Tekgrrl (22 page)

I walked over to him. “Thanks for building that escape route for our research. I’m sorry I never thought of that.”

He cast his suit jacket off on the arm of the nearby sofa. With just his dress pants and shirt, he looked a little less fussy. Dare I think it, he almost looked cute.
Wow,
I realized.
That kiss really messed with my head.

“It’s something Rath and I discussed when you were first designing the system,” he said. “We decided it would be best if it was something only the two leaders knew, so we went ahead and added it ourselves. I’m sorry for not telling you before. You could have built modifiers to the system to keep people like Cyrus out.”

“It sounds like you did a pretty good job on your own.”

He ran a hand over his head. “We tried.” He looked tired.

“Well, it’s still going to take forever to rebuild everything, especially with hardly anything to work with,” I said. “The fire-sale action still dumps all of our funds to offshore accounts, right? Or did you change that too?”

“No, the money still goes to the Cayman Islands. Now we’ll just have to figure out how to move it without raising suspicion,” Paul said. “We can modify cheaper tech into bigger and better things, but it’s going to take some time and labor.”

“Joy,” I said. “Good thing we’ve got time on our hands.” Of course, I didn’t know how I felt about the prospect of spending hours locked in a room with Paul.

“When we’re not patrolling.”

“You think it’s a good idea to continue with our jobs as usual?” I asked.

“I do think it is a good idea, actually. But it’s a good thing that Wesley made the call about patrolling. There’s no way anyone would have listened to me. Like Toby wouldn’t listen to reason when he wanted to call his boyfriend, but he turned around and obeyed Wesley.”

“Aw, what’s wrong, is Mommy mad that the kids are listening to Daddy?” I joked.

He frowned. “You saw what happened today, Mindy.”

“Yeah, I saw you tell Toby what to do and then blow up his cell phone when he didn’t listen.”

“He could have led the authorities straight to us! I know he trusts Forrest, but it doesn’t mean Forrest’s phone isn’t tapped or that he hasn’t been forced to cooperate with his superiors.”

“I know, but you could have reasoned with him instead of blowing things up.”

“It’s not like I enjoyed that.” At my disbelieving look, he flashed a smile. He had a nice smile. Too bad he was always scowling. “Okay, it’s not like I enjoy blowing things up any more than the next red-blooded American man. But I’m more concerned with keeping us safe than maintaining anyone’s love life.”

“His love life was not the reason that Toby was going to call Forrest and you know it,” I growled.

“I’m sure it was to try to find out if he could help. But, come on, you can’t tell me his reasons were strictly business.”

I shrugged. “Whatever, Paul. I think you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be in a real relationship and have someone you care about that cares about you. Toby’s probably worried about Forrest, and vice versa.” I softened my voice. “Look, I do understand why you were concerned about security breaches, but you could have handled it better.”

“Like Wesley?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “You said it, I didn’t.”

Paul shook his head. “Sometimes I think I’m the only one who takes this team seriously.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The team comes first for me. Everything else is secondary. Wesley has Lainey, Toby has Forrest, and now Luke has Selena to be a distraction. And of course you’ve always had Luke…”

“That’s been over for a long time,” I said.

“Good.” He spoke without looking at me.

“Good how?” I took a step closer to him, trying to catch his gaze.

“I didn’t like seeing you following him around like some airhead when I know you’re much smarter than that.”

“Thanks, I think.” Talk about a backhanded compliment!

“You’re a much more interesting person now that you’re not living in his shadow.”

I decided to return the sentiment, since we were having a moment. “And you’re much more interesting when you’re not so uptight.”

He let out a surprised bark of laughter. “I’m uptight?”

I laughed, too. “You say it like it’s a shock. You’re a control freak and you know it. That’s what it really comes down to. You think because you have no love life, no one else gets one.”

