Putting It to the Test

“Come again?” Carly asked.

Matt’s gray eyes darkened and the playfulness that had been there a moment ago turned into something smoky. He bent in to narrow the gap between them, stoking her desire.

“The rest of your answers. You’ve forgotten that I saw a couple of them already.” He dropped his eyes to her lips. “I don’t think you were toying with the survey when you completed the section about sex…. I think you were telling the truth.”

Carly dug her fingers into her office chair. “It’s just a silly questionnaire.”

The corners of his mouth cocked into a smile. “I don’t think there’s anything silly about this heat between us. I think we might do ourselves justice by seeing where it goes.”

She really should object, knowing what she knew about the fudged survey. But with Matt, she didn’t want to be decent. She wanted to be delightfully bad. Because no matter how wrong he was about the results, she hadn’t lied on every question.

He was right. When it came to sex, she and Matt were a perfect match….

Blaze™

Dear Reader,

I’ve often seen those matchmaking commercials on TV. You know, the ones with those happy couples who look perfect for each other dancing to the promise of long-lasting love? The romantic in me smiles every time I see all those happily-ever-afters packed into one thirty-second spot.

The writer in me insisted there was a juicy story in there somewhere. For an angle, I knew it had to involve cheating of some sort. I wanted my heroine to lie through her teeth on the survey, then get stuck being matched to the wrong guy. Ideally, he’d be someone she knew. Even more perfect, someone she absolutely hated. Oh, and in the midst of all that, she’d be forced to pretend to be his soul mate. After all, what’s interesting about cheating if it doesn’t get a girl into trouble? So once the details were in place, I ended up with a story that was a total blast to write.

In the following pages Carly Abrams is about to discover that, while you might be able to boil matchmaking down to a science, true love is nothing short of magic.

Happy reading!

Lori Borrill

PUTTING IT TO THE TEST

Lori Borrill

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An Oregon native, Lori Borrill moved to the Bay Area just out of high school and has been a transplanted Californian ever since. Her weekdays are spent at the insurance company where she’s been employed for over twenty years, and she credits her writing career to the unending help and support she receives from her husband and real-life hero. When not sitting in front of a computer, she can usually be found at the Little League fields playing proud parent to their son, Tom. She’d love to hear from readers and can be reached through her Web site at www.LoriBorrill.com, or via mail addressed to Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd., 225 Duncan Mill Road, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

Books by Lori Borrill

HARLEQUIN BLAZE

308—PRIVATE CONFESSIONS

344—UNDERNEATH IT ALL

To the many friends and coworkers at the

office who have been a source of support and

encouragement from the very start. You make the

daily grind worth showing up for!

For Al and Tommy.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Epilogue

1

I TEND TO BE conservative when it comes to sex.

Carly Abrams studied the survey option, wondering if she should answer based on her actual sex life or the one she really wanted. So far in her twenty-six years she hadn’t exactly pushed any sexual boundaries. But that wasn’t her fault. She simply hadn’t connected with any adventurous men. Give her the right partner with the right moves at the right time, and a very kinky side of Carly Abrams could make a flashing debut. The fact that it hadn’t happened yet shouldn’t be held against her, should it?

“No, it shouldn’t,” she muttered, then clicked the box titled Disagree. She briefly paused over Strongly Disagree, thinking if she was making a sexual admission, she might as well go all the way, but decided to leave it be. It was pointless to overanalyze the questions. Though this was a matchmaking survey, she wouldn’t be finding any soul mates on the design team at Hall Technologies. This was only an exercise to select the two Web designers who would be assigned to the company’s latest client, Singles Inc., an online matchmaking and dating service in need of a fresh new Web site.

A number of firms had vied for the account, Singles Inc. attracting some of the biggest names in advertising and Web design. But though Hall Technologies was no leader in the industry, Brayton Hall had landed the account with his unconventional style and his concepts about becoming one with the client, which in this case included using the client’s compatibility survey to select the project’s design team.

