Tech Support (Working Stiffs Book 4)

by S. L. Carpenter

  Chip and Dale had come back from escorting Matt and Kevin out of TechNow, and were talking to Lulu; it sounded like they were making plans for lunch. Something about Lulu wanting a sandwich with two beefcakes or something.

  If his mind wasn’t on other things, he might have been amused and taken notes for Denise, but he let it go. The hostile takeover was history, thanks to his brilliant assistant, some quick talking and more than a few power plays.

  But he’d messed up in other ways, and he knew it. He’d won a massive corporate battle, but in the process he’d lost Merry.

  “I’m going to leave, guys. You know the drill. Double check their offices and then you’re done.”

  “You got it, boss. You need one of us to take you somewhere?” asked Chip.

  “Nah, you have some fun after the two jerks leave. Stay an extra day. Clean things up. Find a hotel close by. Charge it to the company.”

  Lulu cleared her voice, “Um, they can come stay with me…it will be no problem at all. In fact it’ll be most convenient and cost effective too.”

  With a grin and a shake of his head Chad turned to leave. “You all have fun. Remember, Lulu, if you hear from Merry…”

  “I’ll let her know you’re trying to get in touch,” she nodded. “Got it.”

  “Thank you.” He paused and smiled at her. “You’re good at your job and TechNow is lucky to have you. Keep doing what you’re doing. I’m going to take a close look at some special Christmas bonuses this year…” He winked. “Your name’s gonna be on it. You’ve been a good girl this year.”

  It wasn’t much, but it was all Chad could do. She certainly deserved it, and he wondered if she’d ever seen any of the bonus money that each department received come the holidays. To judge from her stuttered thanks and the glow on her face, he doubted it.

  But a couple of days with Chip and Dale, and a nice end of year bonus should go some way toward making up for it.

  He had to fly back to California, and since the Double Duet was pretty much in the bag, that department would have chance to reorganize itself over the next month or so. He’d tap Denise for a few names of suitable replacements.

  Knowing the new positions would be filled by people Denise approved, would ease the fears of having a new set of assholes running the place into the ground. She had people on her short list that would do a helluva better job than the two he’d just fired.

  He sighed as he left, settling into the car and hitting the highway back to the airport.

  For once, he hated the thought of flying home. Back to the routine and the pressures, still haunted by the knowledge that Merry was out there somewhere, hiding, and he couldn’t really blame her. He’d had no choice, he’d believed, since he couldn’t make his identity public.

  But he knew he’d fucked up with Merry. It ate at him because he knew he should have been up front and honest with her as soon as things got hot and heavy. He just didn’t want to change things or stop where they were headed, and he was afraid that if she’d known who he was she’d never have invited him to spend the night.

  And God, what he’d have missed.

  He succumbed to his worst habit—overthinking. He’d always had a hard time trusting people, and this time it had bitten him in the ass. If only he’d had more time, more guts, less need for her…yeah, old habits die hard.

  He knew he had to be in the head office for a while; the after effects of their corporate near-miss would be felt for some time and he needed to keep his hands firmly on the wheel right now. His face had been, and continued to be, plastered everywhere so whatever private life he might try to have would be exposed, no matter what.

  Everything he had kept under wraps for so long was potentially going to become public, and the heat would be right on him for a while. But all he kept thinking about was “what if?”

  Perhaps Denise could track Merry down. People didn’t just vanish off the face of the earth these days—there were far too many electronic footprints to follow. Cell phone pings, credit card records…maybe a private detective could help.

  He sighed as he fastened his seat belt and realized he was about to fly away from the one woman who had completely let him be free. The sex was awesome. Actually it was mind blowing, and could well be described as the best he’d ever had. Now it was gone.

  He’d survive. Of course he’d survive.

  But damn, he missed her already.

  Chapter Eight

  Six months later, spring, Las Vegas, Nevada

  “Setup looks awesome, Merry.” Kat came up to the booth and looked over the neat table, filled with flyers, business cards, buttons and all the usual promotional stuff that goes along with a trade show.

  On the large screen behind it, the video of HomeGrownGames new offering played in HD, attracting more than a little attention as the dragon riders took off for the stars.

  “It’s getting some legs, I think” nodded Merry. “I’ve had several inquiries about licensing, so with luck we’ll be able to hit a big chain when this is done.”

  “Damn straight,” grinned Stan.

  “You’ve been shopping,” accused Kat, staring at his backpack which overflowed with t-shirts, various scarves, buttons and what looked like either a Koroni laser blaster or a light saber. Or maybe a combination of both.

  “Of course,” nodded Stan. “Your point? It’s a tech con.” As if that explained everything, Stan tucked his pack behind the booth and strolled off.

  Kat shook her head. “I wish Deb were here. She’d keep him in line.”

  “I know,” said Merry. “I miss her too. But she’s got family responsibilities. We unattached single people don’t.”

  Kat eyed the scantily clad warrior who was walking the exhibit floor. “Morning, Dar’a’fleykin,” she grinned.

  His eyes lit up, he shifted the halberd on his shoulder and walked over to the booth, his chain mail loincloth rattling over thighs that looked like bits of a redwood tree.

