing his own. He uttered a long, succinct string of expletives.

His boss, Eleanor Luders, looked vaguely alarmed. “Excuse me?”

“C’mon,” he chided, appalled that anyone would require him to research a low-level assistant such as Selena Silverwood right now. “You don’t really need a professional code cracker for this job, do you?” His deliberate blue-eyed gaze panned the conference table, landing on Eleanor, a tall woman with white-blond, shoulder-length hair, wearing a practical gray suit; then on her boss, Newton Finch, a fifty-year-old ex-New Yorker who was wearing rumpled gray pinstripes; then finally on his boss, Carson Cumberland, who looked like a replica James Bond, the Pierce Brosnan version, also gray-clad. Combined, they seemed about as cheery as the rainy April sky over D.C., and judging from the grim smiles, silver didn’t line the clouds, either.

“Care to sit?” Eleanor asked, ignoring his question.

“Love to.” Instead of dropping his tall, broad-shouldered body into one of the plush chairs around the conference table, Edison continued, “Like I said, I found some suspicious personal ads in one of the free tabloids. The ads are for sexual bondage, but references to getting tied up—with whom, where and when—have convinced me that somebody’s using the ads to negotiate the sale of confidential information, maybe from IBI.”

Newton looked concerned. “Have any proof?”

“If I did, I’d have taken further action.”

Eleanor’s glance reminded him not to antagonize superiors. Glance of censure duly noted, thought Edison. Duly ignored. “I do have a hunch, though,” he added, deciding there was nothing he hated more than wasting American tax dollars haggling with the brass. “So, right now, investigating an assistant would be an inefficient use of my time. Look…” Softening his voice, he tried to sound diplomatic. “Forget Selena Silverwood. My time’s better spent analyzing the classifieds.”

The suddenly flirtatious spark in Eleanor’s liquid blue eyes made Edison regret sleeping with her seven years ago. Chalk it up to a Christmas office party when he’d been young, green and still getting his feet wet at IBI. He’d been wearing the proverbial lampshade on his head, and Eleanor, who’d been an administrator in another division, had looked like a million bucks. Edison never imagined he’d wind up transferred to her division years later, and now he counted himself lucky that she’d recently gotten married.

“You’ve always proved yourself unusually intuitive,” she purred, her marriage doing nothing to curb the seductive tone she used with Edison. “Early on, I learned to trust your instincts. They’re so…animal. Even the president was impressed by how you arrested that Venezuelan last week.”

“I’ve got a feeling a big deal’s about to go down,” Edison said, turning a deaf ear to her flattery. “Can’t you put Tom on this Selena Silverwood thing? Or Steve? Or Gary Hughes? Didn’t Hughes crack the codes that exposed all the new military installations in Syria?”

“Gary’s good,” admitted Eleanor. “But you’re better. And the president was impressed by the laptop case.”

More like the lapdog case. While retrieving data from laptop computers stolen from overseas dignitaries, Edison had caught a Venezuelan official smuggling out information about American spies. When the man and his wife were nabbed, Edison wound up with the wife’s dog.

“Did anyone adopt that puppy dog?” asked Eleanor.

“Puppy. Dog. I think that’s redundant,” remarked Edison.

Eleanor chose to ignore the grammar lesson. “Didn’t you put an ad in the paper?”

“It appeared beside one of the suspicious classifieds I need to research,” Edison lied, raking a hand through thick, tousled raven hair as he redirected the conversation. “And no. Nobody in their right mind would adopt that dog.”

Eleanor softened. “How is Marshmallow?”

“Still alive. And I’m calling him M.”

“Cute,” returned Eleanor. “Like in the James Bond movies.”

A sterling tag dangling from a scarlet collar had identified the dog, which looked like a four-pound marshmallow that had survived a whirlwind trip through a high-speed blender. At the Venezuelan dignitary’s house, before coming home with Edison, the dog had licked Edison’s face and cuddled. Since then he’d urinated on carpets, humped the leg of a Friday night date, gnawed Edison’s favorite moccasins and exhibited dietary habits that excluded everything but filet mignon, cooked rare.

“Edison,” Eleanor continued now, “we value your time and realize you require no supervision. You are your own boss here. However, CIIC alerted us to—”

“CIIC wants me to investigate Selena Silverwood?”

“As I said,” Eleanor assured him, “we’d never waste your time.”

“While at work, Ms. Silverwood’s been writing in a personal diary that CIIC believes could be in code,” added Newton. “She might be using the book to smuggle out information, which is why they need your input.”

Carson tightened the knot of his tie, looking concerned. “What if this potential theft is related to those classified ads about bondage you mentioned?”

Against his better judgment, Edison got interested, rolled out a chair and seated himself. He glanced around the conference table. “Show me what you’ve got.”

Edison noticed Eleanor tried not to look openly victorious as she reached toward a built-in console under the table and dimmed the overhead light. As a wall panel slid back to expose a screen, she lifted a remote control device and began clicking through a series of black-and-white slides, mostly still shots taken from video cameras hidden inside IBI.

“Selena Silverwood,” she said. “Thirty years old. Class B security clearance. Employed eight months at IBI, and previously by civilian companies.”

“You’re kidding,” Edison muttered, squinting at the screen. Any information he’d need would be in Selena Silverwood’s file, right down to her bra and panty sizes, so he ignored Eleanor’s ensuing monologue and attended to his personal impressions. And they were personal, he realized as a swift, unexpected pang claimed his groin. He quickly registered that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, though he couldn’t fathom why he cared, since he was used to the gorgeous, confident, manor-born types who liberally populated the Washington circuit.

Selena Silverwood was as tall as those women—at least five-ten—but the inward curve of her shoulders was calculated to hide her statuesque height, which meant long-boned limbs that could have made her as graceful as a panther seemed to hang from her frame like an oversize suit. She was definitely going out of her way not to be noticed, but was she a spy? Or simply lacking in self-confidence?

Edison shook his head, thinking she wouldn’t be the first assistant to compensate for low wages by stealing. As another slow, inexplicable sensual tug morphed into a dull, heavy ache, he wondered if her hair was red or brown, and how she was really shaped under the loose, flowing dresses she favored. Maybe she intrigued him because she could easily look prettier than she did, he decided. But why didn’t she try? And how would she act with a man? Grateful for the attention, he thought. She’d be easy on him if he was late, or forgot to call, or wasn’t johnny-on-the-spot when it came to sending flowers—something that brought out Edison’s protective instincts. He could easily imagine her being taken in by the kind of guy who took advantage, and there was something so damn vulnerable about her….

