The Harder They Fall

by Ravenna Tate

  His hair hung loose to his shoulders, blond and soft-looking. She’d wanted to run her fingers through it even while his “I don’t give a shit” attitude had pissed her off royally. And those sapphire eyes… They gleamed with just the right amount of lust to make him sexy but not lecherous. Her damn panties were wet, for heaven’s sake.

  “Are you coming, Miss?” asked the guard at the airlock, distracting her from Blaine.

  Not yet, but I will later when I fantasize about him. “Yes. Thank you.”

  She gave Blaine one last look, and couldn’t help but smile as he tipped an imaginary hat to her. Oh, he was a charmer all right. And a player. But that’s exactly why she was so attracted to him.

  Colleen curtseyed in response to his hat tipping, then kept her gaze on him long enough to see him laugh. She finally turned around and began the descent through several levels of airlocks to the city below.

  Chapter Two

  Blaine sat in Ace Easton’s apartment sipping a glass of scotch Ace had poured from a bottle he’d saved since everyone was forced underground eight years ago. He had told Blaine he wouldn’t drink it until The Madeline Project had been shut down, and he wouldn’t drink it alone. Since Harper, Ace’s wife, couldn’t join him because she’d given birth to twins two months ago and was breastfeeding them, he was sharing the bottle with Blaine.

  Ace had been the first of the Weathermen to marry, and Blaine had spent the last thirty minutes listening to him rave about the joys of married life and parenthood. Which explained why Blaine had consumed twice the scotch Ace had, and was currently drunk.

  The twins had arrived a month early, but both were thriving. Ace and Harper had named them Michael Brent and Eva Marie. Secretly, Blaine thought they were adorable, as children go. Both had dark eyes, like their father, but their hair clearly would be blonde, like Harper’s.

  “Your time is coming,” said Ace. “You’re the last holdout of all twelve, but it won’t last.”

  “Why is that, oh sage one?”

  Ace leaned forward, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Because I heard a rumor that a certain representative of a government agency has caught your eye, that’s why.”

  Blaine refilled his glass. “Colleen was only doing her job.”

  “Don’t bullshit me, Blaine. Townsend is best friends with Javier. He told Javier how you fell all over yourself on the surface when Miss Newton paid you a visit, and then Javier told me.”

  “Your IT lead is a gossip. You should fire him at once.” He and Ace had been friends for a long time, but there were days when Blaine wished the people who worked for Ace didn’t feel the need to relay everything they heard about Blaine to their employer.

  “Why did she come all the way up there to find you?”

  “Why do you think? I don’t have permits. Boil me in oil. Feed me to the sharks.”

  Ace laughed. “So apply for them. What’s the big deal? I’ve already done it.”

  Blaine turned to face his friend. “The big deal is that their website specifically states they won’t allow more than one communications tower to be built within a fifty mile radius. That won’t even allow for decent cell phone coverage once we can use them again. I need to erect three towers alone in the complex I’m building.”

  “You don’t need three in a half square mile for cell service.”

  “No, I don’t. Only one is for cell service. The other two are for satellite and shorter wave frequencies. We’ll have radio and TV on the surface again one day. It would be nice if the people who live and work in my complex can have their conveniences back.”

  “So ask the AFSR to make an exception for you.”

  “Not to mention the fact that my business is the media. I can’t run my business if no one can access the channels I distribute.”

  “Go above her head. We can get anything done.” Ace took a swig of his drink. “We’re the Weathermen, remember?”

  Blaine sank back into the leather cushions on the sofa. “I’ve already tried that.”

  Ace raised his brows. “And you didn’t get anywhere?”

  “I’m waiting for the VP to return my call.”

  “She hates you.”

  “No shit.” Vice President Charlene O’Leary and Blaine went back a long time, to before everyone had moved underground and Charlene had been in local politics. Her meteoric rise to the second highest position of authority in the country hadn’t dimmed her loathing of Blaine. If Blaine had known Charlene was the kind of woman who held a grudge for the rest of her life, he’d never have asked her out in the first place.

