Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 (29 page)

As Krista stumbled in toward him,
she startled and met his eyes, unsure. Sean held out his hand, eyes connected
with hers. The normal thing would have been for her to take his hand, steady
herself, and let him help her out of the limo. Krista never did anything
normally. Instead, she garbled that she was okay, which came out something
like, “‘Mmm okiee,” then promptly dove toward the open patch of sky. Sean was
expecting it.

He grabbed her quickly, stopping
her before she completed the trip to her face. She swung away from the open
door and landed in his lap, her face inches from his. Her sweet breath brushing
his eyelids.

Krista leaned in an inch. Her
control was ebbing. She was letting that other girl take over. The one that bit
him. Sean felt his ardor rise, felt her heat soak into him. But this wasn’t the
place. Not in front of these people.

Before Sean could rectify the
situation, she bucked. Her little hands pushed at his chest, trying to get
away. Her legs thrashed, caught in her dress. One dipped between his leg,
nearing his dick. It would’ve hurt, especially with how hard he was, so he
caught her thigh in his, holding her. Pinning her body to his chest. Squeezing
her close, liking how she felt. Liking the way she tucked neatly into his arms.

“Careful Pet, wait for me,” Sean
said quietly in her ear, half surprised he’d used the Irish term of endearment
his grandma had always used with him.

Her body stilled. Then thawed into
him. He breathed in her scent as he lifted her, maneuvering her out of the open
door and onto the sidewalk. He put her down gently, letting his hands linger on
her bare arms. As her face tilted up, meeting his eyes, he recognized a look of
dazed wonder.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly.

She nodded mutely, those wide,
fearful eyes looking intently up at him, touching him somewhere deep within.

“Sorry about back there. I got lost
in the moment,” he murmured. They were cocooned in a web of intimacy, a deep,
heavy thing moving in his chest.

“I fell on you,” her voice was
barely above a whisper, her words floating softly on her sweet breath.

“No, uh, back at the winery. I
didn’t mean to...get so close. Go against our deal. I’m sorry about that,” he
said softly, consumed with her.

“Oh,” she sighed more than spoke,
leaning heavily against his chest.

“Just do him already and fill me in
later!” Marcus shouted.

Sean could see the words
registering; her thick black lashes fluttering against her cheek. Her forehead
knotted, a look of abject terror crossing her face. “Oh!”

It was a very different “oh” than
before. A sobering sound. A curtain call to the night.

Krista jerked back, struggling in
his grip. Sean shook his head, wanting to continue this moment, searching,
wanting to figure out that felling, but knowing it wasn’t the time. He let go
of her arms, forcing himself to step back.

“Who could blame a guy, eh? At
least your slip up didn’t leave teeth marks.” Krista winked at him, a
professional at getting back to reality, almost as if she constantly had
experience.

He wasn’t so practiced. “You helped
me out tonight. I owe the evening’s success to you, it seems. Really good work,
Krista. Really good. Good thing you never listen to me.”

Sean didn’t want to leave. He
wanted to tell the others to go ahead; that he’d make his own way home. But
that was impossible, especially because it was at that moment that Sean noticed
the figure walking up behind Krista.

Sean didn’t normally check out
other guys, but this time he couldn’t help it. This time he noticed the
handsome dark stranger as he walked up and put a territorial hand on Krista’s shoulder.

“Oh!” Krista flinched in fear
before she saw Paul. “Paul, Jesus, I didn’t see you there.”

Paul didn’t say anything as he
looked at Sean, but he didn’t have to. He had the girl.

“Paul, this is my boss, Sean,”
Krista said, not shrugging off the hand on her shoulder. “Sean, you’ve heard
about Paul.”

“Hey, bro,” Paul leaned over Krista
to shake hands.

Right away Sean noticed the weak
handshake. That was a loss of points in guy code. Too bad most women didn’t
care about guy code. As far as women code was concerned, Paul had plenty going
for him. It was a shitty end to the night.

“Hello. Okay, Krista, good night.
See you fresh Monday morning.” Sean turned back toward the limo.

“He was hot,” Marcus said as Sean
shut the door.

“That was Krista’s man?” Judy
asked, launching forward to see.

“Must be. He grabbed her butt.”

“Paul, right?” Ray looked at Sean.

