Samantha Hunter - Fascination

S O DID YOU STAY OUT OF trouble this month, Sage?

Sage Matthews held Ian Chandlers steady gray-eyed gaze for a long moment and pursed her lips, as if she had to think carefully before speaking. She looked down at the drink she held in her hand, slipped the straw between her cherry-red lips and sucked slowly, drawing her cheeks in so that her mouth formed a sexy pout around the plastic, closing her eyes as the cool burst of carbonation hit her throat. She released the straw and caught a stray bit of fizz with her tongue before answering.

Exactly what kind of trouble would you be referring to, Ian? Her soft southeastern Virginia accent added a lilt of mischief to her sultry purr.

Ian sighed, his full, gorgeous lips drawing into a tight, impatient line, and Sage felt a little spark of satisfaction. Ian might be the sexiest man shed ever met, but she fought any attraction shed ever felt because he was also a huge, unforgivable thorn in her side.

Sure, he was only doing his job, but for five years hed controlled almost every aspect of her life. Annoying himand teasing himwas one of the few ways she had to wrestle that control back into her hands. It was a small advantage, true, but she made the most of it.

It was an additional benefit that the air-conditioning in the Norfolk Police Department, where Ian had his new officepart of the new job he was leaving his post as a federal agent forwas on the fritz. The sweltering August heat created a fine film of sweat on her skin, making her thin tank dress cling to her, leaving little to the imagination. Sage didnt want to be subtle. She wanted federal agent Ian Chandler, who specialized in computer crime, to sweat.

She hadnt worn anything underneath the light shift because she was more comfortable that way but also because she was going to see Ian for her monthly check-in. The more to tempt you with, she thought devilishly. Sage didnt really want Ian, she just wanted to torture him with what he couldnt have. She slid a glance over his handsome features. She had a weakness for dark-haired men. Ian was a sexy guy. Too bad he was a cop.

But just five more days and she would be free of Ian for good. And hopefully free of a past that had been holding her back for too long. Her sentence for the computer crimes shed been arrested for almost five years ago was nearly over. Ian Chandler was the federal agent whod arrested her and hed been assigned to monitor her progress throughout her sentence.

What that really meant was that he had the right to invade every corner of her life, watch her constantly, ask her anything he wanted and pry into every detail of her activities. If he caught her doing anything he thought broke the rules, he could throw her in jail. No questions asked.

It rankled her that he had so much power over her life, though shed learned to live with it. Sage was determined never to give him the satisfaction of catching her slipping upor any kind of satisfaction, for that matter. But he couldnt arrest her for flirting.

Not that hed ever expressed interest. Ian was the epitome of straight and narrow. It wasnt in his nature to break the rules or back off from enforcing them. She tempted him incessantly, knowing he would never cross the line. But that fact only made pushing the limits all the more enjoyable.

She got up out of the chair and sat on the corner of his very organized desk. The room was clean as a whistle, the chrome gleaming, the windows sparkling clear. Everything was exactly in its place, and Sage pushed a neatly stacked pile of papers carelessly to the side as she made room for herself. She leaned over to throw her empty paper cup in the garbage can, not-so-subtly inviting him to take a peek at what was revealed by the slight sag of her neckline as she did so.

He just looked away.

She smiled and crossed one slender leg over the other, swinging it as if to some unheard song playing in her head, and picked up a pen to play with between her nimble, tanned fingers.

Oh, you know Ive been good, Ian. Im always good.

Sexual innuendo aside, she had been goodnot that she had much choice. As much as she liked to mess with Ian, she had no desire to end up in prison, so shed also played it straight and narrow, as contrary as that was to her nature. There was no way she was going to lose what precious little freedom she had. Shed been a fool for a man once, which was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. She wasnt about to do it again.

The first eighteen months of her sentence had been pure hellhouse arrest, ensured by a nasty ankle bracelet that she could have removed herself within an hour if doing so wouldnt have landed her directly in a cement cage.

It seemed extreme for simply letting a virus out on the Netespecially when she had been duped into doing it. Not that anyone would believe her. Technically she had released it, but the fact that she had no idea what was on the disk shed slipped into the computer that day didnt matter.

Shed told the one of the investigators whod questioned her that she hadnt written the virus, but hed clearly thought she was just trying to slip the rap. And she hadnt been able to prove otherwise; even to her own eyes the evidence was damning. Locke, the hacker who had set her up, had made sure of that.

The worst of it was that shed been banned from any use of computers for five long years, a heavy price to pay, though it was better than prison. The judge had made use of flexible federal sentencing guidelines and had been cruelly creative.

If Sage was so much as seen near a computer, even in a store, or if she attempted to contact her hacker friends from college, she would go to prison. She wasnt allowed to own or use anything even remotely computerized, not even a cell phone. Ian was the man whod tracked her down in the first place and he was in charge of making sure she minded her ps and qs. Sage had never been one much for ps and qs.

Ians interference in her life had been considerableshe had to check in with him monthly; hed stopped by her home unannounced, checked out her house and her habits, checked on her classes when she was in school and later would discuss her with her boss and coworkers at the plumbing store where she currently worked.

She had even caught him going through her mail on a couple of occasions. Shed never felt safe talking on the phone, though most of her conversations were innocuousshe didnt have many friends, as most of them had been computer junkies just like her. The loss of control over her own privacy was the worst punishment anyone could have concocted, sometimes overwhelming her.

No part of her life had been safe from Ians prying. Once shed been kissing a date good-night in front of her apartment and had found out later that Ian had run a background check on him . Shed discovered this at her monthly meeting when Ian had asked her not to see the guy again because he had a drunk-driving record. Shed railed against the unfairness of it, not that it could change anything.

Since then shed stayed away from men, except for Ian. Eying him speculatively, she spoke again, Ian, theres something I wanted to ask you.

Whats that?

Well, I am almost done with my time. Ill be a free and responsible member of society again within the week. And since youll be starting a brand-new position and you wont be a federal agent anymore, you wont be held back by those silly ole rules that say you and I cant have a more personal relationship, right? So maybe we could

She reached over a little farther and slid her hand over his forearm, catching her breath at the hardness of the muscle there, and pursed her lips appreciativelyIan was not just a desk jockey. The same crisp, black hair that he wore nearly military-short was sprinkled over his skin, and she wondered how it would feel to tangle her fingers in it over his chest and in other places.