  “Greetings, maiden.”

  “Well, technically…” Kat grinned, “Oh never mind. Wanna do a walkabout, Sir Dar? I’ll buy you a helm of jorisblood. Or a cappuccino, whichever they got…”

  “Sure thing, cutie.”

  They walked off together, leaving Merry to watch as a variety of attendees, both human and otherworldly, sauntered past. Some stopped to talk about the video game and app that she and her little gang had developed, an intergalactic fantasy adventure game that had made an early name for itself and was now heading for a really good ranking.

  It had been in their back pockets for some time, but when…well, when things fell apart at TechNow, Merry took it as a sign that the world was ready to rock, roll and kill things while sitting on space dragons.

  And, as always happened when she had those thoughts, Chad popped back into her head.

  One night, goddammit. One fucking night.

  Or one night of fucking. Whichever way she looked at it, she couldn’t help but be amazed at what an impact it had had, and how angry she still was with herself that she couldn’t seem to put it aside, forget about it, or not wake up every morning wondering about him and what he was doing.

  There’d been nothing in the papers, other than the usual news releases when something new was presented. None of their business dealings mattered particularly, but she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the Double Duet.

  And once again, there he was, damn him. No matter where her thoughts led, Chad managed to squeeze in there somewhere.

  She hadn’t dated anyone, not just because of him, but also because she was working balls to the wall—or tits to the wall in her case—on the game. The graphics, the animations, the design and the execution…both for the app and the hard copy version…it had taken many eighteen-hour days and far too much caffeine.

  She was worn out, and she knew the others were as well. It had been a labor of love, sweat, blood and tears, not to mention almost every penny she’d tucked away. The others had put in what they coul
d, but she was the one with so much on the line.

  That first day, when the app had gone live…she could still feel the shiver of excitement as their feed started to show people actually buying it and downloading it. At midnight, they were mostly drunk, still staring at the monitors and rapidly approaching the sloppy kisses stage of developers with a success on their hands.

  It was the first night she’d slept more than four hours consecutively in several months.

  That had been followed by a hastily assembled business meeting, the creation of their own LLC, reams of papers to sign, and the hiring of two real people who helped with things like customer emails, promotions and setting up travel.

  Which had brought them here, to Las Vegas, with a real booth at a real tech convention, hoping to catch the eyes of an exec from one of the big guys.

  It could well happen.

  Her cell phone buzzed and she took a few minutes to talk to Deb and update her on all the good stuff, including Kat and the warrior with the chain mail loincloth. Deb’s laughter echoed in her ears as she ended the call, and moved out into the aisle to stretch her legs a little and straighten her giveaways into neat lines.

  Her gaze roamed idly over the crowd, growing now as the morning sessions let out and the visitors could hit the display booths.

  She turned back to her booth, about to stand behind the table, when a hand tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Hello, Merry.”

  She glanced over her shoulder—and sucked in a gasp. For a second she couldn’t believe her eyes, but then he smiled.

  Fuck.

  There was a microsecond during which her brain ran in circles screaming with its hands over its ears. Then she found her mental feet.

  “Chad? What on earth are you doing here?” She kept her tone polite and moved to put the table between them.

  “We have a booth at the far end of the next aisle over.” He looked at her material and glanced at the screen. “Nice setup. And a cool game. I’ve played it.”

  Her heart was doing an Irish step dance, but she fought for control. “How nice of you to say so.” She squared up her brochures. “Well, I’m sure you’re busy, so…” she looked up. “It was nice to see you again. Good luck with the show.”

  He opened his mouth but at that moment, two other enthusiastic players walked up and immediately began asking Merry about the game.

  By the time she’d finished chatting with them, Chad had gone.

  “And good riddance,” she said aloud.

  The rest of the afternoon went quickly, since the flow of interested attendees kept her busy, and even Kat and Stan found themselves two-deep at various times during the afternoon. A rep from Sony spent half an hour with Merry, and his comments were both flattering and intriguing from a business perspective.

  As the booth area prepared to closed down for the day, Merry stood and stretched her spine. “Well that was one hell of a day, gang.”

  “No arguments from me,” agreed Kat. “And I have a date with a warrior for dinner,” she grinned. “What y’all doing?”

  Merry closed down and locked the booth, making sure all was ready for the next day as Stan picked up his overflowing pack and added a couple more t-shirts to it. “Met a dude with the latest VR unit. It’s a working demo, so me and a couple of other guys are gonna meet up and put it through its paces.”

  “Cooool,” said Merry. “Let me know what you think? I’ve been wondering if we have any kind of a spinoff potential that might work for VR…”

  “You got it.” Stan nodded and took himself off with his usual brevity.

  “So, Merry…what’s your plans for this evening?”

  “I…”

  “She’s having dinner with me.”

  Kat’s jaw dropped as Chad spoke from behind her.

  “Hello Kat. Lovely to see you here. I hope all’s good with you?” He smiled, a friendly smile, as if it really was a pleasure to see her again.

  The scumbag.

  “I have plans, Kat.” Merry retrieved her bag. “And not with this…this shithead.” She couldn’t help it. It just popped out, but she didn’t regret it. Walking away from him, she lifted her chin. Fuck him.

