Page 43 of Indecent Proposal

The movie ended a while later, and Vaughn took me off guard by burying his face against my neck, holding me a bit tighter instead of letting me go.

“You okay?” I asked, surprised by that gesture.

Vaughn sighed, his warm breath caressing my skin. “Everything’s fine.” There was a long, suspicious pause, then… “I just haven’t had this in years, if ever. You know, just sharing non-sexual time with a woman . . . and enjoying it.”

I nodded, understanding in my own way, and secretly smiled at the fact that he’d just admitted enjoying his time with me. I had the feeling that there was something missing for Vaughn, too . . . and it made me wonder if maybe we could give each other the things that were missing from each other’s lives once things returned to normal.

“As nice as this is, I have to leave in the morning, probably before you get up,” he said, shattering that quiet tranquility we’d slipped into. “Our tech guys should be finished looking at everything I gave to them and will hopefully have some answers for me.”

“But you can stay the night?” I asked, wanting that more than anything.

“Yeah.” I could feel Vaughn’s smile against my temple. “I can stay the night.”

That was good enough for me.

CHAPTER16

Vaughn

Islipped out of bed as dawn was barely creeping over the horizon. That part wasn’t difficult or new for me. After all of my tours in the military, I was used to waking up with the sun, if not before, to prepare for battle.

What was hard was leaving Claire. I was surprised how hard it was, actually.

She looked soft and worn out andmine, wearing one of my shirts that was big enough on her to come halfway down her thighs (and nothing else), her strawberry blonde hair spread out across the pillow. She looked completely peaceful, and it made me smile.

I wanted to stay and make her breakfast, have her wake up to the smell of bacon and toast. I wanted to take her on a walk around the area—show her my favorite hiking trail and the spectacular view from one of my favorite cliffs.

But I had work to do. And that work would keep her safe, which was all that mattered to me.

I wasn’t used to feeling this way, so protective of a woman that I wanted to keep her safe at my side, at all times. I had plenty of fun with women but I kept it simple and short, ready to move on after a brief while. I wasn’t exactly looking to settle down with anyone. I had always figured, well . . .I’d wait until I really felt something. There was no rush after all, and I was used to be alone.

Now it looked like that ‘really feeling something’ moment had arrived. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to label it yet, but I knew that hanging out with Claire, watching movies, making breakfast, talking about anything and everything, was more fun than I’d had with any other woman. For all that she came at me like an alley cat, when she relaxed I found myself relaxing with her, feeling comfortable even in the silence.

I hadn’t ever had a serious relationship. Why the hell would I want one? I was a busy man. I had plenty of women I could have fun with when I wanted to, but my job had kept me occupied, and my work in the military had kept me more than busy before that. Starting up and running a security business hadn’t left me much time to date or cultivate anything more intimate, even though I knew it was something I might want, somewhere, at some point.

Now… it looked like I’d kind of stumbled into that. Or at least the potential for it. And I didn’t want to leave her . . . but to protect her, I had to.

I didn’t want her thinking I didn’t care, though, so I did put together ingredients for shakshuka and popped it into a pan, then slid the pan in the oven. It would cook slowly and the smell would wake her up for the day.

Driving back down the mountain, I felt good. Not just good, but content.

That feeling didn’t last.

I arrived at the office to check in with the tech team to see what they’d found. What they’d discovered, it turned out, was a whole lot of nothing.

“How could you possibly have foundnothingin all the files that I downloaded?” I asked, my tone filled with frustration.

Was the one person whose computer I hadn’t been able to access—the CEO—the person I should’ve nailed? Was he the one with whatever stank at Hardman Holdings? I knew there was something going on, and it was like a damn itch in the middle of my back that I couldn’t scratch.

“That’s the whole point,” replied Paul, one of the IT guys on our team. He wore glasses and a beanie, like a typical hipster. “Sometimes it’s not about what you find. It’s about what isn’t there that should be.”

That brought me up short. “Elaborate.”

“The files here look… tidied up,” Paul explained.

“Usually we get a whole lot of mess,” one of our other guys chimed in. “People all label files differently. There’s changeover. You get doubles of documents, that kind of thing.”

“Typical human error,” Paul summarized. “Even the most well-organized company’s going to have a little of that disorganization. Especially since they tend to recycle computers. They’ll wipe a computer and give it to the next person who fills the spot, but sometimes they choose not to wipe it since there’s important info on there the next person might need—so the cycle continues because the new guy labels things differently.”

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