The Virtual Man [The Virtual Reality 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Nikki Sinclaire Page B

furniture. A very naked Derek Hart dropped the full two inches to the floor, landing on his muscular legs.
    Tiana dropped back onto the couch and made herself comfortable. “For the record, Derek, I still think you whine too much.”

Chapter 13

Solving the Puzzle
    Tiana felt a blush claim her face as she stared at Derek’s exposed and rather large …
red alert, red alert, dangerous thoughts in attack formation!
“Okay, Mr. Hart, you appear to be real enough, but you don’t seem to be wearing any ‘real clothes’. Would you mind putting something on?” She managed to get the words out, instantly cursing herself for suggesting he cover himself.
    “I can’t,” he responded without making any attempt at covering himself, quite comfortable in his current state of undress and arousal.
    “What do you mean, you can’t?”
    “When you ended the program, you also ended my clothes.”
    “Well, put on whatever it was you were wearing when you snuck in here.”
    “This is what I was wearing when I snuck in here.”
    “Computer, dress this man in jeans and a black T-shirt … err … make that a black muscle shirt.”
    The computer complied immediately by materializing the requested items of clothing on Derek’s body. The full impact of her actions sunk in. She had dressed him in a muscle shirt so she could continue to admire his body.
What was she thinking!!!
    “Okay, I’ve fulfilled my end of the deal,” she said. “I’ve let you down and out of the goodness of my heart I’ve even clothed you. Now it’s your turn. How in the world did you get into this mess? The news feed said you were some kind of scientist.”
    Derek was starting to relax, but she could still see a little distrust in his eyes.
Good. That’ll teach him
. She chuckled to herself.
    “I was, or rather, I am. Six months ago I was the top expert in holography in the galaxy. I was a red-hot commodity, at least, until I met a certain lady, and I use the term ‘lady’ rather loosely, by the name of Melinda Harris. I met Melinda at a symposium at which I presented a paper on creating high-definition holographic objects with limited computing resources, my specialty, and the single piece of the puzzle that made holographic chambers affordable and therefore available to the masses. She was everything a man could hope for, or so I though at the time, and I fell hard for her.”
    Tiana squirmed in her seat at the thought of Derek with another woman. The thought of him getting physical with any female bothered her, but the thought of him caring for, or worse, loving another woman really pissed her off. Now that she knew Derek to be part of her reality, she found herself wantonly attracted to him, perhaps even emotionally attached to him.
    This is crazy, the man is an escaped convict
.
    Derek continued his story.
    “I kept records of my work at home and often worked remotely from the house. To my delight, Melinda. being not just my lover but a colleague, was extremely interested in my work. I’d bounce ideas off of her. She would help me refine holographic objects. It was the perfect relationship.”
    The word ‘lover’ in the context of the conversation made Tiana sick.
Bitch!!!!
    “Twice I caught her logged in under my user ID, looking over my latest refinements. I didn’t think much of it, as she was helping me with the work, but since it was a security breach and violated company policy, I asked her not to do it again and changed my password. Both times she apologized, and promised it would be the last time.”
    “I then started seeing reports on the nightly news of houses being burglarized. In each and every case, the house’s security systems were bypassed as if it had been an inside job. All these homes belonged to wealthy people and had one other thing in common. They all had the household model holographic chamber I had designed. Eventually the Galactic Bureau of Investigation put two and two together and started checking out the