by Sara Hess
Carrie blushed brilliantly while Nic laughed loudly.
Her eyes narrowed. “Do you like Evan?”
My skin instantly went hot and I spun back to my computer screen. “No.”
“Because it looked like you liked him at the party last night.” She continued.
“I was using him to keep the other guys away from me.” My fingers flew over my keyboard.
“Like you need help shooting down guys.” She snorted.
“I was drunk last night and his way was easier.” I justified desperately.
There was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. “Okay, if you say so.”
“I absolutely say so.” I swallowed.
Pause. “Because you looked really cute together last night.” I heard Nic groan faintly and I had a feeling he’d been trying to get her to drop it.
“Not interested.” I stressed.
“Okay, okay.” She said for both my benefit and Nic’s, since I heard him murmuring softly to her to let it go. Her arms suddenly wrapped around me. “I’m glad you came last night, and had fun, and I will be on your ass to do it again.”
I grinned at her profanity because she very rarely swore. “Maybe.” I hedged.
“Thanks for the material, Shaw. We’ll talk more later.” Nic called out as they strode away.
I let out a long exhale at their departure and memories of the party rolled through my head. Last night had been fun, everyone had been great, and I couldn’t stop wondering if I was too mistrustful of people? Yeah, countless people had let me down and been shitty to me in the past, but not everyone was like that. Letting Carrie in had gone a long way in healing parts of me. It probably wouldn’t hurt to try making some friends again. I just had to keep my armor up…in case.
Evan though…being friends with him might be tricky, because my body was starting to crave his, and those cravings had only gotten me heartache in the past. Guys and sex led to lying and asshole behavior.
Seeing all those couples last night, so happy together told me it wasn’t always that way.
But I saw more cheating and lying couples because of my job. Hell, even before that.
My brain and body, past and present were colliding and arguing with each other. It was giving me a stomach ache.
Tums…I needed Tums.
CHAPTER FOUR
EVAN
“Mr. McKay, Miss O’Conner is here. Should I send her in?”
Dan pressed the intercom button. “Yes, Diane, thank you.”
I eagerly straightened from my desk off to the side of Dan’s. Dan’s office was huge. It held his desk, my desk, an oval conference table, a lounge area, a small enclosed kitchen, and a full-sized lavatory. It screamed presidential.
As I made for the door it opened letting Shaw in. My dick, which had perked up at Diane just saying her name, distended further at the sight of her. I had been expecting her to dress professionally today. Maybe in a skirt or dress, but she always surprised me, because instead of proper business attire she was in a pair of cut of cargo pants, her flip-flops, and a somewhat tighter t-shirt than she usually wore that read: Some people just need a high five…In the face.
I glanced back at Dan to see him take in her appearance with a skeptical expression. Shaw just had to make this difficult.
Stepping up to her I gave her a deliberate once over and then whispered. “Here I am, now what are your other two wishes?” Instead of answering she looked up with a frown. I followed her gaze. “What’s wrong?” I asked wondering what she was looking at.
“I’m not seeing the anvil I wished for.” She mumbled crossly.
I snorted out a cough, straightening my suddenly excessively tight tie. What I really needed to adjust was my expanding junk but I couldn’t in front of Dan. Hopefully his gaze stayed glued to Shaw.
Waving her forward I paced next to her as we made our way over to Dan. “Nice outfit.”
“Thanks, it took me hours to pick out.” I saw her throw me a quick side glance.
“Have I ever told you I love your shirts?”
Her voice was barely audible as we neared Dan. “Great, now I have to get rid of all of them.”
I didn’t miss the faint flush that colored her skin as we bantered telling me that she was enjoying our wordplay, and maybe even the compliment.
Containing my chuckle with difficulty I made introductions. “Dan, this is Shaw O’Conner.” I took one small step to the side, but only one. For whatever reason I wanted her to know that I was there for her physically and symbolically.
Dan had stood up when she walked in the room, and now he held out his hand. “Miss.
O’Conner, nice to meet you.”
The corner of her mouth twitched up. “I guess we’ll see about that.”
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply at her ‘could give a shit’ attitude, because now was not the time.
At Dan’s chuckle my eyes flew open. “I never thought about it before, but that saying should be left for the end of the meeting.”
Good thing Dan had a sense of humor. He waved for her to take a seat and I took the second leather chair next to her.
“You’re young, but Evan has vouched for you and I trust him.” Hearing Dan state that had my chest swelling with pride. His opinion had become important to me in the last several months. “Landon and Evan told me your theory on what might be happening to our money and that is quite the complex crime. He also thinks it could be an inside job.”
After giving me a quick skeptical glance at Dan’s ‘vouch’ comment Shaw nodded. “The only way to upload a program like that is for someone in-house to do it. I’m sure their greedy little eyes are monitoring it constantly too.”
Dan’s lips thinned in anger. “I have a list of new employee’s that were hired right before the money started disappearing. I don’t know if you need it to delve into their activities?”
