The Price of Pleasure Read online

  THE PRICE OF PLEASURE

  Dee Carney

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000."

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at

  [email protected]

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

  THE PRICE OF PLEASURE

  Copyright © 2009 by Dee Carney

  E-book ISBN: 1-60601-499-4

  First E-book Publication: July 2009

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  THE PRICE OF PLEASURE

  DEE CARNEY

  Copyright © 2009

  Chapter One

  Jesse Englund glanced at the wall clock, straining to see the numbers.

  Jesus. Was that the right time?

  One-thirty in the damned morning, and he hadn’t even left the office. Since he normally rose at four-thirty to be at work an hour later, there didn’t seem to be much sense in going home.

  He rolled his head over stiff shoulders and grimaced. He’d have to be up at three thirty tomorrow—correction—today. Staying late meant he’d missed his hour on the running track at the gym. The StairMaster in the corner of his office would have to serve the appropriate penance.

  If he were a lesser man, the idea of getting only two hours of sleep, then sweating his muscles into shape for an additional hour would have made him cry. Only if he were a lesser man, though. Jesse Englund, corporate genius and risen star, would stretch out on his office furniture and rise fully refreshed. Ready to face the day.

  Fuck.

  Who did he think he was kidding? He was getting too old for this shit.

  Jesse stood and ignored the pings of protesting joints. Too tired to care about leaving the lamp on his desk still burning, he shuffled to his makeshift bed. By the time his head hit the padded armrest of the couch, he was already asleep.

  He dragged his gritty eyes open a few minutes later. A quick glance at the clock oriented him to the fact that it was actually two and a half hours later. He’d overslept.

  He slid his hands over his face and then stiffened at a sudden recollection. Something had woken him. There! The quiet clicks of someone tapping at a keyboard drifted into the room. He glanced up at the vents and frowned. During the hustle and bustle of the regular work day, he probably missed noises like this all the time. Right now, during the still of the night, the typing might as well have been in the same room.

  Who would be here at this ungodly hour of the morning? It was his corporation, his baby, so it only made sense that he worked long, tortuous hours. He didn’t make similar expectations of anyone else.

  In his socks, he stalked to the door and pressed himself against it. The knob turned smoothly, not releasing so much as a click as he opened the door. He cracked it slightly open, just enough so he could peer into the darkness of the open floor plan.

  Only one area of the room was lit, but a support beam blocked his view of whoever sat at the computer. He turned over reason after implausible reason in his mind for someone to be at work at four in the morning. There were no upcoming deadlines. No pressing matters that required the extended hours. No one stood out as particularly ambitious, so as far as he knew, this wasn’t someone’s routine.

  He wedged himself through the opening in the door and padded across the room. Holding his breath, he eased behind the black woman at the computer monitor. From where he stood, he could see her long, graceful fingers slide meticulously from key to key. The way she agonized over the location of each letter clued him in to her concentration on the keyboard. Either that or she was just a horrible typist.

  Slowly, he moved closer so that he could read the contents of the monitor. Jesse caught her screen name first. Hedonisticfem.

  Hedonistic female? Well, well, well. A smile creased his face at the implication. The idea of a woman whose life was devoted to the pursuit of pleasure sent a plethora of wicked thoughts through his mind. Too many hours at the office and not enough hours in the arms of a woman could do that to a man.

  He scanned the next few lines of her text, and the smile slid from his face. His jaw clenched as a wall of red filled his vision.

  “There had better be a fucking good explanation for what you’re doing!” he thundered.

  The woman whirled to face him in the chair, and the scent of cherry blossoms assaulted him. In a matter of seconds he identified her perfume or whatever it was, his gaze drifted from the instant message conversation on her monitor to the woman’s face, and Jesse stilled.

  She had the most doe-like eyes he’d ever seen in his life. The severe bun formed at the base of her neck made them turn up with that much more dramatic flair. Impossibly thick, long lashes batted at him, almost seductively. He swallowed hard because Christ—her lips? They were full, very kissable lips with just a hint of lipstick.

  “Mr. Englund, you startled me,” she said in a breathy voice. The woman had her hand over her breast, someplace where her heart would be. “I wasn’t expecting anyone else here at this hour.”

  He couldn’t keep his gaze off her mouth. When she smiled, a brilliant set of teeth flashed at him. And—oh fuck me—a dimple played right at the corner of her up-turned lips. The chocolate satin of her skin begged to be smoothed by his hands and explored by him.

  The insistent flashing of the cursor over her shoulder brought him back from his stunned adoration. What had he been saying? Oh…Right!

