Coffee Cup Dreams (A Redpoint One Romance) (7 page)

"Yes, my flashlight," Tish said. "Something is
leaking in here. The bots are looking at it and I'm going back the
way I came."

"I'll meet you there."

A small bot broke away from the others and
zipped to the other side of her, a small bright light emerging from
the top of its shell. With its light, she moved back the way she'd
come.

And the only silly thing Tish could think of
was: she hoped they didn't make her pay for the
flashlight.

***

Arthur rushed back the way he'd come. The sound of something
metal hitting the floor hadn't been his only clue something had
gone wrong. The smaller repair-bots rushing into the small access
corridor had been the big tip-off.

The idea of a new trainee on her first day on
the job gave him shivers. There were too many small things to pay
attention to, small clues the station and bots gave that a new
person would be oblivious to.

Reaching the entry, he aimed the beam of his
flashlight inside. He could see her inching her way towards him,
blinking in the bright light of the flashlight, with the ridiculous
holographic hair ties giving little swirls of light to mark her
location. He altered the beam towards her feet.

The fact he could see her grinning assured him
she was unhurt. "What did you see?"

"A clear liquid dripping. It hit my flashlight
and ate through it."

Which explained her dropping it. Wonderful,
she runs into something dangerous the first time out. "Did any of
it get on you?"

"No. I caught a few of the bots as they were
going by. They're looking at it. I think the fluid is eating
through other pipes."

Arthur studied the nearby pipes in the
dimly-lit maintenance corridor, identifying all he could. So many
systems routed through the area that the fluid could be any number
of things. He would need Damien and Rachel's help at least. And
Simon. He seemed to have an instinct towards anything hazardous on
the station.

Too many people here who wouldn't be repairing
other areas of the station. Not good.

Even one more person would be a help. With
that in mind he turned his focus back to Tish Douglas. She'd
encountered something dangerous and yet kept her cool. Well, at
least there hadn't been any screaming or crying. Instead, she'd
done the smartest thing. Dropped the contaminated flashlight and
headed back the way she'd come.

Only, she wasn't progressing towards him as
fast as he thought she would.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

He saw her take a deep breath before turning
her head towards him. "This is so embarrassing. I'm
stuck."

"Stuck?" Arthur echoed, trying to muffle a
laugh.

"Yes, stuck," she said with a frustrated huff.
"Something on my back."

"Hold on, I'm coming."

Easier said than done. The corridor wasn't
built for someone of his size. He had to twist and strain to work
his way back towards her, bumping his head on the low ceiling
several times.

"Stop wiggling. You could make it worse," he
said, noting the way she was moving. Noting and feeling the
reaction.

"And what if you get stuck, too?" She asked,
glaring at him.

"Then I'll send my bot for help." A bot he
realized hadn't followed him back. Who knew where the thing had
gone. Sometimes they had minds of their own.

He reached her, having to duck down under a
lower part of the ceiling. With one hand he reached behind her
back, feeling for where the catch might be. But trying to find the
problem and keeping a handle on the flashlight was too
much.

"Here, take this," he said, pushing the
flashlight into her hand.

She tried to angle it around to shine behind
her, but only succeeded in twisting just enough for her breasts to
brush against his arm.

"Stay still," he said far more sharply than he
meant to. Pushing aside the feel of the contact, he purposely
relaxed his voice. "You'll make it worse."

Then he realized what he'd said, and hoped she
wouldn't misconstrue it.

"Just trying to help," she said in a small
voice, but she'd stopped moving.

"For future reference, a simple shirt with no
collar is best to come to work in. Less chance of it catching on
something."

With his back braced against one wall of the
access corridor he was able to swing his shoulders around so he
could reach around her from both directions. He started from the
top of her shirt at the soft skin of the nape and worked his way
down. Past her shoulders and the soft bulge of…

His thoughts went downhill far too quickly.
He'd been right when he'd seen the small woman standing on the
dock, looking so small against everyone around her. She was
trouble. In a personal way he didn't need.

He tried to focus, but searching for the catch
only meant he was working his way lower. When he reached the swell
of her firm hind-end, she caught her breath just as he
did.

"Sorry about that," Arthur said, not sure what
he was apologizing for, but it seemed like the right thing to
do.

"It's okay," she said in a breathless voice
that did it to him all over again.

And then he found the catch. Caught on the
edge of a back pant pocket. A part of him was disappointed the
search was over, but then thrilled again when he had to have her
shift so he could release the catch.

Shift against his arms and chest.

And suddenly she was free. She moved away from
the problem- area of the wall, her chest against the right arm he'd
had to wrap around her.

"Thanks," she said in his ear.

The purple, red, and blue holographic bands in
her ponytail swirled in front of his nose. He breathed in her clean
scent, having to force himself away from her. "You're
welcome."

