The Game (20 page)

“I appreciate it,” she finally said.  Apparently her little revelation didn’t mean that she found him less attractive.  His scent enveloped the small space in the sports car.  It also didn’t make the sex any less spectacular
, she guessed. 

It was strange having him take her home.  There would be that moment when they got there
, when it would be so easy just to invite him in for coffee, when both of them knew there would be no coffee.  Although he could turn her down, which would be mortally embarrassing.  Not that she was going to, on her life she would not propose that he come in, no matter how much her body wanted her to.  The truth was that she had not had sex since she’d been with him in Singapore.  She tried to imagine the women he’d been with since to bolster her intentions and her aversion to him.

“See you tomorrow,” she quickly blurted as soon as the car was stopped.  “Thanks for the ride.”  She
got out and ran off down her driveway without looking back.  She could hear his car taking off down the street before she stopped.  Her heart was racing, which was stupid because she was pretty sure he had no intentions of coming in even if she offered, but equally she didn’t entirely trust herself not to propose it because a part of her wanted nothing more than one more night with him.  Saying that, she couldn’t imagine anyone looking more out of place in her little flat.  Homely and cosy was not his thing.  She bet everything in at his place was designer, costing a fortune, with little thought to comfort, placed to capture the amazing views he no doubt had.

She dismissed him from her mind as she got insider her door and confronted the angry cat that hated being left in the dark. 
She found she could actually get him out of her fore mind for the first time since she’d learnt that he was on the project.  In the last week, she had been dreading having to work with him, she had really been unable to do anything right.  Tonight she found that she was ok with it.  She faced her first day and she’d gotten through it.

Something had changed with Jane, he noticed a few days later.  The tension seemed to have left her and she didn’t have the tight look whenever he needed her attention, instead she just gave him her clear blue intelligent eyes, listening to every word he said, responding as necessary.

He tried not to acknowledge it, but he didn’t affect her the same way anymore.  She seemed to have…
moved on, it was just an odd sensation, one he wasn’t used to.  He should be glad, this made for a much more productive work environment, but on a deeper level, it felt a bit disconcerting.  Jane even made some jokes every now and then.  But if she wanted anything she would turn to Sam first, which annoyed him.  He should be pleased that she wasn’t bothering him, so his displeasure could only be described as irrational.  It was clear that the working relationship between the girls was good.  They tackled problems well together, reaching conclusions and solutions relying on each other’s skills.

It was Friday afternoon and things were naturally slowing down around the office.  He wouldn’t be seeing them again until the middle of next week and decided to have a group meeting to go over the things that needed doing in his absence.  They each took their direction with a nod and that was that.  It was good, it was the perfect team, but there was an irrational element in him that wanted them to be concerned that he wouldn’t be there.  That wasn’t true, it was Jane who he wanted to feel a slight
worry, but she just wrote down her tasks and got on with her business without batting an eye.

Sam was talking about some concert she was going to that weekend.  Jane didn’t say anything about what
she was doing.  It left him wondering what she would be doing.  He knew where she lived.  He knew she went running, and that she worked hard and liked spending time with her friends, other than that, he knew very little about her.  She might even have a boyfriend for all he knew.  The idea bothered him, some office clod putting his hands all over her.  It’s not like he wanted her pining for him, but equally he found it hard imaging her making those luscious lips and delightful body available for another man.

He wanted to tear Carmichael’s eyes out at the moment.  The old man had succeeded in driving him up the wall.  As much as he hated to admit it, he had still not gotten this thing under control.  She crept into his consciousness
, into his sleep. He had highly erotic dreams involving her.  Maybe he just needed to get laid.  For some reason, the sex part seemed to have slowed down of late.  His old girl was boring him and he just didn’t have the drive to get a new one at the moment.  It wasn’t the first time that girls bored him, it happened on occasion, particularly after he’d had a difficult and demanding one.  That was not the case at the moment; the last one had been perfect.  She liked sex and entertained herself well otherwise, but for some reason, he’d just gotten bored with her.

He decided that he sh
ould get laid over the weekend, that night in fact.  He would head out to one of the city’s more exclusive clubs and pick up a girl.  He just had to look at someone and that was often enough to secure himself a companion for the evening or for however long he wanted.

“I better run if I am going to catch the train,” Jane said and got up from her desk.  She was packing away things in her handbag.   He stopped
himself from proposing to drive her home.  His mind had even been thinking of an excuse to be going down to her part of town.  He managed to keep his mouth shut while he watched her walk out of the office with her ponytail bouncing behind her as she went.

“See you,” she said as she was just out the door.  There was no point for him to respond, she was gone.

He went out that evening, he wasn’t really into it, but he forced himself to.  He knew the night was wrong as soon as he got into the club.  He wasn’t in the mood to be there.  The girls
were pretty, but they weren’t doing anything for him.  In fact, everything about the place annoyed him, the music, the dark lights.  He watched the dancing for a while as he ordered a whiskey, but he was just bored.

Maybe he needed to get out on his boat for a while, decompress and re-
center.  He imagined himself on his boat, sailing out on a clear, bright day, a bit chilly.  He talked through the tasks we was doing to get the boat to respond the way he wanted.  Then he discovered that he was actually talking to Jane in his mind, teaching her how to sail.  His eyes shot open.  How had she managed to invade his most sacred place?  He felt anger simmering under his skin.  The anger got him out of his seat and out the door.  He was in an even worse mood than when he came in, and he wasn’t leaving with someone who would distract him that evening either.

