Miranda glanced up. “Hi, Dulcie. They’re from Australia and an outstanding fruit. Our app wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t include conkerberries.”
“And that’s why we pay her the big bucks.” Rylan stroked his beard and winked at Dulcie. “Conkerberries. Who knew?”
“Not me, that’s for sure.” She braced her hip against the edge of the desk. “I came in to rave about the app. I love it.”
“Yeah?” Rylan grinned like a little kid as he leaned back in his desk chair. “It worked okay?”
“Oh, my God, so cool. Even in dim light. Whatever you did to make that possible was genius. Frazer has a few notes for you, but nothing major.”
“So where is the big guy?”
Whoops. “He’s . . . um . . . he’s in Tony’s office.”
Rylan sighed. “That sounds ominous. Please don’t tell me you two had issues. Frazer’s a great guy, but he tends to be –”
“We didn’t have issues.”
“Well, good. The way you hesitated when I asked about him I thought something might be wrong.”
Miranda watched the interchange with a little smile. “I don’t think anything’s wrong. I think something might be right, though.”
When Dulcie felt her cheeks grow warm, she figured there was no point in being coy. “Very right.”
Miranda whooped and leaped up to give her a hug. “I had a feeling about you two! Awesome!”
“You and my big brother?” Rylan stared at her in confusion. “But you’re so . . . and he’s so . . .”
Miranda laughed. “Gotta love engineers. So verbal.”
“I get what you’re saying, Rylan,” Dulcie said. “You’re right, but like the Universe, people are always in motion.”
He blinked. “That’s brilliant.”
“I didn’t make it up. I read it somewhere. For all I know it’s a Gene Roddenberry quote.”
“I keep forgetting you’re a Trekkie.” He gazed at her. “You have all the makings of a geek, Dulcie. How come you didn’t study computer science?”
“I love geeky stuff but I’d rather work with people than technology. Wrangling you guys is my idea of a perfect job.”
“Which makes us damned lucky to have you.”
“I’d agree with that,” said a male voice.
She turned as Garrett came into the office. With his broad shoulders, neatly trimmed beard and a white dress shirt open at the collar, he sure didn’t resemble the skinny, clueless kid Frazer had described. Even his glasses looked trendy. “Hey, Garrett! Is it true that you know Klingon?”
He smiled. “Somebody’s been revealing my secrets.”
“It was Frazer.” She returned his smile. “I’m a Trekkie from way back. I’d love to hear you say something.”
“Me, too, dude.” Frazer walked through the door and gave her a warm glance before turning to Garrett. “It’s been a while since you’ve shown off your Klingon chops. But before you launch into it, I wanted to ask Dulcie where the phone is. I meant to snag it earlier and forgot.”
She knew why, too. Kissing had been going on and after that he’d been focused on the upcoming discussion with Tony. “It’s still in my purse. I’ll get it. And FYI, Miranda and Rylan know the situation but Garrett doesn’t.”
Frazer grinned. “Then I’ll be happy to fill him in.”
“Be right back. Then I want to hear some Klingon.” She squeezed Frazer’s arm on the way out, but she was glad to leave him alone with his friends for a few moments. They all had a history she didn’t share and they might appreciate being able to comment on this new development without her in the room.
Walking back to her desk, she reached in the pocket of her purse for the app phone. It wasn’t there so she searched the other pockets. She hadn’t used the app since leaving the Italian restaurant Saturday night. It had to be in there somewhere.
But after she’d emptied the contents onto her desk without finding the phone, she faced the fact that it wasn’t in her purse. It wasn’t on the floor around her desk or lying somewhere between the elevator and her desk. Could it have fallen out during the elevator ride while she was kissing Frazer? She walked to the elevator and pushed the button. The door opened and she scanned the floor. Nothing.
By now she’d been gone long enough that Frazer had to be wondering what had happened to her. She had no choice but to go back to Rylan’s office and tell them she’d lost the phone. How totally embarrassing, but at least it had happened at the end of the testing period instead of in the beginning.
As she walked down the hall, she could hear them all laughing about something. Damn, she wished she hadn’t lost the phone.
