She sat up, rubbing the stiffness out of her shoulders. “What’re you doing with my bag?”

“Uh...” Simon pulled her cell phone out of her handbag. “Sounds like you got a text message. I wasn’t sure if it was your parents or something to do with work. I figured you’d want to read it.”

For a second, she had thought he was going through her stuff for some reason, but that was crazy. She had dozed off, which made her brain get all foggy. Of course, Simon wasn’t looking through her things. She trusted him completely. It was obvious he was only trying to help her after her terrible fight with Gary.

“Thank you.” She yawned, took the phone from him, and checked her messages. “It’s a text from my mom. My parents just picked up Finn.”

“You sure you don’t want me to drive you over to your folks’ place?” He resumed his seat beside her.

His hair was deliciously disheveled, and his clothes were still a little rumpled. Her face heated. They had been so hot for each other that neither of them had taken the time to get out of their clothes before they’d had sex on the sofa. Simon brought out a side of her that she hadn’t even known existed. She felt so free around him. So alive.

She shook her head. “I’d have to explain things to Finn, and that might be a little complicated at the moment.”

“I’ll drop you off at work, then, so you can get your car,” he said.

“That would be great,” she said. “Thank you so much, Simon. I’m sorry we didn’t get any, uh, actually work done.”

“It’s fine. How’re you feeling?” he asked her.

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his for a brief kiss. The sensation of his mouth on hers sent a tingle through her body. “After what we did on your sofa? Pretty good.”

He laughed. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“Sounds like it was a real sacrifice for you.” She giggled.

Simon dragged his thumb across her bottom lip and held her gaze. “Pleasuring you is definitely not a sacrifice.”

Heart skipped a beat. “I...” Her mind was in a haze and she couldn’t get the words out. Didn’t know how to respond to that. The fact that Simon hadn’t gotten tired of her made her pulse start to race.

But then, she remembered what Gary had said to her earlier today. You’re just a thrill to a guy like him. And when the thrill is gone, he’ll toss you aside.

Her old insecurities were always there. Waiting for her. Ready to remind her that Simon was out of her league. That she couldn’t do better than Gary and didn’t deserve to.

What if she really was merely a puzzle to Simon? Something to discard once he’d solved it?

“Are you okay?” Simon asked, his voice laced with concern for her.

“I have a lot on my mind,” she said softly.

“I understand,” Simon said. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“It’s just something Gary said,” she murmured. “He thinks you’ll get bored with me. Get tired of me.”

“Are you kidding?” Simon took her hands in his. “I’ve wanted you since we were kids. I know I left you behind to go to school, but I never stopped wanting you, Heather. Never stopped thinking about you. I’ve been crazy about you since I was twelve years old.”

“So, you do want a relationship with me?” she asked.

“Yes, I do,” he said. “I don’t know what it will look like, but I’m ready to give us a chance.”

Hope was forming in her, but she was still so afraid of letting the hope in after all these years of loneliness. Because her marriage to Gary really had been lonely. But this relationship with Simon barely existed right now. It was so new. So easily destroyed. Besides, she was keeping secrets from him. Secrets she couldn’t tell even if she wanted to. Which was why it seemed crazy to hope, under the circumstances, but his words gave her a courage she had never felt before.

“There are still so many obstacles we have to deal with,” she pointed out. “Dover, the media, my son, my ex-husband. Are you sure you want to deal with all that?”

“For you, I’d deal with all of that and more,” he said.

“Well, if that’s the case, I’m looking forward to our talk next week.” She smiled. “Maybe we can come up with a plan for how to work things out.”

“I’m sure we can,” he said. “Do you want something to eat before we head back out? I’ve got some food in the fridge if you’re hungry.”

“Sure, I could eat,” she said.

After she freshened up in the bathroom, she ate some takeout with Simon.

“Don’t forget, I have to tell your concierge to expect some electricians tomorrow,” she reminded Simon as they walked into the elevator. “I know you hate having people over here, but your electricity needs updating.”

He reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. “I like having you over here. In fact, I hope to have you over a lot more often.”

Her lips curved up into a smile and she rested her head on his shoulder. He was such a strong, comforting presence that part of her never wanted to leave his apartment.

When they stepped out of the elevator she walked over to the building’s concierge to remind him about the repair work, and then she got into the car beside Simon.

They got back to Dover just as it was time to close for the day. Simon walked her to her car and helped her in.

“Say hi to your parents for me,” he said as she started the engine.

“I will.” She smiled. It was a request she was happy to oblige. Her parents adored him, and if he was still eager to communicate with them maybe that meant she might have a real future with him after all.

~~*~~

THE REST OF THE WEEK went by totally uneventfully, but Simon was disappointed he wasn’t able to steal another private moment with Heather.

She had almost caught him going through her stuff, and as guilty as he felt about doing it he was glad he had. Because he hadn’t found anything suspicious.

He headed into his office early Monday morning. Heather wouldn’t be in her office this early, but he had gotten restless this morning and work was the best way to clear his head.

Simon started up his computer, ready to tackle the day. His restlessness had been because of a dream about Heather, so going to the one place that reminded him so much of her probably wasn’t healthy. Not that it mattered. Heather consumed every other thought. There was no escaping her. And he didn’t want to.

