A Matter of Trust

Michael Lassiter, a theoretical design executive, is about to wage war on the corporate battlefield as she fights to maintain control of her company in the midst of divorce. She hires JT Sloan, an internet security consultant, to protect her most important asset—her dreams and visions, which are suddenly vulnerable within the corporate computer system. Sloan, a brilliant cybersleuth who steadfastly avoids emotional commitments, shares a painful, secret past with her associate and friend, Jason McBride. Sarah Martin, a gentle practitioner of eastern medicine, searches for a way to heal a damaged soul. These four very different individuals, each wounded by personal betrayal, find their lives becoming ever more inextricably bound as they struggle to trust, and to love, again.

A Matter of Trust

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A Matter of Trust

© 2003 By Radclyffe. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-262-7

This  Electronic Book is published by

Bold Strokes Books, Inc.,

P.O. Box 249

Valley Falls, New York 12185

First Edition: Renaissance Alliance 2003

Second Printing: Bold Strokes Books, Inc. February 2006

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Credits

Editors: Jennifer Knight and Stacia Seaman

Production Design: Stacia Seaman

Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])

Romances

Innocent Hearts

Love’s Melody Lost

Love’s Tender Warriors

Tomorrow’s Promise

Love’s Masquerade

shadowland

Fated Love

Turn Back Time

Promising Hearts

When Dreams Tremble

The Lonely Hearts Club

Night Call

Secrets in the Stone

The Provincetown Tales

Safe Harbor

Beyond the Breakwater

Distant Shores, Silent Thunder

Storms of Change

Winds of Fortune

Returning Tides

Honor Series

Above All, Honor

Honor Bound

Love & Honor

Honor Guards

Honor Reclaimed

Honor Under Siege

Word of Honor

Justice Series

A Matter of Trust (prequel)

Shield of Justice

In Pursuit of Justice

Justice in the Shadows

Justice Served

Justice For All

Erotic Interludes: Change of Pace

(A Short Story Collection)

Radical Encounters

(A Erotic Short Story Collection)

Stacia Seaman and Radclyffe, eds.

Erotic Interludes 2:
Stolen Moments

Erotic Interludes 3:
Lessons in Love

Erotic Interludes 4:
Extreme Passions

Erotic Interludes 5:
Road Games

Romantic Interludes 1:
Discovery

When I wrote this romance, I had not expected to see the characters again. I certainly did not think that I would still be writing of their adventures five books later. One day I was listening to an audiobook of one of George Pelecanos’s mysteries where he combined characters from two of his series set in Baltimore. I thought, “Hmm, I have two books set in Philadelphia, and they both have something to do with crime detection.” And thus the Justice and Trust characters came to inhabit the same universe. This book is set one year before the events in Shield of Justice and can be read at any point. It is the “back story” of one of the three couples in the ongoing Justice series.

Many thanks to Jennifer Knight and Stacia Seaman for editing the Bold Strokes Books edition, to Sheri for an excellent new cover, and most especially to Lee, who understands why it is I need to do this.

Radclyffe 2006

For Lee

For Everlasting

J. T. Sloan tucked in her borrowed white T-shirt and was about to close the buttons on her fly when warm lips caressed the back of her neck. All too aware that the woman pressed against her was naked, she murmured, “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” a low sultry voice replied. Deft fingers lifted the T-shirt and slid underneath to play over Sloan’s abdomen in slow, suggestive circles. “What are you doing? I thought you didn’t have anywhere to be this morning.”

“I didn’t.” Sloan stiffened as the questing hand moved lower, dipping beneath the waistband of her jeans. “Until fifteen minutes ago when I checked my messages.”

“Can’t whatever you have to do wait a little longer? If I’d known we wouldn’t have the morning, I would’ve kept you up all night. I’m not
nearly
done yet.”

Sloan turned and stepped back from the embrace, catching the other woman’s hands in hers. She wasn’t in the mood, but if those fingers strayed much lower, she would be. “Sorry, I’d stay if I could. Emergency meeting—it sounded too important to ignore.”

“I’ll take a rain check, then.” Dark eyes searched Sloan’s face. “Until next time?”

