She Shouldnt, But She Will (18 page)

He hadn’t called her in the past week, knowing he had other work he had to get done. Besides, the weekend had been too intoxicating. His body burned with the need to get between her legs again though, so he wouldn’t be able to hold off much longer.

When he returned from LA, he’d have to plan a way to immerse himself in Sin once more.

* * * *

The following Monday July walked into Thia’s office. “Thia, Michael Jackson called to see if there is a convenient time for him and Mr. Hawkins to talk with you.”

“Check my calendar and set something up.”

“They’ll be here at ten tomorrow morning.”

Thia laughed. “Thanks so much for asking me if there was a convenient time.”

July closed the door and took a seat. “Well, as moody as you’ve been lately, I thought I’d just make an executive decision. So,” she said in a patently false voice of disinterest, “what have you heard from Derek?”

Just what Thia didn’t want to talk about. “Not a word. Shamelessly, I went over to
Central
Basin
last Sunday and had lunch at the dockside café. His boat was gone.” His lack of interest was her own fault. She shouldn’t have let him have his fun. She shouldn’t have gone off with him on the boat and then again to the party, so he thought she was his for the asking. She shouldn’t have let him tie her up and tie her down, and fuck her every which way to Sunday.

But she had.

“I doubt I’ll ever see him again.”

“You’ve said that before and been wrong.”

“Well, not this time. Besides, who does he think he is? I’m not someone who can be used up a weekend at a time and then forgotten in-between times.” She saw July’s eyes light up at the term
used up
, but she ignored it.

“He’s probably just busy.”

“I won’t lie and say I didn’t enjoy being with him. Hell, he was the first man I wanted to be with since Henry. But I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for him to call.”

July walked around the desk, hugged Thia. “You’ll be fine. Wait and see. It'll work out.”

“Will it?” She tried sounding upbeat, but she didn’t believe it would.

* * * *

The message waiting light flashing on her answering machine caught her attention before she took the TV dinner from the freezer. She hated that her heart skipped a beat and her breath caught in her throat just thinking it might be a message from Derek.

She punched the play button, and there it was, the resonant deep voice she’d been thinking about for two damn weeks. “Give me a call when you get a chance. Maybe we can go camping this weekend.”

Thia snatched a pencil from the plastic container near the phone and recorded the number. Then she stared at it. After two weeks this was it?
Give me a call and maybe we can go camping?

She thought of the wild fantasy she’d imagined after the weekend they’d shared. In the last two weeks she’d replayed the sex they’d had, the laughs they’d shared. How warm she felt nestled in the crook of his shoulder and how he’d shared some of his work with her. Now, after all this time, he calls and wants to camp? No word of whether he’d missed her or wanted to see her. Just, well, just not enough. The presumptuous shit.

She prepared dinner, determined to forget Derek and his off-hand suggestion. Then, of its own free will, her mind wandered to being alone in the woods with Derek and what he might do to her. Would he lead her naked and restrained through the trees? Would he tie her to a tree and fuck her? Would he tie her spread eagle on the ground and fuck her? Surely he would fuck her, several times.

Thia felt a demanding sensation deep in her loin, an itch that had to be scratched. She picked up the phone and dialed the number on the pad.

“Hello.” The sound of Derek’s voice made her heart jump with the expectation of seeing him again.
Get a grip girl.

“Derek, how are you doing?” She tried to mask the excitement in her voice but she feared he could tell.

“Thia, it’s great to hear from you. Are you free this weekend? I’m considering camping in
Golden Gate
National Park
.”

“How do you know if I even like camping?” She tried to sound coy but her voice gave her away.

“I don’t. I just thought you might like to do some hiking and be out of the city for a couple of days.”

No,
no
! She shouldn’t! “That does sound like it could have possibilities.”

“Can you get off early Friday?”

“How early?”
Idiot! He didn’t call for two weeks!
The angel on her shoulder was right. He hadn’t called. She shouldn’t go.

