friend a sideways glance. “Come again?”
“It’s the site’s motto or tagline or whatever you call it.” Wen drove up the ramp and handed the ticket to the attendant in the booth. “You know what I mean.”
Forest bookmarked the site on his cell and handed the other phone back. He vowed to investigate the site further. Kick back at his desk at home and pry into Need to Know’s inner workings. Just for a bit of fun and distraction. There was something about taking the pieces apart, examining them and putting them all back together again that intrigued him.
Talking about it didn’t. “I’m ready to end this conversation and get out of here.”
“Sure, because you’re not on the website.”
Forest shook his head. Clearly he was alone in wanting to end the discussion. Still... “How can you know who’s on it and who isn’t if you can’t get access to it?”
“I asked Bernadette.”
“Jay’s secretary?” The thought of his chief financial officer’s assistant spending hours of valuable work time talking about a guy’s size and bank account sent the temperature in Forest’s head spiking.
“I overheard from my assistant that Bernadette is a member of the website and appears to be sworn to secrecy, but she confirmed that neither of us is on there.” Wen snorted as he drove over a bump and out into the bright sunshine. Light pounded on the front window and the summer heat filled the car. “Some of our associates aren’t so lucky.”
Forest ignored the steady stream of cars on the street in front of them and the honking of horns as some moron tried to make an illegal left in the middle of rush hour. “I think you need more work to occupy your time. I’ll get on that tonight.”
“It doesn’t bother you? The site I mean.” Wen glanced over at Forest, then away again. “And I’ve got enough work. But thanks.”
Everything about the day bothered him. Ryan’s idiocy. The way Ms. McAdam’s hips swayed when she walked, and the fact he kept noticing. “No.”
“What if one of your dates posts something negative on there? Do you understand what that could do to your social life?”
That was just about the last thing on Forest’s mind. “I’m fine.”
“I know you well enough to know you’d tear the city apart if your name goes up on the site.”
“You assume the information would be negative.”
Wen barked out a laugh as he turned right and moved into the flow of traffic. “Two hundred bucks says it is.”
Pissing away money didn’t make sense to Forest, but this was a bet he could win. “Five hundred says it’s not.”
“Of course, you may get to hold on to your money anyway even if I am right, since we won’t be able to verify what’s on the site to know who wins.”
“I’ll handle that.”
Wen’s attention left the traffic for a second only. “You think you can get in?”
Forest found his first smile of the afternoon. “I know I can.”
* * *
AN HOUR LATER, Jordan stood at the breakfast bar separating her kitchen from the small family room of her condo. She kicked off her high heels and nearly groaned in relief when her bare feet hit the cool tile floor. Working from her couch in her yoga pants qualified as the best part of being self-employed. She cursed every minute she had to slip on a suit and three-inch pumps and head outside.
But she was home now, having dragged her body through waves of humidity on the four-block walk from the metro to the condo. She glanced through the window at the far end of the open room and spied the top of a building on the George Washington University campus two blocks over. She loved living downtown and ten floors up. The lights and the steady hum of life below worked for her.
When the sun finally went down and the traffic below slowed, she’d throw open her balcony door and plop down on the chair she set up out there. The space spanned only a few feet, but was wide enough for her to lounge with her feet balanced on the metal railing as the D.C. summer heat enveloped her.
A face appeared in front of her. Blond-haired and entirely too cute to be believed with those big blue eyes. Elle stood there, dressed in comfortable shorts and a sweatshirt, thanks to having the air conditioner cranked up on this hot early-September evening.
She reached across the counter and grabbed a wineglass and a bottle before taking off for the couch. “How was your day with the urinator?”
Jordan followed with a glass of her own, because this definitely was a red-wine night and no way was she letting that bottle out of her sight. She also brought the cell phone, because heaven forbid she be without it or not check the site’s stats for more than ten seconds at a time.
“Ryan refrained from peeing on my desk before I cleaned out and left, so I guess that was a triumph.”
With an expertise that was impressive for a twenty-two-year-old English-literature grad student, Elle had the bottle open and the wine poured in one grand sweep. “Are you done at that office?”
“Definitely.” Jordan cradled the glass in her hands and let the rich scent of red wine wind through her and relax each muscle. She sank back into the overstuffed chair and balanced her aching feet on the oversize ottoman that sucked up too much of her eight-hundred-square-foot condo but was too comfortable to give away.
“Did he play a game of chase you around the desk?”
The very idea of that made Jordan’s lunch curdle in her stomach. “He was too busy getting his butt handed to him.”
The glass stopped halfway to Elle’s mouth. “Is that code for something?”
“Forest Redder.”
Those blue eyes went all soft as her look turned gooey. “I’ve seen pictures of him in the paper. That guy is delicious.”
Jordan was withholding judgment and ignoring the fact she’d performed a lengthy internet search on him on her phone on the commute home. “You should meet the live version. Very potent.”
“Holy shit.” Elle’s voice took on a breathy quality. “You saw him in person?”
“Saw, talked to.” Jordan dropped her cell on her lap and tipped her head back. Closing her eyes felt good until Forest’s face swam in front of her and she had to open them again. Last thing she needed was a movie of that guy, X-rated or otherwise, running in her head. “Anything on him in the database?”
“You know there’s not. You have every last scrap collated, double-checked and memorized.”
And that’s what bugged her. There should be reams of reports on Forest. “There’s no way he sleeps alone.”
“If not, no one is talking.”
Jordan sat up a bit straighter and shifted to face Elle. “How is that possible? I know about the guy a building over