“Yes,” Sean said, wanting to be
home and away from anyone connected to work or Krista.

“I’ve seen hotter,” Monica said in
a voice laced with sex.

“Of course you have!” Marcus
shouted. “I’m sitting right here!”

Judy and Ray burst out laughing.
Sean looked out the window.

When they were dropping Marcus off
across town, Sean felt Monica’s hand on his hip, hidden by their angle and the
way he was sitting. Sean, still looking out the window, leaned his head back.
He didn’t want her. Maybe when he’d first met her, but not anymore. She paled
in comparison to Krista. But he had to admit that her hand felt good, and he
was still turned on from having Krista that close to him. He couldn’t shake her
off.

Sensing his acquiescence, Monica’s
hands started kneading, staying out of sight. It worked farther in, toward his
groin. Her efforts were getting him hard, but barely.

As they let Judy out, they shifted
seats, Ray getting closer to the door and Monica moving in such a way that
further efforts would be hidden. She had a streak of voyeurism. She wanted to
be seen. She wanted others to witness.

She must’ve realized that Sean
would never let that happen.

As Ray chatted amicably, Monica’s
hand reached his inner thigh.

“Spread your legs a little,” she
said in a hush.

Sean leaned and did as instructed,
and was rewarded as her palm spread across his erection.

“Don’t you think, Sean?” he heard.

Ray was looking at him in the
darkness, hopefully not realizing what was happening.

“What’s that?” Her hand started
rubbing, sending shooting pulses of pleasure into his gut.

“I said, Krista did well tonight.
She looked the part, played the part—she was top quality tonight.”

Sean’s zipper was pulled down. As a
soft hand wrapped around his shaft, he tried not to moan. He knew what Ray was
trying to do. Knew his friend didn’t want Sean to give in to Monica. Too late.

“She was, yes,” Sean muttered
distractedly as Monica’s fist pumped over his skin.

“Okay, well…think it through,” Ray
said as he climbed out. The door slammed behind him.

“Let’s get serious,” Monica said
instantly, crouching between his legs and hiking up her dress.

“Condom.”

She practically dove into her
purse. As he secured the latex, he was struck with a pang of guilt. This wasn’t
right. He was being exactly the man Krista abhorred.

As Monica straddled him, ripping
down her top so her br**sts tumbled into his face, he lost track of thought
altogether.

Two Mondays after the fundraiser,
the team was summoned to Sean’s office, which was now just down the hall from
Krista’s. Since Krista was done with everything on his list and then some, and
had time to help her department with a few other reports, she was busily working
on something for Mr. Montgomery when Sean popped his head in her office.

He had started dressing more
casually after moving up to no-man’s land, and that day’s result was a pair of
jeans that made his butt look like a Godsend. He had on a polo shirt that
showed off his defined pecs and perfectly sculpted biceps. She now knew how
good those pecs and biceps felt. As a result, her mouth started salivating.

“Hey Geegee, we are in my office in
ten if you have a minute?”

The team had taken to calling her Geek
Girl, or G.G. for short. It was a unanimous agreement that was not made so much
as Marcus’s example was followed. Even Ray had jumped on the bandwagon. Minding
would have taken too much effort, so Krista just went with it.

“No worries, Cap’n.” The team had
also followed her example, and taken to calling Sean ”Captain.” Again, even Ray
had joined in. Ray was starting to be one of the crew, rowing with everyone
else, and they loved him all the more for it.

Sean nodded and walked off, his
graceful stride taking him away too fast to get much of a stare at his butt.
Pity.

Krista had seen Sean with Monica
twice since she’d left them in the limo. Once in the break room when she
obviously interrupted something, and another time in the street when they were
coming back from lunch. They were shagging. It was obvious. Or at least, they
had shagged. No telling how often.

Marcus, Judy and Krista gossiped
about it a few times, and then got bored since they expected it of them both.
They had moved on to other gossip after that. Krista was learning a lot about
the company from those two. None of it essential, or even all that appealing,
but it broke up the work time nicely.

Even though Sean was off-limits,
Krista still got a twinge of jealousy every time she thought of Monica. She
didn’t deserve him. Yes, okay, he was a jackass with women, but beyond the
womanizer crap, Krista was starting to see him as an honest, trustworthy guy
with impeccable manners and a soft heart. She was definitely getting to know
Sean and his double.

