A little thrill sung through his chest. Was that…excitement? It had been a long time since anything got him excited—well, beyond his recent sexcapades with Shelby. They were damn exciting and, admittedly, the only time he’d felt alive since his parents died.
But right now, his inner computer geek was thrilled at her compliments and chomping at the bit to show off. He took control of the mouse and clicked through some of the landscapes he’d mapped out. “It’s a first-person shooter and starts as a war game. Gamers play as a group of soldiers tasked with a covert operation in a war-torn country, but as they move through the levels, it becomes more and more a survival horror story.”
She gazed up from the screen and into his eyes. “So basically like real war.”
He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “But with monsters and zombies. The amount of horror the players face depends entirely on their choices throughout the game and, if they aren’t careful, they eventually become the monsters themselves.”
“I’ve never seen you this…animated. You love this stuff.” She poked a finger at his shoulder and grinned. “Don’t lie. I can see through you, Hershey, and right now your nerd is showing. It’s hot.”
He huffed out a laugh. “I wasn’t going to lie. This…” He waved a hand at the screen. “In high school, this is what I thought I’d be doing by now. Designing video games for a living. It’s challenging and, hell, it’s fun. But in college I realized video games were not going to provide financial stability for my brothers, so I tweaked the war game I was developing, and it became a simulation. When I finished school and entered the intelligence branch of the army, one of my superiors caught wind of my simulation program and it took off from there.”
“And you created DMW Systems and got that financial stability.”
“For nearly four years. But my government contracts aren’t being renewed because of budget cuts and I need this contract with Irving James…” He closed his eyes and—shit, he was going to tell her, wasn’t he? The secret he’d been holding deep inside, the one eating its way through his gut. “I hate it, Shelby.” He opened his eyes, met hers. Expected to see surprise, but all he got was sympathetic understanding, and that spurred him on. “I hate DMW. I’m ashamed I ever associated my parents’ initials with it.”
“Oh,” she whispered and touched the back of his hand. “David and Meredith Wilde. DMW. I just got that. But why are you ashamed of it?”
“It’s falling apart around me, and I can’t even figure out why.”
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again after a moment and squeezed his hand. “You’re thinking the blackmail is about more than money, like someone is sabotaging you. Lena, maybe?”
“It’s not Lena. She’s not smart enough.” But the thought of sabotage had occurred to him before now. More than once, in fact. Except he didn’t have any enemies that he knew of, so who hated him enough to want his company to fail? That was the part he couldn’t wrap his mind around. He shook his head, defeat weighing down his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. Like I said last night, I’m fucked. I can’t keep paying the blackmailer or I’ll go bankrupt, but as soon as I stop, Irving James will find out all about you…and it’ll be over. Might as well pack up my office and start handing out pink slips now.”
She winced. “I’m so sorry. I thought marrying you would help solve the problem, not make it worse. I hate that my past is coming back to bite you.”
He looked at her, saw a glimmer of tears in her eyes. Aw, fuck. He was wallowing, and he hated wallowers. Worse, he was being insensitive. He turned in his seat to fully face her and cupped his hand around the back of her neck, drawing her in closer. “Your past should have no bearing on this situation. Jesus, I’m scrambling for a contract from a man I don’t like, a man whose politics and world views I don’t even agree with. I’ve spent too much time trying to please him, forcing you to do the same, and it’s starting to piss me off. If anyone should be apologizing here, it’s me.”
Her lips curved upward into a tempting bow, and he had to kiss her. He meant it to be quick, but the moment he tasted her, he was lost. How did she do this to him? Every time they touched, his higher thought shut down, and he became nothing but a bundle of raw need and desperate want. And right now, more than anything, he needed to feel her bare skin under his hand. He pushed up her nightshirt and curved his fingers around her hips, pulling her off the desk and settling her between his legs. Shelby breathed out a soft sigh and tangled her hands into his hair as he broke their kiss and dragged his lips down the slender column of her neck.
He nipped at her collarbone through her shirt, and she laughed. “Oh, please tell me you have a condom handy.”