Jane had a blindingly good start to the week.  She got through her tasks and it just flowed.  She really did work better when he wasn’t there, being down in Wellington as he was, dealing with the politicians.  The most professional part of her was sorry that she was missing it because he was by far the best she had ever seen.  The bitterness of having to be around him had gone, but he was still distracting.  She could still smell his cologne in the office.  One of his suit jackets was also hanging on the coat rack.  It might be the source of his scent.  She had an urge to touch the dark material, feel the cloth, but she stopped herself.  Knowing her luck, Sam would walk into the office at that precise moment and she would forever be labelled the mental woman who sniffs other people jackets, and worse, Sam would also uncover her raving crush on her boss.

Damon returned the next morning.  She wasn’t entirely sure how it’d worked out, but she was happy to see him.  A nice congenial attitude
toward him was something she was trying to cultivate, while constantly reinforcing that attraction had no meaning.  He was attractive and that was all there was to it.  And he was not her type, it was very, very important to reinforce that point.  Working with attractive people was better than working with disgusting people, she reassured herself, trying to think of some way to make light of this. She could be working with someone with serious hygiene problems, who left worse smell behind than their cologne.  That would be infinitely worse, she tried to justify in her mind.

Sam needed his attention when he returned to the office, but Jane was running out the door.  She didn’t return until after lunch.  Sam was gone by then.

“So where are we?” he asked when Jane was
walking back to her desk.

“I’ve just been working with the engineers.  They are get
ting the systems plans in place,” she said stopping by his desk.  He walked around it and joined her.

“And they need you for that?”

“It just makes things go faster if I’m there.”

“Just let them do their job
Jane; they’ll lean on you too much if you let them.”

“I just thought it would help,” she said.  “How did things go in Wellington?”

“Good.  We have to write a white paper for the technology we are proposing, and we have to get it peer reviewed by the Universities.  I want you to take care of it.”  Jane diligently wrote down notes on her tablet.  “Use the engineers for that, and don’t get roped into their systems planning.”

“Ok,
” she said.  She wore a dark charcoal gray pants suit today.  It fit her well; she was putting more attention into the clothes she was buying.  Maybe he’d be better off with her older wardrobe, the one that didn’t fit quite as well, because the slim pants and cropped jacket showed off her backside beautifully.  No wonder the engineers were monopolizing her time.  He felt a surge of possessiveness.

“You can be too soft,” he said.  She looked up.  He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d said it.  He wanted
a reaction, maybe to pick a fight with her.  He wanted to break through that cool professional exterior she’d developed.  He should be appreciating it, but for some reason, he wanted to tear it down.  He could see anger flaring in her eyes.  There was something rewarding in getting a response from her.

“I’m not soft,” she stated.  “I just happen to think that working together makes things better, makes the project run smoother and faster.”

“But you end up getting distracted.”

“That’s a bit unfair.  You’ve been here like two seconds, I’ve been working on this project for months, and we’ve achieved quite a lot so far.  Just because I run projects a little differently, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.  You way
isn’t the only way.”

“I am just trying to give you some advice, from my experience.”

She paused and took a breath.  Then she smiled, “I will take that under advisement.”  She was shutting him out, pulling on the professional mask.

“Don’t do that,” he said quietly.

“Do what?”

“Withdraw.”  That got her anger back.

“I am not withdrawing.  This is your project now,” she said bitterly, “you can run it anyway you want.  If you want me to leave the engineers to it, I will leave the engineers to it.  Anything you want.” 

That last bit sounded a little too good to him
, out of context.  She certainly hadn’t meant it that way, but his mind had grasped onto the statement and refused to let go.  Before he knew what he was doing he grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her into a kiss.  She hadn’t had time to react.  She tasted divine, just like he remembered.  Pleasure flooded his body, his brain, making it hard to think, dismissing the alarm that screamed at him that this was an incredible risk; he could be in so much trouble right now.  She could have him in court for pities sake, tied up in a sexual harassment case for years.  His reputation would take a serious hit.

She made a little whimpering sound before her lips became pliant against him.  He deepened the kiss, pulled her even closer.  He ran his tongue along her bottom lip and she parted her sweet mouth for him.  He felt a ridiculous sense of achievement as he gained access to explore her mouth.  He couldn’t stop, it was like the flood gates were open and he was having a pressing need fulfilled, like he’s been holding his breath for a long time.

He had to stop or he was going to have her here on the desk.  The friction of her hips was just too much.  He had to pull away.  Then came the realisation that he didn’t want this, this is not what he wanted.  Well, intellectually that was, he hadn’t been this hard in a long time.  He’d sworn to himself that he would not go near her again after Singapore.   He wrenched himself away.  She looked stunningly beautiful with freshly kissed lips and the way she was looking at him.  No professional exterior now.  He could barely hold back from kissing her again.

“Stop making me
do things I don’t want to do,” he said trying to get control of his voice through his extreme need for oxygen.

“What?” she said with confusion.  “I didn’t make you do anything.”  He snorted.  She licked her lips, it was a subconscious move, but he
saw it, she was taking the taste of him.  It just about undid him.  He crossed his arms over his chest as a means of keeping some distance, and also to keep them from reaching out for her.  “Alright,” she said in a dark tone, “I forbid you from kissing me, you better not do it again, or I will…”