“Eleanor, get serious,” he forced himself to say, cutting off his thoughts and tearing his eyes from Selena’s picture. “She’s a natural-born wallflower. She doesn’t look even vaguely criminal.”

“You’ve been fooled before,” his boss reminded him.

“Not often.” But Eleanor was right. Besides, CIIC never concerned itself with the innocent, and Edison hated traitors. Whoever his parents were, they’d abandoned him. Uncle Sam had kept him clothed and fed, and when Edison had shown talents, he’d been educated and given a job. This job. Which meant if the government wanted Selena Silverwood put under surveillance, Edison would gladly oblige.

“We want her checked out,” Eleanor said. “Thoroughly.”

From the looks of it, Selena Silverwood didn’t get thoroughly very often—a thought that was still arousing his curiosity and quickening his blood. “I’ll do my best.”

“She’s here in the IBI. complex. Building Five.”

“Fourth floor,” Newton added. “Sensitive Data Entry. You’ll be her temporary assistant.”

Edison groaned. “This is an undercover job? My typing’s hunt and peck at best.”

“You type ninety,” corrected Eleanor. “Without error.”

“A man’s hard-won skills are supposed to be celebrated, not used against him,” Edison said defensively. “Five minutes ago, I was investigating those classifieds. Now I’m demoted to typist.”

Eleanor passed him a black-bound book. “You’ll live.”

“It’s a copy of her diary,” Carson explained. “She left the original in her desk drawer one night, and it was typed and bound for your convenience.”

Edison frowned. “I work from originals. I can tell a lot from her handwriting.” Or from sleeping with her. As he pushed aside the intrusive, if pleasant, thought, Eleanor plunged into the reasons the diary had been copied, not photographed, none of which made sense to Edison. Glancing down at the book, he wondered about the contents. Probably the usual—crushes on unattainable bosses, nights playing board games with the girls. If the woman had a boyfriend, he’d be an accountant or a stockbroker. Something safe and steady. Definitely not a spy.

Stifling a yawn over the anticipated boredom, Edison fixed his gaze on Selena Silverwood’s picture again. She was exiting Building Five through automatic glass doors, swinging her hair over a shoulder and peering at a security camera through oversize rectangular glasses. She was hugging the original diary—a dainty, letter-size book—to a chest swallowed by a bulky blazer. Given the fact that this was his job, Edison was definitely more curious about that chest than he should have been. “She works in Building Five,” he suddenly said. “What if she recognizes me? Knows I’m a code cracker?”

“Unlikely,” countered Eleanor. “You’ve been working out of the country most of the time she’s been with IBI. Besides, if she’s seen you around the IBI complex, she’ll think you’re what you say you are—one of our floating temporaries. And CIIC is adamant. I’m under time pressure from them.” Eleanor paused significantly. “There could be a promotion.”

Edison couldn’t help but ask, “For whom?”

Eleanor sighed. “You. But only if you watch this woman closely. See if she behaves suspiciously, in a way we haven’t noticed on the cameras. And, of course, decipher her diary, if it’s in code.”

Big if. He’d have to research and analyze those classified ads on his own time, since, obviously, no one around here cared about catching real criminals. It was nearly impossible to imagine Selena Silverwood smuggling sensitive information out of the office, but she did bother him. As a woman. Glancing at the boss he’d been foolish enough to sleep with years ago, Edison reminded himself to maintain objectivity. He’d just have to ignore how his latest research subject had already gotten under his skin and into his blood.

OBJECTIVITY WAS impossible, Edison admitted an hour later, putting down his briefcase, his eyes riveting where the hem of a silk, navy-and-tan-checked dress swirled against Selena’s delicate ankles. Looking unsettled by the curious male attention Edison wasn’t bothering to hide, she leaned against a copy machine in the hallway and said, “Well, I believe I’ve shown you everything, Mr. Lone.”

Not everything. One look and he’d felt sure there was more to her than met the eye. Oh, she probably wasn’t a spy—he figured CIIC had just gotten overly cautious—but she was even more intriguing in the flesh. He just wished the black-and-white slides had provided some warning about how the low, honeyed quality of her voice would affect his heartbeat. A slow, suggestive smile curled his lips. “Shown me—” he arched an eyebrow “—everything?”

“Well…” Remarkable eyes that were outlined by unattractive, bookish, black-framed glasses drifted over him, as if drawn downward against their will, compelled to survey the fit of his tan slacks and black V-neck sweater. When those eyes found his again, they glinted darkly as if she were steeling herself against him, determined to ignore his flirtation at all costs. Before he could ask why, she continued, “Well, I’ve shown you the coffee machine and your personal shelf in the refrigerator. And—” Now she patted the copy machine lid affectionately “—our copier. After you’ve read the employee manual for our division, you’ll want to further familiarize yourself with this machine. Because people call from all over the world for copies, our billing system’s a little complex….”

What was complex was his reaction to this woman. As it turned out, she had skin that flushed the color of dusky-orange roses; hair that was probably technically termed auburn—pure autumn, all glorious golden sunbeams shooting through dark-brown chestnuts and rust-red leaves. Steady topaz eyes peered from behind those ugly glasses he was itching to remove. She had charm, intelligence and a compelling gangly grace, as if she’d recently experienced an unwanted growth spurt and hadn’t quite caught up to it yet.

Realizing his eyes had settled once more where the dress brushed her ankles, Edison lifted his gaze, his body tightening when he noted how the silk brushed—and revealed—other parts of her: full sloping breasts, a nipped waist and lush backside. Just like color, movement did wonders. Still photographs hadn’t captured the roll of her hips, the gentle sway of her breasts.

“Any questions about the copier?” When he didn’t answer immediately, she squinted, raising eyebrows the same autumnal color as her thick, shoulder-length hair. “Mr. Lone?”

“Uh, no. Copier seems fine.” He smiled. “You, however, are an original, Selena.” Before she could respond, he absently murmured in afterthought, “Selena. Pretty name. And please call me Edison.”

She shot him a glance of censure that was one part surprised annoyance, two parts female pleasure, and then her gaze softened as if she’d finally decided he might be worthy of consideration. “Original?” She tossed the word over her shoulder as she motioned for him to follow her down the hallway. “You don’t even know me.” After a pause, she added, “Edison.”

