by Isabel North
“Why aren’t you in the office?” Anderson demanded.
“I go where I please. You forget who’s the boss, old man?”
“Oh, that I could. Show up at the office, Sterling. I rescheduled the board meeting, and you will attend it. And you will stay all the way through to the end.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Can I advise you? Is it all right if I do that? Because I’m advising you that we need to deliver this project on time, or your stock is going to take a hit.”
Gabe laughed. “My stock can handle a hit from an asteroid.”
“Yes, congratulations. You are tougher than dinosaurs. Wonderful. You’re making people nervous.”
“I’m making you nervous.”
“Yes! You are! You are never behind on a project, you have never once been behind. This one, the big one? So far? Crickets! It’s been months, and that’s all I’m hearing from you. Crickets. Beta testing needs to be done by the end of the quarter if we’re to have even a ghost of a chance of delivering, and we can’t beta-test a system that hasn’t been built. Or even been alpha-tested!”
“You’re worrying about nothing.” Gabe’s chest expanded against Nora’s back in a deep sigh. He tightened his hold on her. “I’ve got everything under control.”
“I don’t know if I can believe you.”
“Your beliefs are not my business. Go away, Bill. I’m busy.”
“Doing what?” Anderson gestured at Nora. “Busy doing—”
“Do not finish that sentence. If you insult Nora, I’ll lose my temper, and then we’ll have a big damn problem.”
“I was not going to insult her. I wasn’t,” he added, sparing Nora a glance. “I was going to insult your sudden obsession with interior designers. I want you to make sure that you’re spending your time wisely. You know what’s at stake.”
“I know everything. Go away. And don’t come here again, or I’ll buy another warehouse.”
“Next time you start getting so flighty and impossible to track down, I won’t take ten days to check with the real estate department.”
“Then next time I won’t buy. I’ll go, no trail to follow. Push me, Bill. Fucking dare you.”
Anderson snorted, dropping his head back on his shoulders to stare at the ceiling. “You are such a drama queen.”
“You haven’t seen me dramatic.”
Anderson leveled his chin and pinned him with a meaningful glare. “I was with you when you got the eagle tattoo.”
The one on his bicep? Nora liked that one. A lot.
“Fine,” Gabe said, “you’ve seen me dramatic.”
“I posted bail.”
“Already said it, Bill. Fine. And you don’t have to be so high and mighty. You got a tattoo as well.”
Anderson gave Nora a shifty look.
“Except yours wasn’t a cool one,” Gabe continued.
“The Tasmanian Devil is cool,” Anderson muttered.
“And the reason you were the one posting bail is you said, ‘Here hold this,’ and you ran.”
“Never letting that go, are you?”
“I held it! And you ran!”
At least they’d stopped yelling at each other. No one was happy, but the anger had been downgraded to irritation. Nora allowed herself to relax against Gabe.
Anderson ran a hand through his hair. “Keep your bat cave. I’ll even enable you, and tell everyone you’re in lockdown. I’ll have all calls transferred to me or Pete, but Gabe? You have to take my calls. At least once a day. Will you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Get your shit together, kid.”
“The hell do you think I’m trying to do?”
“If you’d talk to me, I’d have a clue!”
Gabe didn’t reply, and Anderson huffed a big sigh. “I’ve got to go. Got a Krav Maga class at six. When I call tomorrow, we can—”
“Tomorrow can wait. Tomorrow, I’ll be in the office.”
“What are the odds?” Anderson left.
Gabe scooped Nora clear of the door, and slammed it so hard she felt the shockwaves come up through the soles of her boots. Releasing her, he stalked over to the kitchen. He flipped the pizza box closed and started clearing the plates.
Nora hesitated. She should leave. Easygoing Gabe was nowhere in sight and—call her psychic—she didn’t think Angry Gabe was up for company.
