“But I just—”

“I don’t give a shit. I want it.” His taste on her tongue, her arms around him. He met her lips with a hard kiss, and she took him deep. He reveled in the ache that surrounded his heart, reveled in the emotion as much as the taste of her, the scent of sex and sweet body lotion. He tasted the salt of his own come, but he was almost sure there was something else, the salt of tears, her tears. But when he pulled back, her cheeks were dry.

“What?” she whispered as if he were looking at her with a question in his eyes.

“What were we arguing about?” he asked.

“I can’t remember.”

He stroked a finger down her cheek to the corner of her mouth and her ruined lipstick. “Good.”

“I’m going to remember soon and you’re in for it,” she said mildly.

He would be. Because he remembered despite what he said. She was pushing and pulling at him about the patent, about shoring up his end of things, checking, questioning, as if she’d stopped believing he could handle anything.

The only thing he felt in control of was their sex life—as long as he wasn’t asking for it in bed like a normal husband. Things were so goddamn ass-backward. But she’d sucked him at work, and he’d take it as a victory.

She touched her lips, a slight smile curving them. “You messed up my lipstick. Everyone’s going to know we were doing something dirty.”

“It wasn’t dirty,” he said with so much meaning.

She gave no answer to that. At least not until she’d backed away and stopped with her hand on the doorknob. “The numbers are too close, Dominic.”

Ah, so she hadn’t forgotten the argument either. “What are you thinking?” He knew what she was thinking, same as he was, and with the same kind of horror. Someone had revealed their financial data to WEU. An insider.

They didn’t hide numbers from their employees. Everyone had access to shipping quantities. At month-end, quarter-end, and year-end, they could all go in and judge their shipping performance. All for one and one for all, share and share alike.

“None of them would do that, Erin.” He wanted to believe that, needed to.

“Then how?”

He didn’t have an answer, yet he knew in his gut his people were solid. But it wasn’t just him Erin had stopped trusting and believing in.

“I know you like order and rational explanation,” he said, “and for everything to fall into place. But none of them would give out our proprietary information.”

Her lips thinned. “I don’t need order. I can deal with stuff. But WEU getting that close isn’t rational.”

“I’m not going to outright accuse anyone without proof.”

“I’m not saying we should.” She huffed out a breath, her hand tightening and releasing on the doorknob. “We just need to be careful.”

He didn’t know what the hell careful was. Shut his employees out of the system? Watch their every move?

No. The only thing he could do was figure out how WEU got their numbers without having used one of his people to do it.

She half expected Yvonne to slam through the door and ask her what the hell was going on.

Her cheeks were flushed. No reason to add blusher now. When she closed her eyes, she could still feel him between her lips and taste him on her tongue. His lingering scent made her dizzy.

It was the only time she felt real now, as if everything else was fantasy and the only real thing was endless, mind-drugging sex. Maybe she was having a mild nervous breakdown. That might be the reason for all this. Her irrational behavior. And her suspicious nature.

Dominic was correct. She suspected her own people. She wondered if Atul was punishing them because he was pissed off they hadn’t deemed him qualified for Cam’s job, if Matt was screwing up assembly on purpose, if Bree was selling financial numbers to the highest bidder, if Yvonne was trying to sabotage the family unit. All those thoughts had flitted through her mind.

God, that was so wrong. She didn’t want to think that way. It was just that she felt so helpless, like she needed to do something to fix it all.

What she really wanted was the way Dominic made her feel in the lab when he’d kissed her with the taste of him still in her mouth. When he’d made her forget they’d been arguing.

When he’d made her forget everything.

That’s how Garland Brooks lulled the gullible before he went for the jugular. He’d started his campaign by letting Dominic wait in his outer office for half an hour. Dominic, however, had not let that stop him. They’d begun suspecting their own people. He couldn’t let that go on. Coming to WEU wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but after this morning’s argument with Erin, he had to do something.

“Well now, Mr. DeKnight,” Brooks said, sitting back in his thousand-dollar leather executive chair, “I can’t comment on any issues our patent department has undertaken. But if you received a letter, I’m sure it’s been researched thoroughly and the patent is on our side.”

Dominic propped his foot on his knee. He wore jeans to this man’s expensive tailored suit and boots to Brooks’s handmade leather shoes. “Garland, your patent won’t stand. I’m giving you the courtesy of letting you know you can’t win.”

Brooks smiled genially, folding his hands across his stomach. “That’s why we have attorneys, Mr. DeKnight. To handle all this for us.”

“But you’ll be wasting a lot of money.”

“So will you.” He kept the genial smile as if it were pasted on.

Dominic considered this a fishing expedition, nothing more. He wanted to see if Brooks would take the bait, so to speak. Dominic started it off by laying the latest WEU letter on the desk and sliding it across. “This amount is ridiculous.”

Brooks blinked at the odd folds of the page. Dominic smiled. Could the man tell it had once been an airplane?

Brooks pulled his glasses to the tip of his nose to read. “Oh my.” The curve of his lips turned slightly malicious. “Now that is a great deal.” He pushed the glasses back in place.

“According to my calculations,” Dominic said, “that number is way overstated.”

Brooks raised a brow, his scalp wrinkling. “I assure you the number is correct. We pride ourselves on accuracy here at WEU, both in our gauges and our numbers.”

“How would you know that without an audit?”

“We have our ways, Mr. DeKnight.” Yeah, the smile was definitely malicious.

So, they did have his numbers. Dominic didn’t know how. He didn’t expect Brooks to tell him. “Then you’re going to have a fight on your hands, Garland.”

Brooks smiled as if he were speaking to a very small boy. “If it comes down to a lawsuit, I’m afraid you’ll find our pockets are quite a bit deeper than your own.”

“Are they?” Dominic asked.

