by Joyce Jordan
“Look, the best way to avoid hackers, is by having one try hacking in at different times of the day, week or month. I know it’s kind of twisted, but that’s the best way of beating them,” she told them.
“As for the other guy, I just need to send a harmless virus to his computer to monitor him. That way I can piggy back and see who else has access to it. It could be someone else using his computer or his family’s ISP address.” Ana explained to them, then switching to the current employee asked, “How many people have access to your server room? I hope he didn’t have access. But to be on the safe side, I will need to monitor that for a while too.”
“I’m not sure, but I can ask my Head of IT.” Gabe answered Ana’s question.
“What do you mean? Has someone been messing with something in the server room?” Nate chipped in.
“Just need to be extra careful. But let me put some feelers and we can meet again next week, maybe towards the end of the week. In the meantime, I need access to the server room. I’d prefer to be back when the building is empty. So whoever is free can meet me here tonight.”
Without waiting for a response Ana stood up and started packing her equipment. It was almost three and she had hoped this would be over by lunchtime, but unfortunately had gone way longer than expected. Not that she was surprised though. Some of her meetings did take long, especially when big corporations where involved. It had been good though. Ana loved her job and enjoyed it when she was able to resolve problems, problems that needed software that was usually not on the market yet, or that she had but did not sell for profit. She called that her secret weapon, worked like a charm and kept her in business. Sometimes one just had to have an unfair advantage over the competition.
When they all tried to help her pack, Ana shooed them away. It wasn’t like she had a whole lot of stuff, and she preferred handling her own equipment. That done, Ana set back down to conclude the meeting. Gabe agreed to her recommendations and opted to bring her back to the building later that night. That way no one would question their presence in the event someone happened to be in the building.
Nate and Rafe left soon after, rushing to another meeting at their office. When Ana tried to leave a couple of minutes later, Gabe blocked her exit. Taking her laptop bag, he placed it on the small boardroom table they had just used. He took her into his arms and he pulled her body until it was flush with his. He breathed her scent, lifted his hands to her head and pulled the pin holding her hair up and spread his fingers through her rich beautiful hair.
As soon as Gabe held her, Ana felt immense heat shoot through her, juices flowed straight down and her panties were wet in less than five seconds. Her body was on fire, every rational thought fled her head and she brought her hands up to hold onto Gabe’s waist for balance. What started as a slow kiss, Gabe wanting to savor Ana, soon turned desperate. Gabe kissed Ana like a man starved, a man dying of thirst. Ana returned Gabe’s kiss with all she had. Gabe lifted her and went to sit on one of the couches in the office. He tore Ana’s thong and sat her on his lap, straddling him. Shoving one finger inside her pussy, he cupped her with his palm. Ana cried out and bit Gabe on his lower lip.
“Fuck Ana, I need you.” Gabe pushed a second finger inside and started moving them rapidly in her sex.
“The door,” she whimpered.
“It’s locked.”
Ana’s hands flew to his pants, loosened the buckle on his belt, then pulled the zipper down. It took some time, but finally she pulled his cock free and brushed her thumb over his mushroom head.
Gabe groaned loudly and latched onto her breast through her dress. “You need to come for me baby. I need to hear you scream my name.” As if on command, Ana came violently. Before her orgasm was over Gabe stood to drop his pants further down, lifted Ana and slid her onto his cock. As soon as she was lucid Gabe held her hips and helped her move, “Ride me baby.” They moved in unison, fast and desperate. Moaning, Ana leaned down and kissed Gabe harshly. Before long they both come. Ana was limp and dropped onto Gabe’s chest. “You have no idea how much I missed you.”
“With what just happened, I think I have an idea,” Ana laughed. “And I missed you too, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“When you came in this morning, you were all business and I wasn’t sure. Sexy as hell in that dress and those fuck me boots you love.” Gabe lifted Ana off his chest so he could see her face. “A couple of times I lost track of what you were saying trying to think of how I could get rid of Nate and Rafe. I hope you don’t dress like that to all your meetings. How the fuck do you get this dress off?” Gabe had been searching her for the zipper and kept coming up empty handed.
