Page 17 of Exposed

Eric followed the sound of her voice like a beacon, then stopped abruptly at the press of her palms against his chest. Awareness jolted through him from her touch, and he clenched his fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her. It would be the most natural thing in the world to take her in his arms, kiss her, love her. But none of that was an option. Not anymore.

“Take off your blindfold,” she said, her whisper giving him all sorts of naughty ideas about how they might put this damned blindfold to good use later.

He slipped off the covering over his eyes and blinked a few times before looking around the interior of the main building. The place was deserted except for a few staff members busy on their computers visible through the partially opened door of the office behind the desk. Even the lights were off, leaving only the sunshine outside to slant in through the open windows to cast a hazy half-light. “What are we doing here?”

Beth crooked her finger at him, then inclined her head toward the door to the computer room he’d explored their first day here. “Perfect time for snooping, I’d say. Everyone seems occupied.”

Damn. He had to agree with her there. After a quick scan around to make sure no one was watching them, they slipped into the computer room and shut the slatted wood door behind them. It was dark in here, but Beth turned on one of the computer monitors in the corner, and soon an eerie greenish glow gave them enough illumination to make their way through the maze of table without tripping over anything.

“There must be twenty terminals in here, but why? They certainly don’t need this for their staff.” She sat down behind one of the computers. “Let’s see what’s on the desktop. This icon says Guest Accounts.” She clicked the mouse and blew out a breath. “Crap. It’s password protected.”

Through the slatted door the sound of voices outside drifted closer, and Eric tensed, putting his finger to his lips. Whoever it was went on past, their voices and footsteps fading. “We don’t have time to try and hack into the system.” It wasn’t his area of expertise on his team, but he’d watched his teammate do it. Hemade it look easy. Eric was sure it wasn’t and wished he’d paid more attention.

With a disgruntled sigh, Beth stood, leaving the computer on for light. “You’re right. And it’s not like I know how to do that anyway. Okay, then. Let’s still check around here quickly though to see if there’s anything else I can use.”

There wasn’t much in the room, other than computers, servers, and a few printers. Eric made his way over to those and found printed papers left in one of the trays. He carried them over to Beth, squinting at the columns of names and numbers. “What about these? Looks like some kind of financial report.”

She took the papers from him and frowned. “These seem to be bank account numbers and balances. Big balances. Why would the resort have these?”

“Does Hart have other businesses? These could be connected to those.”

“Everything is under the parent company of Hartstrings, Inc. There’s the resort, of course. Also, Hart’s published some books on relationships. I don’t recommend them.”

“You’ve read his books?”

“All in the name of research. It was a bunch of new age BS.” She thought for a moment. “He does some paid public speaking spots and his private therapy sessions, mostly for the rich and famous. Other than that, I couldn’t find that Hartstrings did or made or sold anything. Besides businesses don’t usually have money sitting in accounts. Not this much, anyway.”

“Let’s take these with us and give them a closer look.” She had a line between her brows that he had the overwhelming urgeto kiss away, but she was in work mode so he kept his hands and lips to himself. Instead, he took the papers from her, folded them in half, and put them in the deep pockets of his cargo shorts.

Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door again. “Time to go,” he whispered and scanned his surroundings for a place to hide. They could duck under a table for cover, but it wouldn’t hide them very well. The footsteps were getting closer. He needed a plan, and only one suggested itself to him. “Roll with me on this.”

He was able to give her two seconds of warning before he pushed her against the wall and brought his lips to hers. His hands sunk into her glossy hair as he devoured her mouth. By the time the door swung open, they would look to anyone coming in like a couple in a passionate embrace, which they were. There was nothing fake about this. He kissed her and she responded immediately. Her hands were fisted in his shirt front and her body arched into his.

The overhead lights flicked on. Out of the corner of his eye, Eric saw two youngish men enter the room. If it came to a fight, he could take them, but he planned to bluff his way out of this instead.

“Excuse me,” one said. “What are you doing in here?”

Eric took his time breaking the kiss, partly because it added to the show and partly because he wasn’t willing to stop before he had to. In front of him, Beth’s eyes blinked open, full of passion and a shred of fear. He wanted to kiss that away. Instead, he held her gaze for a second, silently reassuring her that he would keep her safe, until she gave a tiny nod.

“Sorry,” he turned to the men. “We were just looking for some privacy. You know how it is. When the mood strikes…” He gave the guys a conspiratorial grin. They had to see how gorgeous Beth was, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that he wanted her.

“I believe you’ve been assigned a bungalow.” The guy’s tone was stiff and formal.

“Sure, but that seemed so far away…” The guys looked unimpressed, so Eric just shrugged. “C’mon, sweetheart. Let’s take this back to our room,” he said, taking Beth’s hand and leading her to the door. The guys stared at them but made no move to stop them.

Once they were outside, Eric could see that the therapy session was over. People were milling around the resort without blindfolds.

“That was close,” Beth whispered. “And I kind of loved it.”

He shot her a sidelong glance, wanting to ask if she’d loved the kiss or the thrill of getting caught. His adrenaline was racing, coursing through his body like he was on a mission. He knew, though, that it was from the kiss not the danger.

12

Acouple of hours later, Beth rubbed her tired eyes and rolled her stiff neck. She’d been sitting at her laptop since she and Eric had returned from their adventure in the computer room, trying to make sense of the reports they’d found. So far, she’d had no luck.

She could understand why the resort would have credit card information on guests, perhaps even checking account numbers, if they accepted payment that way. But balance information? That was fishy as hell. Of course, she couldn’t know for sure that it was guest information, but that was the only thing that made sense. Unless Hartstrings was laundering money, but if it was then for who? None of her research revealed a connection to organized crime. That was probably a dead end.

So frustrating. And the paperwork wasn’t the only thing bringing her frustration. That kiss in the computer room had wound her up tight.

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