“Oh, that’s exactly what it is, Mindy,” Paul said, but his smile outweighed his sarcasm. “I’m a mean, bitter old man because I don’t have a love life. Maybe if I had one I would become more understanding. Maybe I wouldn’t worry when I’m sharing a bed about how to properly lead this team and try to fix its messes.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. And then, I don’t know what possessed me, but on impulse I leaned forward, bringing my lips to meet his. Maybe I just wanted to see if sparks would fly this time around or if they had been a one-time-only fluke. Maybe I wanted to remind myself that typical type-A personality scientists didn’t do it for me. Maybe I just wanted Paul to shut up. Or maybe something else.

The fire came back in a mad, dizzying rush. I had a moment to wonder why someone who could be so abrasive, who infuriated me and hadn’t given me a second glance under normal circumstances, could practically make me melt. It was a soft, warm kiss to start, and then drifted into hotter territory as his hands slipped around my waist to pull me in close. I ran my hands up the planes of his chest, digging my fingers into his shirt as the kiss deepened. If I was losing my mind, I wanted to catalogue every experience: the smell of his aftershave, the strength of his arms around me, how his lips tasted.

Then reality came back and we released each other, drifting apart to stare as if we didn’t know what to say.

“There,” I said, my voice sounding weak and fluttery. “Are you going to be nicer to everybody now?”

He flashed me an awkward smile. “God damn it, Mindy.”

I took a step back. “Not exactly the reaction I was wanting.”

“I’m trying so hard to keep this on a strictly professional level.” He started pacing.

“Sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. I hadn’t wanted these feelings either, and now they were just there. Like the proverbial elephant in the room.

“I was counting on you to act like yesterday had never happened so I wouldn’t be tempted.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “Tempted?”

“I mean, we have to work together. In close quarters.”

I nodded. “Alone sometimes even.”

“God forbid.” He passed his hands over his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know your parents, for God’s sake.”

“Is there a point to all of these strange ramblings?”

“I never thought you would do this!” he said, whirling to face me. “I’ve known you for so long, and I’ve never, ever looked at you once as anything other than a coworker.”

“Well, Jesus, Paul, it’s not like I’ve ever thought of you as anything other than my uptight boss. I’m as stupefied by this attraction as you.”

“It’s completely inappropriate.” He went back to pacing.

“Completely,” I agreed.

“When I was twenty-four and just starting to try to convince Rath to let me go on team missions, you were twelve!”

“Yeah, and you always glared at me as if I had no business being at the EHJ headquarters when I came there with my parents.”

“You don’t even like me most of the time.”

“You don’t like
me
.”

“I don’t dislike you! You’ve always acted like you think I hate you and I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you. I’ve always respected you and your work.”

I smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a guy who’s had his tongue in my mouth say that he respected me or my work.”

“I think that’s more of a commentary on the guys you’ve dated.”

That was the final icebreaker. I burst out laughing. Paul looked at me for a moment, and then he started laughing too. After the tension-fueled last couple of days, it was a good release.

“Listen, whatever this is,” I said, motioning between us. “It’s not going to affect our work.”

Paul gave me a disbelieving look.

“It isn’t! I think we can both agree that this is temporary insanity. I’m sure it will just go away.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked like he didn’t believe me. “I’m having extremely inappropriate thoughts about you right now, and that’s just going to go away?”

I blushed. “It will. I mean, so we have a bit of a flirt, so what? At least we’re getting along better now. And we’re definitely not going to paw at each other right in front of everyone.”

“Definitely not,” he agreed.

“And we’re not going to let it get out of hand. We’re grown-ups.”

“One would think.”

“Why are you two still hanging around in here?”

I jumped about a mile, and Paul whirled to see Fantazia standing in the hallway between the main room and the others, tapping her fingers on her hip and looking impatient.

“We were just talking,” I said.

“Well, come on, I’ll take you to your room,” Fantazia said to me.

I nodded. “I’ll see you later, Paul,” I said in all seriousness. “Thank you for discussing those tech ideas with me.”

I saw the trace of a smile on his lips at my attempt to go back to normal, whatever that was. “No problem, Mindy. And we’ll work on your telekinesis tomorrow.”