Everyone who wanted a shot at the job had to fill it out, though employees had the option of skipping any questions they felt uncomfortable answering.

Like this next one.

When it comes to sex, nothing’s too far out for me. Bring on the toys, tie me up and invite a friend to join us. “The wilder, the better” is my motto.

Well, if she were looking to connect with adventurous men, this would certainly be the way to do it.

Fidgeting with the hem of her canary-yellow tunic, she stared at the screen and smiled. Wouldn’t Mr. Hall keel over if she strongly agreed to that statement? Not that she expected him to read the answers. They’d made a big deal out of mentioning that Singles Inc. would tally the results and that no one at Hall Technologies would be privy to detailed information.

Still, if he did, it would be a riot. Ms. Sally Sunshine, as she was often regarded, coming out of her tidy closet to reveal a fetish for bondage, dildos and threesomes. Just the image of Mr. Hall’s reaction had her clicking Strongly Agree for fun and tempting herself to leave it that way. Of course, it wouldn’t be true. Though toys and bondage might have raided her fantasies, she couldn’t quite make the jump into threesomes—and she could hardly cop to the label of “wild” if she’d never even broached “moderate.”

Yet she couldn’t help staring at her answer as if she were trying the idea on for size.

“When it comes to sex, nothing’s too—”

The low, sultry voice over her shoulder caused her to jump and slap a hand to the screen.

Please don’t let that be who she thought it was.

“—far out for me.”

Oh, heck. It was. Matt Jacobs, the bane of her existence, the thorn in her professional side. The star of your sexual fantasies.

Oh, no. Scratch that last errant thought. Matt Jacobs was most definitely not her sexual fantasy. In fact, the only fantasy she had of Matt involved him making a fool out of himself in front of as many people as possible, getting fired, packing up his belongings and tripping over the threshold on his way out the door.

Yeah, now there’s a fantasy to get hot about.

Frowning, she tossed over her shoulder, “Do you mind?” But instead of backing off, he moved in closer and chuckled lightheartedly, filling her space with the sound of his voice and sending a tingle through her veins that exposed that last thought as a lie.

Okay, so maybe she was still harboring a few remnants of the crush she’d developed two years ago, back when he’d first swaggered into Hall Technologies from their rival design firm, Web Tactics. He’d been a noted acquisition for Hall, and Carly, as the lead Web programmer, had been sold on his arrival. The two were supposed to have formed a team, working together to tackle the biggest projects that came through the door. But that was before he waltzed in and told management he could do it alone, knocking her off their first project and snagging every other good account that had come in since.

That she’d actually held a torch for the man embarrassed her, that the torch still hadn’t gone out dismayed her. And that he’d picked this precise moment to pay her a visit took the cake entirely. This could go down as a banner moment in Carly Abrams’s life if he’d actually seen her answer to the survey question. It was bad enough he’d rejected her; now only the ninth-grade belching incident could top the humiliation of Matt Jacobs thinking she was into extreme kinky sex.

With her right hand still covering the screen, she awkwardly reached for the mouse with her left, trying in a nonchalant way to minimize the window. Instead it came off looking like some bizarre game of computer-monitor Twister.

“I never would have pegged you as a threesome kinda gal,” Matt whispered into her ear, cluing her in to the fact that he had, indeed, read the answer.

Heat swarmed her cheeks. The ninth-grade belching incident officially fell to number two on the list. Matt Jacobs—her darkest professional foe, reluctant personal heartthrob—now thought she was some kind of closet porn queen.

Letting her hands fall to her sides, she jutted her chin and turned toward Matt, putting up her best front despite the fact that her eyes couldn’t quite reach his.

“What can I do for you, Matt?”

There. Perfectly calm and cool. She wasn’t about to justify his comment with an answer. And as long as she didn’t let her eyes wander above his knees, she was almost guaranteed not to swallow her tongue.