She stuffed the camera and tape measure back into her purse, along with her Filofax. “I’ll be heading out, too,” she said, annoyed with how uncertain her voice sounded.
She didn’t think he’d heard her. Then he turned and asked, voice gruff, “You need a lift home?”
“No. I drove here.”
He dipped his chin and made a noncommittal noise.
This Gabe, Nora had no idea how to deal with. She took a few backward steps. His brows snapped together. “Um. Anna or I will be in contact in a few days.”
“Nora.” His gaze flicked to her hands, clasped over her stomach, then back up. He didn’t seem pleased. “I’ll call you.”
Anderson’s words echoed in her head. What are the odds? “Yep,” she said.
“I will call you, Nora.”
She wasn’t sure if it was a brush-off, a vow, or a threat.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
He didn’t call.
He hadn’t called yet, Nora amended. And sure, it had only been three days. And fine, she didn’t care whether or not he called. That wasn’t what had her sitting at her desk, distracted and staring into space.
It was the naked thing.
Of course it was the naked thing.
On the one hand, she now had an experience that trumped her walking in on Vince and Melissa.
On the other hand, while a few years of serious repression would fade the memory of Vince’s betrayal, she knew that she’d be able to close her eyes when she was eighty, and she’d still see in explicit detail the manly glory of Gabe Sterling, naked in his kitchen, wicked smile on his face, insanely hot body…and the rest.
When she was eighty, she had the feeling she’d be closing her eyes a lot.
Today, she couldn’t seem to concentrate. That afternoon kept playing over and over in her mind, and at the most inconvenient times.
Nora sort of hoped he wouldn’t call, because she was a hot mess of confusion whenever she thought of him. The weirdest, most confusing thing?
Gabe seemed to genuinely like her.
While it was hard to believe, considering he must be able to have any woman he wanted, he had expressed an interest in her every time they’d met.
If she hadn’t seen him naked, she’d have chalked it up to him being a friendly kind of guy. Except she had seen him naked. And he’d had a hard-on.
Difficult to rationalize an erection as friendly interest.
So it had crossed Nora’s mind: with a small effort on her part, she could probably hit that.
And that’s when the panic sweats had started.
Because she didn’t even know how to begin hitting that with a man like Gabriel Sterling. No clue. All she knew was, it would be a whole different ballgame from anything she’d experienced up to this point.
None of this mattered. He was their number one most important client, which made him the dead last person on earth she should be thinking of in dating or sexing terms.
Even though Nora had decided to file naked Gabe away for thinking about at the appropriate time, her brain had other ideas, and she found herself thinking about him all the time. It was a pain in her ass. She was trying to focus on her life here.
She’d stayed at the office late the last few evenings to use the computer and research how to settle a rescue dog into their new home.
She’d joined her local library, checked out a stack of books, and a green-haired librarian had talked her into joining the book club.
Anna had taken her shopping and had chosen her a pair of skinny jeans that fit her legs but didn’t dig into her waist or were so low-cut they dr
agged her panties down whenever she bent over, or tried to sit.
Aside from all that, she’d fixed a misplaced order for an ancient Minoan pottery bowl that had somehow been redirected to Gretchen Sharpe’s new office; had chased down the last bolt of Regency-striped fabric Anna needed to get to the upholsterer to finish a fainting couch; and had bought tickets to a gallery showing of a hot new artist Anna wanted to scout.
As long as Nora was busy, it was easy to fend off those inconvenient flashes that started her down the road to hopeless fantasies.
Flashes of things like the sound of his laugh, and the way it bubbled through her veins, danced along her nerves. The way he’d still looked hot with one eye crossed.
His tattoos.
She’d deleted all the photos of him on Anna’s camera because she knew she’d be tempted to look at them, like a tween crushing on a boyband, and she was a mature and busy woman who was supposed to be beyond that sort of behavior.
In retrospect, Nora regretted deleting the photos. Seeing him naked had only affected her so much because she’d never seen a man like him before. That was all. If she still had them, she could have peeked every now and then. Built up some resistance to his appeal.
