by Jenny Rarden
“Bailey?” I said, stepping forward. When she stared more at my chest than my face, I tilted her head up with a light touch beneath her chin. “Pretty girl, look at me.” When those amazing eyes met mine, they were a dark bluish-green, and they were filled with worry and what looked like hurt. “Why are you running away from me?”
“You looked…busy.”
Narrowing my eyes at her, I shook my head slowly. “I’m never too busy for you. And Bailey… You’ve got an uncanny ability to witness the most god-awful bullshit attempts at flirting aimed my way. Did you know that?” I asked her, shaking my head and sighing deeply. “You may not know it, but the fourth floor isn’t the only one in the damn building that has an amazing talent for ‘breaking’ things for attention from the IT department.”
Her smirk was sexy and adorable, but she rolled her eyes up to meet mine. Taking the opportunity, I leaned in closer, bracing a hand on the wall behind her.
“What you also may not know is that the fourth floor is most welcome to break whatever the hell they wish—full ream of paper and all, pretty girl,” I whispered, dropping my forehead to hers.
The giggle that erupted out of her was adorable. “Anything?”
“Anything.” I brushed my lips across hers. “Bailey… This past weekend, it wasn’t just a one-time thing. Not for me. It was the most…extraordinary weekend of my life, so…”
“Yeah, me too,” she breathed, nodding a bit.
I was about to continue on, but she leaned in, pressing her lips to mine, and with all that I’d been thinking about since she’d left my house Saturday, I snapped. Pressing completely into her, I kissed her, claimed her, moaning at the flavor of her and the feel of her gripping fingers slipping into my hair.
A small alarm started to beep, and I grinned into the kiss but barely backed away from her. “I know I need to let you go, but…”
She chuckled softly. “Give me time… I’ll break something up there.”
Laughing, I nodded. “Make it good, pretty girl,” I told her, reaching back to flip the elevator back into motion. When the next floor opened the doors, I got out, needing the stairs to walk off what that beautiful girl was doing to me.
Chapter Nine
Bailey
WORK DRAGGED ALL MORNING. After seeing Ryan with Terri’s arms around him and her kissing his cheek, it had taken all I had to ignore it and the stabbing pain in my chest. I’d been pretty sure he hadn’t invited the attention, but I hadn’t stuck around to see anything more—although, after the…discussion in the elevator, I was positive he’d simply shrugged her off. But now I was stuck upstairs, when I really wanted to stomp down to the lobby and scratch Terri’s eyes out.
“That overly made-up, huge-breasted tramp,” I hissed, feeling my lip curl.
From her desk across from me, Andi tittered. “Did you see the skirt she had on? If she bends over at all, she’ll be flashing her nasties.”
“I had to shield my eyes when I walked by her,” Judy said, smirking. “I was afraid a button was gonna pop off that shirt, as tight as it is, and hit me in the face.”
“Mmhmm,” I agreed. “It’s one thing to look sexy, but good grief… Keep it understated at work, right?” I stuck out a blue-shoed foot and wiggled it, grinning.
“It’s a good thing our guys like classy, not crassy,” Andi said with a grin.
“Trust me, hon…” Judy rolled her eyes before looking at me. “If Sully had been into what she’s putting out, he wouldn’t be worth your time. Sure doesn’t sound like he’s into her.”
“No,” I admitted, realizing I needed to be more sure of Ryan’s feelings and less insecure about myself. I wasn’t that person, and I needed to start showing it. “I just need to let Terri know to keep her hands off him. Maybe she’ll get the message then. If she doesn’t, well—” I grinned wickedly “—scratching her eyes out is still an option, I guess.”
The three of us laughed quietly until we heard Patty’s office door open.
“Violet, do you have those papers I needed for my meeting?” she screeched, sounding annoyed.
I sneaked a glance out of the corner of my eye and saw Violet draw in a deep breath and reach over to the corner of her desk.
