Tansy found her phone on her nightstand where she’d apparently left it charging that morning.
She set down her mug and picked it up. She hadn’t bothered to check her emails at the cabin. Not when she’d been a bundle of hurt looking for an escape from emotions.
Tansy put the phone back on the nightstand and then picked it up again. She didn’t want to be a coward, and Sam’s words had reminded her she was acting like one.
With a sigh, Tansy opened the email program. Nothing new from the DOD. Not that she’d expected anything until she started turning in results.
That left two emails. Both from James.
For a bit, she simply sat and looked at the subjects. The first read, Please Open. The second didn’t have one.
She felt like a wimp. Was James pleading or threatening?
Until now, she hadn’t felt a lot of curiosity. Mostly, she’d been annoyed that he was contacting her. They were done. She had nothing more to say to him. Ever.
Apparently, he didn’t feel the same.
After a deep breath, Tansy opened the first email.
Tansy, I know you’re upset, but you need to hear my side of the story.
Fat chance. It didn’t matter. Stealing her idea was a definite deal breaker. Add in attempting to sell it and sleeping around while they were in a relationship.
So many deal breakers.
Still, she couldn’t stop her eyes from scanning the rest of the email. The second paragraph was different.
I have several buyers interested in our holographic technology.
Our? Tansy slapped the phone on the nightstand upside down.
Idiot.
How could he possibly believe he had any claim of ownership on her work? He only knew about her idea from one conversation.
Unless he’d hacked into her computers?
No. She would have been alerted by her anti-hacking programs. And she’d never worked on her holographic tech on a computer attached to the internet. Not even once.
James wasn’t smart enough to bypass her door locks and her computer security back at Döva. If he was working with criminals, which seemed to be what Sam suspected, he would have had help.
But her security was top of the line. She’d designed it herself and no one else had even seen the programming.
Was James working solely on assumptions and bullshit?
Tansy stood and paced the bedroom. Had James always been this much of a user?
If so, she’d been a fool for the six weeks they’d been together.
He might have planned this from the beginning. Invested those six weeks into her in order to steal her ideas and her programming.
She hadn’t even been thinking holograms before they’d met. Not in more than a one day type of thing. She had thousands of those kinds of ideas.
Had James been an opportunistic thief, or had he steered her in the direction he’d wanted her to go? She couldn’t remember when the hologram spark had gone from one day to soon and then now.
James had never joined her in her private lab. No one entered, not even cleaning staff. Tansy had taken care of everything herself. Well, her CleanySaurs had taken care of most of the cleaning, not her.
But they were hers, too.
They cleaned on a schedule here as well. She should probably warn Sam to watch his feet if he was wandering at night.
Was he staying?
Did she want him to?
Of course she did.
Even though she was a little pissed at the moment, this was still her Sam. They’d jumped into a couple of kisses loaded with more passion than any she’d ever experienced.
They probably should have had a conversation or two about it first.
Her entire body shivered as she remembered the feel of Sam’s hands and mouth on her. Her orgasm had completely consumed her.
That had never happened before. It was difficult for Tansy to get out of analytical mode and just feel. But Sam had turned her to a quivery mass of emotions in only minutes. Moments.
Because she loved him.
Had always loved him.
And now she had a chance to do something about it.
Instead, she was pouting in her room. Not even brave enough to finish reading the emails from James.
Sam shouldn’t want anything to do with her. She wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t in touch with her emotions.
He could do a whole lot better than her, and once he realized that and left her, she’d be shattered.
Tansy paced some more, imagining all the ways their relationship could play out.
Was it worth the risk?
She’d always told herself that she would take any chance with Sam that she had.
And here she was.
Alone.
Stalking back to the bed, Tansy picked up her phone. First step was to stop being a coward.
Detaching her emotions, she read both emails from James with a clinical eye. He wanted money. And he needed her to get it.
Reading between the lines, she wondered if James had already promised the tech to the kind of people who didn’t take broken promises very well.
She pulled up a few of the deleted emails, but they were all the same.
I’m sorry.
I have interested buyers.
I can make us rich.
Over and over again.
The more she read, the more she became convinced James had got himself in deep with people better left alone.
Which meant Sam might be right.
There could be people searching her out in order to get her work for themselves.
Which changed everything.
Sam knew it was Tansy even before she spoke. Who else would knock at his door at three in the morning?
If he’d been able to sleep, he wouldn’t have heard either her knock or her voice.
“Come on in, Tansy.”
Sam was sitting up in bed, leaning back against the headboard, trying to find more dirt on James Stephens. He put the phone down as she opened the door and peeked around.
The lodge had large windows, and the moon provided enough light to see her shadow as she walked in.
“I’m sorry. I just realized how late it is. It can wait until morning. Sorry.”
