“You most definitely become part of that selected group.” He replied softly. They both ate in silence after that.
Looking at her watch she hopped up, packing her trash away. He sat there in complete stillness, wondering why she suddenly was on the move. As though she had read his mind. “You have a meeting with Jim and Craig shortly. Time to put that CEO face back on. But before you do I have a very important question for you.” The large smile on her face ruined the serious tone she was going for.
Derek licked his lips and smiled back. “What would that be?” He leaned back in his chair, locking his hands behind his head.
“Would you like to go out tonight?” Her smile never wavered as she asked her question.
“Ms. Atlas are you coming on to your boss?” He teased.
“Nope. Remember, we are not boss / employee right now.” She explained.
“Oh right, well in that case, yes, I would love to go out with you tonight. Why don’t you let me take you to dinner to save you from cooking? Which would most certainly end in a kitchen accident.” He loved teasing her.
She laughed. “That would probably be best if you want to keep your temporary assistant around.” She walked around his desk. Placing a chaste kiss on his lips. “Ok, now we can go back to being the Mr. Callaway powerful CEOO and Ms. Atlas incredibly beautiful and talented assistant.” She winked at him before turning to exit his office.
Chapter Eleven
The rest of the day flew by for Roni. She scheduled the meetings Derek needed for the week and began working on the costing and estimates for Alex. She was so engrossed in her work she did not hear him walk out of his office. A hand settled on her shoulder, causing her to jump. She spun around to see an amused Derek is standing behind her. She placed her hands over her chest. “You think it’s funny to sneak up on people boss man?” She asked with a fictitious scowl.
He tapped his watch. “You see it is 6:30, so I am no longer ‘boss man.’” He held out his hand to help her rise from her chair. Giving a quick glance around the outer office to see if anyone was left, he leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Now that we are back to being Derek and Roni, I can think of several things we can do together that are far better than working.”
Roni felt the heat of his words all the way to her toes. She had several ideas herself. “Well then let’s get out of here. How about we start with dinner, I’m starving.” She grabbed her purse and shut off her computer.
Derek pulled out his iPhone. “Perfect I will make us reservations at Capital Grille.”
Roni snatched the phone away from him. “Derek, I have been in heels all day, what I want is to go somewhere casual that isn’t going to have a fit when I slip my shoes off under the table. How about we grab pizza at Pasquini’s?” She pleaded.
“Are you ever going to let me take you out for a nice dinner?” He asked through his smile.
She put her finger to her chin, as if she was in deep thought. “Nope. Not that kind of girl. I like comfort over style. Now come on, let’s go before my stomach embarrasses me by growling.”
He laughed and took her hand, leading her to the bank of elevators. “I am sure there is some rule in the dating handbook that says I am required to take you to a nice candle lit dinner within the first month of dating.”
She shook her head. “You must not be reading the updated version of the dating rule book. The last version I read said the girl, me in this case, gets to choose where to eat. And tonight I choose pizza.” They stepped into the elevator as she finished her sentence.
The second the doors closed, he had her pinned to the wall. Kissing her fiercely. Her purse fell to the floor as she wrapped her hands around his neck drawing him closer. His hands were running wildly over her body. The hard proof of his arousal pushing into her thigh. She leaned her head back to catch her breath. Moaning when he began kissing her neck. “If you get to choose dinner, then it is only fair I get to choose a dessert.” Derek declared.
“We can just skip dinner and go right for dessert.” Her brain cells were short circuiting in response to the sudden onslaught of hormones rushing through her system.
He rocked his hips into her, the friction not nearly enough. Just as his hands freed her shirt from being tucked into her pants, the elevator dinged indicating they had arrived at the parking level. He leaned his forehead against hers, as they both caught their breaths. “Too bad the elevator ride wasn’t longer.” He kissed her one more time quickly and pulled her from the elevator. He beeped his locked in his car, walking them around to the passenger side. “I say we go to dinner before getting back to dessert. You’re going to need the meal for stamina.” He kissed her deeply before placing her in the car.
“What about my car?” She asked suddenly coming out of her hormone induced stupor.
“We’ll come back and get it later.” His hand was on her rubbing small circles on her thigh. She really wanted to demand that they skip dinner, but her mouth was not capable of forming the words.
They made it to the restaurant quickly since it was only a few blocks away. They sat in the back at a small, eclectic table. The restaurant was lit dimply, decorated as though you had taken a single piece of furniture for all the surrounding houses. It was her favorite pizza place in town. They ordered a veggie pizza and a couple beers.
“So tell me more about your family. I know all about Caroline and Netty what about your parents?” She asked as they waited for their pizza to arrive.
He took a long pull of his beer. “They live in Miami now. They moved there right after Caroline graduated from college. Both of my parents were engineers at Lockheed Martin. They worked a lot when C and I were little so we had a slew of Nannies until we got old enough to look after ourselves. They visit once a year, and call. That is enough for both C and I, they can be a lot to handle. Alex’s family became our adoptive family. Caroline and I both spend the holidays at the Porter’s home. His parents are amazingly kind. And by how they act you would never guess they had been married for almost forty years.” The irritation he had when he spoke of his own parents shifted to joy and love when he spoke of the Porters.