Climbing out of the access corridor added to
the physical pain he was feeling, with several bumps of his head
against the ceiling, and elbows and knees against the narrow walls.
He told himself he deserved it. Tish was a new member of his crew.
He was her boss. He needed good people to keep the station going,
and he wasn't about to let his hormones get in the way of that
goal.

Only his hormones didn't listen, not even when
they were in the larger access corridor with plenty of
room.

Tish handed the flashlight back to him, her
face flushed.

He forced his mind back to business. "Good job
in finding a problem, but I doubt it's the problem we're looking
for. The leak we're looking for is coolant, colored red, and we
would see a lot of it to account for the failure we're experiencing
in this area."

He could only hope he'd made sense. His mind
was about as far from business as it could get.

***

She could only hope he couldn't see her shaking.

Being close to Arthur was unlike anything
she'd experienced before. He put Walt to shame in so many ways.
From the muscles, to the big firm hands…

She shivered a little bit at the memory of it.
Of the wonderful memory of it.

But, he was already talking about other places
to search for the problem. Apparently the close contact hadn't
affected him at all if he was already talking shop
again.

Which she should be paying attention to,
especially if she wanted to keep her job.

Forcing herself to pay attention took more
effort than she expected. The way he moved fascinated her,
especially now that she knew up close and personal how wonderful
those muscles felt close to her body. The moment he turned away to
lead further down the corridor she gave herself a firm shake. She
wasn't a teenager any longer, to be pulled by the hormones. Time to
be practical.

Like once again tracing the piping through the
corridors while dodging the various-sized bots running up and down
them. They split up at another juncture, only to come together
again a short time later. Thankfully the corridors were wide enough
that she didn't need to touch any wall. She didn't think she could
stand another encounter like before. She might spontaneously
combust.

"I found the problem," a woman's voice sounded
from Arthur and her wrist at the same time.

Tish lifted it to find the top surface of the
new identification band displaying various information including
the identity of the caller. Rachel Henderkito. She recognized the
voice as the woman she'd briefly seen after arriving at the
maintenance platform.

"How big of a problem?" Arthur
asked.

"Bad enough. Floor flooded with coolant. The
pipe isn't cut all the way through, but it's close. It looks like
it's been eaten through," Rachel answered.

He raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged,
asking, "Could it be the same thing?"

"Seems too much of a coincidence. We should
check."

Which resulted in another bad pipe found, with
multiple leaks once the team traced it all down. And this time it
belonged to the station, and not the human additions.

"Bots should have caught it a long time ago,"
Damien said, glaring up at one of the leaks. "We'll need to check
surrounding sectors, see how far the problem extends."

"First we repair this sector. I want Simon
down here as soon as he's free to check cause," Arthur said. The
way his eyebrows came together told Tish of his concern. As did the
tense stances of the others. All except one. "How much more help do
you need?"

"Send Simon when you can. Otherwise Ricardo
and I should be able to handle it, now that I know where the
failure is. It will be good practice for him," Damien
said.

Her attention settled on the one called
Ricardo. With black hair and brown eyes, the man was attractive,
but he didn't appear to be paying attention to what was going on
around him. Not the leaks, not the bots, and not the people in
front of them with all the experience.

"Practice would be good," Arthur said with a
hint of steel in his voice.

Ricardo didn't seem to hear it or maybe he
wasn't paying attention, but Tish did. Enough to turn and see the
steel reflected in his face before a mask of no emotion
descended.

CHAPTER SIX

A TRIP TO another problem area, another introduction and name
Tish knew she wouldn't remember later, a meal in a cafeteria, and
then back to the maintenance platform. It went by in a tired blur.
And it brought a new fear.

The station was so huge she didn't see how she
would manage to keep from getting lost. Corridors, maintenance
travel pods, mass-transit cars, elevators, all leading in different
directions. She desperately wished for a map to help her
out.

Arthur answered any question she had, but
there was a reserve not there before. He was upset about something,
she could tell. Somehow she had a feeling he wouldn't be so open to
answering that question if she came up with the courage to ask
about it.

"An adventurous first day," Arthur said,
pouring himself a cup of vile-looking coffee after they returned to
the maintenance platform for the last time.

How could he drink the stuff so late in the
day? "Yes, but informative."

"Does that mean you will remain with us
another day?"

Tish frowned at the question, not having
expected it. "Of course. Any reason I shouldn't?"

He shrugged, taking a sip of the coffee and
cringing. "As Ricardo mentioned in his blatant way, some people
don't survive past the first day. Find the station and work
conditions unacceptable."

Other than getting her clothes caught on
piping, the day had consisted of a lot of walking and looking.
Certainly nothing to be alarmed by. Or maybe some had seen the same
movie as her and thought the bots creepy or dangerous? That
wouldn't explain the ones that didn't stay earlier than the spring
when the movie premiered.

One of the bots ran by her with a small box
held above its body in two hands, heading towards one of the
storage rooms off one of the corridors. It beeped and hummed as it
moved, as if satisfied and content with its work.