You know. Bored herself.
She was onto something with this, wasn’t she? Exposure therapy. She should double-check the camera. Maybe she’d missed a photo.
She jumped up and grabbed the camera. She turned it on.
Empty.
Damn her scrupulous efficiency.
Nora sat and drummed her fingers on the desktop. Back to work. If she concentrated, she could get the order spreadsheet updated before Anna came in.
She stared at the spreadsheet, then clicked away and opened her web browser instead. She’d get on with work in a minute. First, she had to look something up…
~ ~ ~
In his office, Gabe drummed his fingers on the desktop. He should be working, but he couldn’t concentrate.
For Gabe, this was nothing new. Every day was a bloody battle to force himself to focus. When he was victorious, his attention was sharp enough it could cut through titanium. Bombs could drop and he wouldn’t notice. Only the physical demands of his body prompted him to move. He’d come out of the almost transcendental state long enough to eat or drink before dropping back under the surface.
Once he achieved flow, he was alive and uncontainable. Living in that altered reality, he was a god. There was nothing he could not achieve. He’d stay there forever if he could, but a flow state for Gabe was the Holy Grail.
Every great achievement of his life thus far had been an epic battle in the drawn-out war against his own nature. Over the years, he’d learned tricks and techniques. Some from the child psychologists his parents had sent him to when he hadn’t outgrown the tantrums his family doctor had assured them he would. Others from a sympathetic school counselor who’d recognized his atypical intelligence and championed him. Most he’d taught himself, after enduring years of frustration and boredom as the world around him trudged past, out of phase and so slow.
His determination had helped him overcome the drawbacks of his personality quirks. It was never easy, but he welcomed a challenge. Nebula was the first issue he’d had to wrestle with for a long time. He’d been complacent. He’d thought that he’d found his groove, had hit a comfortable plateau. So this particular clusterfuck had been a big surprise.
The biggest surprise was that thinking about Nora Bowman had eclipsed even Nebula.
Gabe had shown up at the office the last few days to calm people down. He’d even provided some dummy code to keep his programmers quiet. It would take them at least a couple of weeks to realize it wasn’t going anywhere. By then, maybe he’d have come to a decision about how to proceed.
Right now? He was bored.
The agitated kind of bored that usually sent him running off on any excuse that came to mind, because motion was better than standing still. Yet for once, he was reluctant to leave the city.
He could always call Alex.
Since Alex had found Elle, though, he tried—he really did try—to give them space.
He drummed his fingers again, then drew the keyboard toward him and rattled off a few commands. Why fight it? He was only sitting here rather than going to the gym to stop Bill from freaking out. It wasn’t as if he was working.
Gabe hit enter and waited while the call connected.
“Hello, Mr. Sterling.” Nora’s clear voice came through the speakers.
“Toggle the camera on,” he said. “I want to see you.”
“Hang on. Bear with me.” Nora appeared on his screen. “Is that it? Did I do it right?” She was frowning down at her keyboard. “Can you see me now?” she said.
Gabe sat back. The ever-present tangle of frustration that burned in his chest like his own personal sun eased. “I see you.”
She seemed flustered. It suited her. Her cheeks were pink and she was having trouble deciding where to look—at her screen, the camera, the keyboard. Her lips were a deep red. Had she been biting them?
“You’re doing something,” he said.
“What? No I’m not.” She sat straighter.
“You’re doing something and I caught you at it.”
Her nostrils flared.
“You’re doing something naughty,” Gabe said. “On the computer, that can only mean one thing.”
“Kittens.” She talked over him. “Yes. You caught me.” She heaved a theatrical sigh. “I’m looking at pictures of funny kittens.” Her gaze slid down from the camera to the desktop, then bounced back to his face.
Kittens? Bullshit. “I love funny cat pictures. Any good ones?”