“I am sorry to hear that you are not close to your parents, but glad to see you are close to Alex’s folks. I take it Alex is close to his parents?” She asked the last bit out of curiosity.
Derek laughed. “He is the definition of a mama’s boy. He loves his parents. Goes over to their house for dinner at least once a week.”
She looked at him, completely dumbfounded. She waved her hands in front of her face. “Wait, wait, wait. Alex, aka Super Asshole, the man who probably doesn’t know the name of the girl he is in bed with right now is a mama’s boy?” She broke out in laughter at the thought.
“Yep.” He leaned in with a mischievous smile on his face. “You have to promise not to ever tell anyone about this next part, and I mean no one. Pinky swear?” He held out his pinky for her.
Roni giggled some more wrapping her pinky with his and shaking. “Ok, now that I have sworn to the all mighty pinky, tell me.”
Derek laughed softly. “He even goes to the spa with his mom for pedicures from time to time.” They both busted out in uncontained laughter.
Their pizza arrived just as they were starting to gain some control. “So what about your family? You hardly spoke about them when we went to lunch.”
Roni smiled. “My parents still live here. They are enjoying their retirement by traveling. They call all the time to check in. My sister finds it annoying, I kind of like hearing about their adventures.” She took a bite of the pizza before she continued. “My sister, Bree, is a year younger than me. She lives in Breckenridge. She owns a small gallery up there. After college, she had all these offers from large companies, but she just isn’t built for the 9-5 world. Actually, she would have done well at your company. She is like you, a computer genius.”
Derek gave her a bewildered look. “So why the gallery and not some big software company.” He asked before shoving
an entire slice of pizza into his mouth.
“Boredom. Computers are easy for her. And she says it’s isolating. She likes to be around people, hence the gallery.” She shrugged.
“You know I still don’t know what company you worked at before coming to work for me.”
“You mean what company I got fired from?” She teased.
“Yes, I guess that would be the correct way to ask the question.”
Inhaling deeply she answered. “Conner and Walker Inc., or as I nicknamed it Douche Bags R Us.” Roni looked up to see Derek scowling at her. Crap, what had she said?
***
Derek finished his almost full beer in one long swallow upon her answer. Not even tasting the liquid as it went down. “You worked for Chad and Michael?” The distaste in his voice was impossible to hide.
Roni leaned forward, her eyes large. “You know those guys?”
“Unfortunately, Alex and I have known them since high school. Completely spoiled assholes. Their daddies handed over the company to them the day the graduated college. They never had to work for anything.” He shook his head. Derek hated those two assholes for all the crap they pulled on him in high school. “So why did they fire you? Please tell me that you spilled an entire pot of scalding hot coffee on one of them or something like that. ”
Roni smiled and shook her head. “Sorry to disappoint, but my clumsiness is not what got me fired. Since I know there is no love lost between you and those dip wads I will tell you. Luckily I didn’t work directly for either of them, but Michael was always in my department. And he always made a point of coming by my desk. Always making comments that made me feel sleazy. The day he fired me he came on to me in a very inappropriate way. I don’t know what came over me that day. I guess I just had enough. I guess I got a little bit like Izzy.” Derek was confused at her last comment. “I slapped him, hard. So I was fired on the spot.” She shrugged. “But it all worked out.”
“Why didn’t you sue his for sexual harassment or something? Had I known that, I would have beat the crap out of him when I saw him at the meeting that day.” Derek’s fist gripped the beer bottle so hard he was surprised it did not break in his hand.
“Michael was always careful never to let anyone hear him. So it would have been my word against his and I just didn’t feel like going through that. Wait a minute that was the meeting you were going to when I knocked you over?” She sounded shocked.
“Yep, we bought some land from them for the new facility. You will be happy to know Alex fucked them completely on the price.” He smiled at her trying to relax his muscles after the revelation that the cock sucker Michael had been pursuing her.
She giggled a little and reached for his hand. “Well, I will have to take Alex for a pedicure as a thank you.”
Derek laughed all the tension from before leaving his body. He brought her hand to his mouth and placed a small kiss on her palm. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, but at the same time I am glad I was walking into that building at that moment. It may have been another year before I finally asked you on a date at the rate I was going.” He kissed her hand again. “Are we ready for dessert?” He asked, looking at her through half lidded eyes.
“Mmmm dessert sounds great. How fast can we get out of here?” She wiggled her eyebrows at him. He moved quickly, throwing bills on the table to cover the bill.
He practically pulled her out of the restaurant in his rush to get her alone. Derek needed a taste of her before they drove to his house. He pushed her up against the side of his car, shoving his hands into her hair, and he kissed her. Her mouth opened on contact giving his tongue access. Her hands were at his waist, holding him close to her. He loved the feel of her hands on his body. He wanted more. “Come home with me.” He made it a statement rather than a question.
