“Damn it.”

The roar from the study startles Harlan, who turns and runs into Garret’s bedroom. Sammy, sensing my dog’s distress, jumps off the counter and follows. In the week that Harlan and I have been basically living in Garret’s penthouse, the pair haven’t exactly become friends, but they are curious about one another and study each other with the same intensity and devotion that a scientist would devote to rats in a maze.

Pushing the pile of paperwork I’ve spent the better part of the morning working on to the middle of the table, I leave the kitchen and walk to Garret’s study. He’s sitting behind his desk, glaring daggers at his computer.

“What was all that noise about?”

Garret jabs a finger at the desktop computer. “It’s this damned machine. All week, it’s been acting funny. I’ve run a few different clean up programs on it, but they don’t seem to make any difference. Today, it’s barely moving at all. It’s making me crazy.” He shoots me a hopeful glance. “I don’t suppose you know anything about these things, do you?”

I move to stand behind him and massage his shoulders. “I know how to turn them on and how to use a few programs, but other than that, I’m clueless. But I have a laptop in my apartment you’re welcome to borrow.”

“Thanks for the offer, but there are specific programs on this one that I need to use.” Sighing impatiently, Garret leans forward and shuts the computer off. “I’ll call Hannah tomorrow.”

“Your housekeeper? Why?” While Hannah’s a great housekeeper, she doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who has a magic touch with computers.

“Sort of. Her son, Eli, is a whiz with them,” Garret explains. “He was suspended from school because he hacked into the school program just to prove he could. Basically, he just has to look at this and basically, he, I don’t know, puts some technology whammy on it, and the thing starts to work.”

It takes me a minute to call up a picture of Hannah’s son. I remember he’s a tall kid, painfully thin, with big hands and feet that he hasn’t grown into yet. Dark, tiny hair. A nice face, and a bright orange hoop ring through one eyebrow.

“Does he do freelance IT work?” I push on the back of Garret’s chair, swiveling him around until I can sit on his lap. It’s the best seat in the house. “Tracy and I need to update our entire computer system, but we’ve been putting it off because hiring someone to come in and set things up will cost us a fortune. If he’ll do it for just a little less, I’ll happily hire him.”

“All you can do is ask.” Garret wraps an arm around my shoulders, and then cups my right breast, gently kneading it. I squirm as the now familiar, but no less exciting, heated tingles spiderweb through me until they activate all my erogenous zones. “So, now that I can’t work. What are we going to do to pass the time?” He bows his head and nips the sensitive skin where my neck and shoulder meet. I shiver in response as my insides melt. I lean in closer and my head falls to the side, granting him better access.

“Mmm. Much as I’d like to stay right here and let you have your wicked way with me, I can’t. I have an event I have to go to tonight.” Though my resolve is melting fast. Sometimes I seriously wonder if Garret doesn’t have magic lips.

“What kind of event?” Garret’s mouth moves from my neck to my ear lobe and I shudder.

“A charity deal. Tracy and I handled all of the publicity for them.” I suddenly remember something. “You know, I completely forgot to mention this to you, but the woman running tonight’s event was in my office when you couriered the sex oil, stockings, and garters to me. She was fascinated and said that I should bring you with me to this thing. Want to go?”

I hold my breath.

By no means are Garret and I keeping our relationship a secret. Hannah and several other people who live in the Dovetail are aware that we’re seeing each other, but we haven’t exactly been advertising it either. If he agrees to go with me tonight, it’d be our very first official public date.

Garret shoots an irritated look at his computer. “You’re going and I’m not going to be getting any work done before that stupid thing gets fixed. So yeah, I’ll tag along.”

“Excellent.” Cupping his head between my hands, I plant a kiss on his lips that leaves both of us gasping for air and wondering if we really do have to go out tonight. Deciding that the only way I’m going to fulfill my obligations to The Sex Project is by putting distance between myself and Garret, I slide off his lab and take two large steps away from his chair. “We have to leave in about half an hour. Dress is casual. There will be food there.”

I take another step back and grin at him. “I think this is going to be a night that neither of us will forget.”