Frazer obviously noticed when she walked in empty-handed. Frowning, he rose to his feet. “Couldn’t find it?”
“Nope. It’s not in my purse.”
“Did you check the area around your desk?”
She sighed. “Yes. I even checked the inside of the elevator in case it had dropped out there.”
An emotion that could be guilt flickered in his eyes as if he might be thinking of that kiss in the elevator. “Okay, let’s retrace your steps. Are you sure you put it in your purse at the restaurant?”
“Yes. But we should call there.”
“And the golf course.”
She nodded. The first time they’d played she’d had him lock her purse and the phone in the trunk of his car, but on Saturday night they’d walked there so she’d had to carry her purse over her shoulder. They’d traded off holding it during the game. She would have heard the phone fall, wouldn’t she?
“Don’t sweat it,” Garrett said. “We’ll load the app on another phone. If someone finds it they won’t be able to get into it, anyway.”
Frazer’s jaw was tight. “Even so, I’d like to find it.” He glanced at Dulcie. “I’ll call the restaurant while you call the golf course.”
“Okay.” She hurriedly left the room and went back to retrieve her regular phone where the golf course number was stored. Nobody had turned in a phone but they promised to let her know if anyone did.
When she went back to Rylan’s office, Frazer was pacing in front of the desk and not responding to his friends’ assurances that the phone didn’t matter. Obviously it hadn’t been turned in at the restaurant, either. Worst of all, Frazer wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“It wasn’t at the golf course,” she said.
Garrett shrugged. “Then let’s forget about it.”
“We may have to.” Frazer blew out a breath. “But before we give up, Dulcie and I can go down and check the floor of her car and the area near there.”
“Hey, guys!” Blake Pearson appeared in the doorway and held up a phone. “I found this on the floor of the elevator. Lucky I did, huh? Wouldn’t want it falling into the wrong hands.”
“Sure wouldn’t.” Frazer’s face showed no emotion as he walked over and took the phone. “Thanks, Pearson.”
“No problem. Well, I’ve got stuff to do. See ya.” He turned and left.
Dulcie’s stomach churned as Frazer laid the phone on Rylan’s desk. He obviously thought it had fallen out because he’d kissed her and he was furious with himself for causing the turmoil.
His clipped voice underscored that. “I’ll give you my notes later, Ry. I have some things to do, too.” Without looking at Dulcie, he started out of the office.
“Wait!” She ran after him. “He couldn’t have found it on the floor of the elevator. I looked there.”
He turned toward her. “You were distracted. You probably missed it.”
“I did not miss it.” She stood her ground. “There’s something very fishy about this.”
“I agree.” Miranda left her chair and walked over to Dulcie. “It’s not like you to be careless. Could Blake have taken it out of your purse?”
“Yes. I left my purse sitting on top of my desk when I came down to talk to you guys. Blake passed me going the other way. Frazer, you were in Tony’s office. Blake had time to swipe the phone.�
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“Nice try.” Frazer crossed his arms. “But why would he do that?”
“To try and steal the app,” Miranda said. “I caught him coming out of Rylan’s office a couple of weeks ago when he had no reason to be in there. I don’t trust him.”
Rylan scratched his beard. “I don’t, either, but if he thought he could somehow get the app off that phone he’s dumber than I imagined.”
“He has an elevated opinion of his tech abilities,” Garrett said. “He might have convinced himself he has the skills to transfer that app to another device. Then when he couldn’t, he decided to cause some trouble by making us think someone dropped it.”
Frazer cleared his throat. “This is all embarrassingly simple to explain and much as I’d like to blame Pearson, I can’t.” He glanced at Dulcie. “The phone fell out of your purse when I was kissing you in the elevator. End of story.”
“Were you upright at the time?” Rylan regarded him with a deadpan expression.
“Of course! It’s not like we were –”
“Then no way, big brother. Maybe if you were doing the wild thing I’d buy that theory, but a vertical kiss that makes a phone leap out of a purse defies the laws of physics.”
“Not if the strap slipped! You all want to make Pearson the villain because you don’t want it to be my carelessness at fault. But it was. I might think I can loosen up, but see what happens when I try? It was fun while it lasted, but it’s over. A leopard can’t change his spots.” And he left the office.
