In too many ways to count, Nate occupied a plane of his own.

  The man was out of her league.

  And then, like a daily absolution, a voice inside her shouted, Stop it! You’re no better than anyone, and no one is better than you. Kennedy didn’t know where she’d first heard it, but it had sounded like words to live by.

  “Has business been down?” Jack pointedly asked her.

  Kennedy hated to prove his point, but she couldn’t bring herself to lie. “Uh, no.”

  Jack had the decency to not look smug.

  When a beat of silence passed, it seemed incumbent on Kennedy to fill it, so she did what any good hostess would. “Would you like to join us for dinner? We’re having curry chicken and I’m making more than enough.”

  To her gracious invitation, Jack smiled and shook his head. “No, I’m good. I already ate. I’m here with news about the lawsuit. Thought I’d deliver it in person.”

  “I hope it’s good news,” Kennedy said, relieved he didn’t intend to stay long.

  “It’s the best that we could hope for right about now,” Jack replied.

  “That’s great. What have you got? Are we getting any closer to getting them to agree to arbitration?” Nate asked, a spark of hope in his eyes.

  “Maybe we should—should discuss it somewhere else and let Kennedy get back to cooking,” Jack said, clearly reluctant to discuss the matter in front of her.

  Kennedy forced a smile. “Of course. Nate, why don’t you go to your office?”

  Nate sent his friend a shuttered look. “Yeah, sure. This way.”

  * * *

  “She’s a sweetheart. Leave it to you to get the whole package,” Jack said once they were inside the office.

  “Isn’t that what everyone wants, the whole package?” Nate asked, making his tone light. There was something about his friend’s comment he found unsettling. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  Jack looked around as if he had never been in the room before. He had a number of times. “Yeah, but we don’t always get what we want.”

  True. Nate couldn’t deny that.

  Parking himself on the edge of his desk, Nate casually asked, “If she’s so great, why couldn’t you say whatever you have to in front of her? Better yet, why didn’t you just call? I know damn well you didn’t happen to be in the neighborhood.” Jack lived on the other side of the city with a more happening nightlife.

  “Are you saying I’m not welcome here anymore?” Jack shot a glance out the window, taking in the sight of Central Park, which was one of the biggest selling points when Nate bought the place.

  “Cut the crap,” Nate muttered. “I’m just saying, you could’ve called. I told you I was spending tonight with Kennedy.”

  Jack shifted his gaze to the books on the oak shelves lining the back wall. “When don’t you spend your nights with her?” He looked over his shoulder at Nate. “And if I hadn’t shown up uninvited, when were you going to introduce us? It’s like you’re hiding her away or something.”

  “I’m not fucking hiding her away. We go out,” Nate shot back, trying not to read too much into his friend’s choice of words.

  “You two go out alone.” Jack returned his attention to the shelves, his gaze idly skimming the books.

  Damn. What the fuck is his problem?

  “You’ll have to forgive me for wanting to spend time alone with my girlfriend. You said it yourself—she’s the whole package.”

  Seriously, what the actual fuck was going on with his friend?

  “Impressive reading material you have these days,” Jack remarked, turning back to him with a smile on his face that bordered on cynical.

  Nate grunted a humorless laugh. “Yeah, well, I don’t base my selection on the desire to impress.”

  “Do you know that since you came back from France, we haven’t gotten together once? I call you to go out and you’re always busy. The only time I see you is at the office, and the only thing we talk about is work and the lawsuit. I thought we were friends.”

  Aww shit. Sighing, Nate ran a hand through his hair. “We are. We are. But you know how it is when you start dating someone.”

  “No, how is it?” Jack asked wryly. “I haven’t dated anyone seriously in a while, so I’m kinda rusty when it comes to blowing off my friends.”

  This coming from the same guy who’d had to check with his ex-fiancée if he wanted to take a leak.

  “You’re such an ass. Just tell me when we can put the damn lawsuit behind us.”

  “I don’t have a specific answer to that question, but Neil says Markham’s finally willing to talk settlement. So, I’d say within a month.”

  At one time Nate thought those words would make him happy, but today the only thing rushing through him was relief.

  “Let’s just hope he doesn’t change his mind. People like Markham—men with political aspirations—have a habit of playing both sides against the middle to further their personal agendas,” Jack warned.

  “No, if he’s ready to talk settlement, they’re ready to settle.” Nate knew how this went. The only variable now was the amount. “What about the classes? Do we have a final tally? Has everyone taken them?”

  It had been six weeks since he’d given the first edict to all his managers. Every employee in the building would have to attend their annual sexual discrimination and diversity training class within sixty days. No one was exempt, and that included all of senior management.

  “There’s a couple of stragglers who’ve been out on leave, but everyone else has taken them.”

  Nate gave a grunt of approval. “What about HR and the résumé workshop? How did they do with that?”

  Jack grimaced and ruefully acknowledged, “That one didn’t go so well. We may need to use the screening service.”

