Thirteen

by Scarlett Finn

  “No, this is just a hug, we’re still talking.”

  But he’d given her a chance of an out, and she wouldn’t really be her if she didn’t at least attempt to take advantage of it. “Ding. Ding. Ding. I’m not wearing panties,” she murmured, pushing her mouth to his and rolling her hips. “You can just slide Pavlov right in, baby.”

  “No… Shit. Ok, rookie mistake,” he said, lifting her up to put her back on her own stool. Evie whimpered and drew a fingertip around his knee, but he picked up her hand and put it on her own lap. “No touching Thirteen during serious conversations, Oakley, stupid. Stupid man.”

  Sometimes he was hilarious, other times he was so cute that she just had to laugh. “I love you.”

  He stopped talking to himself to grin at her. “Damn… I thought your ‘very difficult’ comments were tough to deal with in the office. Now you just found a quicker way to get me hard.”

  Excitement made her reach forward. “Really?” she asked, but he caught her hand before she could grab his dick. “You know it upsets me when you won’t let me play with Pavlov.”

  “You got up early to work, you abandoned him,” he said. “And you can play with him for the rest of the day after we finish talking.”

  “So talk,” she said. “Marriage is on the table. Kids are a slim possibility if I ever manage to…”

  “Spend the night,” he said. “How could we make it more comfortable for you? Do you want me to spend the night at your place first? I know that inviting me over for dinner was a big deal, but we’ve done that a couple of times now.”

  “I’m worried about integrating that part of my life with you,” she said. “Not because of why you’re thinking… This is my chance to get out from under it. You are the new component. The push I need to get better. If I can spend the night with you without bringing that crap with me then I might be able to get free of it. If I bring my traps and my neurosis, then you can kiss goodbye to kids and anything else because I’ll never have an incentive as strong as you to do it. If you’re not enough, nothing else will ever be.”

  “Makes sense,” he said and moved like he was going to pick up her hands, but he pulled his reach back at the last second before contact.

  Witnessing him reminding himself not to touch her, provided too great an invitation to ignore. Teasing him was just too much fun. Leaning back, Evie stretched her hands above her head, feigning she’d been overcome with the urge to yawn. Opening her legs on either side of his, she pointed her toes and lifted them until they touched the curved back of his stool on either side of his ribs.

  His half-dozen deep, sharp bursts of laughter made her blink her eyes wide with innocence. “What?” she asked and then looked down as if she’d completely forgotten that she’d just exposed her pussy to him. “Oopsy.” But she didn’t rush to conceal it. “Is Bell distracting you?”

  “Nope,” he said, because he wanted to win the game, except he couldn’t lift his eyes.

  “How about Friday,” she asked, parting her knees further.

  “What about Friday?”

  “It’s your birthday on Saturday.”

  “My birthday on—what? Shit.” Grabbing her knees, he squashed them together although her feet were still on his stool back. “Please, Thirteen, cut a guy a break.”

  twenty-four

  Exhaling, she straightened and crossed her legs as she sat demurely. “Better?”

  “Not really,” he grumbled, still looking at her thighs. “Now I know she’s there.”

  “She’s always there,” she said. “And that’s what you get for denying me access to my Pavlov… When I ring the bell, he’s supposed to drool for me.”

  “Oh, he’s drooling, Thirteen. Can you tell me what you meant about Friday? Please?”

  They’d started this conversation, so she figured they might as well finish it. “I’ll come over on Friday night and I will try to stay.”

  “Friday?” he asked, leaping to his feet, though she didn’t know why he was so excited.

  Tempering his expectations, she raised a finger. “I said ‘try’, Oakley. I can’t promise you anything.”

  “It’s enough,” he said, bowing forward to kiss her. “It’s good. Thank you, Sweet.” He leaned back to scrutinize her. “Are you sure Friday though? Your presentation will be on Friday, won’t you be nervous? I don’t want that to short you out.”