Enjoying the slow, easy sway of her backside, he murmured, “I’m beginning to think I’d like to.”

Blowing out a soft, disapproving sigh, she led him into an open-concept work area. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined the perimeter, encasing forty or so identical glassed-in cubicles, the partitions of which muted sounds of humming printers and swiftly clicking computer keys. “Cozy,” he pronounced dryly.

She shrugged. “Martha Stewart wasn’t available.”

“This office looks like it was decorated by The Terminator.”

“Futuristic,” she agreed, then pointed. “Voilà. Welcome to your work station.”

A shiny steel desk topped by a computer, faced an identical computer on an identical shiny steel desk. He motioned a thumb toward the other computer. “And that?”

“Is my work space.”

“So…” Seating himself in the regulation chair provided, he set his briefcase beside the desk and shot her a playful glance, realizing that somewhere during the introductions, he’d decided to seduce the truth out of her. The woman couldn’t be a spy. No way. “This could get dangerous,” he began. “Am I really supposed to face you all day, with nothing between us but a thin partition of glass?”

“Plexiglas,” she corrected mildly, circling it. “And don’t get any ideas. Big Brother is always watching.”

“Ah…” His throat went dry as he surveyed her. “You have a sense of humor.”

“Don’t tell anyone.” Her lip-glossed mouth suddenly came to life, twitching with amusement, making him realize how unusually full it was, how kissable. “As you know,” she continued, “everything here at IBI is top secret.”

He raised a dark eyebrow. “You included?”

She shrugged, the lift of her inward-curving shoulders correcting her posture, making him notice the enticing tilt of her breasts once again. “Of course. I wouldn’t want to feel left out.”

For a second, he almost forgot she was a suspect he’d been sent to investigate. “I’d ask you on a date,” he said, surprised by and enjoying their banter, “but I’m afraid we’re being taped.”

“And photographed.” Selena nodded easily at a ceiling-mounted camera. “Say cheese.”

“Cheese,” he repeated, wishing she wasn’t quite so obviously aware of IBI’s security system. Playing the part of a temporary worker, he added, “The last division where I was sent had cameras everywhere. Do you mind being watched all day?”

Her alluring eyes suddenly seemed too sharp, too intelligent. She surveyed him a long moment, then finally shrugged. “Depends who’s doing the watching.”

Everything about her bespoke the tension of contradictions, he decided. She wasn’t noticeably pretty, but she was sexy as hell. Her eyes had remained unconsciously seductive, even as her obviously intelligent mind assessed him. He said, “What if I’m doing the watching?”

She smirked, those tantalizing lips twisting again, almost petulantly. “Then cameras would make me feel safer.”

“You don’t like men to provide your feelings of safety?”

“Men are hardly safe,” she retorted. In the wake of a revealing blush that followed, she quickly added, “What? Do women always ask you to play the role of Great Protector?”

“Do you distrust men in general,” he pressed trying not to sound too curious, “or did some specific male hurt you?”

Now she didn’t look the least perturbed. “I asked first.”

“Do woman ask me to protect them?” he repeated. “Never. I think they find me too dangerous.”

“Or commitment shy.”

Hearing the truth from her tasty-looking lips was more annoying than it should have been. This was supposed to be his game. His turf. His rules. He was here to watch her, and decipher her diary, which he felt more sure than ever wasn’t in secret code. He fought the urge to tell her their sparring was getting a little too personal. Mostly because he had a suspicion that everything about him and Selena Silverwood was about to get personal. “I commit to plenty of things,” he said, running a palm over his jet hair, loosening the waves as he brushed them back. “I’ve made a fledgling commitment to a dog named M, for instance.”

The truth was, he’d never stayed with a woman longer than six months. That was his rule of thumb. Leave them before they leave you. Suddenly feeling edgy, Edison considered telling Eleanor she’d have to send down one of the other guys. Tom. Steve. Gary Hughes. Anybody. Selena Silverwood was going to be a royal pain in the butt. In her pictures, she’d looked unattractive. In person, she was more physically alluring than she knew. But her presumptive air was now threatening to bring out the worst in him. “You know so much about me,” he continued, chiding. “What? Did somebody send over my dossier?”

When she grinned, now seemingly enjoying this, the way her face lit up made his heart stutter. “Does the idea make you nervous?” she teased. “What are you hiding? Six ex-wives? Arrests for unspeakable acts?”

“You’ve got a vivid imagination.”

She released a soft, musical chuckle. “So I’m told.”

His eyes fixed on hers. “I like imagination in a woman.”

She surveyed him curiously. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I like a sharp tongue, too. Do you always flirt with temporaries?”

“Flirting?” Her voice turned mild. “Is that what I’m doing?”

“Definitely. And it’s starting to sound like an invitation.”

“Then I’d better quit. IBI might fire us.”

His eyes lingered on her mouth a second too long, and in that second, he knew he’d happily take his pink slip if it meant heading for a bedroom with her. “If you need anything, let me know,” she suddenly said. “And you really should read the employee manual. It’s in the top, right-hand drawer of the desk. Our rules differ from other departments’.”

“A man can’t break rules unless he knows them,” he conceded.

“I wouldn’t know,” she assured him. “I never break rules.”

Raw lust made him want to believe it. He’d never fall for a traitor, which was what she’d be if her diary really was written in code. While she busied herself with work, he leaned down, drew the black-bound diary from his briefcase and surreptitiously inserted it between the open pages of the employee manual. Even if she noticed the book, she wouldn’t recognize it as her own diary. Lifting both books to desk level, he tipped the cover of the manual in her direction. “The employee manual. Thanks for recommending it. It looks interesting.”

She merely rolled eyes that glinted with amusement and began working again. Relaxing, Edison glanced down and realized the diary had a title: Night Pleasures. Not exactly what he’d expected. Frowning, he drew a sharp breath as his eye caught a sentence fragment in midparagraph: “…she panted softly, breathlessly, as she ran through the near dark.” His body tensed. What was going on here? His heartbeat quickened as he scanned the rest of the page.

…her body ached, swelling with awareness and burning with fire as her eyes flitted over the floor-to-ceiling mirrored walls. Long-handled torches lined the smoky, scented passageway, and sensuous tongues of flame licked the mirrors. That same fire stroked inside her, but she knew the burning heat was nothing compared to what she’d experience when she felt the warm, sometimes gentle, hands of the man she sought, the Marquis de Lancroix.

