Accidental Tryst (Charleston #1)(7)

"That's a question I don't even discuss with my shrink."

"You have a shrink?"

"No. But I probably should have one, given that I'm sharing my secrets with a virtual stranger."

I laughed unexpectedly. "By the way, I am not a hippie." I looked up at Phillip who was regarding me with one eyebrow raised.

"He told you that?"

"He did tell me, and I did not appreciate it."

"So what's your name, Hippie Chick?"

"Emmy," I answered automatically, surprised he wasn't hurriedly ending the call for his busy schedule as he'd been ready to do moments before. "And yours?"

"Emmy," he repeated, my name sounding like caramel. "Short for?"

"Not even my shrink knows that."

He laughed, deep and smoky, and my blood warmed.

"You don't have a shrink," he said.

"I could have a shrink," I answered indignantly, though God knew why. I was smirking as we bantered. Holy shit, were we . . . flirting?

"You don't," he answered smoothly. "Besides, now that I have your phone, I could probably find out more about you than anyone alive. Even your shrink."

My stomach dropped. "You wouldn't."

"Why? What are you hiding?"

I swallowed, my cheeks hot. I looked down at his phone. "I guess since I have yours, I could do the same."

"Good luck with that, I have a code. A security detail you probably should have had on yours too."

"Good thing I bypassed that code then, isn't it?"

"That's funny."

"And serious." I opened his phone and mulled his apps. "Ugh." I couldn't help the grunt of disgust. "You have a smorgasbord of dating apps. Figures."

"Lucky guess, Hippie Chick."

"Emmy," I corrected, but somehow I wasn't as annoyed as I’d expected. I pulled open a stock ticker app to prove to him I was looking at his phone. "Why are you watching Delta Industries? Own shares of them, do you? Whoa, quite a lot of shares by the looks of it."

"Mother fucker. You're serious."

I bobbed my head back at his tone. "You have a foul mouth."

"Who the hell are you? Is this a joke?" His voice was cold. Memories of his ice-chip eyes and growl like a biting arctic wind at the airport flooded back to me.

"Excuse me?" I was genuinely confused. "Listen, Dr. Jekyll, I'm not sure what crawled inside your bespoke suit and into your crack, but you have my phone too!"

"You've bypassed my security code. So either you're a hacker holding my phone hostage, and probably employed by my competitor in the midst of a multimillion-dollar deal, or you're lying. And you're not lying, are you?"

I swallowed. I guess I hadn't really thought the whole code breaking someone's phone thing through.

"Consider that phone burned," he said and the line went dead.

I stood for a few seconds then pulled the white handset from my ear. And stared at it like I expected it to apologize. Then I handed it back to Phillip. My blood pressure rose with my anger, but I had no direction for it. He hadn't even told me his name. As if it would help me somehow, I went to his email. If I was in trouble I may as well earn it.

A ton of emails from someone called Carson. Whatever. I wasn't going to read them. I just needed my nemesis' name.

Tmontgomery @ and some long ass, important sounding extension. I didn't even look to see what the T stood for. I selected and copied.

New email.



* * *



To: tmontgomery

From: tmontgomery



* * *



Mr. Montgomery,



* * *



You are a grade A prick. Now I am in your email (you asked for it). If you cancel your phone I will leak all of your financial information.



* * *



Regards,

Hippie Chick



* * *



I hit send. Then immediately felt the kind of remorse one feels after doing something really, really bad. Or really, really stupid. Immediately, I pulled up the text app and found the message he'd sent from my number.



* * *



Sorry about the email. Please, please, don't cancel your phone. I'm in New York. As it is I haven't even left the airport yet. I need to get a cab out to Far Rockaway and need access to a phone for safety reasons, and I can't afford a new one right now. I'll bring it back to you, I swear. I'll explain how I got into your phone as long as you don't cancel it.



* * *



Dots came up to show he was typing a response. Then they disappeared.

I held my breath, but nothing happened.

"Shit," I said.

"Are you quite done here?" I looked up to see Phillip again. "It's probably time you moved on," he said. "I think you're scaring people away."

I pouted at him. "Offense taken," I responded and hefted up my purse. "But thanks for the use of the phone."

He nodded and turned to a lady who was holding an armful of enormous Toblerone bars, wandering toward the information desk and looking really lost.