“They’re right here, Ms. Turcotte. You said to hold on to them until you were ready for them.”
Bratty Patty made a rude, unladylike sound—a cross behind a scoff and a whine—and said, “I was ready for them twenty minutes ago. Give them here.” She stomped out to the desk and held out her hand, whisking the papers away once Violet gave them to her. Without a word of thanks, she turned, stomped back to her office, and shut the door firmly.
Violet looked over at us and rolled her eyes, then focused back on the computer screen on her desk.
Andi snorted. “I don’t know how she does it, how she puts up with the shit Patty dishes out day after day.”
“She has the patience of a saint,” I said, but then I growled when my monitor went all crazy. “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?” Judy leaned back to look at my computer monitor. “Ooh, pretty.”
I laughed dryly. “Yeah, but highly counterproductive to getting work done.” I smacked the side of the monitor lightly, hoping to get the bright, multicolored pixelated lines to go away. When nothing happened, I reached around and fiddled with the cable, seeing if it had come loose from the back of the monitor. When nothing changed, I grinned, raising an eyebrow. “My turn to call downstairs. Oh darn,” I said sarcastically, picking up the phone and punching in the extension for the basement office.
“IT. This is Chase.”
“Hey, it’s Bailey. Any chance Ryan’s free?” I crossed my fingers. “I’m having issues with my monitor.”
“Did you break something,” he asked, sounding amused.
“No,” I protested quickly, chuckling. “It just went…weird all of a sudden.”
“Mmhmm.” He sounded skeptical but laughed. “Hold on. He’s right here.”
“Problems, pretty girl?” Ryan’s smooth voice asked a moment later.
I explained what had happened, and he hummed. “Okay. Give me three minutes, and I’ll be up.”
“Thanks.” I smiled, hanging up the phone and leaning back in my seat, only to straighten up when Patty’s door opened.
“I’m off to my meeting,” she told Violet in a voice loud enough for us all to hear. “Then I’ll be out of touch the rest of the day. Forward any important messages to my cell.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Violet responded easily, and then she, along with the rest of us, gave a sigh of relief when the elevator doors closed behind Patty a minute later.
Ryan was true to his word. A minute after Patty left, the elevator doors slid open and he walked out, smiling my way as soon as he looked up and saw me watching him.
“Okay, beautiful,” he said as he stepped up to my desk moments later. “What happened?”
“I was in the middle of writing up an article, and when I saved it, it was really slow, so I thought I’d reboot. When it restarted, it was like…that.” I waved my hand at the monitor.
Ryan nodded. “Okay, no problem. I’ll get you fixed up. Hop up, baby. Let me take a crack at it.”
I smiled and stood, then slipped up to sit on the edge of my desk, drawing his attention to my legs as I crossed one over the other. His gaze trailed from my shoes, up my calf to my thigh, and then continued up till his golden-brown eyes met mine. I swallowed hard when his lip curled in a naughty grin. Darting my tongue out to wet my suddenly dry lips, I squeezed my thighs together at the heat that flared in his eyes.
“Yoo-hoo,” a voice broke in, and I blinked, turning my head to see Andi smirking from her desk.
“Good Lord,” Judy said, laughing. “You two could set the building on fire.”
I felt my cheeks heat and grinned when Ryan chuckled and shook his head before turning back to my computer.
“You tried the connection?”
I nodded. “Well, only the one in
the back of the monitor itself.”
“Okay. I’ll check those first. Maybe it’ll be an easy fix…”
After checking all the connections, he shook his head and sat back in the chair. His fingers flew over the keys as he muttered something about checking the drivers. When that apparently didn’t work, he looked up at Andi. “Mind if I borrow your monitor? Since you have exactly the same one as Bailey, I can connect yours to her computer, and if it works, then we can be sure it’s a problem with the monitor itself.”
“Yeah, sure,” Andi said with a smile.
