After the Morning After (3 page)

Sanjay Banerjee pushed back from the large conference table and wandered over to look out the window. He was sick of the meeting, sick of most of the people in the meeting, and especially sick of his ex-boss.

“Mr. Banerjee!”

The lawyer impatiently enunciated every syllable of his name, but Sanjay ignored him. He continued to stare out of the window. The grounds of the compound were as lovely as they had been when he’d worked there. Several people went by on Segways, and he tracked them across the square. Two of them went toward the tennis courts, and the others veered off toward the enclosed, heated pool. There was also a gym, a half-size regulation basketball court, a game room, a sleep room, a café, and several other diversions to keep employees happy. The place was more like a playground for adults instead of a place of business, but Sanjay didn’t miss it. He’d felt stifled while working at MoonandStars.com. He frowned. He didn’t know why he’d allowed his perversity to overcome common sense and convince him to take this meeting. He snorted and grinned.
Probably because I’m perverse.

Principle owner of MoonandStars.com, Zachary Tettler, scowled as he stared at Sanjay. He would almost hate the guy if he didn’t admire his ballsy attitude and brilliance so much. Despite Sanjay’s arrogance and odd ways, he’d always kind of liked him—he had from the day he’d hired him to work for the company. And that was why he’d been so disappointed when they found that he’d stolen from them. He’d also been surprised. Sanjay struck him as an honest man; he was too ornery to be anything else. His lawyer called Sanjay’s name again, and Zachary sighed. “Never mind, Andrew. It will do you no good. He’ll come back when he’s good and ready and not a minute before.”

“But
—”

“Leave it alone. He’s a contrary son of a bitch, and your needling him will just keep him over there longer and drag this meeting out.”

The lawyer turned red with indignation. “
Needling
him! I’m not needling him. I’m simply trying to get him to tell us about his theft, or why he believes his theft isn’t theft.”

“Leave it,” Zachary warned in a low voice, and the frustration in his eyes was clear in his voice as he watched Sanjay. In a wrinkled plaid shirt and jeans that were faded and white in several stress points, he still had the attention of both women in the room
—Andrew’s partner and the paralegal. While he and Andrew—of course Sanjay didn’t ever bother to bring a lawyer—in their thousand-dollar suits barely merited a glance.

Zachary brooded a moment longer. Yes, Sanjay with his long, athletic body and pretty face had had a way with the ladies almost since he’d arrived at the company. But there was one lady in particular who had never fallen for his charms, and she
was the one he’d been interested in. Almost everyone in the research department had known it, and the news had trickled up. Rubbing his chin, Zachary thought about his next move.

Sanjay heard the restless movements and the mumbling behind him and decided it was time to put everyone out of their misery. As he turned, he caught a bit of movement in his peripheral vision. He turned back and then frowned. There she was, the girl of his dreams. All buttoned up and not a hair out of place, she’d beckoned to his lust from the first. His frown deepened as he watched Dr. Victoria Howell turn decidedly toward the building that housed the research labs. That was typical. There were no fun and games on the job for the good doctor.

He grimaced in disappointment. Despite his constant teasing and her customary rebuffing, he’d thought they were friends of a sort. They’d worked well together and had had a rapport. He’d been hurt when she hadn’t asked him about the accusation the company had levied against him, but he’d been pissed when she’d run out on him after their night at the Hotel Carlisle. And this was the first time he’d seen her in months.

Sanjay turned back toward the roomful of people who were waiting to hear what they thought would be a confession of guilt. “Sorry, but I’m leaving now. I’m sure you’ll continue to talk amongst yourselves,” he said right before he walked out, ignoring the renewed outrage as he did so.

* * *

“Ahm’ah need you not to be so mean.”

