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“
Who does at that age?”

He
snorted. “My father and grandfather would disagree with you. They’ve had high
expectations for me since birth. So, I hired this woman who had red hair and
blue eyes.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “My weakness.”

Julianne’s
body tingled with warmth and lust at his words. “What did she do to you?”

“
Blindsided me. She was twelve years older than me, and
knew exactly how to play me. In her former life she wrote for a rag mag, much
like the one you used to work for.”

Oh shit.
She knew where this was going and
didn’t like the landscape at all.

“
Once she got me into bed often enough, and got me
talking, and had collected enough insider information, she quit and took it
public.”

“
Oh, Kane…”

“
My family was ready to kill me. It took two years to
bring that mess under control, and only because my mother stepped in and took
over the PR department. That’s her forte. She only retired a few years ago, and
hand-picked her replacement.”

“
You must have been devastated.”

“
I felt stupid and naïve, and I’m neither. That woman
used me, and I never saw it because I was too busy learning about sex and kinky
play.”

“
Those aren’t terrible things.”

“
No, they not, but I should have been thinking with my
head, not my cock.”

Julianne
nodded. This was serious stuff, and she understood that all too well.

“
I should have listened to her questions and realized
what was going on.”

“
Lesson learned.”

“
Yes.”

They
stared into each other’s eyes for a long time. “When
The Whole Truth
printed that story five years ago, it all came back
to you, didn’t it?”

He
nodded.

“
Then when I showed up Monday, you thought I was back
for more of the same.”

“
Yes, I did.”

“
But you no longer believe that.”

He
sighed. “I took a huge chance tonight, Julianne. Don’t prove me wrong again.”

Her
heart nearly burst. She understood why he was suddenly unsure, so she placed a
hand on his arm. “I won’t, Kane. I promise you. That will not happen.”

Chapter
Nine

Julianne
climbed onto Kane’s lap and kissed him. This enigmatic man had crawled under
her skin five years ago, and he’d never left. Now that she understood his past
better, she also understood why he’d been so affected Monday morning. She now
was more determined than ever to help him.

“
I’ll write the stories you want me to write, and I’ll
give up the one about your secret teams.”

“
Thank you.” The relief on his face and in his voice
was evident.

“
I also need to tell you what Isabelle said, because it
concerns me.”

“
Okay. I’m listening.”

Where to start?
“Well, she said you hired all
female employees on your floor so you could look at them every day, and that
you’re a player.”

He
laughed. “I didn’t hire most of the people who work in my company, let alone
who work on the top floor. HR did. That’s why I have a human resources
department, so I don’t have to make decisions like that.”

That
made perfect sense to her. “She also said you’re all about your wealth, and
told me about the holiday parties you throw every year.”

“
I like to give the people who work for me expensive
gifts. That doesn’t make me a monster or a saint.”

“
I agree. Those aren’t the things that concern me. It
was what she said about your secret teams and the complex code behind the
systems you and the other Weathermen designed for your companies. She seemed to
know an awful lot about both.”

He
frowned. “Did she now? Anything else?”

“
She said she had taken the job in the administrative
assistant pool to wait for an opening in IT, and then she told me about Rob
Marin.”

His
gaze darkened. “That’s insider information.”

“
I figured as much.”

“
No, I mean that’s information she couldn’t possibly
know about unless she was on one of the teams you were trying to write a story about.
Our hacker teams have his name, and our newly-formed teams tracking IP
addresses and machine IDs will have it, along with dozens of others. How did
she come across his name?”

Julianne
shivered, but this time it wasn’t from lust. “I didn’t ask her.”

“
Ask her.”

“
What?
”

“
Julianne, this is serious shit.”

“
I know, but are you really asking me to use a source
I’ve just named for information to help you fire her?”

“
Isn’t that exactly what you do to them when you want a
story? Use them for inside information?”

“
Ouch.” She climbed off him and grabbed her bag from
the floor. “I think that’s my cue to go home and get some sleep.”

“
I wasn’t trying to hurt you, merely pointing out a
fact.”

