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like fire over dried tinder. Heat mingled in his veins, and
he swallowed with effort.
    Kirstin
turned back to the monitor before the urge could steal the last bits of sense
in his head and he did something unthinkable, like tangle his fingers into her
thick hair and force her into something she’d made clear she didn’t want. He
steered his thoughts back to the slowly rotating, 3-D skateboard on his monitor
and fought down a pang of regret.
    “Oh, God,
Mason, this doesn’t look easy at all. She wants a virtual storefront. With
interactive options.”
    “Nah, it’s
simple.” Doing his best to ignore the tempting aroma of kiwi, he bent over her
shoulder to snag a piece of blank printer paper. Before he reached for a pen,
Kirstin had one ready. He accepted it with a smile, and sketched a square on
the paper. Inside, he drew two rows of three smaller squares.
    “This is your
part, babe. You put together a flat graphic with Flash. Make this look like
bins on a wall. Each box has something different inside it. Wheels, paint cans,
decals—you get the idea.”
    Kirstin
nodded.
    “Stick a
label on the bin for further clarity. Give them some animation, some
enhancement, and we’ll put the skateboard right here.” He tapped the open space
in the middle of the square.
    “Okay…”
    “After you
finish that, I’ll put the code on the back end. When the user taps their finger
on the bins, we’ll bring them to a list. The list can route to Edge
Skateboard’s website.”
    Straightening,
he passed her the pen. Her fingers touched his, sending a jolt of electricity
all the way up to his shoulder, and he couldn’t bring himself to look away from
those bright green eyes. His voice lowered of its own accord. “It’s just
teamwork.”
    “Yeah.”
Something he couldn’t define passed across her face, dimming the light in her
eyes. She took the pen from his hand and slid out of the chair. “I, ah, guess
I’ll go back home and get started on those drawings.” She pushed her hair out
of her face. “I’ll bring you something to work with later this afternoon.”
    He couldn’t
do it. Couldn’t let her walk out that door no matter how logical her suggestion
was. Allowing Kirstin to leave this office would drive the final nail into the
coffin their life together had become. He sensed it in his gut.
    Mason caught
her by the elbow as she turned. She stopped, surprise lifting her eyebrows.
    “Why don’t
you use mine?”
    Confusion
drew her brow into a tight line. When she opened her mouth to presumably argue
the logic in his proposal, Mason dropped her arm and rushed to eradicate her
protest. “It’s easier. If you work here, I can haul out the laptop, and we can
pass files back and forth as we go along.”
    “Here,” she
repeated with a nod at his computer, as if she didn’t believe him.
    “Yeah.” Mason
swiveled his leather chair around. “Have a seat.” To cover up any desperation
that might have inched out through his voice, he forced a grin and plucked her
empty coffee cup from her hands. “I’ll refill us, and we can get started.”

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
    Working at
Mason’s computer wasn’t just odd, it was as strange as a snowstorm in summer—in
the Sahara no less. Not because his comfortable leather chair dwarfed her or
retained the stirring scent of Mason fresh from a shower, but because he didn’t
let anyone get close to this whirring piece of technology. His affair with his
high-end, custom-built for graphical design computer was, simply put, sacred.
    Any time
she’d thought to jump on and do something as simple as borrow his electronic
sketchpad, he’d find a reason she couldn’t. It made him edgy to have her check
their email from this mechanical princess.
    Yet, for the
last four hours, they shared the same office space, he working just off to her
left at the decrepit laptop, and not once had he hovered over her to verify she
wasn’t torturing the poor machine. He hadn’t tried