  Ace shrugged. “Sounds like you’ll have to convince Colleen to let you have your towers. Have you tried explaining it to her?”

  “I shouldn’t have to explain it to her. Anyone with half a brain should realize restrictions like that aren’t workable in large cities.”

  “I don’t think they’ve thought it all through yet. You won’t be the only company making that argument. They’ll eventually have to relax the rules under certain circumstances.”

  “But that’s exactly what I can’t wait around for. I risk losing my market share if someone beats me to the punch.”

  “Who the hell has enough capital and influence to get towers built despite the rules, and steal even a tiny percentage of your customers?”

  “I don’t know, but I can’t get complacent. None of us can.”

  Ace took another long sip of his drink. “We were all like that once, remember? Eager, driven, wanting to be the first ones to do something.”

  Blaine frowned “We still are.”

  He shrugged. “All of us have more money than we’ll ever spend.”

  “You’re not thinking of giving it all up, are you?”

  “No. Of course not. I don’t mean to give that impression. But it’s not the same as it was when we all had to move underground in a hurry. We had no time to plan back then. Our businesses were successful, but not like they are now. We had more to lose.”

  Blaine’s attention was pulled away from Ace’s musings when Harper walked into the room. She looked radiant for a woman who had delivered two babies recently, and he couldn’t help wondering whether Ace’s sudden laissez-faire attitude toward business was due to the fact he was now a father.

  “I came to say good night. I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. They’re both finally asleep.”

  Blaine raised his glass. “Sleep well, although how you can sleep at all is a mystery to me.”

  Harper laughed softly. “They are so worth it.”

  Ace rose and hugged her “I’m sorry I didn’t come in to say goodnight to them.”

  “You’ll have a chance. I’m sure they’ll be awake in a couple of hours.”

  A sharp pang of jealousy shot through Blaine as he watched. It wasn’t Ace’s status as a married man, or the fact that he was married to Harper that made Blaine envious. It was the ease with which Ace, and the rest of his friends, had embraced having one woman in their lives. He seemed incapable of embracing such a concept. Then again, he hadn’t tried very hard.

  Ace kissed her tenderly, and Blaine had to glance away. “Get some sleep, my love.” Ace whispered something Blaine didn’t hear, and Harper laughed. Blaine took another drink. She finally left, and Ace took his seat next to Blaine again. “I’m going to be a fucking wreck until they both turn thirty.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Yes, I will. You have no idea how this feels. I’m so damn excited, but terrified at the same time.”

  “Terrified of something happening to the babies?”

  Ace shook his head. “No. Terrified I’m not doing this right. Terrified I’m a lousy father. Terrified because I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing.”

  “No one knows what they’re doing with kids. I’m sure you’re already great at this.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “Jeez, Ace. I don’t fucking know. But I know you’re intelligent and driven enough to do anything you put your min
d to, so you’ll be perfect at this, too.”

  “It’s not like starting a new endeavor or planning a marketing strategy. These are human lives. Three of them now, that I’ve promised to love, protect, and cherish.”

  “Yeah. The vows. Blah, blah, blah. I didn’t know Harper from any other girl out there before you started dating her, but when I look at her now, I see a very intelligent woman who is blissfully happy. She’s so damn in love with you it’s sickening. You two will be fine, and so will your twins. I’d stake my life on it.”

  “Which brings us back to you.”

  Blaine drained his glass and poured another. The bottle was nearly empty, but he was sure Ace had more booze in the apartment. “No, it doesn’t, because I’m fine just the way I am.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He hated that about Ace and the others. They all knew each other way too well, and he couldn’t lie to any of them and get away with it. “So what do you think I should do? Ask Colleen to marry me?”

  Ace laughed. “Maybe you should go out with her first, at least once. If you’re lucky, she’ll fuck you before you propose.”

