Someone Like You

by Karen Rock

  “Then, what?” he asked faintly, relief pushing the air out of his lungs.

  “Brett.”

  Instantly, he grew tense. Was her ex trying to get Kayleigh back? Niall noticed his clenched hands and forced himself to unfurl them. If so, the guy would have a hell of a fight. Niall couldn’t be Kayleigh’s boyfriend, but as her friend, he’d make sure she didn’t waste her time on a jerk like Brett.

  “Block his number and email. Tell Gianna not to let him in if he comes over. Better yet, I’ll come by and tell the idiot to stop bothering you.”

  His belligerent tone garnered a small laugh. “He’s not after me,” she said. “He wants our app.”

  Niall stopped pacing and stared at the intricate design of the framed ceremonial robe. It was a complicated pattern with unexpected shapes and directions, much like this conversation.

  “He can’t have it,” Niall said harshly, possessiveness for Kayleigh and this product they’d created taking hold.

  “He already has.”

  Niall froze. “What do you mean?”

  “Gianna called me from work and said Brett announced his new idea for an app in a department meeting and described ours perfectly.”

  An angry exclamation escaped him. He scooped a handful of smooth polished jade stones piled on a small golden platter and let them fall through his fingers, a pinging sound filling the room.

  “That’s impossible.”

  “That’s what I thought. I never told anyone about the idea except you, Gianna and our potential investors.”

  “And you’re sure of Gianna?” He hated to ask, but how else could the information have been accessed?

  “She’s on her way home because she quit.”

  “Oh.” His mind raced along other possible channels and stopped on one that seemed so obvious, it couldn’t be possible.

  “Would you have sent anything to Gianna at work?”

  A harsh intake of air confirmed his worst suspicions.

  “No. But she’s been messing around with our prototype at home. Maybe she brought it to work and they found it in her files.”

  “Someone could have detected the unfamiliar program and alerted Brett. Or he looked through her files.”

  “I can’t imagine it, but yes. It’s the only way he’d know about our app.” Kayleigh’s voice sounded distant, as if she’d moved the phone away from her. When her next words came, he had to strain to hear. “I didn’t think he’d have the nerve to steal my ideas outright. Up until now, he’s only taken most of the credit for them.”

  “You said yourself the man didn’t want you to succeed. He was making sure he was right.”

  “I told him I would be developing apps within the month. Giving him competition.”

  Her tone sounded furious, and he burned inside, too, wishing he had Brett in front of him. What he’d do—

  “With his team of specialists, he’ll have the code written and sent to the patent office before we do. They’ll get the rights ahead of us, and we’ll be shut out. It’s over, Niall.” Her last words quavered, but instead of sharing her sense of defeat, a cold determination filled him.

  “We decide when it’s over. Not Brett.”

  “He has top-notch programmers who will work plenty of overtime to get this done quickly.” Her voice sounded colorless, lost. “I’ve seen him beat out other companies for similar programs.”

  “You have a top-notch programmer, too, Kay,” he said quietly, rubbing his thumb over a jade stone for good luck. “One who will work night and day. We will get this in to the patent office before he does. We need to send them the first twenty-five pages of the code and the last twenty-five.”

  “And you’re what? Almost halfway done?”

  “Yes.” He would be farther along if he hadn’t wasted time remembering the details of their kiss and checking for her messages instead of coding. But he’d make it up. He had to. Time to focus. He strode back to his chair and flung himself into it. “Did Gianna give you any more details? Like how long he’s been working on it? If the programmers have started coding?”

  “No one would talk to her once she quit. Apparently, she called them a bunch of thieves.” Her voice was louder now, steadier.

  Good. He’d need her to be strong over the long workdays ahead. Every minute suddenly felt critical. They were in a tight race with the biggest app developer in the country, and they had to win.

  “I’m coming over.” He checked the time on his phone screen. Josh’s lesson would be over in fifteen minutes.