“No. No good ones. I don’t mind telling you, I’m disappointed.”
Hmm. The disappointment was genuine. What was she doing? “So you’re looking at unfunny kittens.”
“They’re funny. Just, nothing stands out.” She choked on the last two words and, to Gabe’s fascination, her pink cheeks darkened into a full blush.
“Let me look. Hold on, we can share screens.”
“Oh, no!” Nora yelped. “No, don’t. It’s private.”
“Nothing’s private, honey. We’ve been over this. You step online, you’re standing on the street in your underwear.”
She shuddered. “That is a recurring nightmare of mine.”
“Really?”
“Except I wish I was in my underwear.”
“Mmm.”
Her gaze flew to his and held.
“Send me a picture,” he said. “Send me the best kitten picture on your screen. Save me the trouble of taking control of your computer and seeing for myself.”
“You know, I’m super busy at the moment. I’ll find one, I’ll choose one, and send it over later today.”
In the distance a door slammed, followed by Anna’s voice.
Nora glanced over her shoulder.
Anna’s voice grew louder as she approached. “…the hell are you looking at?” she said. “Porn on your own time, Nora. And never in the office. I’m not paying you to look at pictures of hot tattooed guys.” She swung into view and stopped dead when she saw Gabe.
He smiled.
“Shit.” Anna lunged for the computer and turned the monitor off.
Across town, Gabe sat back with his arms behind his head and continued to watch them. They had no idea he could still see them. It was kind of perverted.
He liked it.
If it had just been Nora, he’d have said something. The woman was not up to speed, technologically speaking. Anna, however, should know that turning off the monitor wasn’t going to do a damn thing if a tech genius who had already been digging around her system was at the other end.
A tech genius who didn’t need to be in the same room as the computer to take control of it.
Which he’d done the moment he saw Nora’s pink cheeks. Now, he opened up a window, and saw what had gotten Nora all hot and bothered.
He couldn’t stop
smiling.
“What are you doing?” Anna stood with her hands on her slender hips, glaring down at Nora. “Are you trying to get us fired?”
“How am I getting us fired? I accepted a Skype call from a client!”
“I’m talking about the porn! It’s because of him, isn’t it? You’re looking at these dodgy pictures because of Gabe Sterling, aren’t you?”
“Yes! I’ve never seen anyone like that.”
“Naked?”
“I’ve seen a naked guy before. Come on. I dated Vince for five years, didn’t I?”
“Five years well spent.”
“Vince does not look like this.” Nora pointed at the screen, and let her hand fall. “Or like Mr. Sterling. I didn’t think anyone looked like Mr. Sterling in real life. But he’s a… He’s a fantasy come to life.”
Gabe didn’t know why she was back to calling him Mr. Sterling, but he was finding it cute. He shifted in his chair. Okay, cute wasn’t the word.
Anna snorted. “I’m not denying his aesthetic appeal, but he’s not the only good-looking guy in San Francisco. I’ve seen a hundred guys like him. Like any of them.” She jerked her chin at the screen. “You can see them all over the place.”
“Tell me where, because I could stand to see them. I think I need to see them. I nearly lost my shit, all because I was a few inches away from him. I’m an intelligent, got-it-together woman, and he turns me into a gibbering idiot. I swear I feel my higher brain functions drain away in his presence. The world stops, and there’s nothing in it but me and him. So where are all these hot guys hiding? I have to build resistance, or I’m going to jump him.”
“It’s not a big secret, Nora. It’s called a gym. You should think about joining one. Then you can sit there on a stationary bike and watch all the men grunt and strain and lift weights to impress the women.”
Nora’s gaze was distant and unfocused. “I’ve never touched actual abdominal muscles,” she said in a dreamy voice.
Gabe touched his own abs.
Anna paused. “When you say you dated Vince…?”
“Yes, we slept together. Come on. I touched him. I touched him a lot.”