“Ugh,” says Hailey. “I can still hear them fucking.”
Sure enough, there’s the distinctive sound of mattress springs squealing and screeching, as well as a pounding on the floor above us.
“They’re really going at it, eh?” I say, feeling uncomfortable for obvious reasons.
Hailey shrugs. “Sounds pretty normal. Probably just missionary position.”
I’m pretty sure I blush. I mean, it’s not like I don’t know about different positions. I can name a lot of them, and I’ve seen the drawings, and even the porn, when I was curious. I mean, who hasn’t? But I have no idea what each position feels like, and I don’t know why someone would prefer one position over the other.
“How can you tell?”
“Don’t worry,” says Hailey, ignoring me. “You’ll get laid soon enough, as soon as you’re ready for it. As you saw the other night, the guys are just dying for you.”
I blush again as a seriously loud series of grunts erupts from the floor above us.
“I can’t believe we can hear that even down here,” says Hailey, cringing.
“People like sex,” I say. “Why don’t we like hearing it?”
“I guess because it’s sex we’re not having,” says Hailey, shrugging.
Sometimes, she’s not so much of a morning person.
“So tell me about working with him,” she says. “Was it weird, after the other night?”
I nod. “I was pretty uncomfortable at first,” I say. “But soon it just became about the programming…”
“You and those computers.”
I laugh. “It’s fun,” I say. “I don’t know why people say only guys can do it.”
Hailey shrugs. “It’s just run of the mill sexism.”
“I guess. Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t sleep with him. He’s really kind of an asshole.”
“He is called the douchebag billionaire,” says Hailey. “I imagine he’s worked hard to earn such an esteemed nickname.”
“Yeah,” I say. “He’s just all about money. I mean… he’s really authoritative. I can just tell he knows what he wants and he gets it. I pissed him off by not sleeping with him… And now, someone’s threatening his position as this famous genius coder, and he’s going to do whatever it takes to exert his will…”
“What was that?” says Hailey.
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“Sounded like the doorbell. Let me go check.”
“I didn’t even know we had a doorbell.”
“That’s because you’re always listening to your headphones.”
Hailey gets up and leaves my room. I can hear her treading softly in her socks as she moves through the rest of the house.
Up above, and around me, I can still hear the roommates having sex.
I blush, even though I’m by myself, and I find that my thoughts drift back to Ryan Hudson, and that night that we “spent together,” even though we didn’t actually have sex. How would I feel now if I had gone through with it? Would I resent it, regret it, or would it have been the best decision I’d ever made? People talk about just getting it over with and moving on, but I don’t think that kind of thing is even possible with Ryan Hudson. He doesn’t seem like the type of guy that you can just move on from.
Hailey comes back into the room, holding the largest bouquet of flowers I’ve ever seen.
“They’re roses,” she says, giving me a coy smile.
“Roses?” I say. “Who are they for?”
“Guess.”
I shrug. “No idea.”
“They’re for you. And guess who they’re from?”
“Ryan Hudson?”
“Yup!” she says, handing me the flowers. I have to stand up to take them, and they’re so big it’s actually hard to hold them without them overtaking my face and pushing into my hair.
“Wow,” says Hailey. “You must have made quite the impression, even without sleeping with him. What did you guys talk about yesterday at the office?”
“Nothing,” I say, confused. “I don’t understand. He basically ignored me yesterday. Why would he send me roses?”
“He’s thinking about you,” says Hailey, suppressing a giggle. “He wants you, that’s pretty clear. Guys like that don’t send roses usually. They just take what they want.”
“You think he really wants me?” I say.
“Of course.”
I put the roses down awkwardly on their side on the floor, since there’s nowhere else to put them. I try not to damage them, but I think one on the bottom is already a little mushed.
“They do smell nice,” I say, leaning down and inhaling deeply.
Hailey slaps my ass lightly. “Look at that ass,” she says, giggling. “It got you your own billionaire.”
I sit back up, so that my ass isn’t sticking out as it was.
“My own douchebag billionaire,” I say. “And I’m not so sure…”
“Come on,” says Hailey. “You two working together in the office… late nights… everyone else has gone home for the night… and he sent you roses… something’s bound to happen…”
“I’m not sure I want anything to happen,” I say.
“Let’s see how you feel about that in a week,” says Hailey, giving me a knowing smile and a wink.
There’s an extra loud groan from above, and finally the bed springs stop making their horrible noise.
“Looks like someone’s finally finished,” says Hailey.
“I’ve got to get to work,” I say, checking the time.
“Have fun,” says Hailey, trying to slap my ass again as a joke, but I pull away from her.
Half an hour later, I’m at the office, sitting in my cubicle next to Jerry, chatting with him about the algorithm.
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s pretty crazy. I’ve never worked on a project like this.”
