Tropical Storm - DK1 (48 page)

“Oh god,” She gasped softly, feeling Dar’s breathing catch under her ear
. It’s
been so long.

Dar had no idea what to do with the barrage of emotion hammering her from every side. She’d had no intention of taking this to where she had, no intention of shattering these particular barriers and crossing that line they’d both been balancing on for the past few days. But once Kerry had touched her, as soon as she’d felt that familiar weight against her back she knew her future had slipped out of her grasp. And now…

It was her dream realized. She could feel it—the same warmth, the same feeling the sunlight had shaken her out of the previous morning. Nothing else mattered. She was lost. Or maybe she was found.

She tightened her hold and tipped her head back, regarding the stars.

Letting the moon’s silver light baptize them as the other half of her soul came sliding home. At last.

DAR HAD NO idea how long they stood there. It was a long time, though, long enough for the tears to dry on Kerry’s face, and long enough for their bodies to become used to each other’s touch. Dar felt a sense of quiet peace, and she suspected if she stood here long enough, she’d simply fall asleep in it, standing up and everything.

She thought about what to do next, her hand making idle, gentle circles on Kerry’s back, enjoying the feel of her smooth skin under the fabric. Finally, reluctantly, she exhaled and shifted a little, causing Kerry to open her eyes and look up, with an expression of such perfect trust it was almost
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frightening. They looked at each other for a moment, then Dar smiled. “That wasn’t planned.”

The blonde smiled back. “No, it certainly wasn’t.”

“Are you all right?”

Kerry considered the question on several levels. “Yes. Are you?”

Dar had to really think about that. “I…yes, I think so,” she murmured in wonder. “I don’t usually, um…” She found her fingertips tracing the planes of Kerry’s face. “B-but…” She took her hand away and exhaled. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Seeing Dar so at a loss was very cute and impossibly endearing. “I don’t know either, but can we bottle it?” Kerry smiled impishly. She captured Dar’s hand and felt the fingers curl around hers. “You want to sit down a minute?

There’s a bench near here.”

Dar felt a certain weakness in her knees, and realized it was probably a good idea. “Sure. Yeah.” She let herself be led over to the bench in question, and they sat down on it, side by side. “Okay, um…” She laughed a bit, rubbing her face with one hand. “I guess we know we, um…” Words failed her again. “Good god, I have no idea what in the hell is wrong with me.”

Kerry leaned her head against the cotton-covered shoulder. “I’m pretty sure this isn’t covered in the employee handbook.” She patted Dar’s back, and just left her hand there. “Or maybe it is, and I just haven’t gotten to that section yet. That thing is huge,” she rambled on a little, hoping it would get Dar to relax. She paused as a thought occurred to her. The part of the handbook she had read had covered employee relations, and what was allowed between employees and their bosses was spelled out very clearly. Or, more to the point, what wasn’t allowed. “Guess this means I’ve got to start checking ETIPS, huh?”

“Um…” Dar wrestled with her composure. “Well, technically, yeah, I guess. But, um, hold it.” She took a deep breath, then released it. “Let’s just…I finally found a decent assistant. I’m not ready to let you go just yet. Let’s see if we can keep work, and this…separate.”

“Mmm.” Kerry felt her hand start a gentle circling motion against Dar’s back. She had no desire to change jobs. Maybe they could just see how things worked out.
Slow, Dar said. Take things slow.
“Okay,” she agreed softly. “I kinda like the boss I have.”

A moment of silence, of waves, of winds stirring the palm leaves. “Your boss kinda likes you too,” Dar responded softly. “I didn’t expect it to come out like this.” She hesitated. “I just couldn’t keep it back any more.”

Kerry let out a relieved sigh. “It was getting pretty hard for me, too,” she admitted shyly. “I thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. I mean—having a crush on your boss; how cliché can you possibly get, right?”

A wry smile answered her, and Dar’s dark brows lifted. “So it wasn’t the promotion you were after, huh?”

Kerry blushed. “I had no idea what that job was, and I could have cared less,” she admitted honestly. “Just something about… Oh boy. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Dar looked down at the wood of the boardwalk. “Likewise.” She looked back up, and their eyes met. “Thought I was just being, mmm…” She paused 232
Melissa Good
and sighed. “Didn’t think you were my type.”