The smooth cadence of the voice came from behind Victoria. It was after eleven p.m., and besides security, she was the only one left in this part of the Goliath office complex known as MoonandStars.com. She was surprised to hear the voice but didn’t jerk in response. Nor did she turn around. She did, however, stiffen, and she hated herself for even betraying that much. She knew that voice, knew it intimately. She heard it in her dreams, and oftentimes she heard it when she was awake and the owner of it was nowhere around. Memories of it and that one sex-filled and long-regretted night tortured her endlessly. She’d been dejected and looking for…something. She’d found it, and more than she’d bargained for, in the man behind her.

Sanjay Banerjee. She hadn’t seen or spoken to him in months—deliberately. She never liked to be reminded of her mistakes, and he had been a big one.
Settle down, turncoat
, she silently scolded her clitoris as it began to tighten from his proximity and seemed to pulse in time to the syllables of his name:
San. Jay. Ba. Ner. Jee. San. Jay. Ba. Ner. Jee. Touch. Me. Suck. Me. Take. Me.

Okay, so the litany was coming from her brain, Victoria admitted, but he simply got to her
—got to her on a purely sexual level. It was a combination of things: the heat from his body, which she felt completely blanketing her back; his scent, a light but heady smell of sandalwood and man; and then there was his voice.
Lord, the man’s voice
. That Southern-fried, slow-moving as molasses, deep,
deep
voice of his was just about as potent as great sex. Her knees had gone weak before he’d even finished his sentence. And though he hadn’t said it, Victoria had heard the unspoken “darlin’” tacked on to the end of that sentence. That was what he’d called her during their one night together…and in all the messages he’d left on her voice mail after.

She did her best to make sure that none of her thoughts
—or her weaknesses—showed on her face as she slowly turned to look at the man she’d used as balm to her broken ego all those months ago. Oh, both of them had thoroughly enjoyed the usage, but it hadn’t been something she’d intended to repeat. Taking in his thick black hair, calm, dark, humor-filled eyes, lustrous dusky skin, full lips, and wide, muscled chest in less time than it took to actually check the time, Victoria lifted a brow. She knew he hated when she did that. At the moment, it was her only defense. “You are no longer allowed entry into this facility, Mr. Banerjee.”

Sanjay shook his head, his lips twisting into a smirk. Was that all she had to say? After a night of wild, unadulterated, uninhibited lovemaking where he’d had her everywhere but on a bed, and after four months of his reliving that night over and over again on a daily basis where blocks of time went by where he thought of nothing but her and what they’d done, all she had to say to him was that he was no longer allowed entry into the facility? And in that prim, professorial voice of hers too? Damn, she was cold.

And sexy.

Sexy because he knew that that prim and proper voice could also get low and throaty while it said dirty, improper things and begged him to do those things. Also sexy because he loved a challenge and could read between the lines very well. His old research partner was telling him that the building was not the
only
thing he was no longer allowed entry into. Jay almost snorted. Shit. As if he hadn’t already known that. If her having disappeared by the time he’d come out of the bathroom the next morning hadn’t been enough of a clue, her ignoring his voice mail messages and e-mails had been.

Jay studied her. She was small, dark, and gorgeous. It was hard to believe that someone so delicate could be so dangerous. But she was; she was deadly. He did the only thing he could do. He gave her a grin cocky enough to ruffle her perfect feathers and said slowly, “What’s up, Doc?”

Victoria turned around and marched toward a table on the other side of the lab. She needed to get away from that flash of white teeth against brown skin—the perfect smile. “I’m busy, Mr. Banerjee,” she said over her shoulder.

Jay smiled. “Now,
darlin’,” he chided softly while he watched those long, slim legs and images of them straining against the palms of his hands and high into the air as he filled her exploded in his mind. “After what we’ve been through together, don’t you think it’s about time you call me Jay? All my friends do, especially the ones I’ve fucked.”

Victoria stiffened at his crudeness but didn’t address it. “What I think,” she said and turned to face him again, “is that you are not supposed to be here. I won’t even ask how you got in.”