A cable switch here, a grumble under his breath there, and then the screen lit up, displaying the file I’d been working on. “Well, that’s a good thing,” he finally said, switching the monitor back off and reaching back to unplug it. “It’s definitely something with the monitor. I’ll call down and have Chase bring up one of the extras we have in storage. It’s older, but it’ll work until we can get you a new one like this.”
I nodded, grinning when Andi said, “I’ll call him.” She picked up her phone before Ryan could object.
“Come here, pretty girl,” he said in a low voice. “You can have your seat back.”
I slipped down off the desk, adjusted my skirt, and then sat back in my chair.
Ryan braced his hands on either side of me on the desk and leaned down until his breath ghosted across my neck as he whispered, “I was going to talk to you this morning, but I got a little distracted.”
I shivered, remembering the kisses in the elevator. “Mmm?”
He nodded and then turned me slightly to face him. “Have any plans next weekend?”
“No…”
“I meant what I said this morning, sweetheart. I want more with you, however much and for however long you’ll give me. So when I talked to my mom before work, I mentioned you. My parents would love to meet you. I know it’s early in this…relationship—” he raised an eyebrow, as if waiting for me to nod an agreement at the term, continuing when I did just that “—but I would love to take you to Boston to meet them and show you around town. Would you go with me Friday after work?”
The thought of meeting Ryan’s parents made me nervous but excited. I didn’t know where we were going with our relationship, but I knew where I wanted us to go. Sure, it was fast, but if it was right, who was I to question it? I looked around to make sure Patty hadn’t come back unexpectedly. When I didn’t see her, I leaned in and kissed him quickly. “I’d love to,” I said warmly.
“Yeah?” A smile graced his face, and he reached out to pinch my chin lightly in his thumb and forefinger, guiding my lips to his for another quick kiss before he stood. “I’d better get back to work. When Chase gets up here with the monitor, he can hook it up for you, okay?”
“Yeah.” I smiled. “Thanks.”
“See you after work?”
I nodded. “I’ll wait for you.”
He smiled, then turned, nodding to Chase, who was carrying a small monitor toward us.
“All right, Bails. Let’s get you set up,” Chase said, setting the monitor down in front of me.
I smiled once more at Ryan before he stepped into the elevator and then turned my attention to Chase—but my thoughts stayed on Ryan and the knowledge that I would meet his family in less than a week.
Epilogue
Bailey
“MM…” I LET OUT A SLOW BREATH and turned in Ryan’s arms, stretching and trying to keep from yawning in his face. Even after a year of being together, morning breath was no picnic. “Morning.”
He leaned in and kissed me gently. “Morning, beautiful.”
When he picked up my leg, set it on top of his, and then rolled his hips, I clutched his shoulder, breathing deep as he slid inside me. Making love first thing in the morning always made for a great start to the day. We rarely spoke, listening instead to the way we breathed, the sound of our bodies moving against one another.
He held me close, and I tucked my face into his neck, clutching at his naked back as I breathed in his scent. His hands moved over me, stroking my hair and then down my back, over the curve of my ass, and up my thigh before moving up between us.
“R-Ryan,” I stuttered, my breath leaving me as his fingers found the spot where we were joined.
I knew without words what he wanted when he rolled my clit between his fingers, and with an almost silent cry, I shattered around him, squeezing him tight as I felt him pulse inside me at the same time he buried his face in my neck and grunted as he came.
We stayed quiet for a several minutes, just holding one another, until it began to get a little uncomfortable. After another kiss, he pulled away, and I groaned, hating the mess we’d created and that we had to get up for work. I loved the feeling of him bare inside me—I’d been thankful when we’d decided that the pill alone would work for us—but Ryan seemed to come in bucketfuls, so that meant I needed to get up right away or we’d have a wet spot and have to wash the sheet…again. It was a regular occurrence, although I wouldn’t really change it for the world.