Not now that he was starting to trust her again.

His office door swung open, dragging his attention away from his thoughts.

“Good morning, Everett,” Simon muttered. “Any word about the media?”

That damn photo had been taken over a week ago, and last he heard over the weekend the tabloid that’d gotten a hold of it was willing to negotiate with his offer to buy it back from them. If keeping that photo from going public protected Heather’s job and her son, he was ready to pay whatever price the tabloid wanted. He had to spare Heather whatever humiliation came her way, especially since her ex was desperate to take her son away from her. That photo would be the perfect ammo for Gary to use against her, and Simon refused to sit by while that happened.

“We’re still working on it.” Everett’s eyes narrowed as he glanced down at the tablet he was holding in his hands. “But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.”

“Have a seat,” Simon said, knowing deep down that if Everett didn’t want to discuss the photo he had to be here to discuss Heather.

Everett sat down across from his desk and cleared his throat. “I think there’s been a security breach at Dover.”

Simon raised an eyebrow in surprise. “So, you’re not here to talk about Heather.”

Everett shook his head. “Unless she’s developed incredible hacking skills, I don’t think so.”

“There’s been a hack?” Simon frowned. “Our security is incredible. It would take a master hacker to get into our system.”

“They didn’t hack Dover’s offices,” Everett said, sliding his tablet over to Simon. “There’s been some chatter going on in some of the tech forums online.”

“What kind of chatter?” Simon glanced down at the tablet screen and started scrolling. When his eyes landed on a photo he recognized, he froze. “This is a photo of my apartment. These are the servers I have over there. How the hell did this get out?”

“It’s worse than that,” Everett said. “In addition to the photo, someone is claiming they managed to hack into the system you keep at home.”

Simon broke out into a cold sweat, the weight of Everett’s explanation hitting him. “All my ideas are on that system. I’m talking years of ideas. Years of coding.”

“It might be a hoax,” Everett said, “but I came up here to make sure.”

Simon shook his head as realization dawned on him. “It’s not a hoax. The photo of my servers proves that it isn’t. They must have managed to hack their way through with the help of the servers.”

“How the bloody hell did someone even get a photograph like that?” Everett asked.

There was only one person who knew about those servers. Only one person who had ever seen them other than him. Not even his concierge knew about them. Neither had his former assistant, because he’d never had a reason to give Xander a tour of the place. But Heather knew. Heather had seen them. There hadn’t been a good reason to give her a tour, but at the time he was so desperate to spend time with her that he’d done whatever it took just to be around her. Lust, and his attraction to her, had made him the easiest mark in the world. He’d shown them to her, never once thinking that she would betray him like this.

“I led them right to the servers,” he said.

“What? Why the hell would you do that?” Everett demanded.

Simon didn’t reply. Couldn’t. Because Everett’s eyes were already flickering with recognition.

“You led that woman to your servers?” Everett jumped to his feet, his face reddening. “Do you have any idea what this means?!”

“I know what it means. It means a decade of my work has been handed over to our rivals to do whatever they want with it.” Simon forced down a gulp of air into his lungs. Already, his chest was burning like a huge weight had been dumped on top of him. The only thing worse than having his ideas stolen and handed over to his rivals was the fact that Heather had been the one to do it. The only person he had ever trusted had played him. Destroyed everything he had ever worked for.

“We don’t have any time to waste,” Everett said. “I’m going to the board with this right now. We’ll have to call an emergency meeting.”

This was worse than the photo of him kissing Heather. Much worse. Scandals could be weathered. But his ideas were the foundation that Dover was built on. If they got into their rival’s hands, they could lose everything. Sure, they could get the law involved to try to stop it, but a fight like that took years in court. By the time they sorted it out Dover would have crumbled, and their rivals would have been able to use his ideas before anyone had the chance to stop them.

“Make sure you only get board members. Let’s not get investors riled up over this until we have a concrete plan of action,” Simon said.

“Agreed,” Everett said. “Do we need to get Linda and the media relations team in on this?”

Simon nodded. “We’ll need Linda to try to keep this information from spreading to other websites and forums. Right now, we can’t afford to worry about spin. We have to stop this from getting worse, and go on the offensive against VLA.”

“What about your assistant?” Everett asked. “You’ve got to confront her if we have any chance of scaring her off. She might already have gotten her hands on other sensitive information, but if you confront her now that’s less likely to happen.”

“You’re right.” Simon sighed, Heather’s betrayal cutting through him like a knife. “I’ll confront her the minute she gets into the office.”

Everett marched towards the door and then turned around to face Simon. “I know this couldn’t have been easy for you, Simon, but I appreciate your honesty. You could have protected yourself by covering for your assistant. But you didn’t do that. I want to thank you for doing the right thing.”

Simon only nodded in response before Everett exited the office, leaving him behind to contemplate what he was going to do.

Anger made his jaw clench. Everett’s gratitude to him wasn’t making him feel any better. Doing the right thing wasn’t taking away the sting of betrayal. Because, now, he’d have to confront the only person he had ever truly trusted.