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bit off his laughter.
    “That alarm is a big pain.” Something in her tone alerted him and he started running a diagnostic on the system from his computer.
    “No strange phone calls, or anything?” he asked, just to keep her talking while the system ran its check.
    “Other than this one? No.”
    “There’s nothing odd about one friend calling to check on another.”
    “I thought you were Josette’s friend.”
    “Is there anything that says I can’t be yours as well?”
    “Um…no.”
    “Good.” Then his computer beeped and he glared at the screen, wanting to bite something. “Why did you disable the alarm, Claire?”
    There were probably only a handful of people in the country that could have done it without the code, which he had not given   her   on purpose. And according to the stats he was now looking at, she’d done it a lot faster than even she should have been able to.
    “How do you know I did?”
    “I ran a diagnostic.”
    “Oh. You mean you have my security system hooked up to your computer?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s how you knew it had gone off?”
    “Uh-huh. I didn’t leave instructions for the cops to call, but maybe I should fix that.”
    “Don’t you dare. This was humiliating enough as it is.”
    “The alarm can’t do you any good turned off.”
    “I’m not having the police out here every other day because I accidentally set it off. That’s just not okay, Hotwire.”
    “So don’t set it off.”
    She was silent on the other end of the line.
    “Come on, sugar. I know you struggle with focusing on the world around you sometimes, but you can train yourself to remember the alarm.”
    “Why do you call me sugar? I’m not a piece of candy.”
    “You taste as sweet as one.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    “Trust me. I’d rather suck on your tongue than a peppermint stick any day of the week.”
    “You’re flirting with me,” she said accusingly.
    “And I bet you’re blushing.” She acted tough, but she reacted to the attraction between them with more vulnerability than he was sure she wanted to admit to.
    She sighed, the soft sound shivering through him. “Maybe.”
    “You’re awfully innocent for a woman of twenty-eight.”
    “Innocent is one thing I’m not.” The cynicism in her tone was absolute. “And how did you know how old I am? Did you hack into my identity records?”
    “No. I found out the old-fashioned way. I asked Josie.”
    “Oh.”
    “You’re not going to sidetrack me from the issue at hand.”
    “I wasn’t trying to sidetrack you.”
    No, it probably hadn’t been on purpose. She just had a tendency to jump from one subject to another. “I’m turning the alarm back on and this time I want you to leave it that way.”
    “If it goes off again, I’m cutting the wires.”
    “You’ll do no such thing.”
    “Watch me.”
    “You do not have authorization to dismantle the alarm.”
    “This is not the military. I don’t need authorization. I’m the one living here. If I don’t want an alarm disrupting my life, I don’t have to have one.”
    “Then move out, but as her renter, you have no right to circumvent measures Josie has put in place to protect her property. The alarm and the house it safeguards belong to her, not you.” The words were harsh, but he had no choice.
    He couldn’t force her to keep the alarm enabled from several hundred miles away, and he’d already used the argument about Claire’s own safety to no avail. She refused to give credence to his concerns, but that didn’t make them any less real. And he refused to dismiss them because she didn’t want the inconvenience of remembering the alarm.
    “You’re right,” Claire said, her voice subdued. “I’m just the renter. This isn’t my home. I won’t disconnect the alarm again. If that was all you needed…”
    Josie was going to kill him. He’d hurt Claire’s feelings and he wasn’t all that happy about it himself. “Claire—”
    “Thank you for calling to check on