Ruthless Temptation (17 page)

Chapter
Nineteen

Madison
took her seat next to Viggo and listened to Ace and Emmett speak with a Storm
Trooper named Merrill. He was in a bunker under what used to be Tennessee, and
he said he had his radar equipment ready to go.

Viggo
spoke with Blaine for a few moments, then explained the plan to her. Dave was
going to use a back door into the program that he’d designed, but that he
wasn’t sure would still work because of the coding error the hackers had made.
It wouldn’t give him control of the program, but he was hoping to write code
that would give the program what he called a suggestion.

“
A suggestion to do what?” she asked.

“
To read the code he types in. Nothing more. He said
that’s a failsafe he put into the program that no one knew about, and that
would only work with a string of code he has to type in first. No one would
have been able to do this but him, because he gave no one else the necessary
string of code to use. If it works the way he hopes it will, the program will
read it. He can go into the code to see that it did. Then he can make another
suggestion to execute a command.”

“
And none of you could do this because you didn’t know
the code?”

“
That, and because we didn’t know this back door
existed. We didn’t know he’d built these features into it. No one knew,
including the hackers. He isn’t sure it will work because of their coding
error. He also isn’t sure the program will do anything beyond reading the
suggestion, even if he does get in. But it’s the only thing we have left to
try.”

“
What is he going to suggest it do, once it reads the
code?”

“
Cease activity for fifteen minutes.”

She
glanced toward the video screen where they could see Merrill in his bunker,
surrounded by computer equipment. “Oh, I get it now. Merrill is watching the
radar to see if that happens.”

“
Yes. Exactly. Dave is first going to access the
program and see if it will do step one. Read the code. Then if it does, he’s
going to wait until Merrill can get reliable signals from a weather satellite
that tell him there’s an active storm or two in the area. Dave will then tell the
program to execute the suggestion, and Merrill will monitor the radar to see if
the storm activity stops for fifteen minutes.”

“
But then what?”

“
Dave will write another suggestion.”

She
held her breath, letting him enjoy his dramatic pause. He and the others had
certainly earned the right to do that.

“
This time, he’ll tell the program to give him back
manual control.”

“
This sounds more far-fetched than reversing the
electromagnetic fields.”

“
That was a solid plan. If we could have figured out a
way to do it slowly, it would have worked.”

“
Do you think if we had more time they could still
figure out a way to accomplish that?”

“
I wish I knew.”

While
they waited for Dave to get into The Madeline Project through the back door,
Addison leaned over and told Viggo if this worked, he was going to tell Nadine
to come to Central.

“
They should all be here,” said Viggo. “If this works,
you all should have your wives and fiancées come here.”

“
I’m in!” Dave shouted. They all crowded around him.
“Holy fuck, I’m in.” He sat in front of a large computer monitor that currently
showed a black screen with white code on it. He typed furiously. “I’m telling
the program to read the line of code I’m typing.”

Madison
held her breath as Dave sat back and waited.

Everyone
around her let out a sound of relief when the next string of code appeared on
the screen. The program had agreed to read the code.

Viggo
leaned close to her. “Now we wait until Merrill finds storm activity that we
can monitor.”

She
nodded, waiting. At another table, Ace was talking softly to Merrill, letting
him know what was going on at their end. “This seems too easy,” she said.

“
It’s actually not,” said Emmett, from behind her.
“It’s very complicated programming.”

She
turned to face him. “If you had known about it, would you have been able to do
what Dave is doing now?”

He
shook his head. “No. We wouldn’t have known how to get in through this back
door. We also wouldn’t have known the code to ask the program to read our
suggestions. Only Dave knew about this.”

“
Then you needed him after all.”

Emmett
exchanged a glance with
Viggo
. “Yeah. We sure did.”

“
Okay,” said Dave, pushing his chair back. “You tell me
when to type the command to execute the suggestion.”

“
Let us know when there are storms,” said Ace,
addressing Merrill.

“
You know,” Merrill said, “even if they pop up, they
might not last fifteen minutes.”

“
I know. We’ll take our chances. There’s nothing else
left to try.”

“
That field reversal might work if you could space it
out over a few months.”

“
Maybe. But this is quicker.”

Madison
took Viggo’s hand again and wasn’t surprised to find it damp. Everything they’d
worked for all these years was riding on this. All they could now was wait.
More food was brought in, and although Madison wasn’t very hungry, Viggo talked
her into eating some fruit and cheese.

Most
of the other Weathermen were calling their wives or fiancées, letting them know
what was going on. Several said the women were getting on the first train to
join them here. Madison no longer felt like an outsider. The words Viggo had
finally spoken to her changed everything. She hadn’t realized how much she’d
needed verbal confirmation from him until he’d given it to her.

Angela
and Julianne came over to talk to her, and Viggo excused himself from the group
to join Blaine and Dominic near the computer where Ace was talking to Merrill.
When Julianne held up a piece of melon and asked the two if they’d tried it
yet, Madison asked Angela if she was feeling all right because she took a
couple of steps away and her face grew pale.

“
Lost my appetite for a lot of things lately, including
most fruit.”

Madison
and Julianne exchanged a glance. “Are you pregnant?” asked Julianne.