  That made her shake her hair down her back and relax. “I don’t get nervous presenting,” she said and traced her fingernail around his knee. “You’re not going to grill me, are you? If I wear a short enough skirt, and go sans panties, you won’t even be listening… It’s your birthday party on Saturday night, you’ll probably have people back here for drinks.”

  Her poor baby was at a loss. “I will?”

  He might be left out of some decision-making, but she was on top of it. “Let me rephrase: Taylor is planning on having people back here.”

  “I thought we were going out for dinner,” he said, seating himself again.

  She explained. “Your MatchMate people are going out for dinner—I won’t be MatchMate on Saturday.”

  Panic made him tense. “But you are going to be there, right? If you’re not going to be there, I’m not going to be there. I’ll be wherever you are.”

  As sweet as it was that he wanted to be with her, Evie wouldn’t see Taylor’s toil wasted. “No, you won’t,” she said. “Taylor put a lot of effort into this, you’re going to go and have a ball.”

  “But if you’re not—”

  Evie put a finger to his lips. “It just so happens that Taylor asked me to be her date. So, yes, I will be there.”

  “You could be my date,” he said, sweeping her hair back from her shoulder.

  “Lana is coming… well, she’s going to be there. Whatever she does to celebrate your birthday is—”

  “This Lana thing is getting crazy,” he said. “We barely talk to each other, then we have to do these stupid interviews like we’re in love. You know I think about you when I answer their questions.”

  “I know, you told me,” she said, turning back to her computer and picking up her coffee. “It’s working, membership has increased.”

  “Yeah, and how will those members feel when they find out it’s a con?”

  “Don’t be silly, it—”

  A thought made her stop, then she exhaled a laugh and looked at him.

  “What?”

  “We’re a MatchMate couple.”

  “Yeah,” he said, smoothing her hair. “We knew that. But you said you weren’t up to doing the whole media thing and—”

  Grabbing his thighs, she got excited. “We get to go to the Valentine’s Black-Tie event!” He nodded. “I’ve always wanted to go to that. Do you always go?”

  He nodded again. “Took Taylor last year.”

  Sucking in a breath she bit her bottom lip and started to think about what she could wear. “We better be out by then because I want to go next year, we can go as a threesome.”

  “It’s in five months, so, yeah, we better be fucking out,” he said. “And Lana won’t be around to—”

  “I meant Taylor,” she said, prodding his knee with a fingernail. “You can take me and Taylor… you can do that right?”

  “I can do anything I want. Taylor is organizing it. She can get you as many extra tickets as you want.”

  She waved a scolding finger at him. “No, this is an exclusive event.”

  He shook his head and smiled at her. “You care about the weirdest things.”

  Pushing her hands to his thighs, she levered over for a kiss. “I care about you. Are you weird?”

  “The weirdest,” he said and kissed her again. “You know I appreciate this, and the effort you make for me. You don’t have to.”

  “You’ve been spending too much time with Noel,” she said, smiling into their kiss before pushing away to return to her computer.

  “I mean, I want you here every night, all night, but that you’re
willing to even try, it means a lot and I want you to know that.”

  “I might not make it,” she said, typing again. “Don’t be disappointed if I don’t.”

  “We’re starting, that’s something. You stay as late as you can then next time you stay two minutes later and so on. I told you, one step at a time.”

  One side of her mouth rose, and she peeked at him. “You should’ve said one inch at a time… Are you worried about saying anything that I might construe as sexual?”

  “Thirteen, you construe everything as sexual, it’s one of the things I love about you,” he said, “but while you’re working like that, I’m not sure you know I’m here.”

  When he tried to lean in to sneak a peek at her work, she grabbed the top of her screen and pulled it down. “You get your report on Friday, Mr. Orion.”

  “Oh, come on,” he said. “I’m dying to know something… Don’t tell Orion, tell me. Tell your boyfriend, not your boss.”