He felt her smile under his lips, then, as if to respond to his statement, she grabbed his erection and rubbed. He was in heaven and hell all at once. She continued to rub, driving him mad with lust. Suddenly he felt something vibrating in his pants. He chose to ignore his phone and enjoy the impromptu hand job. He moaned when she squeezed slightly. “We need to leave… now.” He said, pulling away from her slightly. His phone vibrated again.
“I agree. But don’t you need to check your phone before we head to your place?” She reached into his pants pocket to grab his phone for him. Her move shot another wave of lust through him. At the moment he could have cared less if it was the President of the United States on the phone. She handed him the phone with a knowing smile on her face. He took the phone and unlocked the car. Opening the door for her, as he always did. He took deep breaths to slow his body down as he walked around the car. “What did the text say?”
“Text? Oh, right.” His thoughts had been preoccupied by what he was going to do to her once her got her home that he forgot all about the text. He unlocked his phone and read the text. His head landed back on the headrest and he let out a frustrated growl. He turned his head to look at her. Placing a hand gently on her cheek, he spoke softly. “You have no idea how much I don’t want to say what I have to say.”
“That was work?” She sighed with a disappointed smile.
“Yes. We hired some hackers to test our program. They were attempting to hack into the profiles tonight. I never expected one of them to get through. Which means I have to go in and rework the coding. I am really sorry Roni. You have no idea how sorry.” His voice was low and remorseful.
Her head fell back on the headrest, mimicking his position. She looked down momentarily. “It’s ok. I know this is a busy time for you. We’ll pick this up again soon…. really soon.” She leaned over to kiss him again deeply before pulling away quickly. “Sorry I shouldn’t have done that. We need to cool down not heat up again.” She teased.
“Right… calming down.” He blew out a breath and started the car. “Someday all the stars are going to line up for us. One of these days we are bound to be able to finish one of these make out sessions with both of us screaming the other’s name.” With that they were on their way back to the office. Stupid hacker ruined his night of carnal pleasure with the woman who had been naked in his dream almost every night for months.
Chapter Twelve
Roni made her way home still thinking about all of the naughty things she should have been doing with Derek. Stupid hacker. She was going to hack him up if she ever met him. She walked into her house, hoping Izzy was home. “Izzy?” She called out.
Izzy’s head popped out of the kitchen. “Why aren’t you out with Prince Geek Boy?”
“Work called some test hacker broke his code. He was not happy. I heard him mumble something about cutting the guys balls off. Of course he hired the guy so not sure that is going to happen.” She huffed as she crashed onto the couch.
Izzy stared at her for a moment and then broke out in a huge smile. “Let me guess the hacker dweeb interrupted some naked fun time?”
“Almost naked fun time, yes. Ugh, I swear every time I get close to getting him alone and naked, something happens. I am so frustrated.” She put her arm over her eyes in a dramatic fashion. Roni knew she was being childish about not getting any but come on she had been waiting and waiting for Derek.
“So he is in the office now? Alone?” Izzy asked. Roni nodded from beneath her arm. “So do what other couples do sext him.”
Roni’s arm left her face as she stared at her friend as if she was crazy. “I’m sorry, did you just tell me to sext m… …m… …whatever he is?”
“Yep, sometimes a girl has to move things along.”
“This coming from the girl who makes every guy she dates wait six months before they get laid?”
“Why do you think they wait? They get other stuff between date one and the six month mark. And sexting is part of that deal.” Izzy said, shrugging her slender shoulders.
Roni sat there staring at her friend. “Who are you and what have you done with my Izzy?” She joked then her face fell. “I don’t know if I can d
o it, the sexting. I wouldn’t know what to say.”
“Trust me, you would figure it out. All you really have to do is say what wish you two were doing.” Izzy shrugged. “Well, I have thirty 6 year olds to deal with in the morning, so I am off to bed. Think about sending him just one innocent yet not so innocent text and see what happens.” Izzy kissed her on the cheek and headed to bed.
Roni was still blown away that Izzy used sexting as a step to sex itself. She thought for a few minutes about what she would say. She even picked up her phone and started a few messages. She was blushing too much to send any of the attempted messages and immediately put down her phone. Nope, not going to happen. She locked up the house, got ready for bed and laid there awake for a long time thinking about Derek. She finally drifted into a sleep filled with X-rated dreams starring Derek.
***
It was almost five in the morning. Derek had worked through the night, along with his team, to close the back door the hacker had discovered. He was sitting at his desk waiting for the hackers to break the security again. They had been making attempts for almost two hours now and so far none of them had been able to crack the code. Three of the hackers had even given up and upload their reports of their attempts for later analysis. Derek was now debating, should he go home and shower or save himself the drive and shower and dress for the day in his office bathroom? He glanced at his watch and decided he didn’t have it in him to drive home only to be there for thirty minutes.
He sent an IM to his team to tell them to all go home, get some sleep and be back in the office ready work again by one. He wasn’t a complete asshole after all. He knew how far to push them. Once the IM went out, Derek scrubbed his hands down his face and went to get cleaned up for the day. This wasn’t the first time he had gone 24 hours without sleep, he knew he could function through the day. He would have to crash tonight though if he was going to be productive at all. He was about to head to get ready when he realized he had not checked his phone since arriving back at the office last night.
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