Ana threw her head back and laughed wholeheartedly. Punching him in the shoulder, “Are you saying I was boring?”
“Ouch!” Gabe rubbed his shoulder where Ana had punched him. “Never boring. You are the most excitement I have had in a long time. Even when you are all business.” His hands kept looking for the zipper. “The zipper Ana,” he asked in frustration.
“It’s hidden on the left hand side, but I need to leave. I have work to do,” she said but didn’t move.
“Okay, let me hold you for a minute.” They sat silently for what seemed like hours, but was only five minutes, then Gabe stood with Ana still connected to him. He strode into the bathroom, sat her on the countertop and proceeded to clean her up with a washcloth. Next he turned and cleaned himself. Moving to stand in between her legs, Gabe threaded his hands through her hair. His head descended and he kissed Ana lightly. “I believe I owe you a thong,” he said trying to push his tongue in between the seam of her lips. “Open.”
Ana opened and gave him access. He entered her mouth and continued his lazy kiss. He played with her tongue until Ana sighed and pulled back. “Don’t you have a company to run?”
“I have employees. But I know you said you have work, so I’ll let you go. However, I want to be the one to remove that dress. It’s been driving me crazy all day. Do you want to come over? Or I can come to your place if that’s okay with you?”
“You want to come and sleep at my place?” Ana asked surprised and couldn’t help but stare at him.
“Is that a problem?” he asked with a worried expression.
Ana couldn’t help seeing that he wasn’t as confident as she thought he might have been. “No, no problem. What time?”
“Will six or seven work for you?” Gabe asked her and lifted her off the countertop. “I can bring dinner,” he added.
“That’s fine. I will be done by about six, and Kelly will be home around that time too.” They walked back into Gabe’s office and Gabe helped Ana into her coat.
“John will take you back home. I’ll call him to pick you up.” No longer was the lover from a few minutes ago visible. He was a man aiming for a fight.
Exasperated, Ana replied, “Gabe, we have been over this already.”
“That was before the weather took a turn for the worse. Besides, you won’t be able to find a taxi in this weather.” Picking a remote, he increased the volume on one of the news channels playing, “And it’s going to be falling all night,” he added.
Sure enough, Ana saw the flakes flowing at an alarming rate. Even in Gabe’s limo, she may be struck in traffic for over an hour. But still she didn’t want to impose. “Don’t you need it when you finish work?”
“Much later, unless you want to stay with me and we can leave together? Do you need anything besides your laptop to work?”
“I was going to work on something else. But I guess I can access it from here or work on something else.” Ana couldn’t believe what she was seeing. But then she had hardly watched any weather reports recently.
“Okay, so are you staying?”
“Yes, no. Crap. I don’t know. Let me think.” Ana walked closer to the glass wall of windows and looked down to the street. It was chaos with traffic at a standstill, inching along at a snail’s pace. Frustrated she started pacing. “That means we have to postpon
e the visit to the server room,” Ana said and glanced at Gabe. When he nodded she continued pacing along the wall, looking outside, hoping things would improve. “Fine, I’ll stay. It doesn’t make sense for me to go now and be held up in traffic, only to have John make the same trip again in the same traffic jam. But,” she held her hand up to stop Gabe, “you will need to work at your desk, while I claim your conference table as my workspace.”
“I’m okay with that setup. Although for the record, I would have preferred we worked closer together.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she mumbled to herself. Removing her coat, she threw it on the couch and picked up her laptop bag. She quickly plugged the power supply into an electric outlet, wanting to save her battery incase the power went out. With such kind of weather changes, one had to always be prepared. She saw Gabe going to sit behind his desk, then she sat and got to work. Ana tried calling Kelly to make sure she had a way of getting home safely, but her phone went straight to voicemail. She left a message and sent a text in case she didn’t have enough time to listen to the message.