  Ace must be drunk, too, or he never would have said such a thing within potential earshot of Harper. The man worshipped the ground that woman walked on. But that didn’t stop Blaine from speaking his mind now because he was too drunk to care who heard what. “Would you have married Harper without fucking her first?”

  Ace cut his gaze toward the hallway. Apparently he wasn’t that drunk. “We’ll never know, will we?”

  “Nice sidestep, especially considering you blackmailed her into your bed.”

  Ace shook his head. “That was a long time ago. We’re well past that.”

  “Do you ever talk about it?”

  Ace’s cheeks colored slightly from the question, or it might have been the booze. “No.”

  Blaine laughed softly. Of course they didn’t. Ace probably wished he’d never done it. Ace had caught Harper hacking into his personal computer, along with a former employee of his, after he had dumped the employee. She and Harper hadn’t been good friends, but Traci had spilled her guts to Harper one day, and Harper had made a tragic mistake in helping Traci try to dig up dirt on Ace.

  He couldn’t do anything to Traci since she’d already quit, but Harper was still around. Ace had his eye on her for a year before that incident, ever since she’d come to work for him. In retrospect, that mishap hadn’t turned out badly for Ace or Harper. No harm had been done to Ace’s accounts, and he hadn’t had to convince Harper that much to have sex with him.

  Now here he was, married to her and a father to their twins. Blaine wondered if he could blackmail Colleen into letting him build the towers?

  “Where did you go just now?” asked Ace.

  Blaine took another drink. “I’ve made a decision. I’m going to ask Colleen out.”

  “You made the decision three days ago. What are you waiting for?”

  “Why does my dating life suddenly interest you so fucking much?”

  “It interests all of us, Blaine.”

  “Oh, really? Do you have secret video calls about it? Are you keeping score?”

  Ace clapped him on the back. “Calm down. We’re worried about you.”

  “Why? Because I haven’t joined the diamond ring club?” All eleven of his friends were now either married or engaged. Even Viggo Ingram, the one man he would have bet a year’s salary would never settle down.

  Ace’s expression turned serious. “We’re not kids anymore. It’s time to set good examples. The entire world is watching us now.”

  “The entire world has been watching us for eight years.”

  “And how many times have we been portrayed as players or worse?”

  “Ace, we were portrayed that way long before we all moved underground for one very good reason. We were. All of us. What’s your point?”

  “We stopped the storms, Blaine. We did that. It’s up to us now to capitalize on the good press we finally have.”

  “We had bad press up to the last minute. And we didn’t stop the storms. Dave Perry did.”

  “Who never would have been forced to do so if we hadn’t sat his ass in that warehouse and laid a guilt trip on him.”

  “Not quite right, my sanctimonious friend. He didn’t do it because of guilt. He did it because he was backed into a corner, and he knew the only way to get out of a life prison sentence was to stop the program.”

  The way they’d handled Dave Perry at the end was one point on which Blaine disagreed with most of his friends. Dave had written the Tommy Twister virus not to hack into The Madeline Project and send it on its rogue course of destruction, but to take it back for himself. He had always resented Ronnie Treadway, the man who got credit for being the program’s chief architect.

  Dave hadn’t shown the Weathermen the back doorway into the program that only he knew about, or the suggestions he’d programmed into it that led to it shutting itself down, out of a sense of guilt or global social responsibility. He’d done it because he’d become complacent working at HCS for thirty years, and had believed he’d never be caught. He’d been wrong. And once he was caught, he knew he was up shit creek without their help.

  “Did he get his Presidential pardon yet?” asked Ace.

  “I haven’t heard that he did.”

  “He’s been waiting two months on house arrest.”

  “Better than waiting inside a federal prison.”

  “He betrayed all of us.”

  Blaine finished his glass and then put it down on the coffee table. He was done. Any more and he wouldn’t be able to walk home. “I know that, but at least it’s over. We can all go home now.” Eventually. Once the building was complete. If their fucking government didn’t hold that up for all eternity.

