Code Red

by Amy Noelle

  His dimples flashed. “Six thirty. And now you’re making me think I need to ask Mom to send one of her Black Forest cherry cakes for you to try.”

  “You know chocolate is a weakness. You don’t play fair, Josh.”

  “All’s fair in love and war.” I blinked, and he laughed nervously. “Or so I’ve read.”

  He was a reader, too? It wasn’t fair or right. I was being tested. He was brought here to tempt me, à la Adam and Eve, and I already had my lips wrapped around the apple.

  “What’s your favorite book?” I asked. Crap, I hated that question. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I don’t have a favorite book. I have tons of them. That was stupid.” I was rambling like a fool. Lovely. But maybe it was driving him away, so it might be a good thing.

  He laughed. “It isn’t a stupid question, but you’re right, it is a tough one. My all-time favorite is probably The Catcher in the Rye. We read it in Advanced English.”

  Of course he took advanced classes. “Sounds like you were a real smarty-pants.”

  “Maybe.” He leaned back in his chair and grinned. “Senior year we had to write just like an author and Catcher was the one I picked, but I wasn’t sure what my story would be. Meanwhile for history, we had to log some hours volunteering for a local congressional election. Ryan, my best friend who I’m staying with, and I picked the Democrat because she was kind of hot.”

  I rolled my eyes, and he shrugged. “What? At eighteen we didn’t really care about things like taxes and oil drilling. And all we had to do was put up election signs. We picked some main streets where there were already a billion signs, and we stuck ours every ten feet or so. Then this car pulled up and out jumped this old couple who came charging over, accusing us of knocking down the signs for the other guy.”

  I laughed. “What did you do?”

  “We told them we didn’t do it. Which was the truth! She demanded our names, and Ryan told her we were Nick and Drew Lachey.”

  I laughed again. “Please tell me you were Nick.”

  Josh just shook his head and continued. “She took our names and said she was reporting us.” His dimples appeared, and I had to resist the urge to poke one. “That’s when we drove to another street and stole all the signs for her guy. I wrote up the story for my English Catcher assignment and ranted about political phonies. I got an ‘A.’ ”

  He looked so proud of himself. God, he was cute on top of being drop-dead gorgeous. “Sounds like you.”

  “Hey, I was a troublemaker, too!” He smirked. “But I have a feeling I wasn’t the only one who got in trouble in my youth.”

  “I can’t say I have any idea what you’re talking about.” I tried for a prim schoolmarm-type look, but from the way he was laughing, I knew I hadn’t achieved it. It was hard for me to keep a straight face.

  He nodded to the picture of me and the girls. “Those don’t look like innocent girls who were studying every night to get to graduation.” We might have been on our way to being wasted in the picture, but we looked good.

  “Hey, we graduated.” And other than my getting an “F” in my freshman calculus class I’d had no business taking, we’d all done pretty well. “And it’s not my fault Calculus was at eight in the morning.”

  Josh snickered. “Not a math girl, huh? That’s okay, I’m good with numbers.”

  I figured there wasn’t much he wasn’t good at.

  His phone rang, and I was relieved because I wasn’t sure what I was about to say, do, or ask. The more I learned, the more I wanted him. He shot me an apologetic smile and answered his phone as he strolled over to his desk.

  “Daniels.” He listened for a moment and his eyes narrowed before he started typing. “I told you they were going to be a problem . . . No, we have a contract and it’s not our fault they didn’t get their patent. We did the work, they have to pay.”

  Was it wrong to find him sexy when he was annoyed by some work problem? Because I did. His mouth was puckered in a scowl and his body was rigid. It made me want to walk over and give him a shoulder rub to take away the tension. Of course, I knew damn well I wouldn’t stop with a shoulder rub. If I got my hands on him, I’d never be able to control myself. Just sitting next to him was killing me.

  “Do I have to call them, Mike? I trusted you to handle this and here we are, exactly where I said we’d be. They were the ones taking the risk signing on the dotted line when they didn’t have the proper approvals.”