A couple of times, Kelly had had to work double shifts at the hospital when the weather had turned nasty. Emergency cases increased and they couldn’t afford to be short staffed and one time she had literally been stranded when the train service had been cancelled and taxi’s were few and far between. Before long, Ana got engrossed into her work and forgot about the outside world. She jumped when the ringing of her phone startled her.
“Ana, I got your message. Are you home?”
“No, not yet. Are you coming home tonight or you are pulling a double?”
“Fortunately there haven’t been any accidents so far, so no double. But the subway is a mess and no taxis available either. And after the day I spent with Brad being a pain in my ass, I’d rather walk home,” Kelly huffed.
“Are you crazy?” Ana shouted. “Have you seen what it looks like outside?”
“I have, and if you went through what I went through, you would understand.”
Deflated, Ana replied softly, “I don’t have to go through it to understand. I’m just worried about you. It’s getting rapidly dark and you could slip and slide.”
“I’ll be careful. And where are you anyway?”
“Oh! I am still at Gabe’s office. By the time I was about to leave, the weather had changed, so I agreed to wait and we could leave together later. I didn’t even realize the time,” she said “Can you come over and we will go home together? You will have to cross the street though, but at least you won’t have to make the rest of your way on foot.”
“I can. It’s slow going, give me about thirty minutes. Is that okay?”
“Sure, I just need you to be safe. I’ll tell Gabe you are coming over.”
“Okay. See you in a bit.” After Kelly hung up, Ana went over to Gabe’s desk.
“Was that Kelly,” he asked.
“Yes. She just left the hospital and is coming over so we can ride together. I hope that’s okay with you.”
“Why wouldn’t it be okay with me? But why is she walking? I heard you on the phone. You were practically screaming.”
“Long story,” Ana replied not wanting to get into the whole Brad thing. “But I need to go and meet her downstairs in a short while.”
“No need, I’ll call security and let them know she is coming. And it’s probably best I order dinner and have it delivered here. By the time it’s ready, Kelly will be here. And you can decide if we eat here or at your apartment.”
“Okay. Let me use the next few minutes to finish up my work then.” Ana walked back to her laptop and got back to what she had been doing earlier. She was glad that despite the limitations she had made good progress. She was still way ahead on her projects and wanted to keep things that way to avoid anything interrupting her vacation week. Now that they have booked their flight and hotel, it was real. With the money they were spending they couldn’t afford to have anything interfere with their plans. They had booked first class both ways and a luxury suite at a five star hotel in Honolulu. And thanks to Massimo, Ana’s client from Vegas, their room was being paid by him. The ding of the elevator stopped Ana’s reverie from continuing. She got up and went to meet her friend. Andrea had already left and the floor was quiet. She had ridden up with the food delivery guy. Gabe came to meet them at the door and paid for the food.
“Kelly, next time you get stranded you call me,” Gabe told her after he had hugged her. “Are you cold?”
“No. Fortunately I had taken my warmest coat, gloves and two scarves. It was just slow going because many people were also walking. I didn’t know this was possible in New York.”
“We usually are prepared to handle anything, but sometimes mother nature takes us in for a surprise,” Gabe answered her.
They decided to eat before leaving Gabe’s office. Kelly had described what a mess the streets were outside and that it would take them forever to reach their apartment. Gabe brought in plates and silverware from the mini kitchen, Kelly made coffee and they all sat down to eat.
An hour later they had cleared away all traces of food and made their way downstairs to make their way home. They met John in the foyer talking to the security guys. Seeing them, John walked ahead and opened the limo door for them to get inside. Ana was grateful for the warmth in the limo. John had kept it idling, for who knows how long. It took two hours to finally reach their apartment. By then it was already after nine. Kelly said goodnight to both Ana and Gabe and proceeded to her bedroom. Gabe had made arrangements for John to come and pick her up the next morning, so she wouldn’t need to worry about the subway being down. He carried Ana’s equipment to her office and then followed her to her bedroom.