Where was he?

She’d been in this otherworldly place for so long, suppressing shudders of anticipation, struggling for a glimpse of his long, wild raven mane and sleek, muscled body. Worrying her lower lip between her teeth, she prayed her heart would stop racing, but it only beat faster, because she was about to be seduced in this pleasure palace. Only the wealthiest man in France could afford such a sensual private playhouse, with its maze of mirrored halls and air scented with incense….

She gasped. There he was! Pressing a hand to her heart, she whirled and stared into a room. But he’d vanished! What was happening? she wondered in confusion, her mind reeling. Was the marquis playing tricks on her? Had he drugged her with a potion at the masked ball? Was that why she felt so lost? So aroused? So disoriented?

And hadn’t she just seen him? She could swear he’d been reflected in the mirrors in one of the rooms, reclining on a bed, everything about him bespeaking excess: his bold, unapologetic nakedness, the thrust of his sex, the fiery flames prancing on a body that looked like sculpted bronze. She spun around again. And again. She spun until she swore she saw him everywhere. Then she moved forward, inhaling sharply as she skated her fingertips along the mirrors.

“There!” Her voice suddenly hitched as she passed another room. “I’ve found you!” But when she reached out, her palm hit a mirror, and she found herself peering into yet another sensuous room, staring at where crystal-blue waters tumbled into a pool, gushing around the mural painted on the bottom. Her eyes became riveted on nude sea nymphs and mermaids pleasuring proudly aroused men, and she suddenly admitted she shouldn’t have sneaked away from the ball to meet Lancroix. She’d allowed the marquis to love her body before now, of course, but never in his private playhouse made for sin. Tonight she’d lied to her mama and attendants, and now she’d be wise to find her way out of this place. A footstep sounded! Had Lancroix followed her, after all?

“Lancroix?”

She gasped, suddenly startled by her own reflection. Tugging the glittering silver mask from her dark eyes, she threw it to the stone floor. There. Let him find her clothes scattered in the hallway. It would serve him right for not meeting her as he’d promised. Yes, she should leave. He’d find scraps of costume—the chain around her waist, her mask. He’d be so frustrated, filled with want for a naked woman—for her—but she’d be gone.

And yet it was a shame. She had dressed for him tonight—in sensual, near-transparent silver silk scarves that draped over her breasts and lower body, but left her belly bare. She’d already felt his hands…already knew that a flick of his practiced wrist could send the fabric flying. “Marquis de Lancroix?” she called abruptly. “Is that you, sir?”

She never knew, because the man came too quickly, grabbing her from behind, his strong arms seizing her waist without warning. The hard, heated impact of his naked body took her breath away, just as a wind gusted down the passageway, extinguishing the torches.

His breath came then, warm on her cheeks, his low, seductive growl eliciting shivers from the deepest recesses of her being. “Lover,” he whispered.

The word she’d hoped to hear from Lancroix warmed her, but did the rough stubble teasing her neck really belong to the marquis? Were these his bare thighs, braced against the backs of hers? In the darkness, an eye mask grazed her cheek, which meant that whoever he was, he’d come from the ball.

“Who are you?” she croaked. “The man who’s been lusting for you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“But I do, Mademoiselle Duclaire.”

He knew her name! Before she could decide whether or not to struggle, he was dragging her backward, the strength of his embrace so sensually possessive that her knees buckled. “Sir, I demand you identify yourself!” she managed to exclaim as bold hands slid upward—tracing her bare ribs, then suddenly, swiftly, curling over her breasts in a first touch that left her reeling and took her breath. Her heart beat out of control. The man definitely knew what he was doing.

His voice was as dangerously silky as the hands that cupped and squeezed. “I’ll make the demands.”

“Lancroix?” she murmured faintly. “Is that you?” Or was her body aching for a stranger?

“Do you really care?”

No, she admitted to herself, not when his mouth descended with the verve of a savage. His tongue plunged, driving silkenly inside her mouth as surely as a warrior’s lance, while magic fingers began stroking her peaking nipples. She knew it was Lancroix—it had to be—and with his every touch, she realized she loved him. As fiery hands melted away her costume, making every erogenous inch of her burn, she knew she’d give this man anything.

“Ah…” he murmured, dropping scalding kisses along her neck as he dispensed with her skirt and slid a finger between her buttocks, gently lifting the strap of the thong. “Nice, Mademoiselle Duclaire. Very nice.”

A cry was torn from her as he continued tugging the leather, slowly working the strap, making it pull in front until she squirmed, about to burst. Vaguely, sucking a breath between her teeth, she wondered how he’d undressed her so quickly. “Yes,” she whispered simply, nonsensically, her heart hammering as she felt his hard length graze her flesh. “Yes.” There was simply no other word she could offer him….

“It’s good you don’t intend to fight me,” he stated, the urgency in his words as seductive as his body. “It’s no use.”

And he was right, she realized as he toyed with the waist chain she wore, suddenly tightening it, making her skin quiver and her nerves dance. “Nice,” he murmured throatily. “So very nice.” Silken chest hairs flattened against her back as he embraced her more tightly from behind, holding her to the hard, muscled wall of his chest, his palms thrusting upward once more, lifting her breasts, holding them high as if he were making an offering to a goddess.

“Bring the salts,” she whispered, feeling the lights in her mind extinguishing as she arched against him, pleasure arrowing to the juncture of her thighs. “I’m going to faint.”

“You will,” he promised, cupping where she felt so swollen. “From the pleasure.”

And then he turned her head, kissing her until everything inside her became as darkly sensuous as the mirrored passageway, as liquid and hot as the summer night. Thumbs and fingers teased her taut nipples, roughening and pinching, making her whimper from the torment. “Good,” he praised softly as she writhed.

“Please,” she whispered back, her jagged breaths bringing in scents of his skin that made her head swim. Groaning, he twisted his hips, swiftly lowering her to the floor. She shivered as he lay on top of her, his naked body covering hers—toe to toe, chest to chest. Nipples brushed. Lips brushed. Palms brushed. It was all too good to be true, she thought, feeling his muscles tense. His soft, panting breath stirred her hair as he claimed her with a piercing thrust. She gasped. It was deep, so deep it would have hurt—maybe even killed her—if not for the unbelievable pleasure….