“All right.” I followed Fantazia down the hall, leaving Paul and the weird attraction behind. She showed me to my temporary quarters.

Kate looked up as I walked in. “I didn’t think you’d actually be using this room.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I stripped down to my underwear, suddenly exhausted and ready to curl up in bed and sleep for days if possible.

“I thought I was going to be your cover so you could sneak over to be with Paul. I’ll swear you left early every morning for breakfast meetings with him if you want.”

With a groan, I pulled the covers up over my head.

The next morning I dragged myself out of bed to find my roommate already up and around. Kate was a morning person. How annoying.

I threw on my old clothes from yesterday and made a mental note to try to convince Paul or Wesley that we needed to go out at least for basic necessities—like fresh clothes and a toothbrush, for starters.

Paul probably wouldn’t be too hard to convince.

It was weird to think of Paul at all, let alone as the guy that made me feel tingly. I kept thinking I would wake up and things would be normal again: We would be back home, Simon’s crew wouldn’t have tried to arrest us, Paul would be just my stick-in-the-mud boss.

I walked into the new main room to find everyone hanging out, looking like they didn’t know what to do with themselves. So far, we were still in a pocket universe and on the run from Simon. Things had not magically sorted themselves out overnight.

Kate was in one corner of the room, talking to Cyrus. (I wish I could say I was surprised.) Wesley and Lainey were holding some sort of conference with Fantazia on the other side of the room; Luke and Selena were sipping coffee and eating some sort of breakfast pastry a short distance away, obviously listening to the conversation. All voices were hushed, like we were living in a library or something.

I helped myself to a bagel and a mug of coffee, even though I wasn’t all that hungry. I wondered how Fantazia got food into this universe. Had the bagels and that carafe just disappeared from other places in the regular world? Or were these magic bagels and coffee?

And, why was I pondering the origin of this food when our entire world had been turned upside down?

“You’re up and about early,” Toby remarked, reaching around me to nab a blueberry muffin. He was holding a delicate china cup of tea. From where had Fantazia conjured that?

“Couldn’t sleep,” I said. “As soon as I rolled over, I woke up and remembered what happened.”

“I know what you mean,” Toby said. “I kept expecting all of this to be a nightmare.”

“We need a television or something in here,” I said. “Something to take our minds off all of this.”

“Tell me about it,” Toby agreed. “Can you get cable in pocket universes?”

I laughed and then took advantage of the moment to ask, “So…I take it you’re talking to me again.”

He frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You seemed upset with me after my incident at the club.”

He put his hands in his pockets and looked down. “I might have been a little. I thought you were being irresponsible. But then Lainey told me what happened with taking off the blocks and what you remembered…” He looked back up at me. “I’m sorry, kiddo. That well and truly sucks. And then everything that happened yesterday probably doesn’t help matters any. How are you holding up?”

If only he knew what crazy things I was doing to cope. Maybe that’s what I could blame my strange attraction to Paul on: It was a coping mechanism.

“I’m doing okay,” I said. Then my attention was drawn to the person walking into the room. Paul. He looked around as if he wasn’t sure which group to join. I felt his eyes turn on me. Something was dancing in those blue depths—amusement mixed with worry, maybe?

I turned my attention back to Toby. “So yeah, I think we need to get a television. If for nothing else, just to kill time.”

“We need something on which to monitor trouble,” Paul said, overhearing and walking toward us. Nothing had changed about him, really; he looked wholly the same as last night, and yet somehow he was completely different. Maybe it was because his suit was rumpled, maybe it was the fact that he had dark circles under his eyes.

Or maybe it was that I was actually noticing that he really did have the darkest, bluest eyes I’d ever seen, and even though the suit was conservative, it really did show off his shoulders in a way that was very attractive.

He must have noticed me checking him out, because he gave me a half smile and pointedly asked, “Are you okay, Mindy?”

“Sorry.” I tried to reorganize my thoughts.
Think of mean, nasty Paul,
I reminded myself,
not the unbelievably great kisser.
“My mind was wandering.”