  “I don’t know how you know me, but I don’t know you. And I need an explanation right now of why you are here and why you are sending information from confidential company spreadsheets via instant message.” And it better be good. She had about thirty seconds to convince him to not call the police.

  She remained nonplussed by the way he loomed over her. The verbal threat seemed merely an annoyance. She leaned back against the chair, draping her arms over the rails while her grin broadened at his words.

  “Jesse Englund. You don’t recognize me?”

  Hell no, he didn’t recognize her. Forgetting lips like those would be a sin.

  He leaned in clos
e so that the gravity of his words would not be mistaken. Just because he could imagine her lying stretched out in the nude on his sheets didn’t mean much. The business came first. Always. “Now is not the time for games. Answer my question or I call the police.”

  She arched a single eyebrow, folded her arms across her chest, and leaned in even closer. “You didn’t exactly ask a question.”

  His mind raced to replay his words and he had to bite back the bubble of laughter in his throat. Touché.

  As they locked stares, Jesse inhaled more of her floral aroma and internally winced at his heavy decision. He could appreciate a smart ass as much as the next guy, but she picked the wrong man at the wrong time to mess with.

  She didn’t flinch when he reached past her for the phone. Their mouths came within an inch of grazing, and the intimacy of the gesture was not lost on him. It couldn’t be helped. He would not turn his back on a woman who had broken into his office—to do what, exactly? It would bug the hell out of him not to know.

  He looked down on those lips one more time and murmured a hair’s breadth away from them, “Last chance.”

  She inclined her head toward the monitor. “Why not check out what’s on the screen before you give them a call because you and I need to talk. You may still want to call the police afterward, but I have a feeling you won’t. Not if you’re half as smart as I know you are.”

  * * * *

  Eden Simmons waited with infinite patience for Jesse to wrestle with himself to a decision. The last remnants of sleep had fallen away from him with each passing second he stood there. Too bad. He looked adorable with his dark hair ruffled and sticking off to one side. A crease on his scruffy cheek tattled on the watch that must have pressed there while he slept.

  Sharp, intelligent green eyes brightened as they scanned the screen. She hadn’t been able to see them this close up the first time she’d met him. Funny he didn’t remember it because she’d never forgotten. Couldn’t forget his intensity and focus.

  Jesse grunted. “So, what am I supposed to be seeing here?”

  She waited until he looked at her before ticking off the points on raised fingers. “First, I’m reviewing a chat session with one of your senior directors and the man who hired me. More on that in a sec. Two, I want you to know I’m simply using IM and remote access software to connect with my business computer. I’m not sending company specific information over the Internet. Give me more credit than that.”

  “But I know those numbers. I look at them first thing every morning and last thing every evening. Those are our financials,” he interrupted.

  “You’re right. They are your company financials. De-identified, I might add. To any Internet hacker who chose to look at them at this moment in time on IM, they are just a bunch of numbers. Third, Mr. Englund, is that you and I once met via a teleconference when your company was looking for a security firm to investigate potential vulnerabilities. You chose at that time to pass on having anyone do that for you. Fortunately, your senior vice president found me a few weeks ago and hired me on to check the vulnerabilities. And, I’ve found them. Many, many weak spots.”

  She waited again, not certain how he’d take the next bit of news. Eden took a deep breath and plunged in. “In fact, I’ve just stolen two and a half million dollars from your company. Now here’s a question for you, Mr. Englund. What are you willing to do to get it back?”

  Chapter Two

  For someone she had just robbed blind, Jesse took the news rather well. He reached for the chair at the next desk and slid it over to hers. He lowered himself into it and glanced at his watch.

  “Too early for this shit,” he mumbled. He looked up, his gaze piercing. “Who are you?”

  “Eden Simmons.” As the words left her mouth, a flash of recognition streaked across his face. Maybe he hadn’t forgotten her after all. The butterflies in her belly shouldn’t have rejoiced the way they did with that knowledge.

  His eyebrows furrowed. “We did that video conferencing two or three years ago. Only my video screen wouldn’t let me see much besides some static.” Well-manicured fingers rubbed his eyes in a back and forth motion. “I have about a dozen questions for you, Ms. Simmons, and barely know where to start. But since my need for caffeine is growing near maniacal, I’ll start with this…Why the fuck are you here so damned early?”

  His lapse into coarse language didn’t faze her and she smiled. “To test whether or not I could get in here without anyone’s knowledge.” Eden shrugged. “Because of the security lapses, it seems that I can. Let me buy you a cup of coffee, and we’ll talk numbers and details. Cool?”