Edison started. What the hell? he thought, his mind reeling back to the present. Suddenly he was staring, slack-jawed, into eyes that looked less like topazes now and more like fire-warmed whiskey. With a rush of awareness, he registered that his whole body was hot, his mind still full of pure, unadulterated sex. Was this some sort of practical joke? Had Eleanor roped him into this, knowing Selena’s diary wasn’t in secret code?

“Did you say something?” he managed to ask.

Selena was frowning as if she were an entomologist and he were a new species of insect. “You’re really devouring that employee manual,” she said curiously.

He wanted—no, needed—to devour her. He was fit to be tied—literally. Preferably with the silver scarves that had barely covered Mademoiselle Duclaire. Drawing a deep breath, he licked his dry lips.

“If you’re thirsty,” she said, watching him, “the water fountain’s right next to the elevator.”

He could hardly leave the desk at the moment, given how her diary had affected him. “Thanks, but I’ll keep reading.”

She squinted. “That interesting, huh?”

“Employee manuals. Nothing like them,” he forced himself to say. “Racy,” he couldn’t help but add. “Satisfying.”

Her tone was dry. “You must lead a truly exciting life.”

It had gotten a lot more exciting as he’d read Night Pleasures. But none of this made sense. Had someone wanted to distract him from researching the classified ads? This diary had to be just that: a diary. If it was in code, it would have been predictable, written only for show. But this was full of heart, full of longing….

Selena was still frowning at the cover of the employee manual. “Are you really going to read that again?”

Edison glanced down, his eyes catching the words pure velvet magic slid inside her. “A real page turner,” he assured.

“I’m beginning to think you’re a little strange.”

He eyed her. “Do you want to find out the truth?”

“You sound so mysterious. Are you sure you’re not a spy?”

“No. But maybe you are. Is Selena even your real name?”

“Yes. But my parents almost named me Silence.”

Surely she wouldn’t banter like this if she really was stealing IBI secrets. “Silence?”

She nodded. “I was a seventies baby. Hippie parents.”

“Funny,” he said. “You look normal enough.”

“I rebelled.”

Judging from her diary, she was quite the free spirit. Edison took another deep breath, reminding himself that even if she wasn’t spying, indulging fantasies while on IBI’s payroll wasn’t exactly kosher. When he was at work, he did what they paid him for: work. “Rebelled?” he couldn’t help but say. “Does this mean you’ve got something against free love?”

She considered. “Love never comes without a price.”

“What price are you willing to pay for it, Selena?”

The words had simply slipped out, and now her whiskey-colored eyes darkened as if the conversation had turned too heavy. He was aware once more of the effect her fantasies had on his body. “I’d rather be alone,” she finally said, “than pay a price for love.”

“My feeling exactly,” he admitted. But that hardly barred him from playing the Marquis de Lancroix to her Mademoiselle Duclaire. “So, you like to be alone? Does that mean forever, or just tonight?”

Faint color had risen in her cheeks, and he could see her throat work as she swallowed. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“Mind if I ask one more?”

Crossing her arms over her ample chest, she glanced away, drolly rolling her eyes. “Could I stop you?”

“No. What about dinner?”

Her eyes darted to his again, and she smiled. “What about it?”

He sent her a long, sideways glance. “Do you want to eat it?”

“I usually do.”

“With me?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Ah. Let me guess. You know a quaint little Italian place with small, round, candlelit tables and a cellarful of dusty wine bottles.”

She’d hit the nail on the head. The place was called Antonio’s. But because he’d just read her diary, Edison couldn’t help but say, “Actually, for you, Selena, I was thinking about something French. Passer la Nuit.”

“Given how diligently you were reading the employee manual, I figured you were the conscientious type,” she countered. “Doesn’t it bother you that we work together?”

He shrugged. “I’m only a temporary.”

She considered so long that he almost withdrew the offer, but then she simply said, “Okay.”

He tried to hide his surprise. “What about seven o’clock? I’ll pick you up.”

“Seven-thirty,” she countered. “I’ll drive my own car and meet you at the restaurant.”

Given her fantasies, he could see why she’d want some control of the situation. No telling what might happen if she let herself go. Now that he’d read part of her diary, he was well aware that she was a lust machine, and yet she’d seemed so oddly vulnerable and straight-laced. Was she really inexperienced? Were these fantasies merely her way of trying on the role of seductress? “Seven-thirty,” he found himself murmuring. “At Passer la Nuit.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Lowering his head, he pretended to read. Did she have a lot of experience with men, or just an imagination as vivid as Technicolor? he wondered once more. And was she stealing from IBI? Was this diary actually in code?

Flipping through the pages, he bit back a soft groan as he read, “Every inch of him went taut. He was ready to explode, but he wanted to hold back—had to hold back. He was waiting for his soft, untutored butterfly, whose wings were about to unfold.”

If he didn’t stop reading, Selena Silverwood would be lucky to make it through an appetizer tonight—Italian, French or otherwise. But then, a job was a job. And because he was a patriot, he was duty-bound to continue mulling over every steamy word she’d written. For God and country, he thought dryly, bracing himself against the soft, feminine scent of her that drifted over the glass partition.

And then, lowering his head, he immersed himself in Night Pleasures.

2

“I’M GOING TO BE LATE,” Selena muttered, her belly fluttering in anticipation. No doubt Edison Lone was already waiting for her at a secluded, candlelit table at the restaurant.

“Passer la Nuit,” she huffed, shaking her head. Spend the Night. She should have known he’d suggest the most romantic, airy French restaurant in town, not to mention the most expensive. His reputation had preceded him. God only knew how many women he’d seduced over Passer la Nuit’s best Dijon filet and a few heady goblets of burgundy.

“You can’t say you weren’t warned,” she whispered. But she hated playing the role of ugly duckling. She simply couldn’t bring herself to continue doing so tonight. She’d hated the way he’d sized her up today, those liquid blue eyes softening in what she took to be sympathy, as if she were still fat, friendless and ugly, the daughter of overly educated, back-to-the-earth liberals who were determined to make a life where they didn’t belong, in the country. Not about to dwell on the devastation of her high school years, or how hard she’d worked to change herself, she sighed. Forget it. She’d long ago proved she could be every bit as dangerous as the kids who’d hurt her.

In the closet, her hand skated over the loose, ankle-length dresses she usually wore to IBI, then settled where it shouldn’t have—on a shimmering silver dress procured for her parents’ last wedding anniversary. It was right out of her fantasies. Sumptuous, barely-there crepe was sexily torn in tatters around the shoulders and draped into a sheath with a jagged hem. The matching three-inch heels would bring her eye level with Edison.