“Of course.”

“Then why are you having trouble paying your vendors on time?”

Brooks didn’t splutter. He didn’t even blink. “That’s a business strategy to even out the month-to-month cash flow.”

“So you stiff your suppliers in order to smooth out your cash.”

Brooks grimaced. “Now, Mr. DeKnight, I assure you no one is stiffing anyone.”

Brooks was stiffing everyone. And on purpose. “That’s a matter of opinion, Garland. But DKG is going to fight you on this. We are right and you are wrong. That patent won’t stand. We know it and you know it. And we’ll win in the end.”

Brooks leaned forward, laid his elbows carefully on his blotter and clasped his hands, gazing at Dominic over them. “Right or wrong isn’t the issue, Mr. DeKnight. The issue is who can hold out longer, an insignificant little company like yours or a worldclass firm like ours. For every dollar you spend, I can spend five. Long before you prove my patent isn’t valid, you will be bankrupt.” He smiled like a mob enforcer ready with his brass knuckles. “So I suggest you simply pay the money now and save yourself any further trouble.”

Dominic gave him a full three-second look. “That’s what you did to the others, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question.

The other man didn’t say a word. He merely smiled that enforcer smile.

Dominic rose, retrieving the letter he fully intended to ignore. “Thanks for the tip.”

“My pleasure.”

Dominic left WEU knowing three things. First, Brooks didn’t care whether his through-coat patent was valid or not. Second, they made their money off the threat of a suit. And finally, no way was Dominic giving in to that asshole. He would fight Garland Brooks down to the last dime.

God, she hated that through-coat gauge with a passion. Without it, their lives would have been different. Now it haunted her. Perhaps it was poetic justice that the damn thing was going to bring them down.

“Close the door and have a seat, Bree.” She pointed to a chair.

Bree sat obediently. Was she nervous, worried about Erin calling her in there?

Just be straightforward, Erin told herself. “You’ve seemed preoccupied the last few days.” How long had it really been? She hadn’t noticed anything herself, only had Yvonne’s frantic diatribe to go by. Erin guessed that made her a bad boss. “Is something bothering you?”

“No,” Bree said quickly without meeting her gaze.

Erin waited. Bree didn’t say anything else, didn’t offer an explanation, nothing. Bree had never been a vivacious, open person. She kept to herself for the most part, though she offered a smile or a laugh when it was appropriate. She’d always been a little closed.

Or was secretive a better word?

Okay, so what do you say when someone gives you no opening whatsoever? Accuse them of selling company information and gauge the reaction? “You can tell me if you’re worried about anything.”

“I know.” Bree’s face was carefully blank.

Erin was suddenly sure there was something wrong, that Yvonne hadn’t imagined it. Bree’s attitude was . . . off. Never effusive, Bree was nevertheless friendly, yet now her features and her voice were completely neutral, as if she was afraid something might seep through any cracks in her facade.

Erin didn’t want to believe it had anything to do with giving away DKG information. She could believe it; she had that kind of suspicious nature. But she didn’t want to. “The door’s always open, Bree, if you need it.”

“Thanks, Erin, but I’m fine.”

She knew Bree wasn’t, but she also knew the other woman wasn’t ready to talk about whatever it was. She might never be ready to.

But should Erin believe? Or should she suspect?

Maybe because she had to, or because Dominic had been so adamant, or because she was just plain scared of saying something she couldn’t take back, Erin chose to believe. “Can you do another analysis for me?”

“Sure.” The strange shadow didn’t leave Bree’s eyes even at the change of topic. “What do you need?”

“A cost analysis for making the transducers in-house.”

Bree thought for a couple of seconds, then nodded. “I can do that.” Her index finger tapped on the arm of the chair. “Are we done now?”

“Yes. I need the analysis by tomorrow morning. I want to have a meeting with the techs.” Besides Matt, there was Susan and Tim. Having Steve at the meeting would be good, too. She wasn’t a democratic leader in that she’d let her employees vote on important decisions, but asking for ideas and opinions helped create buy-in.

“I can have it by the end of the day.”

She felt irrationally relieved when Bree left, as if by the skin of her teeth she’d avoided something huge. She didn’t have proof. She didn’t know how everything would have gotten screwed up if she’d accused Bree. She was glad she hadn’t succumbed to it.

She thought of Dominic’s steadfast belief that no one at DKG would sabotage them. There was something admirable in that. Something worth striving for. She needed to make a peace offering for shutting him out last night. What they’d done in the lab wasn’t enough; he’d initiated that. No, she needed to give him something.

The question was what.

Sitting down at her desk, smoothing her slacks over her thighs, her hands trembled when she lifted them to the keyboard.

She was so stupid. She should never have told Rachel. Rachel hadn’t blabbed, but Bree had seen Yvonne launch the attack almost immediately. Yvonne was a busybody, well-meaning, sure, but still a busybody.

Which is why Bree should never have told Rachel. But the woman caught her at a weak moment, defenses down, a mass of emotions. And she’d spilled her guts. Okay, it wasn’t everything, not by a long shot, but she’d told Rachel one teeny-tiny thing that was enough to turn a snowball into an avalanche if Bree wasn’t careful.

The computer screen swam before her eyes. She closed her lids, but it didn’t help; she simply felt dizzy. Scared and alone. With a dash of panic.

“Everything will be fine,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”

Yet she couldn’t help herself. All she needed was a little relief, then she’d be better. She dug her phone out of her purse and hit a speed dial. He answered on the second ring.

And Bree said the magic words: “I need to see you tonight.”

He didn’t hesitate, not even a slight pause to think about it. “Seven o’clock.” Then he was gone.

She always did the calling, never the other way round. It was the way she wanted it, needed it. And he always said yes.

Suddenly things felt so much better.