  I should not have been staring at him. I needed to be a bit more subtle about eavesdropping, so I pulled up my e-mail and laughed when I saw what Mandy had sent.

  Have you mounted our man yet? Is he as good as we think he is?

  The woman was a walking hormone. I thought after a woman gave birth, the sex drive went away, but apparently that wasn’t the case with her.

  He’s not OUR man and he’ll most certainly never be YOUR man. Why don’t you mount your husband instead of harassing me about my sex life, or lack thereof?

  Until Saturday night, that is. Getting laid might make me a little less apt to mount Josh. I couldn’t make him physically unattractive, and the more I got to know him, the clearer it was I couldn’t make him ugly on the inside, either. I just had to get my hormones under control, then we could be the friends we seemed to have the potential to be.

  “No! Tell them we’ll sic legal on their asses if they refuse to honor the contract.” He was mad now. His voice had risen a couple of octaves, and he rapped his fist on his desk.

  “We don’t need to bargain with them. I don’t care how many patents they have pending. We did the work, and they don’t get their money back.” He paused and rubbed his forehead. I should rub it for him. It would be nice and partnerly and not at all sexual.

  My e-mail dinged.

  Sweetie, when you have a kid, you don’t have a sex life. It’s hard to get it on when the baby might interrupt at any minute. Just because I have the hormones doesn’t mean I have the time for them. That’s why I’m living vicariously through you. Do him for me if you won’t for yourself. Take one for the team, Nic. You owe me. It’s been ages since you’ve been with a guy that I wanted, too.

  See, that was another reason not to have kids. Wasn’t the point of being in a relationship having sex whenever you wanted? That was the main positive in my book. That and back rubs. And I wasn’t sure you got those after you said “I do.” Maybe marriage was the problem.

  “Fine. Get with legal and offer them a quarter off the next contract, as long as they honor this one. No more than that, Mike. I’m sick of the way they jerk us around. I’d rather we lose them completely than put up with any more of their bullshit.” He disconnected and slammed his hand on the table. I jumped in surprise.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Mike’s one of our junior salesman. I’m the senior manager, since he’s not allowed to have his own account yet. These people have been trouble from the get-go, and now they’re trying to wiggle out of their contract.”

  “That must be annoying.” It was nice to see he had a little bit of a temper. He’d been so pleasant and patient with me that he seemed almost too nice. I liked that he could get riled up, so long as it wasn’t at me.

  “Yeah, well, what can you do? If I didn’t have a client making me crazy, I’d probably get bored.” He typed something and then smiled at me. “Ready to get to work?”

  “I guess it’s about time.” We’d spent much of the morning talking, and all I was finding out was that I liked him more and more. The Code Red was definitely necessary.

  He walked over and took his spot next to me. “Don’t worry, I promise I’m all bark, no bite. At least when it comes to you.”

  What if I wanted him to bite me? I forced myself not to say it. “I’ll piss you off one of these days with my inability to grasp simple concepts like turning on the phone.”

  “You know how to turn it on.” His fingers brushed mine as he handed me the phone. He knew how to turn me on, and i
t took nothing but that simple touch. I was in major trouble.

  Chapter 8

  Josh was out of the office, so I took the opportunity to call Jen and solidify our plans for this weekend. I needed to decompress in a major way. Less than a week in his presence, and I was amped up to a ridiculous level. One day when he brought me a piece of chocolate cake after having lunch with his friend, I fantasized about how many different ways he could get me off, some of which involved little more than him looking at me the way he did as I unabashedly licked my fork spotless. His eyes had gotten really big. I assumed he was horrified by my food molestation.

  I may have made a fool of myself, but I’d had to put my hormones somewhere, and apparently food was the place. Which meant I’d probably start gorging on cake and pie and candy. I’d get fat, and then he wouldn’t want me at all. Maybe that was the plan. The new key to the Code Red. Just become unappealing rather than trying to make him unappealing. I’d tried, but it was pretty much impossible.