“I’ll call you.” Sloan wondered if she would, but she didn’t have time to ponder that one way or the other at the moment. “Thanks for the clean shirt, by the way.”

The brunette leaned naked against the bathroom door, watching Sloan gather her jacket and briefcase from the bureau in the bedroom. With a slow smile, she said, “It’s the least I could do after practically holding you hostage last night.”

Sloan grinned. “Believe me, it was no hardship.” She crossed the room and kissed her with practiced deliberation, only drawing back when she began to feel the sharp edge of arousal. She had work to do, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted, even by something as pleasant as this. “Thanks again, Claudia,” she whispered and walked quickly from the room.

Within minutes, she was on the expressway and punching in the number to her office on her cell phone.

“Sloan Security,” a familiar male voice answered.

“I’m running late,” Sloan said sharply by way of greeting.

“Good morning to you, too. What’s your ETA?”

“I don’t know. I’m sitting in a two-mile jam-up on I-76. Is the client there yet?”

Hearing the edge of annoyance in Sloan’s voice despite the telltale crackle of the cellular connection, Jason McBride glanced across the room at the glacially cool countenance of the 9:00 a.m. appointment. “Uh-huh.”

What he thought was
uh-oh
. His associate did not like surprises, and it was his job to prevent them. He seemed to have dropped the ball, and his timing couldn’t have been worse. There was something about the expression on their prospective client’s face that suggested the upcoming meeting would be anything but routine. “Look—”

“Damn it,” Sloan snapped, slowing for yet another bottleneck on an expressway that hadn’t been express for twenty years. “There’s not much I can do about it. Get him a donut or something.” With that, she disengaged the cell phone, tossed it next to her battered leather briefcase on the passenger seat of her Porsche Carrera, and tried for an end run around the long line of traffic in front of her.
Just what I get for not driving home last night.

But the dinner meeting had run late, her companion had been charming, and the invitation to stay the night had been
so
eloquently phrased. Plus, the physical enticements had been too hard to ignore. With the project nearly completed, all systems up and operational, she saw no reason not to mix a little pleasure with her business. Not exactly routine, but hardly out of the ordinary either.

And,
she thought with a grin,
I could hardly complain about the hospitality.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t planned on an early-morning appointment, expecting instead to drive home, shower, and change before going in to her office. Being her own boss had many advantages, not the least of which was setting her own hours. However, when, out of habit, she’d checked her messages from Claudia’s bedroom phone upon awakening, Jason’s cheerful tenor informed her that he had scheduled an appointment for her first thing that morning.

So, instead of a leisurely breakfast and another few hours of very enjoyable sex, she’d settled for a hasty shower and rush-hour traffic. And now, here she sat, breathing exhaust and getting hotter by the second.

“Son of a bitch,” she growled. With a quick turn of the wrist, she angled out and around a stalled SEPTA bus, riding the shoulder until she passed most of the congestion. Being late was not acceptable. This client had requested an urgent consultation, and even though it usually took Jason weeks to find an opening in her schedule for a new project, he’d made an exception for once. He hadn’t even had time to send a fax to her laptop with the usual summary he prepared before an interview.

“High-profile corporation, big-time connections, and money is
not
an issue,” was precisely how he had phrased it in his
do not argue with me
voice when he’d informed her of the meeting.

Sloan trusted his judgment completely, which was why she let him manage everything about her business except the work she actually did. He handled the details behind the scenes and occasionally assisted her with larger projects on site. He was an able technician himself, and they didn’t need a large staff.
She
was the talent they brokered, and any additional help she needed was subcontracted out.

“You’ll want this one,” was the final part of his message.

She couldn’t help but wonder what made him so sure.

*

Michael Lassiter looked up from the
New York Times
business section as the office door banged open and a black-haired woman in a well-cut leather blazer, snowy white T-shirt, and blue jeans hurried in, halting in front of the reception desk on the other side of the room. In one appraising glance, Michael took stock.
Well built, five-ten, one forty or so—probably a couple of years younger than me. Twenty-nine, maybe?