Page 86 of Tempt Me

“About three months after I met her. I was leading the team working out your father’s estate, and I fell in love the first time I saw her.”

“You did not! How did I not know about this?”

He shrugged. “You were working through your grief. You didn’t notice much else.”

“I guess not.” I didn’t remember a lot from that time. It was probably for the best. “But would you have dated her in secret if she’d insisted?”

“I suppose. I’d have done anything for her.” He shrugged. “Still would.”

That was exactly how I felt about Jamila. I walked away this morning, but I’d go back. She had her own suite of rooms in my heart. I couldn’t imagine ever being strong enough to evict her.

“Is that what Jamila’s asking you to do?” Sam asked, sliding another blue piece toward me.

My heart stopped in my chest, and I shot a look at Charles. “What happened to sister code?”

“What’s sister code?” she asked.

Charles looked not at all shocked. “A secret relationship is a big thing for Jamila to ask of you. Though I understand, especially after those photos.”

Of course he knew about the photos. Mother would have told him. Did she also know about our relationship?

She couldn’t. If she did, she’d have set me up on dates with a slate of eligible bachelors.

“Please don’t tell Mother?”

He pressed his lips together. “You should tell her yourself.”

“It might not last long enough to be worth disappointing her. What should I do? I should refuse, right?” Bilbo stood under the coffee table and stretched, then scratched at my ankle.

“Can you?” Charles asked.

Slumping, I allowed Bilbo to crawl into my lap. He curled up in the hammock of my skirt. “I don’t think so.”

“Then you’ll have to figure out a way to get to a place where you aren’t dating in secret. What are the barriers to dating publicly?”

I set aside the obvious one, Mother. “She doesn’t want anything to disrupt this deal with First Arbiter. No more scandals.”

“And you’re helping her with that,” Charles said, logical as ever. “You’re keeping the other disruptions out of the media for her.”

“I guess. It doesn’t seem like enough.” I stroked Bilbo’s silky fur and didn’t care that his black hairs stuck to my skirt.

“It’s not like you can make the development go faster,” he said. “Those things take time.”

“Especially with the problems they’ve been having,” I said.

“Problems with the development?” Sam set down the piece she’d been examining. “Jamila has the best team in Silicon Valley.”

“Well, they’re struggling on this,” I said. “Bugs in their code.”

She frowned. “That doesn’t sound right.”

My sister was the smartest person in computer science I knew, even smarter than Jackson. “Remember how she thought someone was selling company secrets to the competition? I, uh, I tried to dig into that but failed.” Rhiannon haunted my nightmares, her face lit up in Mateo’s headlights. “I still suspect someone is working against her.”

“If you could figure that out and remove the saboteur,” Charles said, “she could get her product to market faster. Then you wouldn’t have to be a secret. What are the clues?”

I tried another two pieces together, but they didn’t fit, either. “I wish I were as smart as the detectives in your police procedurals. I haven’t found any clues, at least nothing substantial.” Just that photo of Pavel Thakor and what might or might not have been Winslow’s garish pants.

“You’re plenty smart. Sometimes the detectives have to do a little digging to turn up those clues.”

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