“I could pick you up about three and we could get ahead of the traffic crossing the bridge.”

She melted. The devil on the opposite shoulder was a horny little thing. “Okay, I’ll be in front of my condo at three. What do I need to bring?”

“Just that lovely body, I have everything else we’ll need, including clothes for you.”

“Why can’t I wear something of mine?”

“I think it’ll be more fun if I pick out your clothes.”

“I’ll see. I’m only going so far.”

“That sounds fair.”

“Then Friday at three it is.”

* * * *

July knocked on Thia’s office door. “Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hawkins are here.”

“Thanks. Show them in.”

Thia closed the folders she had open on her desk and stood to greet the men. She walked around the desk as Michael Jackson entered. “It’s great to see you again, Mr. Jack—” She froze, her gaze fixated on the man behind Jackson.

“Ms. Williams,” Jackson started, “this is Derek Hawkins the owner of Hawk Investigations.”

She waited to see how Derek, who looked equally stunned, would handle the situation.

He broke the silence. “It’s nice to meet you Ms. Williams.”

“Good to meet you, also. Please have a seat.” Thia motioned to the table and then looked at Derek again. He gave no indication they were acquainted.

“Jackson.” Derek indicated the seat his operator should take, then held Thia’s chair. When everyone was seated, July retreated to the outer office, returning with the tray of coffee she had prepared.

Jackson spoke. “We need to do something with John Bates. I’d like to find who is behind this sabotage, but we have to stop it too.”

Derek spoke up. “I have to recommend you get him off your premises and out of your computers as soon as possible. We’ve tried to be careful to keep him from knowing he’s under investigation, but there are a lot of ways he could find out. Then he could do some real damage before we get him out of here.”

“I see your point. How can I be certain this won’t happen again with another employee if we don’t know who’s behind it?”

“We'll maintain surveillance for a time.”

“Okay.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe John would do this. He’s worked here so long.”

Derek spread out his hands. “I’m afraid the evidence we’ve found is pretty incriminating. He should be charged. It’s possible exposing his crime will prevent anyone else from being used.”

“Okay, what’s the best way to handle this?”

“Call him in. We’ll present him with the evidence and escort him out. As soon as we leave, call the head of your IT department and have Bates’ login disabled and building privileges revoked.”

Heartsick, but anxious to put an end to her company’s problems, she followed Derek’s instructions.

John first showed anger, denying everything. Confronted with the records Jackson had collected, he finally broke down and admitted to causing the trouble with her system. He’d worked for years with Henry and Cynthia, and expected to be moved into the presidency when Henry died.

He wanted to prove Cynthia couldn’t handle the business, but hadn’t taken action until he’d been approached by a man one day in a local bar. John didn’t know the man, who said he represented a competitor of C&H Accounting. They’d be willing to pay if John would help sabotage the company.

She followed Derek and Jackson to the main entrance, where the police took custody of John. With the thief caught, Thia felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders.

She shook Jackson’s hand. “Thanks for your help,” she said. Then she shook Derek’s hand saying, “Mr. Hawkins, I appreciate the professionalism of your agency.”

“Our pleasure, Ms. Williams.” He leaned forward. “See you Friday,” he whispered.

When she returned to the office. July waited in ambush.

“What was that all about?”

“July, I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I saw the look on your face when Mr. Hawkins walked through that door. Don’t think you can fool me.”

“Well, I was a little shocked. I never expected to see him here.”

“That’s Derek, isn’t it? Derek with the boat?”

Thia stared with a deer-in-the-headlights look. “The very same.”

“Oh my God.”

Chapter 9

Thia climbed into the four wheel drive mini-motor home on Friday afternoon. True to his word, Derek pulled up at three and hopped out to open the door for her. They hadn’t spoken since meeting at her office.

Turning in the passenger seat, she looked around the place where the two of them would share quarters for the weekend. A compartment she thought was the bathroom covered the back width. A tiny stove and refrigerator occupied the center near another outside door, and the table and blue striped padded benches were opposite.