“And you’ll need every extra inch of leverage,” she told herself, imagining his tall, lanky body and the thick, touchable, raven hair that brushed his shoulders. Slipping the dress from its black velvet hanger, she sighed as the fabric teased her fingertips.

“If I wear this,” she murmured, “it’ll be proof I’ve lost my mind.” She couldn’t afford to attract a man at the moment, least of all Edison Lone. Besides, the best men were those she conjured in her imagination. Real men meant trouble.

“Why didn’t I just say no to dinner?” she admonished herself in a rush of panic. Should she back out? Stand him up? But how could she, when she had to find out what he was doing working in Sensitive Data Entry?

Shimmying, she let the towel wrapped around her naked body drop to the floor. Soft scents left by perfumed bathwater rose from her skin. She wondered if Edison would notice the sweet fragrance.

Heat seeped into her cheeks. She was being a fool. Reflected in a full-length mirror on the closet door, she took in the beige carpet behind her, the muted earth-tone bedspread and bare white walls. The apartment had all the charm of a low-budget motel. The black-framed glasses on the nightstand had plastic, nonprescription lenses. Most of the clothes in the closet weren’t to her taste. Only the open diary on the desk hinted at her real personality. Ever since an editor had contacted her about publishing the fantasies, the diary had become a good luck charm. It was her ticket out of Washington. One more way to generate the money she needed to escape…

Otherwise, the room looked exactly like what it was: a place she didn’t intend to live in long. Within weeks, she’d be gone, she figured. And there’d be no trace of Selena Silverwood.

Silverwood wasn’t her real name, anyway.

“So don’t get confused about what you’re doing at IBI,” she lectured herself softly. “Or with Edison Lone.” He might be the most appealing man she’d ever laid eyes on, but this was a job, and she needed to know why he’d suddenly shown up, seated at a desk across from her.

“A floating temp,” she muttered, shaking her head. Even if she hadn’t read his dossier, she’d know better. Not that his name, rank and serial number had prepared her for the reality. When he’d stood next to her, his shoulders had seemed broader than she’d anticipated, the scent and warmth coming from his body infinitely more bothersome. She’d expected something else from the orphan who’d made good. A cold, calloused man, she supposed. With a chip on his shoulder. Instead, despite his self-contained watchfulness, he looked like he had a heart. Not to mention royal-blue eyes so searching that gazing into them had aroused guilt feelings she hadn’t guessed she had.

Had he been sent to spy on her? Was she about to get caught? Or had he come to Sensitive Data Entry for reasons having nothing to do with her? She thought of how the flourescent lights had made his jet hair shine where it curled around his ears, and about how those shocking blue eyes glowed like lasers in a face tanned the color of toasted nuts. And then her eyes settled once more on her diary. If the Marquis de Lancroix could leap from the pages, he’d look more or less like Edison.

Slowly, she unzipped and stepped into the silver dress, trying not to imagine the look on Edison’s face when she’d glide into Passer la Nuit, trailing perfume. Instead of truffles and tortes for dessert, she hoped he’d be eating out of the palm of her hand.

After that, who knew? The truth was, she’d run from men all her life—with just cause. She always tried to tell herself she didn’t care, that sex was overrated and that, when it came to excitement, no man could compete with her work.

But she was thirty now, and defenses she’d erected against love were crumbling. Once red and raw, past scars were losing themselves to memory, their traces barely visible anymore, not to herself or others. She’d worked damn hard at making those old wounds heal, and exploring her innermost dreams of sensual pleasure had been a big part of that. But was she ready to make fantasies a reality?

Maybe. What used to feel like career excitement had started seeming more like plain, old, everyday danger. Earlier this year, Bruce Levinson had gotten killed, doing exactly what she was at IBI. Not that she could back out now. She’d have to play the game, try not to get caught, and figure out where Edison Lone fit into the picture.

“A floating temp,” she murmured again. “Yeah, right.”

She’d been so sure she’d played the unattractive secretary to perfection. The role, she thought with a rush of anger, came easily enough. But now it seemed as if someone was onto her. Were they? Had Edison been sent to scrutinize her files? Rifle through her desk drawers? Was she in danger?

“Definitely,” she decided aloud, thinking of how he’d tied her insides into knots. She’d never flirted with a man so easily as she’d flirted with him today. Reaching behind her, she zipped up the dress, then slid stockinged feet into shimmering silver shoes. Studying herself dispassionately, she found wistful emotion twisting unexpectedly inside her. Why couldn’t she be a million miles from here? Somewhere without secrets, lies and hidden agendas? Someplace where a man like Edison Lone really could become her lover? Under the circumstances, using him to test out her fantasies seemed seriously unadvisable….

“Too bad,” she whispered. Regardless of his unsuitability as her first lover, she wasn’t about to let him think she was a geek. Nervously arranging a scrap of silver fabric against her collarbone, she took a deep breath. Dammit, why did she have to be so desperately attracted to the man most likely to interfere with her subterfuge at IBI?

THERE WAS SOMETHING dreamy in the air, something almost magical, and when Selena breezed into Passer la Nuit dressed almost like the woman in her diary, Edison was lost. Seeing a body she never should have kept hidden, draped with what looked to be silver scarves, he no longer cared if she was stealing from IBI. He was taking Selena Silverwood to bed. Tonight.

Every time he looked at her, he found himself thinking of her diary, of love scenes in shallow pools and between masked partners in dark, scented, mirrored passageways. He half wished he hadn’t tortured himself by reading until he’d left his house to meet her, since the diary had filled him with expectations for the evening. Now they’d finished eating, and he nodded toward the lace-veiled French doors. “Ready to go?”

Offering the slightest lift of a bare shoulder, she drew a sip of burgundy through wine-reddened lips. The flame from a candle at the cozy table made her eyes look like pools of aged whiskey, and made him think that the black-framed glasses she usually wore were a definite mistake. Without them, and in this dress, she was stunning. “I’m enjoying it here,” she murmured.

And he was enjoying watching the thin, scarcely noticeable silver glitter play on her eyelids whenever she glanced at him. As she did so now, something—warmth from her amber gaze or from his own brandy-laced coffee—slid through his bones, turning his voice husky. “I thought you’d like this place, Selena.”

“I do,” she said simply. “I’m glad we came.”

“Me, too.”