  He hadn’t brought up the Cardinals game and, now that I had tickets, I had no idea how to mention it without sounding like I was asking him out. This is why I didn’t date. It was too damn complicated. It was much easier to just find a guy, do him, and leave. No muss, no fuss. Though I did want Josh to muss me, and maybe he’d be worth the fuss.

  “Are you listening to a word I’m saying?” Jen shouted.

  “Sorry, I spaced.”

  “Did Mr. Gorgeous walk into the room and strike you dumb?” she asked, giggling.

  I might laugh if it weren’t true. “No, I was just thinking about tomorrow night,” I lied. “Operation: ‘Get Jen Laid’ is officially in effect.”

  She sighed. “I’m not looking to get laid. Contrary to popular belief, I actually could do that if I wanted to. Some jerk hit on me today.”

  “Oh, really? Do tell.”

  She sniffed. “He was in here buying a silk scarf for his wife. Then he thanked me for helping him and asked if he could take me to dinner in appreciation.”

  “He had you pick out a gift for his wife and then asked you out?”

  “Well, to be fair, he didn’t say it was for his wife, but obviously it was,” she said.

  “How do you know?”

  “He was wearing a ring.”

  “Maybe he’s a widower, he’s yet to remove the ring, and his first step into the dating pool was to ask you out. You rejected him hard, thus sending him into a life of loneliness and despair because he’ll be afraid to try again.” I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Giving Jen shit was one of my favorite jobs in life, and I took it seriously.

  “I didn’t reject him hard. I said I was unavailable. He hardly left the store crying. And he’s married.” The exasperation in her tone made me grin.

  “Maybe it was for his mom. Maybe it’s her birthday and he wanted to get her something nice.”

  “Maybe he lives with his mom and you’ve already hooked up with him.”

  “Maybe I have. Or maybe I haven’t. You should have gotten his information for me. Was he hot?”

  She snickered. “I thought you didn’t go for hot, or has Josh changed your mind on that front?”

  “I haven’t changed my mind. I’m just hit over the head with it every day like a sledgehammer, so I’m kind of getting used to looking at beauty all day long.”

  It might be difficult to go back to my nerds and geeks, but I was going to give it my all this weekend. I needed something, and I was pretty sure BOB was getting tired of me, if inanimate objects could do such a thing. His batteries had run down already once this week. I suspected he was using more power just to hurry up and be done with me. Clearly I needed to get laid. Really laid, not battery laid, since apparently batteries couldn’t even keep up with my needs.

  “You’re one stubborn bitch, I’ll say that for you,” Jen said.

  “I go with what works,” I said. “So tomorrow, Oblivion at seven, right? We can go by Mulligan’s later if we get bored or the clientele isn’t up to your standards.”

  “Yeah, I’ll meet you there. And I can’t help it if you have very low standards that I refuse to stoop to.”

  “My standards are perfect. I don’t get disappointed when—”

  A throat cleared behind me. He was as quiet and sneaky as a ninja when he wanted to be. I’d nearly had three fright-related heart attacks this week on top of the anxiety-related ones due to his sexy presence. My heart was going overtime. I’d better go to the gym or something, but I really hated the gym.

  “Gotta go,” I said, and I hung up before she could say more than, “What?”

  “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Josh said as he slid into his seat next to me. It was unbelievable that the majority of the day was spent with us sitting side by side in front of my computer, so close I could feel his body heat. My heart was pounding again. I really needed to schedule some cardio before I keeled over. “I just didn’t want you to think I was eavesdropping.” He gave me that heart-stopping smile.

  “Were you?” I asked, momentarily lost in his eyes. They were like the perfect swimming-pool blue. I wanted to drown in them.

  “Not intentionally.” He bumped me with his shoulder. That was new. Were we buddies now? Was it going to be back slaps and high fives and ass pats? I wouldn’t protest the ass pats, if I was being honest. The man had a great ass and clearly worked out. Maybe I should ask him about cardio exercises.

  “Well, then, what did Chris have to say?” I asked, trying to settle back into work mode.