  “I don’t want to quit.”

  “Neither do I. We’ll salvage this.”

  Her short laugh was hard. It reminded him of the soldiers who’d peered into the black night, looking for an enemy they sensed but couldn’t see.

  “You don’t know who you’re going up against.”

  “Neither does he,” Niall said grimly. “We’re an unbeatable team.”

  A watery laugh sounded. “Yes, we are. Now hurry.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  WHEN NIALL STRODE through her apartment door, Kayleigh flew into his arms and clung to him as if he were a lost piece in her broken world.

  Forget that he’d shaken her to her core with his kiss in the garden, and that avoiding him hadn’t stopped her from thinking about him every waking minute. Dreaming of him during the rest. She needed him. As a friend, a business partner and— Her thoughts screeched to a halt before they tumbled off that cliff.

  He was here, and she needed him. That was what mattered. She pressed her ear against his chest, the drum of his heart steadying her, tapping out a rhythm that everything would be all right. The broad hands stroking her back stopped the trembling that’d taken hold of her since Gianna’s call. She fit herself against him, inhaling the fresh, clean smell of him, loving the tight feel of his arms around her.

  How could everything have fallen apart just when they’d been coming together? In hindsight, she shouldn’t have given the program to Gianna, but her roommate had been so excited to play with some of the codes as a former programmer herself. Kayleigh hadn’t imagined a possibility where Gianna might have brought it to work.

  Maybe she wasn’t capable of leading a team and handling the myriad details that went into creating a successful product. Security was essential. She should have safeguarded their product, protected the work they’d done. Instead, they were compromised.

  Niall eased back, leaving a respectable distance between them, and she fought the urge to close the space. His solid, warm body was the strength she needed as doubt cracked through her. For a moment, she wished she could drop her worries and simply slip back into his arms. Enjoy a moment with him, a port in the storm life waged against her. But the reality was that she deserved his criticism, not his comfort. More important, they couldn’t—and shouldn’t—act like a couple. Especially after their kiss. Now more than ever, she needed her best friend. Niall.

  “I’m sorry,” she croaked, meeting his deep brown eyes, the concern in them nearly undoing her.

  “This is not your fault.”

  She relaxed. He didn’t blame her. His opinion of her mattered more than she’d realized. “I should have protected our start-up and app.”

  “You couldn’t have predicted piracy on that level.” Her hopeful heart rose at his sincere voice. He meant what he said and wasn’t just trying to make her feel better.

  “There’s so much I don’t know.” Her eyes searched his, and suddenly she wasn’t talking about the business app but about them, their kiss. She could see he knew it, too, in the way his features sharpened, his gaze growing intense.

  “Kayleigh,” he murmured, and he seemed to be holding himself back, his arms rigid at his sides.

  “Nothing makes sense anymore.” Their eyes met.

  “Life
isn’t always logical.” Niall looked away, his eyes darker than she’d ever seen them. “And neither is love.”

  A long moment of silence stretched between them. It hung dangerous in the air, like the calm before a summer storm. This was exactly what she’d been obsessing over since their kiss. If only Niall was a stranger and not her closest friend, someone she couldn’t afford to lose if things didn’t work out romantically.

  “Yes.” She sighed, her voice no longer sounding as certain as it used to. “It can’t be controlled.”

  “Not from where I’m standing.” His longing gaze felt like warm arms around her, the ones she dared not rush into again. If she did, she knew she’d never let go.

  “Ahem! Am I interrupting anything? Market research?” Gianna’s teasing voice sounded behind them, and Kayleigh’s hand covered her mouth. Niall looked shaken as well and turned away.

  “Are you okay?” Kayleigh embraced her friend, then took her box of personal belongings and put it on the table beside their front door.

  “Tell us what happened.” She led her friend to an off-white couch filled with floral-patterned cushions. “And this is Niall. Niall, Gianna.” The two shook hands, and Niall sat in a rose-patterned chair, his masculinity incongruous against their feminine decor.

