Drilled

by Cole, Cassie

  Lexa

  I practically skipped home.

  Holy potatoes. I’d gone from the dread of getting caught, to the terror of knowing I was about to be fired, to suddenly getting a promotion. Well, not an official promotion. But the prospect of one. A door opening for me when I thought I was locked in a closet of temp agency despair.

  A full time job editing for Blackrock Energy? Suddenly the future seemed much brighter than it had this morning.

  It wasn’t the same as editing for a newspaper, but revising the cover letters this morning had given me the same professional satisfaction. Taking something raw and poorly-written and cleaning it up. Making it presentable. Like giving a homeless man a haircut and a new suit.

  That was an insulting way to think of the cover letters, but hey, Larry Jones was the one who was a jerk about it.

  I didn’t have a degree in technical writing, which is why I hadn’t expanded my job search in that area. But an English degree was clearly close enough that it didn’t matter. I could do a kick-butt job at this.

  Moreover, it felt awesome to impress the CEO. Hearing Bryson compliment me reminded me of the satisfaction I got when beating my uncle Steve at board games. The way he looked surprised at first, then impressed.

  Having a goal on which I could focus would make all the difference at this job. It would give me a better reason to wake up in the morning. Something to look forward to besides answering phones and prepping conference rooms.

  I never would have taken the initiative had Jason not suggested it. I couldn’t wait to tell him, and thank him for pushing me.

  In the mood to celebrate, I walked two blocks past my condo to Vinny’s Pizza to pick up dinner. I wasn’t sure what the guys liked, so I ordered one Hawaiian, and one pepperoni. Vinny’s daughter, who worked the cash register, looked surprised.

  “Not used to seeing you order more than your usual,” she said. “Throwing a party?”

  “Something like that,” I said. “I’ll take a case of beer, too.”

  I climbed the stairs into my condo and announced, “Dinner’s on me tonight. Hope you guys like pizza.”

  Cas was stretched out on the couch with his laptop, a sight which made me glad: they were starting to make themselves at home. “I’ll never turn down free pizza,” he said, putting the laptop away.

  “Glad I know what you like,” I teased. It was easy to be flirty when things were looking up. “The others not home yet?”

  “Tex stayed at the office to finish up some stuff,” Cas said. He pursed his lips. “Jason got home 10 minutes ago, but whatever he did at work today pissed him off. He and Kai went to get a drink.”

  “Oh.” I felt the air leave my chest. I brought pizza and beer to celebrate!

  “More for us!” Cas said. “Oh, shit. Hawaiian?”

  “Hope that’s alright,” I said. “It’s my favorite, but nobody else ever likes it…”

  “The other guys hate it,” Cas admitted. He smiled. “But it’s my favorite too. Glad I have someone to share it with!”

  We cracked open two beers and sat on opposite ends of the couch. The laptop was open on the cushion between us, with Google Maps open in a browser. “How’s your end of the work going?” I asked.

  “It’s going,” he said.

  “What is it you and Kai are doing again?”

  “We’ll be conducting the in-person site inspections,” he explained around a mouthful of pizza. “We’ve been analyzing all the Blackrock Energy drill sites within driving distance of Bismarck. Categorizing them based on size, total manpower, age. All the factors that go into analyzing whether safety regulations are likely to be ignored. Once we have that list we’ll pick the sites to visit, and start showing up unannounced.”

  “Will you be gone long?” I asked casually.

  “Probably not. Most of these sites are only a couple hours away. We’ll try to hit as many as we can, stopping in hotels along the way. Maybe a week on the road. But we still have planning to do,” he quickly added. “So your condo is our base camp for planning for a few more days.”

  “It’s all yours.”

  I’m all yours.

  The thought was there, just beneath the surface. In the part of my brain that stayed in the shadows, popping up to tempt me in situations like this. Being alone with Cas reminded me of two nights ago when he’d shown up out of the blue. The way he looked at me like he knew what I wanted.