  “The brass are thrilled with what they’re hearing from Starfire. They love your work, so clearly none of the disdain you feel for the Comet is coming through in your writing.” He smirked when I shot him a glare. It was annoying . . . and sexy.

  “It’s not my fault it’s an inferior product to my phone,” I said huffily. We got into a mini argument on this topic at least once a day. He was stubborn and thought his phone was better. It was one of the few flaws I’d found. I was glad he had a couple, though, since I had about a billion.

  “It’s faster, wastes less battery power, and has more memory, better graphics, and the ability to download files from your computer,” he said for the twentieth time, still somehow managing to stay unruffled. He was way too cool when it came to me. It drove me nuts. So did the fact that on paper, yes, the Comet was the better phone. But there was something to be said for brand loyalty.

  “But I love my phone,” I said, perilously close to whining, which aggravated me all the more. “It’s prettier, and you know they’ll come out with an even better phone once they get a load of this one, so they’ll stay on top.”

  Josh tossed back his head and laughed. I liked the way his Adam’s apple moved when he did that. I kind of wanted to suck on it.

  “And then Starfire will step it up and we’ll have to work on yet another instruction manual, and so forth. Guess you’d better get used to having me around.” He smiled sweetly, and there was a look in his eyes I couldn’t identify.

  I shrugged. “I guess that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”

  He nudged me again and I badly wanted to lay my head on his broad shoulder and snuggle into his neck. I could probably die happy right there, smelling his sexy man smell and maybe nibbling on his ear.

  “We could be their new crack electronics team,” Josh said, and I laughed.

  “Do you know how long it took me to personalize ringtones on my phone?” I asked.

  He leaned forward and rested his head on his hand. “How long?”

  “About a year.” That set him off laughing again. It was a good thing he had a sexy laugh, or I might have been forced to hit him. It wasn’t nice to laugh at a person’s foibles, even if they were funny.

  “And that, my dear, is why having a manual is a good thing,” he said, looking adorable.

  “I like the air of mystery with my phone.”

  “Air of mystery? We’re not talking about a rich, handsome stranger. We’re talking about a phone.”

 
“You may not have put it together by now, but I tend to assign real thoughts and feelings to inanimate objects.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, I got that when you apologized to your computer for yelling at it when it didn’t boot up fast enough, and when you patted your phone after you felt I’d insulted it yesterday.”

  “You did insult it,” I said.

  “Maybe. And what gender are these objects?” he asked. “I’m guessing they’re male since you yell at and love them in equal measure.”

  The man was sharp; I had to give him that. “They are male. Between technology and the cats, I’m surrounded by the gender.”

  “Yeah,” he said, staring at me again. “Doesn’t surprise me.”

  I swear, I’d never analyzed someone’s words the way I did Josh’s. I sent e-mails to all my girls every night dissecting the things he said and did. They’d stopped responding beyond telling me to “do him” and “ditto.” Useless, supposed friends.

  “Care to clarify?” I asked after an uncomfortable silence passed.

  He shook his head and that adorable patch of hair flopped into his eye. One of these days, by God, I was going to brush it out of his eyes myself.

  “Nothing, really. You just seem like a guy’s girl.”

  “Um, what?”

  “A woman who gets along with men really well. You’re easy to talk to, is all,” he said.

  Oh. Well, that made sense, I guess. “I am. Frankly I’m surprised I have four good girlfriends.” I smiled at the picture of the five of us. “I’ve always gotten along better with guys. I’m even close with my friends’ husbands.” It was true. I could spend hours chatting with Rick, Kurt, and Brian, and Kim told me Brian swore he’d marry me if she ever left him. I’d encouraged her to, since Brian was a good-looking lawyer, but she wouldn’t bite.

  “Are all your friends married?” he asked.

  I grabbed my picture and held it out to him. “These three are.” I pointed out Kim, Ashley, and Mandy. “That one is Jen. She’s my best friend, and she’s single. It was her I was talking to when you came in.”