  Nate had had a feeling that recruiting using the screening service would produce more equitable results. “You know that was Kennedy’s idea, right? She told me it would remove some subconscious biases most people don’t realize they have. Even the most well-meaning of us.”

  “I thought it had something to do with her. Her instincts are good.”

  “She’s damn good at what she does,” Nate stated proudly. “I was thinking of hiring the agency to design a few of our classes.”

  Jack crossed his arms. “You don’t think that might be a conflict of interest? You are, after all, sleeping with the woman.”

  Nate dismissed his concern. “It isn’t as if she would be working for me. The agency would be dealing directly with HR. It’s contract work. Once it’s finished and handed over, that’s it,” he said, swiping his palms together.

  “I’m just saying, you may want to think twice before you go mixing business with pleasure.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Your brother-in-law works at the North Carolina office and your cousin worked here for three years until he moved to Texas. Please tell me what I’m missing.”

  A flicker of annoyance appeared on Jack’s face. “Dude, you’re comparing apples to oranges. It isn’t as if my brother-in-law and cousin weren’t qualified for the positions. They were, or I wouldn’t have recommended them. And the chances that my relationship with them goes south and causes problems for the company are slim to none. On the other hand, hiring the person you’re fu—sleeping with—” he shook his head “—is asking for trouble.”

  Asking for trouble?

  “Are you saying that nepotism where you’re concerned is fine but contracting my girlfriend for a job is a bridge too far?” Seriously, fuck that.

  “As long as the person is qualified, I don’t see anything wrong with a little nepotism. Family businesses are built on it.”

  “I didn’t say I had a problem with nepotism. What I’m having a problem with is the pushback I’m getting from you about hiring an agency that is more than qualified to do the work the company needs done.”

  Jack blew out a long breath. “Just think it over is all I’m saying. The woman you start dating isn’t the same woman you break up with. It’s the same thing they say about marriage and divorce.”

  “Cynical much?” Who said anything about breaking up with her? And he wasn’t just fucking her. He was in lo—

  Whoa. Nate pulled back sharply before completing the thought. He then addressed his friend more gruffly than he intended. “Boy, Kaitlin really did a number on you.”

  Jack remained silent, not denying it.

  Even after he found out his ex cheated on him, he hadn’t called off the wedding. Who did? Kaitlin, two weeks before they were supposed to walk down the aisle together. And if that wasn’t enough, his father started dating a woman almost half his age not even a month after their divorce papers were filed. Jack had to hear about it every time he visited his mother, who now used him as her personal sounding board.

  Women sucked. Marriage sucked. Relationships with the opposite sex sucked. That was the place Jack was coming from.

  Nate didn’t envy him. And for that reason alone, he cut him some slack. “Think of me hiring the agency as an act of nepotism since Aurora’s an equal partner.”

  Jack studied him before holding his hands up in surrender and conceding with a tight smile. “Hey, your company, your call.”

  “Good. I’m glad that’s one thing we can agree on.”

  21

  Breaking News: Massive cyberattack hits Fortune 500’s top companies.

  Kennedy received the first notification on her phone on Friday at four o’clock in the afternoon. She instinctively reached out to their IT administrator. Token was about as far from a Fortune 500 company as one could get, but it never hurt to check and make sure their system was in the clear.

  “I knew you’d call. I’m on my way,” Keith said as soon as he picked up. Not a half minute later he was in her office. Keith Smith, a heavyset, fifty-three-year-old Black father of six, had been one of their first hires and was worth every penny they paid the experienced IT professional.

  “I guess you heard,” he said as he approached her desk. “It’s all over the news and social media, but you don’t have to worry—we’re good. Our system is airtight. Payroll is good and so is the client database.”

  “Have they said which companies were hit? Is it a ransom attack?” Kennedy asked as she scoured the article on her monitor for names.

  Keith came behind her desk and peered over her shoulder. “I don’t think it’s a ransom attack. A reporter tweeted there’s been an email dump. They’re going through it now.”

  Kennedy looked up at him, eyes wide. “Oh crap. That might actually be worse than a ransom attack. I hope everyone kept their emails G-rated.”

  Keith harrumphed. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

  “You’d think after the Sony debacle people would learn.”

  “If people learned from history, the world wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in.”

  Kennedy couldn’t argue with that. Humans were the stubbornest species in existence, and just as past hacks hadn’t stopped people from sending inappropriate emails, this one would likely find the same. The only question was the amount and scope of the damage it would do.

  “Okay, well, as long as we’re good, I guess I can breathe easy.” But her mind had already leaped to Nate and Constellation. As one of the top tech companies in the world, one would think their security rivaled whatever held the nuclear codes.

  “Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I called a former employee who works over at Constellation, and it doesn’t look like they’ve been hit. Or at least, it doesn’t look like anyone was able to get through. But she’ll let me know more when she does. She thinks there could have been an attempt.”

  Keith used to manage the IT department at a small software development company in northern New Jersey until it was bought by a software giant in California, which was where his job went. Several of his former employees had subsequently attained positions at Constellation.