“Well, it’s a big opportunity,” says Jerry. “I just don’t know if we’re going to be able to come up with something. This sort of thing is usually done by a huge team of programmers with lots of experience. Me, I’ve been at this a long time, but I’m pretty rusty.”
“And I’m new,” I say. “But aren’t some of the best programs written by little teams of hackers?”
Jerry shrugs. “When you’re young, it’s different.”
Well, I think to myself, I’m pretty young.
And I’d be surprised if Ryan doesn’t still have it in him. There’s just something about his presence that simply… dominates and commands. If he wants to make a better algorithm, he’s just going to fucking do it.
“He’s not here yet?” I say.
Jerry shakes his head.
“I guess I should be reading this employee manual,” I say. “I still haven’t finished it yet.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” says Jerry. “You know, everyone in the office has been asking me about what’s going on. They’re really surprised to see Ryan here.”
“I can imagine,” I say. “After years of not really doing any work… but why doesn’t Ryan get everyone to work on it?”
“Most of the people here aren’t programmers,” says Jerry. “They’re basically just salesmen who know a little about programming, just enough to sell the product.”
I swear that I feel his presence before I see him.
It’s just a solid, commanding presence. He’s here to get what he wants. He’s here to do what he needs to do.
But does he want a better algorithm, or does he want me?
I’m so confused.
I see him, his suit practically gleaming even in the dull fluorescent lighting. His stubble is still perfect, as it perpetually is. His eyes seem to drill right into me. He focuses in on me and doesn’t look at anything else in the office as he walks right towards me.
There’s an arrogant grin on his face.
“You like the flowers?” he growls.
“Flowers?” says Jerry.
Ryan completely ignores him.
I don’t sa
y anything for a moment out of embarrassment. After all, Jerry’s right here.
“Well?” growls Ryan, seeming to look straight through me.
My breathing gets tighter, faster. I feel something happening in my body…
“Yeah,” I say. “They’re nice.”
Ryan continues to look at me for what feels like an eternity. Jerry’s silent. He knows who the boss is.
“Well,” says Ryan. “Let’s get to work. We’ve got a special member of the team for today.”
“Who?” I say.
“Johnny Robbins.”
“Like the Johnny Robbins, the guy who hacked the…?”
“I’m surprised you know about him,” says Ryan, cutting me off.
“Of course,” I say. “He’s famous…”
“Only in certain circles.”
“Well, I am interested in computers…”
Ryan makes a sound that’s something between a grunt and a “hmmph,” a sound that’s unreadable. Like always with him, I feel like I don’t know what he’s thinking.
But one thing is crystal clear now, despite all the other doubts—and that’s that he wants me. He wants me. It’s clear in the way he looks at me, the way that he moves, and of course, the flowers.
Ryan
Johnny Robbins is late, so the three of us get started. That’s typical of Johnny, and in fact, I’m surprised he called me so early. Like most expert hackers, he’s an extreme night owl. For all I know, he was actually still awake from the night before when he called me this morning.
The three of us get started, poring over the code.
Lily is drinking coffees from the vending machine back to back, and Jerry is already having trouble staying awake. This is a little too much for him.
I can’t take my eyes off Lily. It’s no longer just her body for me, and her incredible curves, but it’s every little way that she moves. I find myself watching her, not caring whether she notices, just to see how she’ll brush her hair back, or how she’ll adjust herself in her seat.
My cock twitches each time she moves.
I find myself focusing on every little sound she makes, especially her breathing, which I know changes, growing more rapid, when she glances over and sees me staring at her.
It’s hard to get my mind on the code.
I can only think about her.
No woman has ever had this effect on me before. Sure, I’ve felt lust. I’ve been with countless supermodels, but they pale in comparison to her.
Today, she’s wearing something professional, but I can’t help but notice that she’s got on a different type of bra, one that pushes her breasts up and forward more, augmenting her already ample bust, which rises and falls with her breathing.
“I didn’t think I was in the right place,” says someone, appearing at the door.
“Hey Johnny,” I say, aware that my cock is half hard in my pants and probably visible, but I don’t care. That’s what happens when I stare at Lily for so long.
“So this is the office?” he says, making a face.
“You’re used to more luxury?” I say. “I find that hard to believe.”
Johnny laughs. He’s wearing all black: black jeans, black shoes, and a black button up shirt that’s unbuttoned up top. His hair is long, and a very dark brown that’s almost black. He’s thin, and while not conventionally handsome, certain women have been known to fall for him. His skin looks like he hasn’t seen the sun in years.
“I’m used to more like… squatter hacker spaces, and all that…”
“Oh yeah,” I say, dismissively. “Hacking away in abandoned buildings, stealing wi-fi.”
“You’re all about the money, though,” says Johnny. “You always were.”
“But you’re here,” I say.
“I’m just here for the code.”