Kerry covered her face with one hand and chuckled almost soundlessly.

Dar exhaled, unable to prevent a giddy smile from shaping her lips. “Okay.

Well, now that we’ve got that straight, we can proceed accordingly.” She considered. “Let’s see, we’ve already been trapped in a hurricane, gone through a carjacking, and slept in the same bed together. I guess we can skip the obligatory ‘meet in the coffee shop’ date, huh?”

Kerry giggled. “Uh, yeah.” She rubbed her nose. “Let me try this one. Can I interest you in dinner and a movie tomorrow night?” She glanced down, then up again. “I’ll cook.”

“As long as it’s not
Titanic
,” Dar agreed with a smile. “Or anything with subtitles.”

“Ew.” Kerry winced. “I’m more a
Starship Troopers
kind of person myself,” she confessed, a little guiltily.

“Phew.” Dar mock wiped her brow. “That’s a relief.”

They looked at each other quietly. “It felt really good when you hugged me,” Kerry finally said softly. “I’ve never felt like that before, except maybe in my dreams.”

Dar gazed at her soberly. “Neither have I.” Hesitantly, she circled Kerry’s shoulders with her arm, and felt the smaller woman immediately ease against her. “I like that.” She leaned against the bench’s back and almost stopped breathing as Kerry laid an arm across her stomach and nestled her head against Dar’s shoulder. They watched the waves in peace for a while, until Dar noticed Kerry was struggling to keep her eyes open. “Hey, c’mon. Time to get you home.”

I am home,
a tiny voice insisted as Kerry forced herself to sit up straight, very reluctantly leaving Dar’s warmth. “Yeah, falling asleep on the beach sounds nice in stories, but they forget to mention all the sand that gets everywhere,” she joked as she pushed herself to her feet and held a hand out to the still-seated Dar.

Sand crunching lightly under their shoes, their hands clasped together, they walked back up the boardwalk.

“MA’AM?” THE VOICE sounded impatient.

Dar’s head jerked up and she blinked at the ferry deckhand, who was not-so-patiently waiting for her to drive off the ferry. “Sorry.” Dar gave him an apologetic wave and exited the boat, driving to her condo and parking the Lexus without really thinking about what she was doing. She got out and locked the doors, then climbed the steps to the condo and opened the door, closing it behind her and flicking the lights on with an automatic motion.

Her steps wandered into the kitchen, where she glanced at the terminal, glad to see there wasn’t any mail waiting, since she had no desire to read any right now. She mixed herself a large glass of chocolate milk and went into her bedroom, where she set the glass down while she got out of her jeans and Tshirt and put on her favorite baseball jersey and flannel shorts.

It felt a little strange, and she glanced down, realizing she’d put them on backwards. With a soft curse, she pulled them off and pulled them back on the right way. “Oh boy.” She picked up her glass and wandered back into the living room, turning on the television and sinking down into the couch, looking at the screen without really seeing it as she pondered the evening’s unexpected ending.

Jesus Christ, what in the world just happened to me? It wasn’t supposed to
escalate like this. I was just...she was just…we were…
Dar took a long swallow of milk, comforted by the soothing, familiar taste.

Okay. Okay, okay. Let’s take stock of the situation. We are attracted to each
other. That’s not a surprise. I knew that before. Okay? Okay, she’s attractive, she
thinks I’m attractive, we have similar tastes…she’s smart. It’s really not that
surprising, Dar, so get a grip.

She felt better. A little. But all that rationalization didn’t explain just how good it had felt to hold Kerry in her arms and how much her body was craving more of that, so much so that if Kerry had been there, Dar knew she couldn’t have kept her hands from touching that soft skin, or playing with her hair or…

Dar slowly lowered her head onto the back of the couch, feeling the cool surface of the leather become warm against her skin. This was a new feeling for her. Intense, and somewhat out of control, but warm and sweet and very, very distracting. She knew she had to get a handle on that, but right now, she was content to sit and sip her milk, and indulge herself in this emotional whirlpool.

She was surprised when the phone rang, and she stared at it for a 234
Melissa Good
moment before she hoisted herself to her feet and went to the table, glancing at the clock as she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Ms. Roberts, this is Mids Ops,” the vaguely nervous voice said. “Um, you’re on my notify list if we lose anything.”