The problem was, he was an
upstanding guy when it came to everything but that one aspect. Which meant he
was perfect except for that one, huge, glaring flaw that continued to make him
untouchable for any self-respecting girl.

Still, that stupid Monica didn’t
even deserve any crappy part of him! Dumb tart.

Krista finished what she was doing,
locked her computer, and headed to Sean’s office. She was the first one on the
scene because she was so close.

“Hey Cap’n, whaaaaaaaat’s
happening?” she said in an imitation of Office Space.

“Hi Krista. How are you?” Sean
asked, his full attention tuned in. “You look well.”

“Oh thanks. Yeah, I’m eating my
Wheaties.”

“You still run by the beach?”

“I do, indeed, sir. Why?”

He shrugged, “So you are John’s new
favorite.”

“Yeah, about that. What was the
deal with telling him about the Sue comment? You realized that was not for his
ears, right?”

“I told him about calling me a
womanizer,” Sean’s comment was laced with a twinge of aggression.

“Yes, but that’s a known fact and you
were peppering me for information, so you deserved it. Talking crap about a
Junior VP is a different matter altogether.”

“The distinction is hard to grasp.
But I told him because that’s his favorite song. He finds it hilarious. More so
because of his last name, of course.”

“Oh. So he wasn’t mad?”

“Actually, he finds it a good sign
that you know the song at all.”

“Who doesn’t?”

“Among your age group? A great
many.”

Krista fell silent, not knowing
where to go from that dead end. Sean continued to look at her like he expected
something. She continued to look back, waiting for comment.

When he didn’t relent his expecting
stare, she finally asked, “What?”

He smiled a secret smile, probably
mocking her somehow, and looked up as Ray sauntered in.

“Hi lady and gent,” Ray said as he
took a seat at the round table in the corner of the office.

Sean got up and followed suit.
Krista stalled, wanting to stare at Sean’s butt for as long as possible. When
she finally followed she noticed that Ray caught her. She gave a “Can you blame
me?” type of shrug to his knowing smile before she giggled and sat down.

“What’d I miss?” Sean asked,
looking first to Krista, and then to Ray.

“The inner workings of a woman’s
mind, I’m afraid,” Ray said, examining his notes.

Sean smiled another secret smile.
“Good. Too complicated for the likes of me.”

“What is?” Marcus asked as he
walked in.

“Women,” Sean answered as he nodded
hello and beckoned for a following Judy to close the door.

“We aren’t so hard to understand.
Just shut up, look pretty and do as we tell you. After that everything will go
swimmingly,” Judy said on her way to sit down.

“Exactly,” Krista nodded once.

Sean gave Krista a searching look
before he said, “Okay gang, here’s where we are. In.” His smile would have lit
up a darkened room.

“Wait… In?!” Marcus exclaimed.

“IN! We did it! Not only did the
buyout happen quickly and effortlessly—well, as effortlessly as those things
go—but we’ve been approved to continue on with the mother company rather than
the newly sequestered.”

“So when do we present?” Judy asked
with an excited smile.

Suddenly everyone was flying with
glee but also sitting on edge. This is what they had been working toward. It
was go time. This was big money for the company, but if they f’ed up, and that
was all in their hands now, the company would take a huge hit for it.

“The good news is that John handed
them the ideas Marcus and Krista worked out. They loved them, but want to see
more. They also want to see what we can do with those ideas in TV spots.”

“What’s the bad news?” Ray asked.

“Our work has just begun. We need
to enlist more team to help with this. Obviously this is bigger than Dell.
Krista will head up the research division—“

“Obviously,” Marcus cut Sean off.
Judy and Ray nodded.

“—but she’ll need at least two
people to help. Krista, who do you think we should enlist?”

“Well, anyone from my department
will take seniority over me.”

“You should know that you were
requested specifically,” Sean said from behind steeped fingers. “Mr. Hartling
wants to see what you can do with that idea you threw at him over dinner. He
already knows your work from what we gave him, and has faith in you, despite
your lack of experience.”

“Sean looks as proud as a
papa-bird,” Judy muttered from the side of her mouth. Marcus barked laughter.

“Well, I did find her, after all.
It was me who talked John into letting her on my team,” Sean said in defense.