She shrugged slightly. “It could be helpful, if it is indeed one of them, but it could be an old employee that someone else is using. What I will do is find the program, if there is one, and backtrack it to where it was uploaded and then locate where the money’s being displaced. Whoever uploaded the program may have done it at a different server than their own making it difficult to find the true culprit, and if the account is in a false name then all I can do is close down the program. You will have to wait to see who tries to close the account if you want to arrest them.”
Shaw might not have dressed professionally but her explanation of what she planned to accomplish was. Both Dan and I were listening to her intently and nodding along with her words.
I don’t know why listening to her made me horny as hell, but Fuck, I wanted to usher Dan out the door and pounce on her, or grab her and drag her into the bathroom to have every possible way with her.
“How long do you think this will take, if it is indeed the problem?” Dan asked.
“I should be able to find the program today. The rest of it could take a few days. It depends on how sophisticated the program is.” Shaw answered.
“What do you need?”
“Any computer will work as long as it’s connected to your entire company’s network.”
Dan looked at me. “How about we set her up at your computer and we can share mine. That way we aren’t dragging up another computer and setting off any alarms. I don’t want this individual getting nervous and skipping out before they are caught.”
“Sounds good.” I acknowledged.
“Why don’t you draw up the standard privacy contract and set in the amount you discussed with her.” He looked at Shaw. “Five thousand, right?”
Shaw nodded looking like she was trying to hold back how thrilled she was. Observing that had my own smile coming out.
He stood up and held out his hand with a smile. “If everything works out than it is very nice to meet you, Shaw.”
She sounded like she started to giggle but cut it off quickly as she took his hand. I almost laughed realizing she hadn’t wan
ted to sound like a silly school girl at this crucial verbal accord. It was also surprising that she had a little bit of school girl in her; she was so hard-assed most of the time.
“I’m confident it will be.” She returned austerely.
“I like confidence.” He declared, and then jerked his head toward me. “This guy has an overload of it as well.”
Shaw sucked her lips in and I knew she had a comeback she was dying to utter, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine what it would have been.
“Follow me, Shaw. I’ll show you your work space.” I directed her over to my desk.
“You okay with me taking over your space?” She picked up the computer carrier she’d brought with her and trailed after me.
“Yeah. I had a feeling it was going to fall that way. If you’re going to be coming later in the day I’ll just make certain I get as much done as I can on it in the mornings.”
“Okay, just don’t close out any of my windows that I have on it or I might have to start all over again.” She ordered. “And then I’d have to kill you.”
“I love it when you get bossy, and murderous.” I leered down at her as I pulled out my chair for her.
“Good, I do too.” She quipped.
Setting down her bag she pulled out her laptop and arranged it next to my computer on the desk. I grabbed up my paperwork getting it out of her way. Seconds later I thought she forgot all about me as she sat down and began typing away rapidly at my keyboard…but then her eyes flickered up at me.
“You…ah…look pretty shnazzy decked out in a suit.” Faint pink brushed her cheeks again.
Was she actually giving me a compliment, and blushing while doing it? “You feeling okay?”
She frowned. “Yeah, why?”
“You’re being nice and you’re not drunk. You’re not drunk, are you?” I quirked my brow in teasing inquiry.
A darker red painted her skin and her mouth turned mulish. “Drunk…high on caffeine…sometimes it’s all the same.” She fixed her eyes back on the screen.
She was fucking adorable when she tried to be nice.
I gave a theatric tug to my suit jacket. “Well, thank you for the compliment. I will treat it like gold since it’s my first one from you.”
“It’s one more than I’ve gotten from you.” She grouched.
I grinned. “I give you compliments all the time.”
She gave me the evil eye. “Your bogus pick-up lines are not compliments.”
Putting one hand on the desk and the other on the chair I bent down towards her. She froze staring forward at her screen. “They were not bogus. I meant every one of them.” The fresh smell coming off her had my dick throbbing. Saturday night she’d smelled of moisturizers from getting her spa treatments, but this natural scent was better. And those freckles over her nose, cheeks, and lips made my cock pulse with further want. “You should know that I’ve never used a pick-up line on any other female.”
She swallowed visibly and her breath was slightly shaky as she breathed in. “So…what, I should feel special or something?”
I could tell she was trying to go for sarcastic and snarky, but her tone was too breathy, and knowing I was affecting her was better than closing any deal.
My voice came out gruff as I answered, “You are.” My desire for her was reaching excruciating intensity. For that reason I stood and walked away, otherwise I would have hauled her out of that chair to molest every inch of her.
I did have the satisfaction of finally having the last word though.
∞ ∞ ∞
Even though we’d been warned Dan and I were still stunned when Shaw verified that there was a program stealing the company’s money.
It was now the second day of Shaw’s warfare against the ‘Damn, frick’in, think you’re so smart, donkey ass program’. And those were just a few of the colorful names she’d been mumbling under her breath as her fingers flew over her keyboard. I was barely getting any work done because she was too interesting to listen too.
That she was wildly hot and my dick was in constant erection mode didn’t help either.