“Oh yeah? What’d we lose?” Dar asked, curiously.

“Um. Netops,” the voice answered. “They had a fire in the building, and they had to evac. The fire department won’t let them switch to UPS, so…”

“We’re down,” Dar supplied.

“Um, yes.”

“Completely down,” Dar added. “Everything—the network
and
the mainframes.”

“Yes.”

“Guess you can go home then, huh?” the executive commented casually.

“Uh…”

“No sense in your being there if there aren’t any mainframes to administer. The internal network is on an automatic backup schedule,” Dar reasoned, “so…go on home.”

“Uh…okay, Ms. Roberts, if you say so.”

“Sure,” Dar reassured him. “Bye.” The line went dead, and she put the phone down, padding back over to the couch and sitting down, taking a sip of her milk, letting her mind wander again, daydreaming about sea green eyes and lightly sun-tinged skin, her imagination hearing the roar of the waves and the sound of seashells tinkling in their wake.

Then her eyes popped open and she spat milk out over half the table.

“Holy shit!” she barked, jumping back up and grabbing for the phone again.

“Sonofabitch!” She dialed frantically, then waited. “Yeah, on second thought stick around there. … No, no, it’s my fault. … No. Who else have you notified? Keep going.” She hung up, then slapped herself on the side of the head a few times. “Jesus!”

She dove into her briefcase for her contact book and opened it, bringing it and the phone back to the couch. She dialed a number. “Who is this? Okay, this is Dar Roberts. … Yes, I know. Who won’t let you cut over to backup?

What’s his name? … Okay, what division is he with? … County or city?

Thanks. What damage did the building take?” She listened for a long moment.

“Did the extinguishers go off?” Another long pause. “Christ! Do we have backup 3270s?”

As she listened, she booted her laptop and plugged in the network cord that would connect the machine to the dedicated line dropped into the condo.

“Well, someone better get on the line to Infrastructure in Houston and see if they have a couple mothballed somewhere.” She hung up, then studied her screen. System indicators showed red blinking lights everywhere on the top-level view of the network. “Hell, everything’s down.” People would be calling; she was surprised they hadn’t already.

How long has this been going on? Did the system forget to page me?
Dar scrabbled for her pager, then realized she wasn’t wearing it. “What in th—”

She paused, eyes unfocused, then cursed softly. “Son of a stupid bitch.” With her free hand, she dialed the phone, listening for a familiar voice. “Hey.”

“Hey, what’s up?” Kerry sounded a little surprised, but not disappointed
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to hear her voice.

“We’re not. Netops had a fire, and the entire network is down,” Dar told her with a sigh. “Some idiot in the fire department won’t let them go on backup.”

“Yikes! You need some help there?”

Dar hesitated. “I’m just going to be yelling at people,” she temporized.

“I can make you hot tea,” Kerry responded readily. “Besides, I don’t think I can sleep.”

Dar drummed her fingers against her leg. “Um. You know, we’re going to have to reroute a lot of stuff if I can’t get the fire department to cooperate. I could use some help in research and identifying available assets.”

Kerry’s voice perked up. “Really?”

Dar gave in and gave up. “Yeah, you can dump into the second ISDN line here. If you want to, that is.”

“I’ll be right there,” came the immediate assurance.

A smile edged Dar’s lips against her will. “See you soon, then. Bye.” She took a moment out to call security, then she went back to her searching. She found the name she was looking for, then glanced up at the TV screen, which was tuned to, of all things, the Disney channel. “Oh…
Beauty and the Beast
. I love those candlesticks.” She pointed cheerfully at it as she dialed the phone.

“Hello, I need to speak with Walter Blakelock. … No, this is business.” A pause. “I don’t give a goddamn if he’s humping with the mayor’s wife, I need to talk to him.” Another pause. “Either get him on the phone, or I’ll be calling his boss out of bed, too. … Thanks, I’ll wait.”

KERRY DIMMED HER lights as she pulled into the underground parking, slid into place next to Dar’s Lexus, and turned off the Mustang’s engine. She glanced at her reflection in the rearview mirror and gave herself a little lecture. “This is business, Kerrison. You are here because the company is in crisis, and it’s part of your job,” she told her reflection sternly. “No doe-eyed looks, no batting of the eyelashes, and no backrubs, got it?”