  Blaine rose to his feet slowly, testing his balance. So far, so good. Perhaps he wasn’t quite as drunk as he’d imagined?

  “So, when are you going to ask Colleen out?”

  Emitting a loud sound of disgust, just in case Ace had any doubts how Blaine felt about his prying, he took out his phone. It was close to midnight on a Friday night. Would the fiery redhead be asleep? Was she in another man’s bed? That would prove awkward if he called her.

  “Want me to dial her number for you?”

  “Fuck you, Ace.” Blaine punched in the numbers. She answered on the third ring, and it was clear from her voice he’d woken her. Shit. “Hi. Um, Colleen?” Oh my God. Could he sound anymore like a teen calling the first girl he’d ever asked out if he tried?

  Blaine turned away from Ace’s obvious efforts to keep from laughing out loud.

  “Who is this?”

  She was clearly annoyed. He would disconnect the call, but she might find out who had called her another way. That would prove even more embarrassing. “Blaine Parker.” He counted three seconds of silence and thought he’d lost the call, which would have been a huge relief at that point.

  “Why are you calling me at this hour?”

  Still annoyed, but not quite as much as before. Interesting.

  “I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner tomorrow night?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Ouch. He might as well have asked her if she wanted to bathe in lava, judging by her tone.

  “I’m asking you out to dinner. Tonight. I mean Saturday night. Though technically it’s already Saturday since it’s now after midnight.”

  Ace’s efforts failed, but at least he left the room. Blaine only hoped Colleen hadn’t heard the loud guffaw in the background.

  “Is this an effort to get me to let you build without permits?”

  Oh, this girl was good. Very good.

  “Partly. But mostly because you have the prettiest green eyes I’ve ever seen.” No point in lying about the permits. She knew anyway.

  “Is that so?”

  Her voice was no longer annoyed, but she wasn’t quite convinced he’d told the truth, either.

  “Yes. I never l
ie about eye color.”

  He counted five seconds of silence this time, and wished he’d never made the call.

  “All right, Blaine Parker. I’ll have dinner with you tomorrow night. I mean tonight. Saturday night.” Smart ass. “Where should I meet you?”

  “I don’t like to ask women to meet me somewhere. It’s not gentlemanly. Text me your address and I’ll pick you up at six.”

  He swore she laughed softly. “All right then. I’ll see you at six.”

  She disconnected the call, and Blaine stared at his phone, waiting for the text, wondering if he’d have made the call if he’d been sober. After the text came through, he saved her address and went in search of his laughing friend to tell him he was leaving. It was time to call it a night before he made an even bigger ass of himself.

  Chapter Three

  Colleen woke up Saturday afternoon feeling like she hadn’t slept in days. She had almost texted Blaine at least ten times during the night to tell him she’d changed her mind. When she did sleep, those eyes chased her down in dreams to the point she woke up with a wet pussy and her clit throbbing.

  What the hell? Okay, so she hadn’t had sex in a really long time. And the last guy she’d dated for longer than a month had been during her undergrad years. The point is? Blaine Parker wasn’t the only hot man in NorthCentral. He was one of the richest, but that didn’t matter to Colleen. Her mother’s family had money, and it didn’t impress her.

  She wasn’t working because she had to. She wanted to make her own way in the world, not rely on her mother’s family name or their money. She wasn’t any more impressed with Blaine’s wealth than she was with the trust fund her maternal grandmother had set up for her when she turned eighteen. It would make a nice retirement fund. Either that, or she’d donate it to charity.

  She liked her new job, and she was committed to working hard doing it. Right now, Blaine Parker stood in the way of her plan to do that.

  So why are you having dinner with him?

  Good question. Colleen had no answers, even as she stood in front of her full length mirror to assess the outfit she’d chosen. Short skirt, but not slutty short. Cute shoes, top cut low enough to show her cleavage but not so low he’d take it as an invitation.