“Oh, let me introduce you…”
I present him to Lily, whose eyes widen since she knows his hacking fame, and Jerry, whose eyes are filled with sleep.
“Well,” says Johnny unceremoniously. “Let’s get to work.”
“I figure you’ve got your own laptop,” I say.
“You know it,” says Johnny, launching into an explanation of the specs of his machine, which I could frankly care less about.
I’ve never been that kind of tech guy. I just want the stuff to work. I don’t care about the specs. Like I said, I’ve never been a nerd. I just happen to have a mind for programming.
Johnny hunches over in his horrible posture, pulls out his laptop, and says, “Here, this is what I wanted to show you.”
It’s a research paper that’s never been published. It’s by Simmons, the creator of the new algorithm.
“Where’d you get this?” I say.
Johnny just chuckles. “Let’s just say it’d be better not to say.”
“Wow,” says Lily, who’s leaning over to see the machine. Johnny is sitting to the left of me, and I’m extremely aware of Lily’s body as she leans in, approaching me. Her left breast is only a couple inches from my shoulder.
She notices it too, and glances at me sideways for just a fraction of a second. If I wasn’t already looking at her, I never would have noticed it… but I see something in her eyes.
She seems to be holding her breath slightly, aware that my presence makes her breathe harder.
“So,” I say, getting the gist of the article by reading it quickly. “This basically outlines his approach. But then he realized that he could just write the algorithm himself and not publish it, making a lot of money instead of getting academic fame… my kind of guy.”
“Yeah,” says John. “And I think we can reverse engineer his algorithm with this approach. Basically he’s going…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say. “I get it. He’s basically rewriting the simple shuffle algorithm. But that doesn’t give us quite enough information…”
Johnny gives us all a copy of Simmons’s unpublished research paper on a USB drive. “This isn’t something you email,” he says with a wink.
Another ten minutes go by, with all us on our own computers, trying to figure out how to apply the article to the code we’ve been studying.
“Oh!” says Lily, suddenly sitting up, her eyes looking excited.
I use the moment as another opportunity to take her all in. The curve of her spine, this time, drives me wild, not to mention her breasts, which are pushed forward…
“I’ve got something!” she says.
“Yeah?” says Johnny somewhat dismissively. He’s never been keen on women programmers. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t think they’re as good as men. Me, I just care about results, whoever the programmer is.
Jerry’s asleep in his chair, snoring lightly.
“What do you have?” I say.
Suddenly, an alarm sounds. It’s a vicious, intense noise that seems to drive right through you, making you feel frantic.
“The fire alarm,” I say.
“What’s going on?” says Jerry, waking up.
“It’s probably just a drill,” I say.
“But there’s smoke coming from the hallway,” says Johnny, frantic.
“Probably just a little trash can fire or something,” I say. “Nothing to worry about.”
But people are screaming now out in the rest of the office.
Someone out there shouts, “Not a drill!”
“It’s probably fine,” I say, not looking up from my computer.
“I’m not taking any chances, not since the last time,” says Johnny, rushing out in the hallway, where he disappears into the smoke.
Jerry is next, rushing past him. “Come on!” he calls out after us. “Come on!”
“Looks like we’d better get going,” I say, still calm.
But she’s still staring at her computer, not looking at me or the smoke. She’s completely immersed in her work, and for a moment I’m completely immersed in her beauty.
“No,” I say, snapping out of my little trance. “We’ve really got
to go.”
The smoke is denser now, and it’s completely black.
“This looks like it might be serious,” I say.
“But I’ve just figured something out!” she says.
“We can talk about that later.”
“I’m so close, though!”
“Seriously, Lily,” I say. “We’ve really got to go.”
“Fine,” she says, closing her laptop.
Suddenly, she notices the smoke around her. “Oh shit!” she says.
I laugh. “Finally you notice it. Come on.”
I take her by the hand. She won’t leave her laptop there so she carries it with her. Me, I’ve got a hundred laptops, and copies of everything I need.
We rush out of the conference room, into the hallway that has the cubicles where Lily and Jerry usually work.
The smoke is thicker now, and it’s all around us.
I cough involuntarily, and Lily sounds like she’s choking.
The fire alarm is intensely loud out here, so loud I have to shout over it to be heard. Jerry and Johnny are long gone, and so is everyone else. It seems like we’re the only ones left in the office.
“Stay there,” I yell at her. “I’m going to see if we can get through.”
I leave her there, and go further into the smoke, towards the main entrance and exit.
I feel like I’m choking, the black smoke filling my lungs. I can’t breathe properly, not nearly at all.
And it’s hot. Everything around me is incredibly hot, even the floor. This isn’t just some trash can fire.
I can see the flames now. The entire kitchen at the other end of the hallway is in flames, huge flames that lick the celling. The fire has spread, blocking the way to the receptionist’s desk where the entrance is.
SEAL'd Lips: A Secret Baby Romance Page 37