  “I wouldn’t reveal proprietary information to outsiders,” she said, enjoying that she could flash him a mischievous grin before opening her computer again.

  “If I finger-fuck you, will you tell me?” he asked, walking his fingers across her thigh. “What if I eat you out while you work?”

  Evie played it straight. “Do you offer that to all your contractors?”

  He shrugged and picked up her coffee to drink some. “Standard practice… Come on, Thirteen, you love me.”

  Typing faster, she wanted to finish her thought before she knew they’d go back to bed. When he got his fingers to her clit, she slapped the top of her laptop down and spun to face him. “Six need to leave immediately. Twelve can be given notice and there are forty-two others who either need to be filtered out or retrained.”

  Stunned, it took him a second to catch up. “Wait, that’s… that’s sixty people, that’s almost an eighth of my staff.”

  Folding her arms, she shrugged. “Twelve percent, pretty average.”

  “Average?” he asked, slumping against the back of his stool as the mug in his hand dropped to the counter. “Forty-two? I mean, fuck, Evie, forty-two?”

  “Those people aren’t lost causes,” she said. “If you’re willing to take time, you can help them to improve. I’d recommend introducing a mentoring scheme. It depends how much time and money you want to spend… I have outlined a full training plan for each of them. Though there are training needs in every department. Again, average.” She meant to reassure him because he was starting to pale. “I have step-by-step plans for everything that will need to be done and your HR manager will—”

  “Heather is going on maternity in three months,” he said. “She doesn’t even know if she’s coming back. I said we’d keep the post open but…”

  “Don’t panic,” she said, squeezing his knee. “Everything is in plain English and I have a short list of prospective candidates for every vital vacant position. And remember what I said at the start of this, you don’t have to take any of my recommendations.”

  He scowled at her. “You also said if I didn’t that it would affect the chances of us working together in the future. You said something about respect and wasting your time.”

  “A lot has changed since then,” she said, sliding off her stool to stand between his thighs and drape her arms around his neck.

  “Yeah, we fell in love. That guarantees I’m going to do everything you write in that report because I value your advice over everyone else’s.”

  “All I want to do is make MatchMate stronger,” she said and when she touched her lips to his, he did respond, but his mind was somewhere else.

  “And what about these six?” he asked. Of its own accord, his hand moved from the counter and slid under her tee-shirt to cup her ass cheek. “Should I be worried? If they need to be out, you need to tell me now, today, and I’ll make the calls.”

  “Baby,” she said, laughing as she brushed her nose over his. “You’re freaking out. Don’t freak out. I promise, it will be ok.”

  He searched her for a second. “You have to come work with me,” he said and when she tried to pull away, he grabbed her ass with his other hand too and pulled her closer. “It’s insane for you not to, Sweet. We’re going to get there. I know we are. You didn’t think you’d ever be able to love me and here you just said you loved me.”

  Evie sighed. “Loving you is easy,” she said. “Giving you the life you should have is harder.”

  “You do,” he said like he was aggravated by her. “But this is business, and MatchMate is as much yours as it is mine and Taylor’s. Think about it. If we do have kids, even if it’s in ten years, this company is going to be handed down to them. Don’t you want to be a part of building our children’s inheritance?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “I need an HR manager,” he said. “That’s what you are! You could do the job standing on your head. And I’m not going to limit you, you can still work for your other clients, your regulars, I trust you to balance your workload I just… I want MatchMate to be your priority.”

  “You are my priority.”

  “Good,” he said, pulling her to him. “Great! Then come work with me.”

  Drawing in a breath, the expansion of her lungs forced her breasts into him. “Oak, you haven’t even read my report.”

  “Did you write bad things in there?” he asked. “Did you find something negative that you think will piss me off? Is it about the top-tier staff?”

  “No,” she said and gave him the kiss she’d wanted to give him for a while. “You, my love, are in the top ten percent. I’m so proud of you.”