“
That may well be, but I think this conversation is
taking a dangerous turn. I don’t want to do this tonight. We had a lot of fun
earlier, and I’d rather remember that. Not an argument we had about Isabelle.”

He
rose and placed a hand on each shoulder, his face filled with indecision and
pain. “We’re not arguing, Julianne. We’re on the same side here. I need your
help with this. Isabelle shouldn’t have that information.”

“
All right. I get that, but I’m not going to be your
spy and ask her where she got it. That’s your problem.”

He
nodded slowly. “You’re right. It is. I’m sorry.”

Julianne
shrugged out his grip. “Apology accepted, but I really think it’s best if I go
home. I need time and space to think about everything we did tonight, and to
process all the things we told each other.” He looked so hurt she almost
changed her mind. This was so damn confusing. “Thank you again for everything.
I had a wonderful time.”

“
Then why are you leaving?”

“
Because we barely know each other.”

“
That didn’t stop you earlier,” he said quietly.

“
It’s not stopping me now. I just need some time to
think
.”

He
ran his hand through all that shaggy brown hair, and she had to look away
because it was such a sexy gesture. “I’ll walk you home.”

“
Not necessary. I’ve been out at night alone before.”

“
Damn it! Why are you pushing me away like this?”

“
I’m not pushing you away.”

“
It feels that way from where I’m standing.”

“
I’m sorry it does.” She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll
call you tomorrow, after we’ve both slept on this.”

“
I won’t change my mind about you once the fake sun
comes up.”

Julianne
turned away before he saw the pain on her face. She didn’t want to go, but she
was very confused, and could not possibly think straight when she looked into
those damn sexy eyes of his. She had to get away for a while.

****

Kane
stood in the doorway of his apartment building and watched Julianne walk down
the deserted street until she turned the corner. He’d made her promise to text
him once she was safely home, but the urge to run after her now was strong.

He
shouldn’t have asked her to help him ferret out the truth. That had been wrong.
It had just slipped out, but now he realized how sleazy it sounded. She’d taken
a huge chance tonight, too, in telling him who Isabelle was and what she’d
revealed. Instead of thanking her, he’d asked her to breach yet another
confidence.

Fuck.
He was a damn idiot. No better
than the stupid kid who had let a woman fuck him into giving away trade secrets
all those years ago. Kane went back up to his apartment and grabbed his
Internet phone, then left the building. He caught up with Julianne two blocks
away, and she whirled around at the sound of his footsteps, obviously afraid.
Hardly anyone was out at night. Anything could happen to her.

“
I’m walking you home.”

She
looked relieved. “Thank you.”

He
grabbed her hand and walked with her. “I’m sorry. I should not have asked you
to do that. It was wrong. I wasn’t thinking. Please forgive me.”

She
stopped, so he did, too. “Thank you for that. I do forgive you, but I’m very
confused, Kane.”

He
brushed a finger along her face. “About me?”

“
Yes. About us, that is.”

His
pulse raced. “What has you confused?”

“
All of this. I mean, what the hell are we doing? I
just revealed a source to you, and you have a history of spilling secrets in
bed. What the fuck are we doing together? We’re going to hurt each other.”

His
breath caught in his throat as a tear slid down her face. Kane wiped it away,
and then he pulled her close, inhaling her scent. He could still smell her
perfume, but mixed up with it was the musky, warm smell from their earlier
lovemaking. He wanted to be back in bed with her, where everything made sense
and was easy.

“
No, we’re not going to do that,” he said. “We will not
hurt each other. I won’t let it happen.”

“
How the hell can you prevent it?”

He
pulled away to look into her eyes. “Are you good friends with Isabelle?”

“
Not really.”

“
Then don’t call her again. I’ll have my own people
find out how she knows this. All you have to do is cut your ties with her.”

“
I can do that. I was thinking of not using her again
anyway. Her comments made me that uncomfortable.”

Something
clicked in his head suddenly, and he narrowed his eyes. “Is that why you went
to the university? Because of what she said about the code and our systems?”