Angela
glanced around, and Madison clamped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God,” she
whispered. “Does Dominic know?”

“
Yes, of course he knows, but we aren’t saying anything
yet. Not until this is settled.”

Julianne
looked ready to burst with happiness. “But you moved your wedding out to
February. Will you change that now?”

“
I don’t know what he wants to do. I’m fine with going
down to the courthouse in CentralWest and having a quick ceremony, but he says
I’d be cheated out of a big shindig like Harper and Liane both had.”

“
If you weren’t pregnant, is that what you’d want?”
asked Madison.

Angela
smiled and touched her abdomen. “It still wouldn’t matter to me. I have
everything I want. I don’t need a huge wedding to define my relationship with
Dominic.”

Guilt
washed over Madison. Here she’d been fussing over Viggo saying three little
words, and Angela was so in love with Dominic that she didn’t care whether they
had a large wedding. She only wanted to be with him.

That
was the measure of love, right there. Not what the person said, but what they
did
. She’d always believed that. She was
ashamed that she had placed so much emphasis during the past week on hearing
Viggo say “I love you”.

Viggo
came over to stand beside her, and she took his hand, smiling up into his face.
Never again would she doubt this man’s love for her. He had shown it in
countless ways. She couldn’t wait to be alone with him once more. It had only
been a couple of days, but she missed making love to him.

He
leaned over to whisper in her ear, “We could be waiting a while. Would you like
to see the rest of the building?”

Shivers
ran down her spine at the tone of his voice. What an ingenious idea. “I’d love
to.”

As
they walked out into the hallway, if Angela or Julianne guessed what Viggo had
really meant, Madison was glad they’d kept it to themselves. He led her to the
dreaded elevator, then shook his head. “Let’s take the stairs. We’re only going
down one floor.”

“
Thank you. Where exactly are we going?”

“
You’ll see.”

“
What if they find the storms they need while we’re
gone?”

“
Blaine will call me.”

“
Oh, so you were certain I’d come with you, then?”

Viggo
stopped and stood on the riser below her so they were eye level. “I would have
found another way to get you alone for a while.” He kissed her, and she didn’t
care that they were in a stairwell. She’d fuck him right there if he wanted.

He
released her mouth, groaning as he did so, then took her hand again. “Come on.
I can’t wait much longer.”

The
third floor looked entirely different. It was a series of decorated rooms, all
bright and cheery. “What is this place?”

“
Living quarters, just in case.” He led her through a
maze of interconnecting rooms until they came to a bedroom. “This will do. No
one has used it in a long time so it smells a bit dusty, but we’ll have
privacy.”

“
How did you know all this was here?”

“
We’re the ones who set up the building once we were
told we could have it.”

He
pushed her down on the bed and undid his jeans. “I’m fucking dying here.”

She
laughed in delight. “It’s only been a couple of days.”

“
That’s too long to wait.”

How
could any woman resist this man? They were a tangle of arms and legs as they
shed their clothes and fell into each other’s arms on the bed. Madison had
never been this turned-on, and wasn’t sure if it was the excitement of knowing
Dave’s experiment might work, knowing Viggo loved her, or both.

But
it hardly mattered. She was here, with the man she loved, and nothing was more
important than that. He fished a condom out of his jeans pocket and donned it,
then sank his dick into her pussy.

Madison
cried out in pleasure and clung to him as he thrust deep and hard. This was
going to be a quick one, but she didn’t care. Her orgasm was swift and
powerful, and his cries joined hers as he climaxed before her contractions had
entirely finished.

“
Oh, baby. I’m sorry. I couldn’t hold back.”

“
I don’t mind. All that matters is we’re here,
together.”

He
finished thrusting, then kissed her again, holding her face in his hands. Both
of them were damp with sweat, and Madison couldn’t remember if the sex had ever
been hotter than this.

He
released her mouth and gazed at her with nothing short of love in his eyes. “No
matter what happens today with the experiment, I meant what I said. I love you
and I want you in my life, even if that life is only a couple years long from
this point on.”

“
I want that, too. But it will work. I know it will.”

He
caressed her face and stared at her for long moments. Then he kissed her again,
slowly this time, until her arousal built once more and she felt his cock
harden. He sat up suddenly. “Fuck. I only have one condom.”

“
I can do you another way.”

He
moaned softly. “Oh, sweetheart. As tempting as that is, I want to be inside
you.” He tore off the used condom, wincing as he did so. “Fuck it. I’m willing
to take the chance if you are.”

“
Excuse me?”

“
You don’t want kids one day?” He actually sounded
disappointed.

She
opened her mouth, but nothing came out at first. “Um … I don’t know. I haven’t
really given it much thought. But…” She had no idea how to put her questions
into words. She was stunned.

He
smiled. “You didn’t really understand what I meant when I said I wanted you
with me for the rest of my life. I meant as my wife.”

Holy shit
. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

He
chuckled. “Well, this isn’t exactly a romantic proposal, is it? But yes, I am.
I’ll do it right when we get the chance. I promise.”

“
Viggo…”

“
I love you, Madison. I’ve never felt this way about
anyone. Nothing is going to change my feelings. Nothing.”