My hands were incessantly tingling because they wanted on her body, and in that mass of hair. It was up again in a more contained bun that took up the entire back of her head, and all I wanted to do was liberate it. And I’d come to the conclusion that the loose fit of her clothes tantalized me more than any revealing outfit had before.
“Ha, inferior minds need not apply.”
Dan chuckled at another of Shaw’s acerbic remarks. “That girl is highly entertaining.”
He and I were sitting on the leather sofa going over some new business enterprises he’d asked me to look into. Unlike Dan, whose eyes remained fixed on the papers I’d prepared for him, I couldn’t stop my gaze from flitting Shaw’s way…again. There was a small indent between her brows and she was biting her bottom lip as her fingers flew over her keyboard.
Shit, I wanted to be the one biting that plump flesh.
I’d made the decision to push Shaw into recognizing the sexual connection between us. She’d turned me down months ago, but I knew she felt something for me. I just didn’t know why she was refusing to pursue it.
“Why don’t you just ask her out?” Dan asked quietly.
I grimaced at getting caught obsessing but answered truthfully. “I already did.”
“So why do you look so frustrated?”
Besides the fact that I haven’t had sex in months? “She said no.” I said instead.
Landon’s dad was great and we’d gotten pretty close these last several months working together. I felt closer to him than I did my stepfather, Kyle, and he had been married to my mother for fifteen years. Kyle had three sons of his own and that’s who he’d given most of his attention to.
Dan frowned. “Really?” But then a grin appeared.
I narrowed my eyes on him because her refusal did not deserve humor. “What’s with the smirk?”
“It’s good that you have to work for her. It seems now-a-days thing comes too easily to you young people.”
Unease ghosted through me. Did Dan feel I acquired this position too easily as a friend of Landon’s, and just out of college with only a bachelor’s degree?
“Is that a subtle and indirect way of saying I got this job too easily?” I joked, forcing a casual smile on my face.
He shook his head eyeing me intently before clapping me on the shoulder. “Hell no, you’ve been working your ass off for me.”
I relaxed, because I’d hoped he saw all the hard work I was putting in to prove how serious I was and that the chance he’d taken on me was the right one. Dan also knew I wanted to obtain my Master’s degree and supported me in that.
Dan continued. “But you will appreciate Shaw more if you have to work harder for her, and she seems to be in a class all by herself.” He chuckled.
I looked over at Shaw again and couldn’t argue that point. I’d never met anyone like her, and had also never been attracted to anyone more. My need for her was growing everyday; it was literally clawing at me leaving me frustrated as hell.
“And you aren’t the only one sneaking glances.” Dan declared with amusement.
I couldn’t stop my smug grin. I hadn’t missed the covert looks she’d been sending my way. To illustrate that fact Shaw glanced in our direction under her lids, but since I was looking straight at her our gazes locked. She seemed to freeze and my body tightened as the link between us sizzled with the hot passion I knew we could find together, but then she flushed while at the same time looking irritated as she returned to her computer.
She was really too cute.
The day progressed and six o’clock finally rolled around. The secretarial staff was gone, as well as Dan because he was keeping to his fixed schedule of not overworking. He’d had a mild heart attack earlier this year and was making sure not to over-stress himself these days. It was one of the reasons why I was here; to take more of the load off him before ultimately taking over
down the road when he retired.
I wrapped up the last of my work for the day and looked over at Shaw. She’d been at it since one-thirty with only a few bathroom breaks.
Rising from Dan’s desk I walked over to her. “Shaw, do I need to have food delivered?”
She shook her head, eyes fixed on the monitor. “No, I’m almost done. I’ve got to get home to my own work.”
I sat in one of the chairs in front of my desk taking in her appearance. She was looking strained and exhausted. It had to be hard sitting in front of a computer for so long. A few hours did me in.
“How’s it going?”
“This guy was pretty good at covering his tracks so it’s not going to be as quick as I’d hoped. I have to be careful following his trail in case he’s watching; I don’t want him to see me.”
I smiled at her wording. She treated the virtual world like it was the real world. “How would he see you?”
She flicked a quick glance up at me before going back to the screen. “Just like in real life, moving through virtual space leaves clues that you’ve been there. In the real world it could be a foot impression, hair, or fingerprint. In here…” She nodded at the computer. “It’s like those, but they’re different. It was how I found his program. It was something that shouldn’t have been there. If he’s trolling through these programs like I am then he could see something I left behind, so I have to make certain that I clean up after myself when I leave a…room.”
She was dumbing down her words for me but I was okay with that. I could work a computer better than the average person, but what Shaw was doing was beyond my skills. With one final click of her finger she slumped back in her chair, lids dropping with a tired sigh, while rotating her head and neck. Poor girl had to be one big knot.
I really wanted to help her out with that.
Straightening from the chair I moved around the desk and began massaging her neck and shoulders. She stiffened at first, but then she fell forward onto the desk resting her head on her bent arms. I had to shift slightly to the side of her chair to follow her.