  “That’s a relief.” Nate had enough on his plate in having to deal with the lawsuit. Not that there was ever a good time to have to deal with a hack. Hacks were notoriously a bad thing.

  When her cell phone started to ring, Keith quickly excused himself, saying, “I’ll let you get that. I’ll keep a lookout to see if any of our former or current clients were hit and let you know.”

  Nodding absently, Kennedy answered her lover’s call. “Speak of the devil and he shall appear—or in your case, call. I was just talking to Keith about your company.”

  Nate chuckled. “Wondering if we were part of the hack, huh? Not a chance. We have the best security in the business. What about you? Sounds like things are good.”

  Kennedy turned and gazed at the gray overcast sky that promised a dreary day of rain and umbrella-crowded sidewalks. A tepid rainfall spattered raindrops against the window. “That’s the beauty of operating under the radar. Most people don’t know we exist, which is exactly the way we like it.”

  “If you want, I can have someone on my security team check out whatever safeguards you guys have in place,” Nate offered.

  That emotion filling her chest was gratitude, not the L word. She’d resisted putting a name to it, simply telling herself that she was most definitely in lust with him. The sex was fantastic. The best she’d ever had. That he was also easy to talk to, considerate, and he loved that she was ambitious didn’t mean he was The One for her. It didn’t mean she was in L.O.V.E. with him. Real love required they make it beyond the honeymoon stage of their relationship.

  Love is easy when things are going right. It’s when things are not that love either withers and dies or deepens and strengthens to survive the storm.

  Her parents’ love had deepened and strengthened over their thirty-five years of marriage because, her mother swore, they lived by those words.

  “Let me check with Keith and see what he thinks.” She trusted him implicitly when it came to this stuff. They wouldn’t have hired him otherwise. And as sweet as Nate’s offer was, no way was she going to step on Keith’s toes by bringing in someone to look over his work without asking him first.

  “Yeah, of course, whatever’s good with him.”

  “About tonight—”

  “Would you mind—”

  At their simultaneous utterances, they both fell instantly silent.

  “You go first,” Nate said. “What about tonight?”

  “No, no, you go,” Kennedy insisted. “Would I mind what?”

  Nate took his time responding, and then when he did, his voice was flat. “Jack wanted to go out tonight. He says I’ve been blowing him off since I came back.”

  “Then go,” she urged. “Honestly, I don’t mind. We can do something tomorrow.” Kennedy knew this wasn’t coming out of nowhere. She sensed something like this coming after Jack showed up at Nate’s place last week. She wasn’t sure whether Jack’s dislike of her was the general variety kind, or if he specifically disliked her for Nate; all she knew was that it was there. It was there in the way he’d looked at her and some of the bothersome comments he’d made.

  The lawsuit brought Nate back home, so you can’t say it’s all been bad.

  She’d had to bite her tongue at that remark.

  Let’s just hope he doesn’t change his mind. People like Markham—men with political aspirations—have a habit of playing both sides against the middle to further their personal agendas.

  When she’d accidentally on purpose overheard him say that was when she’d realized who’d told Nate about her and Trevor.

  She’d debated whether to say anything to Nate after his friend left but had decided against it. What good would it do? Nate would tell her she was being too sensitive and blowing things out of proportion. After all, the men had been friends since high school, and Jack was the trusted chief technology officer of his company. She wasn’t about to test the bonds of their friendship against whatever was going on between her and Nate. It was too new and fragile.

  “Are you sure? Because, to tell you the truth, I’d rather spend the evening with you.”

  Kennedy smiled. “Lately, you’ve been spending every evening with me. One night apart won’t hurt us.” Yes, it would. She’d gotten used to frequent and earth-shattering orgasms.

  “Hold on a second. Who said anything about us spending tonight apart? I was hoping we could meet at your place after. For dessert,” he said, his voice dipping seductively low.

  “I think you can get by without dessert for one night,” Kennedy stated, all bravado with her empty words. In truth, without him beside her, she’d probably be twisting and turning in her bed all night. “Plus, I’m going to use this time to catch up with my girlfriends. Jack isn’t the only one feeling neglected.” It had been at least two weeks since she and Aurora had hung out, and Sahara was back in town, making it the perfect time for a girls’ night out.

  A grumbled sound of denial emerged from his throat. “You, of all people, should know how much I need my dessert. I can’t go without it. And most nights I have at least two servings, and another in the morning.”

  Kennedy’s face suffused with heat just thinking about how thoroughly they always indulged. Up against walls and bookshelves, on the kitchen counter, and on the rug in front of the fireplace, there wasn’t a room in his apartment they hadn’t thoroughly debauched. “What if I said I’d make it up to you?” she teased, her tone husky.

  “Then don’t make any plans for Saturday that require clothes.”

  Kennedy gave a throaty laugh. “So you plan to keep me naked all day?” She would have laughingly dismissed it if the idea wasn’t such a turn-on. She had no doubt that he’d do it, and since he’d be supplying the orgasms, she was fully on board.

  “Do you blame me? I mean, have you seen you naked?”