  It reminded me of that night at the bar, too. Coming in out of the cold, sexiness personified even at that late hour. I could still taste him on my lips, if I thought hard enough. Could still feel him inside me, gripping my waist…

  Deep down, I still wanted him. Badly. Our business was unfinished. Heck; it had hardly even started.

  “You’re awfully smiley tonight,” Cas said.

  I made my already big smile even bigger. “I had a great day at work.”

  “Yeah? You secretaried the hell out of the place?”

  I leaned over to poke him in the shoulder. “Shut up.”

  “I thought you were just going through the motions while looking for another job.”

  “I was,” I said, pausing to swallow a bite of pineapple. “But I took Jason’s advice and showed some initiative.”

  I spent the next few minutes explaining the events of the day: how I’d nervously opened one of the courier envelopes and edited the cover letter, repeated the process with the entire stack, and then got called into Bryson’s office.

  “But he was really impressed with me,” I said. “I’ve probably made an enemy of Larry, but so long as the CEO is happy, so am I.”

  “Lexa, that’s awesome!”

  “Right? And it might turn into a full-time job, if I play my cards right. Bryson mentioned needing our public face to be as pristine as possible, and I know I can impress him. I have almost a decade of experience doing this. Well, something like this. Editing industrial documents is a lot different than editing journalism articles, but the core concept is the same: making a message as clear and concise as possible.”

  “But you’ll still job hunt?” Cas asked.

  “Why would I? If I can turn this into a full-time job…”

  “I mean, is that what you want to do, though?”

  I gave a start. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  He shrugged. “Blackrock is a big company. They don’t have the best reputation.”

  “No big company does,” I said carefully.

  “Blackrock is worse than most.”

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?” I asked. “Or are you just guessing how your safety audit will go?”

  “No, it’s just…” He trailed off, reaching for the words.

  I gestured with my beer. “Hey. Don’t kill my buzz. This is the first good thing that’s happened to me in a month. All I want is to enjoy it for tonight.”

  He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. “I’m being a dick. I’m sorry. I just want to make sure you’re excited about this because it’s what you want to do, and not because it’s your only option.” He blinked. “First good thing in a month, huh?”

  “Yeah, it’s been a rough—”

  “What happened a month ago that was so good?”

  He tried to keep a straight face, but a sly grin broke through the facade. Just like the grin he’d given me that night when the cardboard box broke and he swept me into his arms. I could crawl inside that smile and go to sleep, safe and sound.

  “Oh, nothing,” I said. “Just a random thing that happened.”

  “I don’t believe in random things.”

  “No?”

  “I believe in fate,” Cas said. There was an intensity in his eyes like he’d thought about this a lot. “Everything happens for a reason, no matter how small. Like finding a roommate who eats Hawaiian pizza.”

  “Is that what we are? Roommates?”

  I was half teasing, half serious. Cas only frowned.

  “You tell me what we are, Lexa.” />
  “Why do I have to be the one to answer?”

  “Because you’re the one who left me alone at the bar that night.”

  He said it plainly without emotion. Merely stating a fact, like how water was wet, or how North Dakota was a frigid wasteland in the winter. But the words still stung.

  “Most guys would be happy about having a pretty girl jump their bones at a bar.”

  “I’m not most guys.” He chugged the rest of his beer as if he needed the courage. “Why did you leave that night?”

  Because I wanted to keep things simple. Because I wanted our single sizzling encounter to remain perfect in my head—prolonging the night with awkward post-coital conversation would have only ruined it.

  All the excuses I’d told myself were there, ready to be said out loud. But I realized they were just that: excuses. And now that he was here on my couch, with a name and a personality and an agreeable taste in pizza toppings, I knew the real reason I’d left that night.

  “Because I was scared.” I got up and went to the kitchen to get more beer because it was easier to talk without him gazing at me with those steel eyes. “We had so much chemistry.”

  “You can say that again.”

  “I’d never felt that kind of chemistry before. And it terrified me.” I returned and handed him a beer, then moved the laptop so I could sit closer to him. “It terrified me not because it was bad, but because it was so good. So incredibly, mind-blowingly good. I was afraid that by starting things off with a midnight bar hook-up, I was ruining any chance at something… More.”