The shadow started to turn, but Sam didn’t want her to go. “Wait.”
She paused and lifted her face to his.
“I wasn’t sleeping. Come on in. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
Sam sighed. “It’s the middle of the night. If nothing’s wrong, you should be sleeping.”
“So should you.”
He chuckled. “I’m not the one who said nothing’s wrong. I’m not convinced of that yet, that’s why I’m still awake. I’m digging.”
Tansy let out a soft sigh and walked over to the window. From what he could see, she hadn’t changed or made it into bed yet.
Tansy with a focus was an immovable object.
“What’s kept you up, Tansy?”
That got him a soft laugh. “So many things.”
“Does your brain ever rest?”
She turned and faced him. “Only when you kiss me.”
The words barely reached across the room, but they electrified every part of him. Sam threw back the covers and swung his legs to the side before the thought of doing so even computed in his head.
He gripped the sheets in order to keep himself in place. “Do you want to let your brain rest now?”
Another small laugh. “Not yet. I think you were right about James. I’ve read through his emails. He sounds more and more desperate with each email. He sent two today.”
Shit.
“I’ll keep you safe, Tansy.”
Even in the dim light, he saw her stiffen. Time to curb the caveman tendency. “How about I try that again? We’ll work together to keep you safe.”
“It’s the tech he wants, not me.”
Sam highly doubted that. Unless the guy was a total idiot. Which he might be. “Either way, we’re stepping up security. And you should probably try harder to keep track of your phone.”
Another soft laugh.
“I’ll dig into the asshole’s background and see if he has connections to anyone we need to worry about.”
“He’s probably just trying to be important.”
A definite asshole. “That was a big deal for him?”
“I didn’t notice it at the time, but looking back, I think so.”
Trying to keep his tone neutral, Sam asked. “How long were you with him? How did he get hired?”
Tansy sighed again and leaned back against the window ledge. He wanted to pull her into his arms, but he wasn’t sure if she’d allow it.
“He signed on to work in the labs last summer. He showed interest in me from the beginning. It was flattering.”
“Tansy, you’re smart, gorgeous, and kind. Most men are going to be interested in you. So, he pursued you?”
She shoved off the ledge and started pacing the room. “Makes me sound like prey, but yes, I guess so.”
“You’re not prey, Tansy. You’re not weak. If we’re reading this correctly, he targeted you.”
“Which doesn’t make me feel any better. I’m supposed to be smarter than this. I was a fool. Am I so desperate for a man’s attention that I’m an easy mark?”
Unable to stand the despair in her voice, Sam stood and snagged her hand as she paced. “Come here, honey. You’re beating yourself up over nothing.”
She went willingly into his arms, and he wrapped her up. Not much felt better than holding her. She was a perfect fit.
Tansy burrowed in and he felt a shudder run through her.
Sam kissed her hair and murmured. “You’re as sexy as they come, Tansy. A little male attention shouldn’t have sent red flags up for you. It would be nuts for you to assume a man was after you only for your work.”
“I feel like a fool.”
“You’re not.”
They stood together for a bit, and then she asked. “What should we do next?”
“Same things you’re already doing. Do your work, keep taking different paths to your fort. I’ll install the security systems when they come. And keep digging into Stephens.”
She nodded into his chest.
He didn’t like the defeatist set to her shoulders and body. He moved his hands over her back and her hair in comfort.
“And you might consider stapling your phone to your shoulder or somewhere you won’t forget it.”
A laugh escaped her and he squeezed. “We’re smart people. We’ll figure out the asshole’s plan and catch him at it. Then you’ll sell your new toy for millions and make him cry himself to sleep every night in prison.”
Tansy leaned back, and her smile showed in the shadows. “Are you always going to call him the asshole?”
“Absolutely.”
She stretched up on her toes and planted a soft kiss on his lips. He forced himself to return it in kind and to not devour her as he wanted.
“Think you can sleep now?” His voice was gruff, but he couldn’t help it.
“Probably. You?”
“It might be easier if I had my arms wrapped around a sexy woman. Stay here with me, Tans. Just to sleep. I promise to be a gentleman.”
“What if I don’t want you to be a gentleman?”
His body didn’t have any other option. As soon as her words registered, he was hard as stone and wearing only boxer-briefs, there was no way to hide it.
“You make me feel like a normal woman, Sam. You make me feel. I want to forget the asshole. I want to forget the worries. I want to lose myself in you.” She reached up and kissed him again. “I want you, Sam. You.”
Sam wasn’t sure if his knees were going to hold up under the onslaught of her words.
As a scientist, Tansy was used to being clear and forthright. Sam had never been so grateful for that skill.
“I want you, too, Tansy. You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Sam swept her up into his arms, making her laugh as she put her arms around his neck.
He grinned down at her. “Let Operation Forget the Asshole commence.”