Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(14)
A fantastic answer. Even some of the most gifted developers he’d worked with in the last ten years failed to maximize user interfaces. Whether she’d figured that out on her own, or picked the best practice up from one of the self-teaching modules, it demonstrated a whole lot of promise. Or at least the ability to actually listen and learn.
So, it wasn’t just willingness and a great attitude she brought to the table, but aptitude, too. The damned trifecta as far as he was concerned. And while his instincts had been way the hell off to start with, he was pretty sure he was spot-on in guessing she needed a leg up big time.
The downside? He’d catalogued at least ten different ways he’d like to screw her since the second he’d laid eyes on her. Even if she were some random woman he met socially, that kind of preoccupation reeked of complications, but mentoring her? That made her strictly off-limits. Besides, she wasn’t the no-strings type. He’d bet his state-of-the-art server room on it.
No, JJ was the type of woman a man stayed with for the long haul. That he’d protect. Spoil and pleasure. Definitely not the type of woman Knox wanted or needed in his life.
He spun enough to face her, crossed his arms over his chest and pulled in a deep breath. “You understand I run a check on every person who works with me?”
So what if he’d already done it. That wasn’t the purpose in the question. The response, however...that was the key.
Her gaze cut to the screen still displaying the code he’d scrolled through. For a minute, he thought she’d back down and tell him she’d go it alone. Instead, she nodded as though making some internal decision and lifted her chin a notch. She looked him straight in the eye. “I understand.”
“Will that be a problem?”
She shook her head but it was tight.
“Will I find anything?” he asked.
“I hope not,” she whispered.
And there it was. The truth without admitting a thing. But if they were going to work together, she needed to understand the level of scrutiny that came with the relationship. He held her jittery stare, leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “JJ, what I’m asking is am I going to find anything?”
Comprehension registered on her face and her creamy skin blanched to a sickly white. She swallowed huge. “You’ve already looked.”
He could lie. Hell, it might be the more compassionate approach. Then again, if she couldn’t handle this, she wouldn’t last a day with him in the office. “If Jason learned anything from me, it’s that I’m thorough. Surely, you assumed I’d do my research before we talked.”
“I knew it was a risk.”
A risk. Not a certainty or a necessary evil, but a risk. As in willing to expose her secrets in exchange for grasping a new future. “Gonna ask you a question and I want the truth.”
She nodded.
“I understand secrets,” he said. “We’ve all got them. But I’ve got a career and a family to protect, and I have to gauge what kind of exposure your involvement with me and my company creates. More than that, I need to know if I can trust you with my records. So, I’ll ask again. Are any pieces from your significantly lacking background gonna come back to bite me, or my family?”
She held his stare, so much emotion moving across her face he couldn’t grasp it all. Fear for sure, but there was something beneath it. Resignation maybe. Plus a mother lode of hope. “If my past comes back, it will come for me. No one else. All I want is a simple life. To build a career that will support me and create things I’m proud of.”
Oh, yeah. Definitely running. And as pretty as she was, odds were good the one chasing her had a dick and a nasty attitude to go with it. Whoever said asshole was, their chances of ever getting their hands on JJ dropped to nada the second she’d strolled into his office. No way in hell was he letting any man bully a woman.
“All right then,” he said. “Let me talk with my brothers. If they’re up for an addition to staff, I’ll take you on and teach you.” And if they said no, he’d find another way to help her stop running.
Chapter Six
Surrounded by his family, Knox kicked one boot-shod foot up on the ottoman and stretched out further on the entertainment room’s butter-soft leather sectional. It’d been two hours since they’d all staggered away from the dining room stuffed full of Trevor’s steak-and-potato dinner selection, and Knox’s stomach still felt like it was going to explode. Although, over-stuffed on KC Strips or not, he’d still kicked everyone’s ass in some old-school Mortal Kombat.
Gabrielle, or Gabe as the crew referred to her, yawned and snuggled deeper inside the crook of Zeke’s arm. “Who picks dinner next week?”
“Knox,” Ninette said with a smirk.
Everyone groaned in a well-synchronized chorus and Knox grinned huge. In the last three years, he’d pushed their tradition of one person picking dinner for family night by picking every kiddie favorite he could come up with. He’d thought Jace was going to put a hit on him the week he’d picked fish sticks and cherry Jell-O. “What? Someone’s gotta keep this group on their toes.”
“You’re not keepin’ us on our toes, brother, you’re keepin’ us fat,” Danny said.
Trevor’s wife, Natalie, smiled and smoothed her sleeping son’s overlong blond hair away from his eyes. The poor kid had passed out with his head resting on Trevor’s lap an hour ago and hadn’t so much as budged. “You guys might not appreciate Knox’s taste in food, but Levi’s a huge fan.”