He shifted and leaned against her desktop, and a wisp of something burly swept across her nose, drugging her senses with the scent of rugged man.

Okay, so she could hold her breath, too. No problem.

But as she held the air in her lungs, licked some moisture onto her lips and tried to keep her eyes diverted from that hard, sinewy chest, she feared how stupid she probably looked.

Inwardly she groaned. Why did she always turn into an idiot around this man? It killed her, this effect he had on her. He was so not deserving of her affections, but to this day her brain hadn’t managed to convince the rest of her body of that little fact. Even at this very moment her nipples had gone erect, as if to sit up proper and make a good impression. Didn’t they know he needed to be shunned?

“Hmm, what you can do for me,” he said. “Given what I know now, several things come to mind.”

Her jaw dropped and she flicked her gaze to his in time to catch his wink. Those devilish gray eyes bored into her, taunting her with his knowing glare, and it suddenly occurred to her just how badly this could end up. He had a look that said he was one Sharpie short of scribbling For a good time call… in all the restrooms, and in a frantic move to correct him she blurted, “I lied.”

He blinked. “You what?”

“The survey. My answer. It’s not true.”

He held his big hands up in truce. “Hey, your private life is none of my business.”

Okay, so he could have said that with slightly less conviction. Her private life definitely wasn’t his business, but he didn’t have to express his disinterest so convincingly.

Crossing her arms over her chest to conceal her traitorous breasts, she pronounced, “Well, it’s not. I only put that answer there to toy with Mr. Hall.”

Matt stood for a moment and stared.

“You what?”

“It’s a joke. Or a lesson, depending on how you look at it. Hall said the surveys were confidential, but just in case he takes a peek at our answers, I decided to leave him a shocker.”

Matt blinked, then blinked again, then threw his head back and laughed. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Had what?”

“A joke. That’s priceless.”

Her jaw dropped for the second time. What was worse—him thinking her a pervert or him thinking her humorless?

“I happen to be very funny,” she defended, causing him to drown out his chuckle with a cough.

“I’m sure you are,” he said, but his tone said otherwise.

Rising to her feet, she clasped her hands to her hips and called over the cubicle wall to their coworker, Neil.

“Neil, I’m funny, aren’t I?”

“You’re hysterical,” Neil agreed, though even his response sounded like a nagged husband just trying to keep peace in the family.

Lowering back to her chair, she told herself not to let it bother her. Matt was only trying to push her buttons, probably bent over the fact that the Singles Inc. account wasn’t being handed to him on a platter like all the other top projects. In fact, now that she thought about it, the whole puzzle fit.

Since when had he ever left his corner of the floor to fraternize with the other designers? His desk was right outside the executive suite, which allowed him to continually buddy up to the bosses without having to cross paths with anyone else. Yet today he’d decided to stop by. And why? Because management had duped him on this latest assignment. Not only were they insisting a man and a woman work together on this one—Singles Inc. wanting to assure the new site appealed to both sexes—but to get the project Matt would have to show some sort of compatibility with a woman on the team.

And to match up with a woman he’d have to bother getting to know one.

Ha, she thought. Mr. High and Mighty didn’t have a chance, and he knew it. So instead of filling out the survey and taking his chances, like everyone else, he was out trolling to compare answers. Why else would he have made reading her computer screen his first order of business?

Giving him a glare she hoped looked evil, she asked, “Why are you here?”

His bemused smile said her evil glare was about as threatening as a cream puff.

“Your Ultimate HTML Guide. I’d like to borrow it, if you don’t mind. I took mine home and forgot to bring it back.”

She poked her cheek with her tongue. “Are you sure about that?”

“Come again?”

“This must kill you, having to compete for a spot on the Singles Inc. project like everyone else.”

“It’s not a competition. It’s about compatibility.”

“Exactly, and it’s probably only now occurred to you that you don’t know a thing about the staff. Your odds of striking the highest match with anyone are slim at best.”