  “Top ten percent of—”

  “I won’t recommend any salary deductions from top-tier staff and you don’t even take a year-end bonus.” Squeezing her closer, she whispered on his lips. “You might have been a little generous with Taylor’s bonuses, but that might have accidently not made it into the report.”

  He groaned and opened his mouth to kiss her. “How can you not believe you’re part of MatchMate?” he asked. “You are meant to be with us.”

  “I’ve written reports on some people that will not be appreciated,” she said. “You can’t ask me to judge these people and then manage them after they’ve read my negative comments about them. They’ll never believe I’ve given them a fair shake.”

  Thinking about this, he came up with a solution. “Then omit them from the final report. You can send me the full final so I know the script, but we’ll censor the public version… At least, we’ll just omit those details. It would be unfair to publicize comments that may be read by peers anyway, it may unduly influence their colleagues’ opinions.”

  “You’re that desperate to have me on staff? Oakley, I can’t—”

  “You can write your own ticket,” he said, not ready to give up. “No messing from me, I promise.”

  “I get to write my own contract?”

  He shrugged. “Sure, if it secures you with MatchMate. I know you’re fair.”

  “And if I demand that the boss has sex with me every day after the morning briefing?”

  “I’d ask you to stipulate that it happens after the others have cleared out the boardroom.” She didn’t know if he was serious, but she’d bet if she actually wrote it, he’d sign it. “You fit in. Ian has operations, Kody, marketing. Taylor does the events. I deal with finance… Someone needs to round out the team. Someone who cares about MatchMate… You’d have an equal vote with me and Taylor… And you know, Tay wants another woman in the boardroom with her. Heather was always too interested in punching a clock, she never cared. We’ve never been able to find anyone who cared.”

  “And if Heather wants to come back?”

  “As long as we don’t reduce her salary, I’d bet Heather will be happy to take on less responsibility.” He peered at her. “And I’m guessing from the look on your face that you know something I don’t anyway.”

  She sighed and sagged into his arms. “Heather isn’t coming back, she j
ust wants to make sure she gets her maternity pay, that’s why she won’t tell you yet… And you better give it to her, Oakley. Raising babies is expensive work… it would be decent of you.”

  “Whatever you want, Sweet,” he said, trying to tempt her mouth. “Does that mean you’ll take her place?”

  “I’ll think about it,” she said and when he inhaled to keep trying, she pushed her hand over his mouth. “I said I’ll think about it, Oakley Orion, that’s more than you’ve had from me in seven weeks. I just told you I loved you and said that I’d try to spend the night with you, that’s a lot.”

  His frame expanded, but only for a second before he slouched again, giving in… well, sort of. “You’re right, future Mrs. Orion.”

  “Yeah, well there’s that too,” she said, happy to wrap her legs around him as he stood and picked her up. “You said something about eating me out… you ready for lunch?”

  twenty-five

  It was after lunch on Tuesday when his office door opened and closed. Glancing up, he saw Taylor and so went back to his writing.

  “You know those kids who ask their parents for a sibling, but they have no idea how babies are made?” Taylor asked.

  Ok, this was going to be one of these. “Yeah,” he muttered.

  “They have no idea how expensive a kid is, or even that daddy has to bounce around on mommy and get all sweaty. They don’t know that it’s difficult and stressful,” she said, sinking down into the chair on the opposite side of his desk. “Those innocent little kids don’t know that pregnancy is emotional and taxing, or that labor is exhausting and painful. They just want the prize at the end, the cute little baby.”

  If Taylor was in a relationship, he was sure that Evie would’ve told him. Even if she’d just hooked up with some guy, Evie would have told him… maybe. But, somehow, he doubted his sister was about to confess that she’d been knocked up. That was definitely something Taylor would confide in Evie before she told him. And Evie would give him a heads up if Taylor was pregnant, if for no other reason than to make sure he tempered his reaction to the news.