  Gianna’s earlier amusement dropped away, leaving a simmering anger in her brown eyes, along with remorse. “First of all, I’m sorry that I took your program to work and didn’t tell you. I thought I’d help a little, try it on the systems at work since they’re the most up-to-date. I only had it on my computer one day, but that must have been enough for our IT guys. Maybe they were doing a backup? Either way, they got it, and now Brett is claiming it’s his. I feel terrible, Kay.”

  Kayleigh held Gianna’s hand. “You didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  Niall’s hair fell across his forehead when he leaned forward. “What did Brett describe in the staff meeting?” A current of rage ran through his restrained voice.

  Gianna’s gaze darted Kayleigh’s way before she continued, “He gave a presentation on an app that would allow singles to input the qualities they most desired in a partner and later interface that list with someone with a similar app to check their compatibility score.”

  “Sounds like our app.” Niall lunged out of his chair and walked across the room in long strides.

  Kayleigh seethed, furious at Brett for lacking any sort of ethic—personal or professional.

  Gianna nodded, then said, “Since I was technically still part of the IT department, I was able to look at their program before I had to leave.”

  Niall whirled from their large front window. “How much code did they write?”

  Gianna ran a hand through her hair, leaving its short ends at odd angles. “It’s hard to say. They’re not as far along as you.”

  Niall strode back to the chair, and Kayleigh felt her muscles loosen with relief. So it wasn’t over. They were still in the game.

  Gianna wandered into the kitchen that opened off the living room. “I found where they stored your program and deleted it from their system,” she called over her shoulder. “It’s only fair, since it doesn’t belong to them. At least now they can’t copy any more of it. It will buy us a few more days, at least.”

  “Us?” Kayleigh peered at Niall, and his expression, though calmer, seemed inward, fierce, determined. Was he planning his strategy? He looked as if he was going into battle. Never before had she glimpsed the warrior in him.

  Three glasses and a pitcher of lemonade thunked onto their oval coffee table when Gianna rejoined them.

  “I quit, and you two need help if we’re going to beat Brett. I want to join High Dive Enterprises.”

  Kayleigh breathed in the lemony scent before setting down her drink. “You don’t have to do that, Gia.”

  “Of course I do. If it’s okay with Niall?”

  Niall nodded, a small smile beginning on his handsome mouth. “Can you program?”

  “She did a combined BA/MS program at Yale in five years and worked in our IT department before she moved to software design. Gianna can do anything.”

  “I don’t know about anything, but I want to make up for what happened.” Gianna hugged Kayleigh, then eased back.

  “Then welcome aboard.” Niall gave her a lopsided smile and extended his hand. “We’ll need every bit of help we can get beating GSI to the patent.”

  * * *

  “THEY’RE CALLING THE app Tingle?” Niall peered over Gianna’s shoulder at the notes she’d taken during the staff meeting at GSI.

  “No one is going to buy a product that makes them want to visit the restroom.” Gianna’s eyebrow arched.

  “Wrong word, Gia,” Kayleigh chimed in and sat beside him, her subtle perfume making it hard to concentrate.

  “So what’s your app called?” Gianna bit into a peanut-butter cookie.

  Kayleigh’s silver eyes slid to him, her soft curls falling around her beautiful face. “We haven’t agreed on an official name yet.”

  Gianna, now garbed in sweatpants and an old Yale T-shirt, tucked her bare feet beneath her. “What have you got so far?”

  “I like The Must List, Perfect Match and Forever Yours,” Kayleigh said. She nodded her head for emphasis, her hair moving across her shoulders like drifting shadows. She was dressed for comfort like her roommate, the fresh-faced, no-fuss look appealing to him even more than her dressy outfits.

  Gianna snorted. “Those sound like bad romance titles. You’re up, Niall. What do you have?”

  “Compatibility Quotient, Relationship Data-basics and The Common Denominator.”