He folded his arms across his chest and frowned, a stance that made him look deliciously menacing, and Carly had to will away a half dozen inopportune thoughts. The man was handsome to distraction, the kind of sexual magnet that jerked heads and caused women to walk into walls.

Tall, with a strong, square jaw, Matt Jacobs was about as close as they came to physical perfection, and no matter how badly Carly wanted to ignore him, she couldn’t deny her attraction. He was the epitome of her ideal sex toy, dark and serious, strong and silent, yet still capable of flashing a grin that could turn the most pent-up woman into mush.

A layer of stubble hardened what might otherwise be a too-pretty face. He kept his dark, wavy hair cut just below the ears—short enough for the workplace but long enough to sink your fingers in—and when he smiled, a faint dimple sank into one cheek, softening those hard lines and warming everything around him.

His silver eyes had a habit of revealing his thoughts—this particular one screaming loud and clear annoyance—but despite his bone-melting nearness and disgruntled glare, Carly worked hard to keep the upper hand. This was the first time she’d ever confronted him with her opinion, and she wouldn’t let a little temptation to fondle those biceps stop the momentum.

He stared at her for a moment, then feigned looking aghast. “You think I’m here to compare answers with you?”

“This would be the first major project you’re not part of. Are you trying to tell me you’d leave the results up to fate?” Shaking her head, she huffed. “No way.”

He looked at her as though she were insane, but she suspected it was a cover, that underneath the facade he was mortified she’d read him so easily.

“I’ll just borrow your book now and go, if you don’t mind,” he said, reaching over her shoulder and pulling the manual from her overhead shelf.

She pushed back a smirk. “Keep it as long as you’d like.”

And when he turned and left her cubicle, she smiled with satisfaction. Finally, after spending two years being backstage to Matt Jacobs, she was about to shine.

Granted, she wasn’t guaranteed a spot on the team any more than he was. However, the simple fact that the Singles Inc. account would be handed out based on something other than Matt’s ability to suck up to the boss left her feeling that justice had rightfully returned to Brayton Hall Technologies.

And if, by some chance, she got the project over Matt, well, that would be the ultimate icing on the cake.

“WHY DO I LET HER get to me?”

Matt picked up the plastic bottle of ketchup, squeezed it over his fries, then passed it to his coworker, Adam, his closest friend at Hall Technologies.

The two men had connected last year when Adam discovered Matt had played AA ball for the Anaheim Nationals. Since the center of Adam’s life was his men’s softball team, he’d been itching to sign Matt up ever since learning of his past. Unfortunately for Adam, Matt wasn’t about to step back into a dugout, and though Adam rechecked that status on a regular basis, he’d learned to accept Matt as nothing more than a lunch companion.

Their normal routine involved ducking out for deli sandwiches they brought back to their desks, using the quick stroll around the corner to stretch their legs and talk about sports. Matt’s encounter with Carly this morning had him suggesting they dine out, and “burgers at Quimbly’s,” a nearby fifties-style diner, was all Adam needed to hear to agree.

“Because she’s hot,” Adam said. He squeezed a dollop of ketchup on his bacon cheeseburger and set the red plastic bottle back in the caddy next to its yellow-mustard mate.

Matt shook his head. “Lots of women are hot and none of them drive me crazy. Carly Abrams drives me crazy.”

“They always say love exists on the edge of insanity.”

Ignoring the comment—because he refused to grace that stupidity with an answer—he pointed a crinkle-cut fry toward Adam. “She actually thought I’d come over to her desk to look at her answers to the survey.” Scoffing, he added, “That is one twisted woman.”

Though, granted, he had looked at her answers. Not just the one about being into wild, kinky sex but the one before it, as well, the one that said she was most definitely not conservative in bed. He genuinely hadn’t come over prying for info on her survey, but he couldn’t deny what he’d seen haunted him.