Catching her fingers lazily between his, Edison marveled at the spark of electricity that jumped between them. Like her seductively tilted eyes, it reminded him that dinner was only one of the reasons he’d brought her here. Espionage was another. So was sex. He was practiced with women, but he hadn’t expected the shock he’d experienced seeing her in a cocktail dress. He glided his fingers along her hand, then rubbed the hollow of her wrist with the pad of his thumbs. “Your pulse is racing.”

She eyed him. “Really?”

“Really,” he assured her, feeling as drugged as the woman in her diary, as if he’d taken a potion. She ran her gaze over him, letting it settle on his deep blue, Vnecked sweater. A gift from an ex-girlfriend, the sweater matched his eyes, complemented his finely woven gray slacks and revealed a hint of swirling dark chest hair that itched for her caress.

Her voice matched his for throatiness, as if she, too, had been sated by the heavy French meal. “You have excellent taste in restaurants, Edison Lone.”

“Women, too.”

Chuckling softly at the compliment, she glanced away, her face a study in contrasts: pleasure, embarrassment, confusion. “So,” she began abruptly, “you work at IBI part-time, and otherwise, you teach?”

His gaze hadn’t left her face. “You won’t get away with it.”

Only the slight widening of her eyes gave away a startled response. “Get away with what?”

Gently pulling on her wrist, he drew her closer, wondering if she really did have something to hide. “With ignoring my flirtation. I am going to take you to bed, Selena.”

“You’re very direct,” she said in a near whisper.

“Looking at you makes me feel I don’t have time to lose.” He shrugged. “Besides, I know what I want.”

“And you take the quickest route to get it?” she asked breathlessly.

He wasn’t the least bit offended. “Especially when I want it badly.” Pausing, he added, “And I want you badly.”

Recovering, she offered a slight smile. “Don’t you believe in getting to know a person first?”

He laughed. “That’s good.”

She frowned. “What?”

“You’re speaking of firsts. It implies I’ll get seconds.”

“Really,” she chided. “Don’t you get to know your dates?”

“You, yes,” Edison said honestly. “But not every woman I take to bed.”

Her glance was droll. “I never said we were going to bed.”

The denial shouldn’t have challenged him, but it did. He tried not to let it show. “You don’t have to say it,” he replied, his leisurely gaze studying her. “It’s in your eyes…in the way you carry yourself.” Pausing, he shook his head. Didn’t she realize she was leaning seductively toward him, offering a tantalizing view of her ripe breasts? His eyes flickered possessively down, hot as the candle flame, and he savored a fantasy about how he’d circle a taut nipple with his tongue until she writhed from the pleasure. Oh, there were many things he had in mind for Selena. He was every bit as imaginative as the marquis. For now, he settled on lifting a finger and lightly tracing a bare shoulder. His voice was silky. “No woman trying to stay out of a man’s bed wears a dress like this.”

“You’re very sure of your ability to get a woman into bed.”

“It’s what happens after she’s in bed that interests me.” Letting her mull over the comment, he sipped coffee that had come just the way he liked it—strong and black, splashed with top-shelf brandy. After a moment, he offered another careless smile. “Of course, if you need to talk first, we certainly can. Some women consider it foreplay.”

Now her lips twitched with a smile. “How obliging.”

He smiled back. “I can be much more obliging than that.”

She took a sip of wine, then shrugged, the feigned nonchalance not reaching her eyes. “Tell me more about yourself.”

“Like I said, I’m a teacher.” The lie had rolled impulsively from his tongue, and tomorrow he’d have to cover his tracks, since she could expose him with one phone call. For now, the fib enabled him to share more of himself, something he’d discovered he wanted to do with Selena. “I only work for IBI when I’m not teaching,” he added. “During spring breaks, like now, and in the summer. A friend told me I could sign up, get a security clearance.”

“Data entry’s odd work for an English teacher.”

“Keeps me busy,” he offered, shrugging easily, his eyes lowering appreciatively. Everything about her was making him ache: the candlelight shimmering on her bare shoulders, the intoxicating scent of wine coming in tandem with her breath. Reaching out, he adjusted a scrap of material on her shoulder again. “As delicate as a spider’s web.”

She smiled. “Afraid I’ll snare you?”

“Afraid you won’t,” he corrected, flashing her another smile. He shrugged. “The money from IBI funds my hobby.”

“Which is?”

“Cracking codes,” he answered, thinking Selena was the puzzle he’d most like to crack. What had possessed her to write down such sensual fantasies? While he was sure they weren’t in code, he figured it would be interesting to test the waters, to see if she reacted to knowing how he spent his time. “I often try to crack the codes to old manuscripts.”

“You mean like the Rosetta stone?”

He nodded. “Right now, I’m working on what’s called the Voynich manuscript. I’m interested in old cave drawings, too. On vacations, I go hunting for them.”

“Like Indiana Jones?”

“More or less.” His blood quickened at thoughts of his work, and at the answering excitement in her eyes. “Secretive communications of any kind draw me like a magnet. I’ve always been more interested in what people don’t say than in what they do.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “I get lost in word puzzles.”

“When you want to crack a code, what do you do first?”

Her interest seemed genuine, and he figured she’d probably be defensive if she had something to hide. CIIC had to be wrong. She was on the level. “Check for substitution words and anagrams. Or for known codes people might use. Sometimes I look for pinpricks over words and letters, to see if a message can be pieced together by connecting the dots.” His eyes settled once more on her bare shoulder. “And there are heat-sensitive codes.”

Not missing the innuendo, she murmured, “Heat sensitive?”

He nodded again. “Not to mention secret inks.”

At that, she looked genuinely delighted, and since countless women had had their eyes glaze over when he talked about work, or worse, been jealous of his passion for it, he felt encouraged, maybe more than he should have. “During the Second World War,” he continued, leaning back and rifling a hand through his hair, “soldiers used invisible, heat-sensitive inks on eggshells. Later, the recipient would hard-boil the eggs and peel the shell.”

“And the secret message would be written on the egg,” she guessed with a soft laugh.

“Exactly.”

“Tasty.”

Not nearly as tasty as she looked. “A woman in Germany kept special inks stored in the dyes of her scarves.”

Selena considered, then said, “So, why do you like cave drawings? What’s the connection?”

“They tell stories.”

Her eyes—rimmed by kohl pencil, the lashes darkened—drifted around the room, and her breasts rose with a deep breath as she took in the wall paintings—tasteful nudes in heavy gilt frames. “I suppose most pieces of art do tell stories.”

