Chapter Five
Beckett was right. Jeannie Simpson, or whoever she really was, had to be one of the most beautiful women Knox had ever met. And not uptight and untouchably beautiful either. No, JJ’s allure was an intoxicating mix of wide-eyed guilelessness and earthy sensuality. The girl next door and a seductive winter nymph all rolled up into one, complete with white-blonde hair, bright blue eyes and lips a pale watermelon pink. A woman who’d tempt a saint to throw his vows and caution to the wind with no more than a single look.
He was definitely no saint. Not with the string of urges that had queued up the second he’d watched her walk through the front door.
Another bigger observation—she was innocent.
Maybe not from the identity thing, but no way had she offed anyone to claim Jeannie Simpson’s name. What was absolutely certain was she was hiding. She might not have come right out and added that she’d run from her home over two years ago, but the tone behind her confession said plenty. A plea and a request for privacy all at once. And damned if it didn’t make him want to cart her off someplace safe and obliterate whoever forced her to run in the first place.
He motioned with his chin toward her laptop. “So, tell me what programming languages you’ve worked with.”
She let out a relieved sigh and smiled, the sheer gratitude and vulnerability in her expression further cementing her innocence. Folding her hands on top of the table, she leaned in with the same prim and proper interview stance she’d used when she’d first sat down. “Jason said you encouraged him to learn native languages instead of cross-platform development tools, so I focused on Android and iOS separately.”
Three times now she’d mentioned Jason and every one of them had stunned him a little more. Yeah, the kid had talent, but he also had the attention span of a gnat. The fact that he still remembered Knox’s name, let alone anything from their mentoring, shocked the shit out of him. And what was a woman as gorgeous as JJ doing hanging around a rail thin geek whose idea of a hot date happened on online role playing games?
The first answer that came to him pissed him off on about twenty different levels and made him ask without thinking, “You and Jason are a thing?”
She blinked a few times, a nonplussed expression leaving her a little slack-jawed. “A thing?”
“You and Jason. Together. Are you dating?”
Her eyes widened and she flinched as though he’d literally shocked her. Just as fast, her cheeks turned a soft pink. She shook her head and ducked her chin. “No, I’m not seeing anyone.”
Why the hell her answer calmed him as much as it did he couldn’t say, but hearing those simple words unwound a good chunk of his tension. As for the blush, she might as well have dangled a red cape in front of a bull. One way or another, he was finding out what was behind it. “So, you want a mentor?”
She lifted her head, hope flashing brilliant behind her arctic blue eyes. “Yes. And maybe a chance to work for your company once I gain the sufficient skill.”
He fought back a smirk and rubbed his palm across his mouth to cover any tells that slipped by. He’d give her kudos for gumption. Katy hadn’t dared to utter the word employee until she’d lived and breathed all things programming for a year, and it’d still taken her another six months to make it on the payroll.
“I know it’s a time investment on your part,” JJ said. “So, I’m willing to trade my services in exchange. If you need anyone found, or need someone in your company to do entry level work, I can do that. I’m a fast learner. I’m not afraid of hard work.”
Damn it. Nothing reeled him in more than willingness and a killer attitude. If she had talent to boot, he’d be stupid not to give her a shot. He leaned his elbows on the table and nodded at her computer. “You bring samples of your work?”
The smile she gave him was bright enough to give the mid-afternoon sun a run for its money. Eagerly, she opened it up, tapped out her password and guided her fingertip along the trackpad. “I don’t have anything fancy. I’ve mostly taken simplistic existing applications and tried to replicate them on my own. I figured learning technique to start was more important than trying to create right away.”
Funny, because that was the same approach he’d taken early on—although when he’d been doing it, he’d been scamming to make a quick buck or two instead of wholesome learning.
She double-clicked the trackpad and spun her computer around. “I’ve got four I’ve been working on. They’re all in this folder.”
“All right.” He plucked her laptop off the table, wheeled in his chair to his desk and hooked the device up to his external monitors. “Pull your chair over here and let’s see what you’ve got.”
His focus was instant, the draw of the syntax in front of him lassoing his attention until the rest of the world fell away. Or at least it did until JJ slid her chair beside him and perched on the edge. No more than six inches away, her prim and proper skirt had ridden up to reveal a good span of creamy thigh. And her hair. Christ, it was long. Perfect for a man to wrap his hands around and pull her to him while he fucked her from behind.
Bad idea.
As in don’t even think it, dumbass.
He shifted in his seat, willed his cock to calm the hell down and scrolled farther down in her code. The structure was good. Rudimentary still, but a solid beginning. She’d even found some creative ways to streamline her code in places other people would have been thrown off course. He closed out the first app and opened the next.
Her scent gently curled around him, the same winter rose he’d appreciated in her apartment only more potent when combined with her presence. Even without looking, he felt her gaze on him. Studying him. Probably with that same doe-eyed wonder she’d nailed him with when he’d found her cooling her heels in the lobby. And damned if he didn’t want to turn his head, palm the back of her neck and give her something that would really rattle her world. He forced himself to focus and asked, “How long did this one take you?”
She kept staring. No answer.
“JJ?” He slanted a quick glance just to make sure she’d heard him.
Big mistake. That wasn’t doe-eyed wonder on her face. That was infatuation wrapped up in an insane amount of lust. Her lips were free of lipstick, but the lower one was shiny as though he’d just missed her tongue wetting it. And they were parted. Ready and begging for attention.
“How long did this one take you?” he asked again, though the repeat was a whole lot more grated than the first.
Her gaze lowered to his mouth, pure craving written on her face. “A few days for each.”
Fuck.
He wasn’t sure what turned him on more—the fact that she’d worked through how to make the apps work in a short amount of time, or that she hadn’t so much as flinched when he’d busted her openly eyeballing him. “Did you make any design changes, or copy the apps outright?”
She swallowed and some of her professional distance returned. As if she’d realized her dream was over and it was time to crawl out of bed. She faced toward the screen, evaluated what section of code he’d stopped on, then motioned for him to scroll down. “I took time to evaluate where the user interface could be streamlined. Places where the user could do more with less steps. This one had too many subpages to navigate in the settings menu, so I streamlined them into more intuitive groupings.”
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.