He took a deep sigh after hanging up with Jemma. He felt helpless that he could do nothing for her. He stared mindlessly at his computer for a moment. That is when he heard laughter coming from just outside his office. He knew both of the feminine laughs. One belonged to Roni, the other to Caroline. He smiled. Then he realized he had not mentioned Roni to Caroline yet. He bolted out of his chair and headed to Roni’s desk. A sudden wave of panic hit him when he thought about what the two of them would say to each other.
He whipped open his door to find the two of them whispering and laughing like old friends. His male mind registered this as a good thing that his sister seemed to like his... whatever she was and Roni seemed to like his sister. His male mind also registered this as a very bad thing. Caroline had way too many embarrassing stories of his past to share. Yep, definitely time to break up this little hen party.
“And what have the two of you in such a fit of laughter?” He stood to the side of Roni’s desk with his arms crossed over his broad chest. They both turned toward him with massive smiles on their faces and amusement twinkling in their eyes. Derek knew that he was too late, Caroline had already spilled secrets.
“Derek, why didn’t you tell me, Jemma was out?” Caroline said all too sweetly.
“Ok, what did you tell her?” He stalked closer to the two women who were still holding in laughter.
“Only that I felt sorry for her for being put here by HR because my brother is a complete jackass as a boss. That is when Roni’s face went white and I knew that HR had nothing to do with her being your temporary assistant. Glad to see you get out of your bubble bro.” Caroline’s face held far too much amusement for that to have been the only conversation that transpired between the two. “Nice that you mentioned her to me. You know how I hate being left out of the gossip.” She fake pouted.
Derek laughed. “You are usually the one spreading the gossip. So it serves you right to be left out every now and then.”
Caroline, being a mature woman, stuck her tongue out at Derek. Roni was laughing even harder now. “Wow, you two act just a mature as my sister and I do.”
“Well to me he isn’t the all mighty CEO, he is just the jerk that made me eat mud when I was five.” Caroline said faking a glare at Derek.
“C, I only offered you a mud pie. You were the one who heard pie and ate it. Somehow Alex and I still got in trouble from Mama Porter on that one. You were always getting us in trouble with either whatever nanny we currently had or Alex’s mom.” Derek countered.
Roni was looking back and forth between them like she was watching a tennis match. “Well, that was my official job as the baby sister.” Caroline said brightly.
“Whatever.” Derek said, rolling his eye like a snotty teenager would. “Anyway, I am sure you came to visit for a reason.” Derek wanted to hurry this along so he could, one, get back to work, and two, get Caroline away from Roni before she spilled any of his dirty secrets.
“I had a break and thought I would come check to make sure you were still babysitting for me? Plus, Alex had mentioned you had a new employee I should come meet.”
“So you were in on the gossip?”
“Nope, not to the extent I am now.” She smiled brightly and that is when he realized it was not Caroline sharing secrets with Roni but the other way around. The blush on Roni’s face confirmed it.
He leaned over to Roni, close to her ear so that Caroline could not hear. “I hope you kept some details to yourself.” His voice was low and husky. Her blush grew even redder. He brushed his lips against her ear before straightening again.
Caroline’s eyes were as wide as saucers before a knowing smile spread across her face. He realized she had never seen him like that with a woman. In fact other than the sorority bitch in college, she had never seen him with a woman. No wonder she was so curious.
Roni cleared her throat. “Caroline said you are manning up and babysitting for her on Saturday? Here I thought you couldn’t go out with me because you had plans with another girl and it turns out I was right.” She was laughing again. “I hope Netty takes it easy on you.”
“Funny, I can handle the baby no problem. She loves me!” Both women looked at each other, then him, then burst out laughing again. Not a good sign for him come Saturday.
Caroline simply smiled. Again, not a good sign for him. “Well, I have done all the damage I can hear. It was nice to meet you Roni. Try and keep my brother from scaring the masses.”
“I will do my best, but he is pretty scary, I mean, look at that face.” She waved a hand at him and again they both laughed at him.
Derek wasn’t sure he was enjoying the fact that Caroline and Roni got along so well. He had a feeling he was always going to be a target when the two of them got together. It also made him smile that the two most important women in his life seemed to like each other.
Roni was still giggling quietly to herself as she turned back to her work. “Ok, what did my evil sister tell you that was so funny?” He had to know what was said so he could do damage control.
Roni smiled brightly up at him. “Nothing Mr. Gallaway, whatever would give you the idea that your dear sweet baby sister would tell me anything that would paint you in a humorous light?”
Derek simply shook his head. “Fine, keep secrets with my sister. I am telling you though she lies. About everything. All the time”
Roni became serious, or tried to. “I see, so you’re saying your sister was lying about you and Alex getting so drunk at a Frat party that you decided it was a great idea to walk home two miles, naked?”
Derek laughed a little at the memory, coughing to cover it. Then put on his CEO face. “Yes, like I said the poor girl has a serious problem. I really need to find some help for her.”