“Yeah, yeah, excellent judge of
character and all that,” Ray said, waving him off. “Forgive me, I’m the newest
member of this company, but that Research department is …how do I say…“

“Useless?” Marcus provided.

“Lazy?” Judy helped.

“Inefficient?” Sean supplied.

“Entrenched,” Ray finally spit out.
“Krista is right. They won’t follow her direction because she is so new, and
any work they do will most likely have to be redone.”

“Same with the art department,”
Judy remarked. “I love them dearly, but it even took me a good prodding from
Sean to get going.”

“You mean,” Marcus said with raised
eyebrows and a smile, “a good prodding from Sean and being shown up by a
twenty-year-old...”

“The twenty-year-old did help, I
admit,” Judy muttered.

“I’m twenty-five, by the way,
guys,” Krista intoned.

“Same difference,” Ray said with a
smile.

“Well, what are our options? I
hesitate to hire off the street. There aren’t many Kristas,” Sean said deep in
thought.

“Why not?” Judy asked.

“I am not really a real life model
of a statistician.”

The rest of the group was moved to
silence.

“I, uh, have a couple friends,
though,” Krista supplied. “I went to school with them. One did almost as good
as me in school, the other not as great, but they both know the stuff. I’m not
sure how much they would cost, probably cheap, but they might work if the deal
was sweet enough…”

“I want to meet them,” Sean said.

“You already did. At the bar,
remember?”

“I meant, in a professional
setting,” Sean explained.

Krista shrugged.

He nodded, “Okay, we’ll table that
for now. Judy, I have your art solution.”

“Who? We don’t have much budget
left. And I’m not easy to work with.”

It was obvious Judy didn’t like
others making her hiring decisions for her. No good manager would.

“He’s already hired, and he’s the
genius that made Marcus’s ideas come to life,” Sean said, looking at Krista.

She knew it was Ben the whole time.
Who else would it be? Why else would Sean have gotten him in the door so early
if he wasn’t already planning this? She wondered just how many steps ahead Sean
really was.

“Now, Marcus, do you think you need
help with ideas?” Sean asked, leaning forward on the table.

“Ideas, I got plenty, as long as I
have Krista and this genius kid to work them out.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Sean
said, looking at Krista again. “We might need one more art person, but we’ll
cross that bridge when we get to it.” Sean leaned back and sighed. He suddenly
looked extremely tired. “I’ll email your newest assignments by tonight.”

There was a collective groan. Sean
just smiled and got up to go to his desk.

“Okay slaves, let’s go row,” Krista
said, getting up as well.

“Krista, stay a minute, will ya?”
Sean asked while looking at his computer.

Everyone else, sensing work, rushed
out. Krista continued her groan and went to sit in the chair in front of his
desk. After a couple minutes of him playing with his email, letting everyone
else wander out, and she, sitting in silence the whole time, he finally asked,
“We’re good, right?”

Krista felt a spark of heat
remembering their exchange at the winery. She was a glutton for punishment, but
holy-moly, she wanted him. Bad. She wished she could just satisfy her urges,
just once, and then never see him again. At least the womanizing part of him.
She would miss the part of him that was growing into her friend.

It killed her to feign
indifference, but there was no other way. This job was insanely good for her
career, it paid well, and what’s more, she really liked it. Sean the
Professional was the challenge she needed. His management style worked with her
in a way that was enabling her to grow into the position she wanted. Under Mr.
Montgomery she would still be back where she started.

“Yeah, we’re good,” she said with
more tenderness than she intended.

Before Krista could close up shop
with her gushy emotional sabotage, Sean looked at her closely with his
brilliant green eyes. He nodded slowly, emotions warring on his face. “Good. I
like working with you. I don’t want anything to come between us—that.”

She matched his nod with a
fluttering heart.

She was in a tough place. She was
finally finding the part of herself she’d lost when she was with Jim. Her
personality was emerging from the hiding place she’d stashed it to keep it, and
herself, safe. And somehow, Sean had entwined himself in that process. She’d
grown to trust and rely on his friendship—the part of him not touched by his
womanizer traits. She kept slipping closer to him while trying to push him
away. And instead of saving herself by cutting off communication, like she
should do, she couldn’t; not after landing an account that would propel her
career forward.

She’d been in better situations.

It was a tough place, but for a
future that included his friendship and this job, it was a challenge she would
meet.

The End