  “That makes no sense.” I was close enough to smell his cologne, spice and cloves. Faded from the day, but lingering just strong enough to detect. I wanted to lean in and get a deeper whiff.

  “How many hook-ups have you had that ended up turning into healthy relationships?”

  “None,” he admitted. “Though that’s because I’ve never had a one-night stand.”

  “I… Wait. Never?”

  “Nope. You popped my sex-with-a-stranger-at-the-bar cherry.”

  “Huh.” I looked at him with fresh eyes. I’d just assumed that a guy so jacked and with a beautiful angular face would be having casual sex almost every night. Wasn’t that why most guys went to bars? I hadn’t considered that maybe he was just a normal guy looking for something more.

  I must have looked skeptical, because he held up his palm. “Swear to God. I’m not the kind of guy to have casual sex.”

  “So what were you doing at the bar, then?”

  He flinched at the question like I’d hit a sore subject. I immediately waved a hand and said, “I didn’t mean that as an accusation. Crap. I’m sorry if I jumped you at the bar. If it was a mistake, and not the kind of thing you like…”

  He stopped me with a hand on my knee. “Are you kidding? Just because that’s not my normal M.O. doesn’t mean I didn’t like it that night. You were a worthwhile exception. Especially now that fate has crossed our paths again.”

  There were those eyes again. Storm clouds above the sea. His touch was warm and comforting, exactly as he’d intended it. Innocence aside, I wanted to feel the touch elsewhere, to have it slide up my thigh and touch me the way he’d touched me that night at the bar, only this time in the privacy of my home…

  Cas pulled his hand away. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “You’re not married, are you? Because then I’d really feel bad about jumping your bones at the bar.”

  I was only half joking. It was rare when a guy said, “I need to tell you something,” and it was a good thing. Nobody ever followed that up with: “I’m a billionaire and I need someone to help spend all my money on wine and chocolate.”

  Cas smiled politely. “No, not married. But there’s something you need to know about us. The job we’re doing. Ironically enough, it has to do with the reason I was at the bar that night…”

  “I don’t care,” I whispered, leaning close. A little bit farther and I could kiss him. I prayed that he wouldn’t stop me. “Cas? The only thing I care about, the only thing I want—”

  I cut off as the door opened downstairs. “…better in the Premiere League,” Jason’s voice drifted up to us. “Every other league has too much flopping.”

  “Not the Bundesliga!” Kai shouted in his deep voice. “Deutsche referees do not stand for such nonsense.”

  Jason made a choking noise. “Bull-fucken-shit.”

  “Oh ja? Watch the Hoffenheim match with me tomorrow and you will see.”

  “Bro, I’d rather jab an ice pick into my—hey, is that pizza?”

  “Get it while it’s hot,” I said, leaving the couch to put a safe amount of distance between me and Cas. My chest felt warm. “I picked up some beer, too.”

  “Another thing that is better in Deutchland!” Kai announced. “This is very kind of you, Lexa.”

  “Just repaying you for last night’s chili.”

  Jason opened up a box and slammed it angrily. “Bro, goddamnit. Did you seriously tell her to get Hawaiian?”

  Cas put his hands up. “She chose it herself. I told you I wasn’t the only one.”

  Jason glanced at me for confirmation before wincing. “Aww, shit. Sorry if I didn’t sound appreciative.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You guys are free to have crappy taste in pizza.”

  Kai laughed loudly and took three slices of pepperoni. Jason started to do the same.

  “Hey, make sure you leave enough for Tex.” I was beginning to think I should have ordered three pizzas. These guys probably ate twice as much as I did.

  “Tex is not here,” Kai said. “He will lose as he continues to snooze!”

  “We need to work on your English figures of speech,” Jason said, collapsing into the couch next to Cas. Sad that he’d taken my spot, I went and sat in the recliner against the wall.

  “Cas told me you had a bad day.”