Ryan knew to let me go first, so I dashed off to the bathroom. He would always wait until I was in the shower before taking care of business himself and then joining me.
A few minutes later, when he stepped into the shower, I handed him the soap and began to add conditioner to my hair. I let my gaze travel over his body as he soaped himself up. He was so gorgeous. I would never get tired of it.
As always, the nipple rings were my favorite, but I loved to tongue my way across the dips and ridges of his abs before following the lines of his tattoos. He’d explained the significance of them all the first night we made love, and I’d never forgotten. The clock on his right side, which I’d wondered about when I first saw it, was the exact time that he landed back in the States after coming home from overseas. I loved that one because it signified that he’d made it home safely.
On the opposite side, the compass was one he’d gotten just before leaving for the Army. He’d had a little bit of a rocky time during his teenage years. He’d been scrawny and a nerd, and to fit in, he’d tried hanging out with the wrong crowd. Once he’d made up his mind that he wanted to join the military, it had given him purpose and direction—in other words…the compass.
“Anything exciting planned today?” he asked, pulling me out of my thoughts and the perusal of his body as I traded him places so he could get to the water.
“Nope. I turned in my last article for this month’s issue to Bratty Patty last Friday. I’ve got a few ideas for the next issue that I’m gonna start researching, but that’s it. You?”
He grunted and rinsed under the water before answering. “We start updating the computers today. Massive security updates that need to be done this week. I’ll probably see you a lot today, as I think Gene is taking the top floor, Chase—the poor soul—was assigned payroll, so I get the fourth floor.”
“Nice.” I grinned and then switched position with him again so I could rinse my hair and wash my body.
“I’ll get dressed and go make coffee,” he said, leaning under the spray once I was soap free and kissing me softly. “Bagel with strawberry cream cheese?”
“Mm, yes, please.”
As Ryan left the bathroom, I finished showering off. I loved staying the night at his place. The shower was huge compared to mine, and he had a great kitchen, which included a really complicated, futuristic-looking coffee maker. I normally stayed over four or five nights a week, only going to my own place when I had a night out with the girls or he planned to hang out with the guys. We’d been dating a year as of the next weekend, and I had a feeling he was going to ask me to just move in permanently. We’d tried not to rush into anything, taking everything slow, but we were both ready for something a little more…permanent.
I finished showering and dried off, making quick work of dressing, blow-drying my hair, and adding just a slight amount of makeup, and then joined him in the kitchen for my favorite breakfast and a huge mug of coffee—a hint of milk
and sugar, just the way I liked it.
After we’d both finished eating, I rinsed our mugs and put them into the dishwasher, then joined Ryan in the foyer. He handed me my bag, opened the door, and then locked it behind us before taking my hand.
“Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go,” he sang under his breath as we walked the few blocks to the subway station.
I laughed, rolling my eyes, but couldn’t help but hum along with him. With Ryan working in the same company and often finding himself on the fourth floor, work didn’t seem so bad anymore.
Two hours after I sat down in my chair across from Andi, the elevator dinged. I looked over to see Ryan striding out into the alcove, looking sexy in his maroon work shirt and khaki pants, with his messy hair and ink peeking out from under the sleeve. He entered the big room and flashed me a wink before heading directly for Patty’s office. I turned to watch as he knocked and then waited to enter until he’d been granted permission.
Minutes later, Patty came strolling out, speaking loud enough to Violet that we all could hear. “IT is updating my computers, so I’m going out. I’ll be back after lunch. Make sure to take detailed messages if anyone calls for me.”
“Yes, Ms. Turcotte,” Violet said, sounding more patient and sincere than I would have in her shoes.
Five minutes later, my phone chimed with a new message alert.
Come see me…
I looked back and could see Ryan through Patricia’s open door. He grinned and crooked his finger in a come-hither gesture.
“Hey, Jude,” I whispered, glancing back at my friends. “Message Miles and tell him to let you know if Bratty comes back early…”