  “Twenty minutes to shower and shave, and you’re on.” He stood and walked toward his office. After a few steps, he tossed over his shoulder to her, “Shut off that computer in the meanwhile, would you? You make me nervous.”

  Eden reached for the mouse with smug satisfaction. She wouldn’t be doing her job if she didn’t make him nervous.

  * * * *

  The best investment Jesse ever made in the schematics of his office was the time spent with the designer haggling over the utility of an office bathroom. He wanted functionality. She didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the design, whatever the hell that meant. In the end, since he was the one to foot the bill, he got what he wanted. This morning, the standing-room-only stall saved him from any number of rash decisions.

  A beautiful woman sat in the middle of his office claiming to have stolen a very large sum of money from him. Worse, she said one of the VPs paid her to do it.

  He gave his senior officers free reign when it came to running their departments. If he had to be a part of every one of their decisions, he saw no need for them to have their jobs in the first place. He might as well do it.

  Since it was just him and Eden in the building right now, he figured he had few options available to him. If he ignored her and left the matter solely to his department head, he wouldn’t get the opportunity to learn more about the woman who kicked up his libido from comatose to rearing-to-go. Might as well make the most of her presence by listening to what she had to say.

  When he emerged from his office exactly seventeen minutes later, she looked up from the nail file making its way around her nails. She tucked it inside a purse on the floor when Jesse paused at the desk. He moved without comment toward the elevators, noting with some satisfaction that the computer was no longer powered on.

  She seemed content not to talk while they rode the elevator down, and he followed her lead. He used those couple of minutes to come fully awake and wrap his mind around the events of the morning.

  On the ground level, the café employees moved efficiently. The lack of other customers helped. The counters gleamed, and the scent of bacon permeated the air. His stomach grumbled appreciatively.

  Within moments of sitting, he placed an order for a poached egg, whole wheat toast sans butter, and coffee, black. Lots and lots of coffee. She, on the other hand, ordered the Eggs Benedict, a cheese Danish and ordered her coffee with two shots of caramel syrup. Jesse stared at her in amazement, wondering where she could possibly put the excess calories. Her clothes hugged her without apology, and a blind man would have a field day navigating her curves.

  He waited impatiently for the waitress to leave. When she finally did, he leaned forward in the booth. “So you’ve stolen some money from me, huh?”

  “Mr. Englund...”

  “Jesse,” he corrected. “You’re holding my company’s balls in your hands. No need to be formal.”

  “Jesse,” she breathed out his name in an almost-whisper, “I’d hardly call two point five million dollars ‘some’ money.”

  He glanced up as the first of their food arrived. “I’m not by any means advocating that you keep it, but you should know that it’s only money. I made it once. I can make it again.”

  “My God, you’re not even curious about how I stole it, are you?” Her fingers curled around the ceramic cup the waitress placed in front of
her. Bringing the cup to her mouth, she sipped the hot beverage and let out a small moan of pleasure. “Oh man, that’s perfect.”

  Using her other fingers, she twisted off a piece of the Danish and popped it into her mouth. Another small moan later, and she sucked in her bottom lip to run her tongue over it. The unconscious gesture made him inhale coffee down the wrong pipe.

  With forced masculinity, he hacked the liquid clear and wheezed. “How the hell can you eat like that? Ah—wait. Hedonisticfem. I take it that philosophy applies to food too?”

  “Jesse, you have no idea what else it applies to.”

  Her lips curved into another smile and the look Eden shot him sped a jolt of energy straight to his cock. Despite what she said, he was sure he had a pretty good idea what else it applied to and became immediately tempted to find out firsthand.

  He shook loose the thought and focused on what should have been foremost on his mind. “Tell me about the money.”

  “Simple really. Kevin Carmichael thought something hinky was going on in the finance department. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but thought someone objective might be able to. Long story short, here I am, a couple million dollars richer for my efforts.”

  Jesse chuckled. “Somehow I don’t think bilking us of even more money was in Kevin’s plans for you. Why do you have it?”

  “The same reason I broke in this morning. To see if I could.” She took a long drink of coffee. “And it seems very much so, that I can.”

  “Ah, but the million or rather, two million dollar question is, do you plan on returning it?”

  She gave him a crooked smile and a shrug. “If I must.”

  “Sorry, darlin’, you must.” Jesse reached across the table and clasped her hand in his. He hesitated only slightly before he raised it to his mouth and brushed a small kiss on her knuckles. “But I’ll be certain you are well compensated for your time.”