“What’s over our heads?” She tapped the shelf covering the forward seats.

“A bunk.” He glanced at her. “There’s sleeping for four, but I don’t think we need to worry about more than two, do we?

“That depends on how nice you are,” she teased.

He leered. “You know I’m good, but I’m not sure I’m nice.”

“Nice enough,” she replied. Already she was getting hot. And wet. If he talked like that much more, he’d smell her arousal. Shouldn’t she play a little hard to get? Lord, she hated he’d know how much she wanted him when she didn’t know if he felt the same.

Now they headed toward the
Golden Gate
Bridge
and a weekend of being alone in the woods.

“I was shocked to see you owned Hawk Investigations, Mr.
Anderson
.”

He snorted and shot her a look. “No more shocked than I was to find you were the
C
in C&H Accounting. Any more secrets?”

“None I care to share right now, thank you.”

He laughed. “Did everything go all right at the police station when you filed charges?”

“As well as I could have expected. John begged me to show lenience. If he hadn’t caused so much damage I might have considered it, but trust is the main thing we offer our customers. His work nearly destroyed that.”

“It’s the same in the investigations business.”

“You know, if he had come to me at the beginning, I probably would have promoted him to a higher level. I had no idea Henry had virtually promised him the presidency.”

“Why did you take over when your husband died?”

“We’d built the company together. In fact, the whole program we developed that our clients find so beneficial was my idea. Alone, what else was I to do but run the company?” They stopped to pay the toll on the bridge.

“How did you get into the PI business?” Thia felt another barrier had been removed in their relationship, and now she wanted to know more about the man she’d shared so much else with.

Derek checked the side mirror and then eased the motor home into traffic. “I was a DEA agent for twelve years and burned out. I decided to put my skills to a different use. But my experience, and the fact that I’m not bound by some of the ridiculous federal regulations, is why I sometimes do work for them. Like this case. We’re going to explore the Oglethorpe house from the back this weekend.”

Thia felt an irrational stab of disappointment. Derek was working. He hadn’t asked her out camping because he wanted to be with her, he simply needed another cover. Well, knowing him, he’d make it worth her while, anyway.

“How far are we going into the woods? This thing looks like it could go anywhere.”

“Far enough, I hope.”

Thia had put her overnight bag on the floor before smoothing her skirt under her bare bottom. Her legs were covered from ankle to thigh with leg warmers, over which she wore a mid-thigh length skirt. he fitted cotton camisole fell about two or three inches short of her skirt. Derek had sent her clothes for the weekend and said she wouldn’t need anything else. He hadn’t included panties or bras, she’d noted wryly.

“Will you tell me what you have planned for me this weekend?” Without panties she knew it wouldn’t be all work.

“I think it will be more fun if I don’t. Fun for me, anyway.”

“Very one-sided of you.”

“Yup.” He glanced at her before taking the exit for the park. “I’m sure when we get back on Sunday you’ll be glad you were along for the ride.”

Oh, she was sure of that, too. “Am I correct in assuming we won’t be tied up with only work?”

He leered. “Baby, when I have you tied up, it’s not work, believe me.”

“You’re awful,” she said, laughing.

“Yup. You love it.”

“Yup,” she said in perfect imitation.

Smiling, he turned into the park, flashed his pass and took directions to the section of campsites suitable for campers their size.

“I don’t have any specific plans for us except for me to enjoy the woods and your beautiful body. And, getting into the Oglethorpes’ house.”

“Oh. But, why didn’t you use your boat?”

“In the game, this is called covert ops. Are you up for it?”

“I’m up for anything you’re up for.”

Another leer. “With you, I seem to be up most of the time. I see you received the clothes I sent. Did you follow the instructions?”

“Yes, does that excite you?”

Derek reached over and took her hand, “I’ll let you judge for yourself.” He placed her hand over the bulge in his slacks.