  He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. At last, a voice of reason in the group who would settle this argument. He waited for Gianna’s praise, but she scowled instead and nibbled on another cookie, her appetite as voracious as Kayleigh’s.

  She quit chewing and swung her finger between the two of them. “You two couldn’t be further apart. Niall, yours sound like workshop titles at a tech convention. We need something catchier.”

  She strolled to the window and gazed out, a finger on her chin. He glanced at Kayleigh and she shrugged. It took every ounce of willpower not to brush away the cookie crumbs clinging to the inner curve of her mouth. Had Gianna not interrupted them earlier, would he have given in to temptation and kissed her again? Convinced Kayleigh that they could be more than friends? If he had, it would have been a huge mistake. He’d let down his guard at the botanical gardens and had to be extravigilant now.

  Gianna turned and snapped her fingers.

  “How about Mesh? It’s catchy, captures what we’re doing, shows how well people mesh together and has some edge. What do you think?”

  Kayleigh leaped to her feet. “It’s perfect! I love it. Niall?” She turned his way, her eyes shining.

  He nodded slowly. “One-word app titles gain name and brand recognition faster. Plus, it says it all. Works for me.”

  Kayleigh squished in beside him on the chair and threw an arm around his shoulders. “Finally. We agree on something.”

  He turned to face her, her nearness driving away whatever he’d been about to say. He felt the warmth of her touch, inhaling the smell of her, which reminded him of green leaves and the air before dawn. Everything about her affected him lately—her clever mind, generous heart and quiet beauty. He hadn’t known how much he craved this, her, until now. But how to pursue a doomed dream?

  Kayleigh stared at him for a moment, then moved away. “I can already hear people asking one another to mesh with them. That’d even be a good advertising tagline.”

  “Good idea.” Niall looked across the room at Gianna. “If you’ll finish coding the Must Traits, I’ll begin programming the share capabilities. Once we have that, we’ll test it and, if it works smoothly, we’ll send it into the
patent office. It sounds like we’re ahead of them, but with more programmers at their disposal, it’ll be a close race.”

  Kayleigh’s hands tightened in her lap. “We can’t let them win.”

  “We won’t,” Niall said with quiet conviction, though worry twisted his gut. He didn’t doubt Brett had his top people on it.

  But he’d work faster. Smarter. Harder. He’d get it done and copyrighted before them if it meant not sleeping for the next couple of weeks. Although he knew it was improbable, a part of him hoped if he did this for Kayleigh, she’d hate him a little less when she learned about Chris.

  “It’s over if we don’t get financing. Either way.” At a faint scratching sound, Kayleigh raced through an open doorway in the back of the small, neat apartment. When she returned, she carried a calico cat.

  “We have a fire escape cat like you.” Although the lower half of her face was obscured by orange, black and white fur, a smile filled her voice. “This is Pringles.” Kayleigh waved Pringles’s front paw at him. “How’s Chairman Meow?”

  “Bugging the heck out of me,” Niall said, not feeling annoyed at the cat’s visits at all, actually. He’d been on his own for so long. The fact that he searched for the feline in the mornings, let the stray nap in his room and bought cat food showed that despite apartment regulations, Chairman Meow was his. Kayleigh had called him closed off, a label that was seeming less and less applicable.

  “Sounds like me.” She laughed, then pressed a kiss to the top of the feline’s head. Niall’s chest tightened. How could a grown man be jealous of a cat?

  “So you have another finance meeting this week?” Gianna asked after disappearing into the kitchen and returning with a bowl of cat food. The calico leaped from Kayleigh’s arms and wove in and out of Gianna’s legs as she set it on the floor.

  Kayleigh sighed and sat beside him. “It’s our last, but our best shot. ForwardTech Ventures has invested in other pop-culture apps, and Mesh seems like the kind of thing they’d be interested in. We have to get them because, patent or no, without money, High Dive Enterprises is dead in the water.”