Jay pulled his gaze up to her face and told himself not to sink into those pretty amber eyes of hers. He grinned again and made his way over to her, his long, easy stride in direct contrast to her hurried one from moments earlier. “Yeah, it’s best that you don’t. Anyway, I want to talk to you, Doc. And since you haven’t returned any of my phone calls,” he said as he gave in to his need and reached out a finger to tangle it in one of her curls. “I like it like this,” he murmured absently as he let more fingers slip in and out of the strands, “all short and sassy and soft…just like you.” He felt her go completely still and smiled and let his hand drop. She wasn’t as unaffected as she wanted him to think. Good.

Victoria let the breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding shudder out when he dropped his hand. “Well?” she finally asked when he remained quiet for so long.

“Well what,
darlin’?”

Victoria sighed. The man was going to be the death of her. He certainly wasn’t reserved and conservative
—not like most of the other South Asian Indian men she’d met, and she’d met plenty of them in her chosen career. But Sanjay had been born and raised in Athens, Georgia, and from what little she knew of his family, they were pretty Americanized—at least he seemed to be, anyway. “What do you want, Sanjay?”

Jay stopped studying her hair long enough to answer her question. “Well now, that’s a pretty loaded question, Doc. I mean, here it’s been…what? Four months since we last saw or even spoke to one another
—not for any lack of trying on my part, by the way—and you ask me
that
question? Why, if he didn’t know you too well, the man that answered that question might think you’ve just left yourself wide open to the possibilities of his answer.” While his voice remained slow and easy, his eyes told a different story. They were furious. “But he should know better, shouldn’t he?”

Victoria folded her arms. “All right, fine. It’s about time we had this confrontation anyway. Just say what you’ve come to say, Sanjay, and then leave before I call down to security.”

“You’d do it too, wouldn’t you?” Jay demanded. “Of course you would. You’re the quintessential stick-up-her-ass boss lady who never has a hair out of place. You were the same when I worked with you,” he said in anger. “I don’t know why I should expect anything to be different now.”

Victoria flinched at his words but recovered quickly. Again, she heard what he’d left unspoken:
I don’t know why I should expect anything to be different now, even though we’ve slept together…or even though we fucked like minks all night…or even though I gave you so much pleasure so many times that you sobbed in my arms and begged for more
. Whatever he wanted to say, but didn’t, she heard it. Loud and clear. And promptly ignored it. “Speaking of working with me, you don’t anymore. In fact, you don’t work for this company anymore and are considered a high-level security risk, so I repeat: say what you’ve come to say, and go. I’ve got work to do.”

“So it’s back to being formal, is it?” Jay muttered before scoffing. “High-level security risk, my ass. You’re not even going to ask me, are you? We worked together for six months, and you never even asked me.”

Victoria wanted to squirm under his intense stare. “Asked you what?” she demanded in exasperation.

“Asked me if I created the beta of my software program while I was working here and essentially stole from the company, or if I didn’t. Asked me if the beta was something I’d been working on before I even started working here, and then because of personal circumstances, forgot about it until four months ago when I decided to pick it up again. Asked me if I quit my job here because I’m a treacherous asshole who stole from the company or if I quit my job here to work on
my
prototype because I think that clause in the employment contracts we all had to sign was written by sneaky, greedy bastards who want to steal from the grunts who work for them.”

Victoria worried her bottom lip with her teeth. She was stumped. When word had come down that Sanjay was no longer allowed on company grounds because he’d developed his own project on company time and was in violation of his employment contract, she’d been stunned. He’d run research and development with her at MoonandStars.com, and she hadn’t been able to believe that he’d do something like that. Their contracts stated plainly that anything they developed while working for the company belonged to the company.

“Go ahead, darlin’,” Jay drawled. “Ask me.”

Victoria cleared her throat and took a step back. He seemed to be getting closer and closer without having moved an inch. “Is that what happened? Was it something that you’d already been working on before starting work at the CF-
Universe?” She referred to the company’s nickname that it was rumored a disgruntled employee had sarcastically given it years ago—“C” as in “Center of the,” “F” as in “Fucking.” Much to the two owners’ dismay, the nickname had stuck. Most employees thought it was harmless, clever fun. For brevity’s sake, most times people just called it the Universe.