They both undressed and Gabe carried her to the shower. He soaped his hands and washed her body. Next he shampooed her hair and then left her to rinse it off herself. While Ana was rinsing her hair, Gabe washed himself. Shutting of the water, he grabbed a towel from the towel rail and dried Ana’s hair then wrapped her hair in it. He used another towel to dry her body and found another to dry himself, then used it to wrap around his waist.
“Where is your dryer?”
Tired by the day’s events and the long ride home, Ana didn’t respond, but pointed to a drawer next to the sink.
Gabe walked over and found the dryer, then plugged it in and had Ana seat on a stool that she kept under the sink. Once her hair was dry, he removed the towel hugging her body then picked her up, walked to her bed, and pulled the duvet and top sheet down then gently laid her down on the bed and quickly covered her body. Gabe switched off the lights and joined Ana in bed. Pulling her close to him, they snuggled, Ana’s back to Gabe’s front.
“Sleep baby.”
“Thank you.” As soon as Ana said those words, she was lights outs.
Three
The next morning Ana woke up to find she was alone in bed, a note on the pillow Gabe had slept on. She read the note and smiled. He was sorry he had to leave early, but was hoping she would agree to have lunch with him. Such an enigma. One minute he was demanding, the next he was asking, and the next just doing what he pleased. Ana smiled and shook her head.
She got out of bed looking for her cellphone which wasn’t on her bedside table. Thinking back to last night she went in search of her coat. She found it but the battery was dead. She quickly found a charger and plugged it in then took a shower and dressed in warm fleece lined leggings and a sweater.
Next she went to the kitchen and decided on coffee and a muffin. She took that to her office and ate her breakfast while she booted her computer. Her cell had enough battery life to use, and so she quickly sent Gabe a text agreeing to lunch. Gabe responded with the time and said he would pick her up. She looked outside and saw New Yorkers going about their business. From her height, Ana couldn’t see much but it looked like the grounds were still a bit of a mess, but life was continuing. At least the cabs were moving around. With this much traffic, Ana was sure that even the trains w
ere back to normal today.
That settled, Ana got down to business and started by answering a few e-mails in her inbox. The next two hours flew by so quickly she was surprised to get a call from Gabe telling her he would meet her downstairs in ten minutes. She switched the leggings for a short winter skirt that reached her knees and complemented that with her usual knee high boots for warmth. She grabbed her driver’s license and credit card and placed them in her skirt front pocket then added a warm jacket and left her apartment. Ana arrived downstairs as Gabe’s limo was pulling up. The snow had apparently stopped sometime during the night and traffic seemed to be moving along just fine. Trying to avoid any slippery surfaces Ana reached the limo’s door to find John holding it open for her. She got inside and found Gabe concluding his phone call.
As soon as Gabe finished his phone call, he threw his cellphone on the seat beside him and leaned over to Ana. Holding her nape he brought his mouth down to meet hers. What had started as a lazy kiss soon turned hot and urgent. Gabe brought his tongue to the seam in Ana’s lips and when she opened, giving him entrance, he groaned and brought her to sit on his lap. The ringing of a cellphone finally penetrated and Gabe swore then picked his phone and barked at the person on the other end. Ana tried to wiggle off his lap, but he held her still, so she settled and lay her head on his shoulder. They arrived at the restaurant as Gabe was finishing up his phone call. John opened the door and Ana climbed off Gabe’s lap and exited the limo, with Gabe right behind her. They were given a table at the back but with a view of the street. Ana chose a light lunch, and ordered a salad with salmon while Gabe ordered rib eye steak with dirty rice.
“So, how did it go with Evelyn the other day?” Gabe asked her. “Is she the one that took you drinking?”
Puzzled, Ana couldn’t figure out why Gabe thought they had gone drinking. “What do you mean? We didn’t go drinking.”