  “Oh, I didn’t have a bad day,” he clarified. “I had a shitty fucken day. Let me tell you about Blackrock’s document storage process…”

  “That bad, huh?” Cas asked.

  “Worse than that company down in Abilene.” He snapped his fingers as he tried to remember. “Hunting something?”

  “Huntington,” Cas said. “And shoot, that’s pretty bad.”

  I listened as they went back and forth about OSHA-mandated document storage processes. It was all stuff way beyond my knowledge, so I sipped my beer and nibbled on my third slice of pizza. Jason was cute when he was passionate; he gestured a lot with his hands, and his nostrils flared.

  “That reminds me,” he said a little later. “Were you able to ask someone about that missing month of reports?”

  “I emailed the girl I know. She hasn’t responded, but I’ll swing by her desk tomorrow and ask.”

  “Alright,” Jason said. He almost sounded annoyed at me, but it was probably just a general frustration at the situation.

  Kai cleared his throat. “Let me tell you another reason the Bundesliga is superior,” he said, renewing their earlier argument.

  Jason tossed down his plate. “Bro, just admit it…”

  Cas and I shared a long look while we listened to them argue.

  16

  Lexa

  Tex got home late, a weary look on his smooth face. “I insisted the others leave you at least one slice of pepperoni,” I said.

  “Darlin’, you have my deepest gratitude,” he said. “Can’t believe Cas weaseled his way into getting a Hawaiian pizza…”

  But instead of grabbing a beer he poured a glass of water and said, “I’m beat. Gunna get some sleep if y’all don’t mind.”

  “Do whatever you want,” I said, though I was disappointed. I’d been hoping to get a game of chess in.

  Kai and Jason put on a college basketball game while I pulled out a book. My eyes scanned the page without taking anything in; all I could focus on was what Cas was doing. He sat at the other end of the room, watching the game idly. Was he doi
ng the same thing I was: waiting for the others to go to bed so we could finish our conversation? I wondered what he had to tell me. Whether it was something minor… Or something more important.

  We never got the opportunity because the others stuck around. Finally I couldn’t wait any longer. I rose from the chair and stretched, which caused a yawn to escape my throat. “I’m going to bed.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Cas said a little too casually. “Might do the same.”

  They were like dominoes. Kai rose next and said, “Ja, I must wake early as well.”

  I wondered what the big overall-wearing German had going on tomorrow, but I was too disappointed about my missed conversation with Cas to care.

  I brushed my teeth and washed my face, then went to close the bedroom door. I stopped when it was only slightly ajar. Invitingly so.

  Do I really want him to come in here?

  The answer was an emphatic yes. I wanted nothing more than for him to make the first move. As I crawled into bed I could hear Kai humming while brushing his teeth. It sounded like a cheerful drinking tune, though maybe that’s just how all German songs sounded. The faucet was still running. Was Cas lingering in the bathroom with Kai, waiting for him to go to bed?

  I heard footsteps coming down the hall, creaking the wooden floorboards underneath the carpet. A shadow passed by the sliver of light I could see from the door. It slowed, remaining there for a moment. I held my breath with anticipation.

  “Sweet dreams, Lexa,” Cas whispered.

  My stomach did a sexy backflip at hearing his voice. I opened my mouth to say something back but no words would come out. And then he moved on, the door to his room closing softly down the hall.

  My disappointment was overwhelming. I was warm underneath my covers; I burned for Cas. I didn’t want that night at the bar to be a one time thing. Was it really fate that made our paths cross again? I wasn’t sure what I believed. It was tempting to think so.

  I stared at the ceiling texture as the house grew silent. The only sound was the soft hum of the heating vent.

  I don’t know how long I waited. 10 minutes, or maybe an hour. It felt like an eternity. But I couldn’t sleep, and the memory of Cas’s body eventually pushed me to get out of bed. I walked slowly to my door, trying to make as little noise as possible. I had no idea what I intended, only that I couldn’t just lay in my bed doing nothing. My feet seemed to move on their own; I was just along for the ride.