And the more he thought about it, the less he believed her story about toying with Old Man Hall. It was a nice try, but Matt couldn’t shake the suspicion that Carly Abrams really did have a wild side in bed.

And he’d been semierect ever since.

“You have to admit, this is the first time you weren’t given the big project,” Adam said. “There have been rumblings over how you’re dealing with that.”

“I couldn’t care less about Singles Inc. I’ve already spent two years proving myself to Hall. I don’t need another big project to showcase my abilities.”

And it was true. Matt hadn’t come to Hall Technologies just to do more Web design. He’d come to learn the ropes from Brayton Hall, the man who was about to blow the lid off the traditional Web-design and electronic-advertising firms. Hall had spent two decades at IBM, being in on the ground floor of Internet technology back when the public barely knew what a dot-com was. He’d learned the rules from one of the industry leaders, then set out on his own to break them.

With the larger firms building corporate structures that turned them into slow-moving barges, Hall Technologies stayed nimble, hiring some of the brightest independent Web designers, who were accustomed to coming up with innovative ideas and delivering them fast. To the big players they were barely a blip on the radar, but Matt knew that was all about to change and he had every intention of being the guy to Hall’s right when it happened.

“Not when there’s a management position hitting the rumor mill, huh, pal?” Adam asked.

Matt was about to take a bite of his double cheeseburger when he stopped. “You heard about that?”

“Word’s slowly getting around. I don’t know how much truth there is to it, but we’ve got over a dozen designers in the department and the company keeps growing. Hiring another manager seems to fit.”

“So what have you heard?”

Adam casually glanced around the room, making sure people with the wrong ears hadn’t stepped into the restaurant, before answering.

“Only that he’s looking to start up a specialized project team. Hall wants to go after some of the bigger clients and he’s got ideas on how to do that without turning into another corporate slug. What those ideas are, I don’t know, but I’ve heard he wants someone to take the lead on it so he can continue to focus on acquisitions.”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “That’s what I heard, too.” And the thought left him salivating. This was exactly the kind of thing he’d been waiting for, the precise reason he’d left his cushy job to prove himself all over again to Brayton Hall. The man was brilliant, and Matt wanted to be the recipient of that wisdom to someday maybe make partner or rival Hall with his own design firm.

Either way, it was a win-win situation, and instead of bothering himself with Singles Inc., he’d rather sniff out what he had to do to land that new position.

And when he got it, he’d be glad nothing had ever come of him and Carly. Despite her disdain for him, she was one of the sharpest minds at Hall Technologies. If Matt was to land this job, she’d be the first one he’d ask for. Granted, there was a chance she’d laugh in his face at the offer. He knew she’d resented him since the day he’d been hired, and his visit to her cube this morning had been yet another attempt on his part to chat it up and maybe broach a truce.

But, as always, he’d opened his mouth, said the wrong thing and started the downward spiral that only solidified her contempt for the ground he walked on. He hadn’t meant to make the crack about the survey. He’d just seen her answers, turned hard as a rock and blurted out the first thing that popped into his mind—that her answer couldn’t be true.

Because he needed it not to be true.

If he did get to assemble this new team, and Carly was on it…Well, he’d already been hot enough under the collar when it came to her without believing she had a wild side when it came to sex.

Knowledge like that, if proven true, could likely kill him.

“And I take it you’re the man for the job?” Adam asked.

“I’d like to think so. Any rumors where that’s concerned?”

“Only speculation. There isn’t anyone in Programming or Sales with the expertise to handle it, so most people are assuming they’d pick someone from our unit, most likely you or Carly.”

He raised a brow. “Carly?”

Adam shrugged. “She’s been here from the start, had been the number one designer before you came along. And she’s a team player, a favorite among the programmers and business-development execs. She’s got the affection of everyone on staff, so in that respect,” he said, tipping his glass toward Matt, “I’d consider her a contender if I were you.”