Bad Boys Online by Erin McCarthy

know what you’re talking about.” He really didn’t.
    She pointed her finger at him. “Now you listen to me. How do you feel about Kindra?”
    Sick with love. He tugged at his tie. “That’s none of your business.”
    “Do you love her?”
    He couldn’t say yes, but he couldn’t say no either. He looked at Ashley in agony.
    She nodded in satisfaction. “Good. She loves you too, you know, but she thinks you were in it for the sex.”
    “I never said that!”
    “You never said otherwise,” Miss Wisdom pointed out to him.
    Mack ran his fingers through his hair. Could it be true? Did Kindra love him? Hope rose like a hot air balloon.
    But what if she didn’t?
    “Do you think I should tell her how I feel now?”
    “No, I think you should both spend the rest of your lives miserable for being so stupid.” She rolled her eyes. “Yes, you should tell her!”
    Mack barely even noticed Ashley’s sarcasm. If Ashley was wrong about Kindra’s feelings, he certainly couldn’t feel any lousier than he did right now.
    And if she was right…
    Oh, man. Bliss.
    Mack had an idea. He bent and squeezed Ashley by the shoulders. “Thanks, Ashley. I owe you one.”
    Then he turned and headed to his office, telling himself that Kindra was worth all the embarrassment he would suffer if this didn’t work.
     
     
    Kindra was still in shock an hour later. What exactly had Mack been doing?
    Had she wounded his male ego by telling him one night was enough?
    Rubbing her temples, she spat hair out of her mouth. Wearing the hair down was supposed to be symbolic, but it was just getting on her nerves. She was constantly pawing it to get it out of her way.
    The words on her screen were blurring in front of her. She’d been hiding in her office since she had walked away from Mack, and she couldn’t concentrate on anything.
    She’d been staring at the same proposal for a solid thirty minutes and the words were dancing tiny tangos with each other.
    Frustrated, she clicked to check her email. Anything to distract her. It was possible there would be another pleading message from Russ begging her not to sever their relationship.
    Those had been his exact words after she had emailed him the night before telling him she wasn’t interested any longer. The word relationship made her snort out loud.
    Talking about sex in a chat room was not a relationship.
    Neither was one night together.
    She groaned. This wasn’t distracting her from thinking about Mack.
    She was a federal disaster area. Hurricane Kindra.
    Then her eye landed on her new messages. There was one from Mack Stone.
    “Oh, no.”
    If he talked dirty to her, she was not going to be able to resist.
    One eye closed, the other covered by her hand, she clicked to open the email. Then she spread her fingers and held her breath.
    The message was short.
    Marry me .
    Kindra dropped her hands and gripped her desk. “Ohmigod, ohmigod.”
    Was this some sort of cruel joke from Mack or Russ or some office prankster? Her vision went blurry.
    Her stomach lurched like she’d had bad calamari.
    The door to her office opened.
    Frantic, she bent her head and scrolled down so her screen was blank. Praying it was Ashley, she said, “Yes?” in a bright fake voice.
    “Woof.”
    What the heck was that? Her head snapped around. She turned, blinking hard.
    Now she’d seen everything. Truly. Mack was standing in her doorway with a fluffy white poodle sticking out of his computer backpack.
    “What are you doing?” she blurted out.
    “Hoping like hell I’m not making an ass out of myself.”
    No comment.
    Kindra turned back towards her screen, her heart pounding way too fast to be normal. If she passed out, she hoped Mack would think to call 911. “Did you just send me a message?”
    “If it said ‘marry me’ then yes, I did.”
    That’s it. She was gone. Tears raced down her face and she struggled not to blubber. “Why?”
    “Kindra.” He took a step forward. “Because I love