“
Yes. I got curious and wanted to know where she’d
learned about your systems. It wasn’t in school.”

No, it wasn’t.
Then how did she know so much?
“Does she know you went there?”

“
I don’t see how she could. I didn’t tell her I was
going.”

He
mentally shook away the suspicions trying to surface. Julianne was
not
using him. She’d merely seized an
opportunity, that’s all. He did the same thing every day when he read the
financial news online. She was doing her job, nothing more. “Please come back
to my apartment and spend the night. We don’t have to make love again if you
don’t want to. I have other bedrooms. You can sleep in one of those if you
want, and I’ll leave you alone.”

“
Kane, it’s not that I don’t want to make love to you
again. I’m very tired, and that’s the truth. You wore me out.”

He
smiled. “You wore me out, too, but I still want you with me tonight.”

“
Can I really have my own room?”

He
laughed and pulled her close again. “Yes. You can have a choice of rooms, and
you can even pick one on the main floor. That way I have to descend stairs to
get to you.”

When
she pulled out of the embrace and smiled back at him, his heart soared. “Okay,
then. How can I pass up an offer like that?”

Once
they were back at his place and Julianne had chosen a room down the hall from
his, he left her alone as promised because she really did look exhausted. After
making sure she knew how to find her way to the kitchen if she should need
anything to eat or drink during the night, he went down to the main floor and
into his office. He was no longer tired. It was time to find out what Isabelle
Sharpe’s story was before he fired her ass.

He
accessed the company’s HR system on his laptop. It was now separate from other
systems, unlike most of his friends’ companies, for a damn good reason. Ever
since the Ellen Grimes Caper, as his father caustically referred to it, the
family hadn’t wanted anyone but them and HR to have access to personnel
records. Sure, it could be hacked into, but they’d know in a heartbeat who had
done it and when.

Isabelle
Sharpe had graduated from the same university he now funded, with a very
impressive resume. She’d worked on multiple class projects in graduate school,
and had a high GPA. At the time she was hired, there had been no openings in
IT, but she was on a list of internal candidates who were qualified for them.

It
wasn’t a surprise to find she’d been flagged for their new team, but what he
did find more than a bit curious was the fact she had turned down an offer to
interview for it. Why on earth would she do that? Why had she wanted to stay in
the general AA pool instead? Even more disturbing was the fact that she’d told
Julianne she was waiting for an opening in IT. Obviously that had been a lie.

Why
had she taken her current job to begin with? She was over-qualified for it, and
the pay was less than half of what she’d make in their IT department, even for
an entry level position. Had she merely wanted to get her foot in the door, or
was there another reason she was working for him?

Instead
of looking deeper into her HR file, he decided to search for her outside of the
company first. IT graduates were a dime a dozen these days, but this woman was
a standout. She shouldn’t be working in the general AA pool, and she’d turned
down an interview for a killer position in IT. Kane needed to know why.

Julianne
telling him that Isabelle had mentioned Rob Marin bothered him more than
Isabelle turning down the offer to interview. How would she know that name? She
might have seen it while trolling through correspondence, in which case he
would need to speak to his folks in IT and advise them to keep the names of the
suspected hackers restricted to emails to and from each other, and to him only.
None of those names or any correspondence associated with them was supposed to
be sent to the general queue for processing.

As
Kane searched for Isabelle’s name, he recognized the pickle he was in right
now. Isabelle had fed an outsider company information, but if she discovered
that Julianne had named her, Julianne might find herself out of a job. At the
very least, her editor wouldn’t be happy. Kane knew he had to find a way to dig
around without tipping his or Julianne’s hand.

About
a half hour into his search, he brought up the HR site again in another window.
It was too odd that he hadn’t found anything online about this woman other than
her accomplishments at the university. Had she hidden it for some reason? No
one in this day and age had such a sparse presence online.

Her
application listed her full name as Isabelle Jane Sharpe, which was the same
name she had graduated with. Her birthdates and social security numbers
matched, as did her addresses and phone numbers. He scanned the rest of the
application, and frowned when he came to one reference near the bottom of her
list.