She tapped her pointer finger on her chin pretending to think for a moment. “You know Mr. Gallaway, I think you may be the compulsive liar in the family. And I think I will call your sister and get her to tell me even more stories about Super Asshole and yourself.” She kept her eyes on Derek as she reached for her phone. He laughed and grabbed the phone from her.
“You and my sister are going to be trouble together, I can already tell. Now Ms. Atlas, if you can follow me into my office, I have some business to discuss with you.” She followed him dutifully into his office.
He held the door for her watching her hips sway. He couldn’t take it anymore. He closed the door and grabbed her arm spinning her around, and crushed his lips to hers. Her mouth opened for his tongue and her hands were in his hair pulling him closer. They both moaned. Pulling each other closer. She even went as far as to wrap her leg around his hip. He pulled his lips from hers. “Christ Roni, I want you so bad.” For emphasis he pushed his erection into her core.
“I don’t want you Derek.” His eyes grew at that statement, panic almost strangling him. “I NEED you!” She pulled him back to her mouth, her hips working overtime rubbing against him. He moaned his response.
He slid his hands up her sides cupping her breast. He wanted to taste her, every inch of her. They stood their dry humping, kissing and fondling each other as though they were high school kids. He had forgotten they were even in his office until there was a knock on his door. They flew apart, straightening their clothes as fast as they could. Before they could make themselves look presentable, Alex walked in. He was starting to agree with the nickname Super Asshole.
“Hey, I have a question about these numbers…” Alex looked up from his papers and started laughing. “A little afternoon delight? Or should I say midmorning delight?” He wiggled his eyebrows for emphasis. Yep, Super Asshole fit him to the T.
“Alex. I was just um... leaving.” Roni basically ran out his office. Embarrassment written all of her beautiful face.
Once she shut the door. Alex burst out laughing. “Dude, I never thought I would catch you fucking around with your assistant in your office.”
Derek sat at his desk, adjusting himself as he did. “You asshole, have terrible ti
ming.”
“Learn to lock a door.” Alex smiled back.
Chapter Fifteen
Thursday had been a long day. Derek had been in meetings most of the day and she had been working with Alex on the estimates. Derek’s attitude had gone from pleasant in the morning to downright bitchy. She was about to offer him a Midol at one point.
Roni took a quick glance at her watch, 7:00 pm. Derek was still teaching her one of the programs she needed to know for her job. Derek had been beyond frustrated with her less than stellar computer skills. Numbers were the only thing that she was good at. These specialized tracking programs that Derek had designed for his team to track project time and expenses was so confusing to her she was about to scream bloody murder. “Roni, this isn’t that hard. Here, let me show you again. The program does the calculations for you once you input the correct parameters.” Derek spoke in a harsh manner.
She threw up her hands in frustration. “Derek, this program might be easy for you and your program monkeys to use because you designed the stupid thing! For the rest of us mere mortals, it is beyond complicated. Why do I need to have the stupid computer do it the calculations for me? I can do them all in my head in a matter of minutes. See look!” She pushed a piece of paper into his face. With all the programmer’s names, time and project numbers broken into categories. Next to the identifying information were the calculation he was needing.
Derek grabbed the paper and threw it on her desk. “Roni, every computer program in this company has been created by me to ensure they can all talk to one another. This project time management tool you are working on, creates the basic calculations that are then used by our billing and payroll programs. Not to mention myself, Alex and the legal department.” He dramatically grabbed the piece of paper she had done all the calculation on, waving it around. “How are all those departments going to share one piece of paper?”
“Ever heard of a copier?” She mumbled, not looking at him.
Derek’s eyes got big before he let out a quick laugh. He rubbed his hands through his hair in an irritated manner. His curly hair now stood almost straight out in every direction. “Smart ass.” He finally replied. “Look, I know this is complicated and if this could wait until Jemma returned I wouldn’t be putting you through this. However, I need this report. Alex needs this report. So please focus. Let’s go through it one more time.”
She couldn’t help the defeated sigh that escaped her lips. “Fine, let’s do it again.”
Derek showed her the program three more times before she finally understood the process. He had taken off his suit jacket and loosened his tie, both obvious signs of his frustration level. It also was an indication of how little sleep he had gotten this week. “See, it is not so complicated. Now please run those reports for Alex. Send me a copy as well.” He started to walk back to his office.
She jumped up from her chair and stalked after him. Closing his office door behind her. “Derek how many hours have you worked this week?”
He blew out a frustrated breath and ran his hands down his handsome tired face. “Why are you asking? Is this because I was forcing you to use a computer program you don’t like?”
“No, it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with how short you are being with everyone. And more importantly, it has to do with the large circles under your eyes.” She shook her head and walked over to him. Grabbing his face in her hands, “I am just worried about you, ok? I am sorry about not being able to catch on to the computer program you designed. I didn’t mean to add to your stress.” She kissed him softly. “How about we get out of here? Go, get something to eat, and maybe watch a little crappy reality TV? You need some rest. A little down time. Tomorrow we will pick back up and I promise we will be more productive.” She hoped he would see the reasoning behind her statement.
