“Nina had never had much use for the geek squad in the basement. When her computer didn’t work, she called, things were done, and everyone went on with their lives. But they had never hired a geek like this one.

The new hire stood in her doorway, a faintly amused expression on his face. He was built on the lean, almost elegant proportion, with close-cropped dark hair and a pair of shoulders that reminded her of a swimmer she’d dated in college. She had never liked glasses, but then she noticed the eyes. Good lord. A luminous greenish grey that shouldn’t have been quite so nice, but really was.

Her raised a questioning eyebrow at her stare, and the corner of his mouth lifted with a incredulous smile. “Problem?”

She stood and straightened her skirt. “Yeah, the payroll program isn’t working.”

He walked over to the screen and sat down, moving a stack of her papers out of the way with his elbow.

“Look, I’m really in a hurry,” she snapped, “and I’d kind of—“

He stood up, and suddenly she was looking at the hollow in his throat. She had to swallow hard. His voice seemed to move slowly up her spine. “You’re putting special characters in a numbers field.”

“Wh-what?”

“Characters,” He murmured even more softly, “in a numbers field. Zero through nine I will allow. Maybe even a decimal point. No more.”

She cleared her throat. “How do you know that?”

He stepped back, and the room seemed far cooler. He smiled. “Because I wrote it. And that’s what the error message says.” At her expression, his grin widened. He sketched a small bow, then swaggered down the hall. “No special characters.” He called over his shoulder. “Remember it.” She realized she had nothing to say.”

I looked left and right but not left again, gunned it, and the next thing I knew I’d spun twice and was facing the opposite direction, looking at a black sports car that suddenly had serious alignment issues. I don’t know much about cars but it looked Italian and expensive, emphasis on ex-freaking-spensive.

While I sat there, dazed, a man unfolded himself from the driver’s door and stalked towards me. He wore black slacks and a white button down with the sleeves rolled back. It should have been a boring, white-collar outfit but the lean lines of his thighs pulled against the material and the glowing white of his shirt made his shoulders look about as wide as my entire Civic. My headlights cut his face into a series of sharp planes and dark valleys and only made him more compelling. I wanted to rub my thumb over his full bottom lip. He braced his hands on the roof of my car, and I couldn’t help but stare at his thick forearms and the ropy veins that traced their way under his skin.

“Get out of the. Fucking. Car,” he ground out.

He was in blue, scrubs that didn’t hide his lean build. He had dark hair and clear blue eyes that noticed everything. They were so bright she had to look. He noticed. His nostrils flared slightly and her pulse jumped. The slight lift of his lips told her he noticed that too. Shit. He wasn’t even looking at her and here she was staring at him and reacting. She turned away, slowly, and told herself it was just surprise, he was very good looking, her guard had slipped.
Yeah right. She had looked at him and seen herself, a bigger, stronger, sexy male version of herself.
He didn’t look like he had a lot of training. His hair was too long, his jaw shadowed and he leaned against the wall. But he was a natural, he would know her secrets because they were his too. In combat she was also a natural but she had been trained within an inch of her life.
“Indrasena!” a trainer called, “you and Gideon. Quarter staff.”
She glanced up to the concourse and noticed it was full, too full. He wasn’t Gideon, nobody in blue had ever been tested. Not even her, she’d been born here, had never been new.
Picking up her weapon she walked onto the floor. A deep stillness settled over her, allowing her to anticipate and react faster. She had never come up against someone who could do what she did and she had never been beaten. She hoped one had nothing to do with the other. Blue, at the edge of her vision, with a quarter staff in his hands. His stillness mirrored her own. She wavered, and he made his move.

She didn’t dare raise an alarm so she was locked in the room alone.

No, not alone. A man lay asleep on the bed. He wore nothing but pair of ragged trousers. Perhaps he’d been ill for weeks for his tawny hair was too long and he wore a disheveled beard.

The man opened his eyes and looked at her with interest but no surprise.

“You could be real,” he said conversationally. “You’re quite vivid.” He closed his eyes again.

The madman.

Florry lay on her stomach to peer under the door. No shadows or movement. She rose and brushed off her knees.

“Would you care to play a parlor game?” The man watched her again with blue, too-bright eyes. “You need only answer yes or no.”

It wouldn’t do to annoy him. “Fine, sir.”

“Will you turn into a god-forsaken snake again?” His well-educated voice, with a hint of amusement, didn’t fit his insane words or appearance.

“No, sir.”

“Good.” The nearly naked madman sat up. He resembled statues she’d seen except for that light hair across his chest and the line from his flat belly down to the drawstring of the low-slung garment. Good heavens, drawers, not trousers.

Stop staring.

Her heart raced as he rose slowly to his feet, never taking his eyes away from hers. “They’ve upped the dosage. Bizarrely dressed females materialized out of nothing, nowhere. Or. Are you real?”

He moved toward her, less casual now. “I attacked a nurse. Did you know that?”

She backed away. “No. Sir.”

“She wouldn’t answer my questions. I lost my temper. Now I must put that on.” He pointed.

She thought he meant he must wear the bed, until she saw the chain that lay on the floor, one end attached to the heavy bedstead.

“You forgot to tell me to chain myself and toss you the key.” He waggled a key at her. “Too late now.”

~~~

“Hands behind your back!”

Sally jerked one of his bare arms roughly backwards, breathing hard after chasing him for the past two blocks. A corner of her mind registered that the arm was very muscular – this guy could give her real problems if he put up a fight.

“Alright, now turn around and plant your butt against the wall so I can read your rights.” Amazing. She’d radioed for backup as soon as she’d begun her pursuit. Where were they?

As he turned, she felt her heart give an unexpected flutter when she realized that he was beyond gorgeous…he was exquisite. He moved slowly in a half circle, as if realizing hat Sally was admiring his tight body and striking countenance.

Pressing his back against the wall as instructed, he raised his smoky eyes to hers and drawled, “Now, officer. What’s the trouble? I’d love to help you find a solution for whatever seems to be the problem, since I’m already so…sweaty.”

Caught off guard by his sultry tone, Sally found that she had to force out her next words. “You know why I was chasing you. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right…” Reciting by memory, Sally felt her eyes involuntarily wandering from his faintly smiling mouth to the six pack she could imagine hidden beneath his tank, and then even farther south.

“Officer, isn’t there some way we can settle this, just between you and I?” He reached out and brushed her arm, sending delicious shivers down her spine.

Glancing around to see if her backup was in sight, her mind raced. Felon. Gorgeous. Off limits. Hot as hell. Coming to a decision, she raised her eyes to her prisoner’s, and murmured, “Well, perhaps there is a way for you to…plea bargain.”