  “It’s actually Christopher, Chad Christopher, but if you want to call me shithead, that’s okay too. I like pet names, hunny-bunny.”

  Kat shot a look at the two of them. “Right. I’m off. See ya.” And she vanished into the crowd like the Phantasmic Gorgon of Dorian Five.

  Chad stuck to Merry, refusing to let the crowd separate them.

  “Go away,” she said.

  “Are you kidding? I’ve just found you again.”

  “I wasn’t lost.”

  “I was.”

  She turned off the sales floor and onto the corridor leading to the elevators. “Yeah, sure. Like I believe that, any more than anything you ever said to me. Mister Anderson.”

  “You’re angry.”

  “Oh fucking brilliant deduction there, dude. No wonder you’re the boss of the world.”

  He sighed. “I don’t blame you.”

  “Good.” They reached the elevators and stood at the back of the other forty-five thousand people lined up to go to their rooms and prepare for a big night in Vegas.

  “I was stupid,” he said quietly.

  “Ya think?” She refused to look at him.

  “I would like to apologise. Have dinner with me.”

  “Is crow pie on the menu? You could use a good helping.”

  “Merry, let me explain, dammit…”

  “No, I won’t.” She spun around to face him. “I don’t want or need an explanation. You lied, you spent time with a bunch of good people under false pretenses. You lied to them too. You let us think you were just one of us regular folks, but was that the real you? Nooooo…”

  “Merry…” Chad looked around as the line moved forward and six elevators filled, leaving half a dozen folks frustrated as the doors slid shut. “Can we talk about this?”

  “We are,” she hissed. “You were as dishonest as the day is long. Both to the division and to me.”

  “I fired those two assholes…”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Fine. One good deed at least. Doesn’t make up for the rest of it.”

  “Please. Give me chance to explain.”

  “Why the fuck should I?” Her temper was roiling in her gut, a ball of acid eating away at her restraint. “Give me one good reason, Chad. You lied.” She raised a hand and started ticking his transgressions off on her fingers. “You pretended to be someone you weren’t. You never let on that not only were you not who you said you were, you actually pulled the strings of the entire fucking company.”

  “I know,” he nodded sadly.

  “And to top it all off, you fucked my brains out…then walked away. What the hell makes you think I’d want a damn thing from you? Ever?”

  “Damn straight, girl. You rock. Don’t let him get away with shit like that.”

  Merry blinked as a very buxom blonde in a very small mini dress walked past them with a swing of her hips and a click of her stiletto heels.

  “Uh, thanks…”

  Chad’s face was turning all kinds of red as the remaining people had given up staring at the elevator indicators, and turned to watch the battle royal between him and Merry.

  Cell phones were doubtless recording the drama. They’d be trending on YouTube if this kept up. Merry gritted her teeth.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake…” exasperated, Chad grabbed Merry’s arm and pulled her away, almost dragging her along the corridor to the next bank of elevators. One door was opening, and he pushed her inside. The doors slid shut, leaving them miraculously alone.

  “I can’t take this one,” she frowned. “It only goes to the concierge floors.”

  “Shut up.” He hit the button for the forty-fifth floor.

  “What are you doing? I’m on eighteen.”

  “I’m on forty-five.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but he
put his hand on her chin and pulled her face to his. “I said shut up.”

  And he kissed her.

  Furious, she fought him, ready to knee him in the groin if she had to. But then his tongue thrust into her mouth and the taste of him…she weakened.

  “Asshole,” she tore her mouth away from his.

  “You’re talking. Stop it.” He took her mouth again, roughly this time, claiming all of it with his tongue and pulling her body up against his. There was no tenderness, just hunger, a need she could feel growing inside her.

  Something else was growing outside her, as Chad’s interest was getting harder by the minute.

  She pushed away again. “You think you’re in control of everything, don’t you? Me, the world around you, your company…”

  “Merry… just shut up…”

  This time when he kissed her, he grabbed her ass, pushing their bodies together and pushing his solid cock into the gap between her thighs.

  She moaned into his mouth.

  The elevator whizzed to a halt, Merry’s ears popped and the bell dinged.

  “Fuck,” she whispered.

  “Yes. Come on. Let’s settle this.”

  “Yes,” she said. “We do need to settle this. Time you understood that you can’t always be in control…”

  *~*~*~*~*

  She leaned back, moaning, feeling heaven between her thighs. All the tension had been licked away by her man’s tongue as she rested her pussy above his face. “Fuck Chad. That was beautiful.” She paused. “Chad? Are you okay?”

  All she heard was a mumble and a laugh, so she slid down his chest and abdomen leaving a trail of her sex behind her. She was so wet and relaxed she wasn’t sure if she should untie him or not.

  “Damn you taste good,” he murmured, his voice deep and sexy. “Mmmm, like warm honey.”

  Merry dropped a kiss on his chest and sighed. She’d found her safe place and fulfilled a need that had been growing for six months. The toys didn’t help, and she’d run out of battery coupons.

  He shifted a little. “All right, Merry. Are you going to untie me?”