His hands covered hers on his face. He took them from his face and took a step back. He shook his head. “You don’t get it Roni. I don’t have time to rest. After the deadline, I will sleep, ok? But dinner does sound nice. Why don’t we go grab a bite to eat before you head home for the night?”
She stepped closer to him, placing her hands on his chest. “I have a better plan. We grab take out go back to my place watch TV in bed while we eat. You can even stay the night. That way I will know you slept.”
This time he pulled her closer instead of pushing her away. “Although I would love to spend all night in bed with you, I have to finish a piece of coding tonight.” He rubbed his hands up and down her back.
She wanted to stomp her feet and throw a temper tantrum. Instead, she took a deep breath. “Ok, I get it.” Her voice came out soft and sad. She took another deep breath. This time she breathed in his scent and pulled out of his embrace. “Go work. I’ll order you some food before I leave.” She gave him a half smile.
“Roni, we can go to dinner. I have enough time for that. Had I not lost a few hours teaching you the program I may have been able to go do more, now I need to make up for that time.”
Roni went from being sad about not being able to spend time with him, too pissed off the second he finished his statement. “So it’s my fault we can’t spend time together tonight because I was, what too dumb to understand your program?”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I said. You did just fine with the program, what I meant was I should have had someone else show you.”
“Fine. I’m not sure how you meant the previous statement, but I will let it go. I’m going home. You know I am only trying to get you to rest because I care.” She took another step away from him.
“So no dinner?” He said with a smirk.
“Like I said I will order in for you before I leave. Good night Derek.” Roni was so worried about him, but what claim did she have on him to demand he take better care of himself. “By the way I will be late tomorrow. I have to go get the stitches taken out of my hand.”
“Do you want me to take you?” He asked as he tried to close the gap between them.
She smiled, a small polite smile that did not reach her eyes. “No Derek you have work and I am a big girl who has done this before.”
“Roni.” He looked like he wanted to say something, but decided against it. “Good night.” He said nothing more.
She walked out of his office, feeling his eyes on her back. She stopped at her desk and to order him dinner before grabbing her purse and heading out.
***
The Chinese food Roni had ordered for him was just what he needed. The day with Roni did not go well. So much for reigning in his CEO asshole side. He didn’t want to admit to her exactly how tired he was. It touched him to know she was trying to care for him. He needed someone to remind him to sleep and eat. Someone to look out for him when he wasn’t able to look after himself. Derek had always been focused on work, on computers. Therefore the rest of the world fell away from Derek. He never remembered to go to meetings, order dinner or even replenish his precious Dr. Pepper. He was convinced he would die of lack of oxygen if it wasn’t for his lungs automatically breathing for him.
Although, it annoyed him that Roni pushed him to do those basic human functions like eating and resting, a small part of him loved that she cared enough to do so. Maybe after this project he would back off work a little, take a vacation. He laughed at the thought. He didn’t do vacations. Not once since they had started the company had he gone out of town on anything other than business.
A vacation with Roni though, sounded really nice. They could rent a house on a private beach. He would be able to watch her in a bikini, or better yet naked, playing in the water. Derek sighed and shook his head. The part of the vision he left out was himself. He would most likely be locked away in the house, unable to leave work behind. With the vision now complete, and downright depressing, Derek leaned his head back on his chair. Frustrated at himself for becoming so close off. He reached for his phone needing a lifeline.
“Hello?” The sweet voice on the other end said.
&nbs
p; “Roni. I… I…”He didn’t really know why he called her. “Hi.”
“Thought you were working, did you get done? Do you want to come over for a bit?” Her voice was so hopeful, he hated he had to tell her no again.
“No. I mean I can’t. I’m not done with work yet.” Derek was bumbling with his words, he knew he needed to say something halfway intelligent. “I am taking a break and wanted to call you. See how your evening was going.” He heard movement and what sounded like shouting behind her. “Where are you?” The question came out a lot more annoyed than he meant it to.
She huffed. “Well, since you had to work yourself closer to your grave tonight, I decided to head out with Izzy. We came back to 5280 and ran into Alex and Collin. The yelling you hear is of course Alex and Izzy playing a friendly game of pool. Although I am pretty sure one of them is going to end up in the emergency room tonight, courtesy of the other one.” The tension had left her voice halfway through her account of her evening thus far.
“So you’re with Alex and Collin?” He had no idea why the question held so much animosity. Maybe it was jealousy. He was jealous that Alex and Collin were spending time with Roni and he was stuck at the office.
“Yes, we are. Do you have a problem with that?” The tension was back in her voice.
“Nope” He decided it was best if he kept his answers short and sweet.
“Good, although if Alex is able to have some down time I think you should too. Why don’t you close up shop and head over here?” Her voice was both angry and kind at the same time. How was that even possible?
“Alex can have down time because he isn’t in charge of actually delivering the product. He makes the deals, I make the product.” He was doing what he could to keep his anger under control.
Roni sighed on the other end of the phone. “Derek, I… I…” Roni started, then stopped, the sounds of the bar the only ones coming through the phone. Letting out another sigh Roni began again. “I know you need to work hard. But you also need to let yourself live a little.”
Falling Into You (Geek to Chic) Page 12