“In that dress, you’re a piece of art,” he couldn’t help but say, images from her diary playing once more in his head. “What story are you waiting to tell, Selena?”

When she shrugged, the dress slipped a fraction, revealing another inch of creamy skin, just the hint of a sloping breast. “I hardly think I’m like a cave drawing.”

“I’m convinced you have the same innocence,” he murmured. No way in hell was she guilty of wrongdoing. She was sexy, yes. But involved in espionage? Never. Given a few more days, he’d prove it, too.

She was squinting. “How can cave drawings be innocent?”

“Easy. They look untutored. Primitive. And they possess a raw passion characteristic of the ancients.”

Another smile tilted her mouth. “Just the ancients, huh?”

“Oh, don’t worry, there’s plenty of passion to be had in the present,” he assured her with a laugh. “But not if we stay here all night.”

He could see her throat work. “I should get home.”

“You will,” he promised, capturing her hand as he rose. “Eventually.”

She gazed up at him. “I meant sooner than eventually.”

As she stood, he draped her shawl around her shoulders. Loosely woven silver threads brushed his fingertips, leaving him to imagine how soft her naked skin would feel gliding beneath his palms. Placing a hand under her elbow, he guided her to the street, and when her body grazed his, he tried not to notice they were a perfect fit. She was eye level, too. He liked that.

They’d walked a half block when she nodded. “My car.”

“Sure you won’t come to my place? Meet M?”

The dog’s name was so foolish that mention of it broke the dreamy mood. Her laughter was like bubbles, and she was clearly thinking of a point earlier in the evening when he’d amused her with stories about the dog’s exploits. “I’m afraid of what M would do to me.”

Edison smiled. “You should be. I’m running ads in three more newspapers now.”

“Still no takers?”

“No one’s that masochistic.”

She merely laughed. “You’re going to wind up keeping him.”

She was right, of course. And standing with her on the crowded sidewalk, in the moonlight, on a perfect spring night, Edison felt better than he had in a long time. There was something else he hadn’t anticipated: that, quite simply, he’d be so smitten with Selena Silverwood. As she leaned against the door of her car, his eyes captured hers again. Surely she wasn’t planning to deny the energy coursing between them and go home? “So, you really think I’ll wind up with M?”

“I’ve got a sixth sense about these things.”

“Sure you didn’t read my dossier?”

“You keep asking me that.”

And maybe with cause. For the briefest second, Edison could swear fear and guilt flashed in her eyes. But under the streetlamps, it was too dark to read something as complex as emotions in a woman’s eyes. Still, what if she was stealing secrets? What if what was between them was wiping out his common sense?

He glanced at her car. Nothing flashy, just a black compact. If she was ripping off IBI, she wasn’t spending the money. When he’d checked to see if her bank balance was in line with her salary, he’d found it was.

Taking a step, he glided his hands under the shawl and up her arms until he was cupping bare shoulders. Slowly, he rubbed deep circles with his thumbs, heat from the touch jolting him. Leaning forward, so she’d feel his breath on her cheek, he huskily whispered, “Going home’s a mistake.”

She eased back a fraction. “Why?”

Maybe she was looking for reassurances about how much he’d enjoyed dinner and her company. Instead of giving them, he ran a finger under the shoulder strap of her dress and said, “Because you came here in a dress that looks like I’ve already torn it off you.” And because, despite his niggling doubts, the CIIC and Eleanor had gotten her all wrong. Selena Silverwood was innocent.

She was also fascinating. Outwardly shy, she was inwardly on fire with fantasies, and he wanted her.

She was smiling. “A man has his limits, huh?”

“You’re definitely pushing my envelope.” He’d prove her innocent, too. As soon as he could, he’d break into her apartment and get the original diary. As he’d told Eleanor, handwriting was very revealing, and Selena’s would tell him everything he needed to know.

As he brought their bodies flush, unseen bands tightened around his chest. He registered the tension in her thighs, a quiver of muscle and female heat, and when she shivered, he knew damn well it had nothing to do with the spring chill. Brushing a tendril of autumnal hair from her cheek, he realized that it, just like the shawl and her skin, was silken beyond belief. “You look undecided, Selena.”

“I didn’t know there was a decision to be made.”

“Sure is.”

She arched an eyebrow. “About?”

“About how you want this night to end.” At the sudden slight stiffening of her body, he felt more sure than ever that the guys at CIIC had gone crazy. Selena was vibrating with a need she was desperately trying to hold back. “Are you concerned because we’re coworkers?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure what I feel,” she said honestly.

Tilting his chin, he lowered his head and angled his lips so they hovered over hers. “Why don’t I decide for you?” he murmured. And then he simply covered her mouth with his. The pressure was slow and sweet, his tongue warm and probing. He’d meant it to be a gentleman’s first brief kiss, but need hit him hard, slamming into him with a swift punch as her soft breasts pressed against the wall of his chest. He felt the tips tighten, the sudden flutter of her heart.

“What are you doing to me?” he whispered, cradling her hips to his so she could feel how badly he needed her. Against her mouth, still savoring her taste, he raggedly added, “Home. Come home with me, Selena.”

To his surprise, she whispered, “Yes.”

3

SHE NEVER SHOULD HAVE gone to his house, Selena thought the next day as she secured a file under her arm and headed for the copy machine, trying to ignore the fact that Edison was behind her, the brush of his hand-stitched Italian loafers sounding soft against the gray carpet.

His voice was equally soft. “Selena. Wait.”

Wait. Such an inconsequential word shouldn’t have evoked a response, but she’d waited all her life to have dinner in a restaurant such as Passer la Nuit with a man like Edison Lone. He was brilliant. Funny. Sexy. And he kissed in a way a woman apparently couldn’t recover from. Feeling self-conscious, she tried to ignore that she’d left her black-framed glasses at home this morning and spritzed on perfume.

This was no time to get acquainted with Edison. For all she knew, the two of them would meet again down the road—possibly in criminal court. She’d been functioning on knee-jerk attraction, but now she had to concentrate on why she’d come to IBI—to gather information. During dinner, she’d become convinced that Edison hadn’t been sent to spy on her, which was all she needed to know.

“Selena.”

Taking a deep breath, she stopped in her tracks, waited a second, then turned around. “Look,” she managed to say, her throat constricting with unwanted emotion as their eyes locked. “I meant what I said, Edison.”

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