Dulcie clenched her fists and watched him go. “That phone did not fall out of my purse.”
“We all agree with you,” Garrett said. “Pearson’s up to something and this proves it to me. Trouble is, we don’t have any hard evidence against him. I’ll install additional security measures. We’re gonna nail this bastard.”
Rylan’s smile was tight. “Damn straight we are.”
“In the meantime, girlfriend,” Miranda said as she put her arm around Dulcie’s shoulders. “Do not let Frazer get away with that crap. Go after him. Yell at him. I never did, but that’s what he needs.”
“Judging from the way he shut down, he won’t listen to me.”
“He will listen if he knows what’s good for him. You might be his last chance.” Miranda gave her a squeeze. “What have you got to lose?”
“Damn it, you’re right.” Talking a deep breath, she marched out of Rylan’s office and straight into Frazer’s, where he sat at his desk with his head in his hands. “Frazer Krause, look at me!”
When he lifted his head, his blue eyes were bleak with despair. “Dulcie, it’s no use. You and I both know what happened.”
“No we don’t. There’s no way in hell Blake found that phone in the elevator. I looked.”
“You just missed it.”
“No, I did not! I have very good eyes and I wouldn’t have missed it. I don’t know what Blake is up to, but something. Maybe he’s trying to steal the app or maybe he was messing with us because he gets a sick thrill out of seeing us freak out. But I know in my gut that he took the phone from my purse. I didn’t drop it when you kissed me. I would have heard it fall.”
“Are you sure? Because when I kiss you, the blood pounds in my ears and I can’t hear very well.”
“Is that right?” She advanced toward his desk. “I didn’t know I had that effect on your hearing.”
“That doesn’t happen to you?”
She braced both hands on his uncluttered desk. “No, I can hear great when you kiss me.” She leaned toward him. “You make a low moan deep in your throat that gets me so hot I can’t stand it.”
Slowly the despair in his eyes gave way to the glitter of passion. “I wasn’t aware of doing that.”
“Well, you do, and it’s sexy. You also have an extremely talented tongue. I’m crazy about the way you use it when you kiss me on the mouth and also when you –”
“What are you trying to do?” He shifted in his chair, a sure sign that his pants no longer fit comfortably.
“To quote my hero Yoda, there is no try. I’m by damn going to convince you not to let Blake’s shenanigans torpedo what we’ve found. You’d be making the biggest mistake of your life and I won’t let you.”
“I see.” Pushing away from the desk, he stood and headed for the door.
She spun around. “So help me, if you walk out of here I’ll chase you down! I’ll tackle you in the hallway and kiss you in front of everybody!”
“Can’t have that.” He closed the door and twisted the lock before walking back toward her.
Her heart thudded wildly. “I want you, Fraze, so you might as well surrender now and save us both some time.”
“So this is all about efficiency?” He tossed his glasses on the desk and pulled her into his arms. “And here I thought it might be about something else.”
She drew in a shaky breath. “Like what?”
“Like love.”
She nearly swooned. “Oh, Fraze.”
“Too soon?”
“Not a moment too soon and almost too late.” She cupped his face and gazed into his beautiful eyes. “If you’re such a genius, logically you have to know I’m madly in love with you.”
“And if you’re such a pro at Gopher Hole Golf, intuitively you have to know I’m totally in love with you.”
“I thought so, but then you walked out of Rylan’s office like you were giving up.”
He reacted as if she’d slapped him. Then his eyes shimmered with a depth of emotion he’d never shown before. “And I hurt you.” His voice was hoarse with regret. “God, I’m sorry!”
“I know.” She smoothed the crease between his brows. “It’s okay, now.”
“No thanks to me. I like to think I would have come to my senses and begged you to forgive me, but who knows? You didn’t wait around to see if I would, though. You called me on it, which is . . . “ He paused and cleared his throat. “It’s incredible. You’re incredible.”
“Miranda told me to.”
“Good for her.” His eyes glowed with tenderness. “But you didn’t have to take her advice.”
“Yes, I did. You might have been ready to give up but I wasn’t.”
“Ah, Dulcie.” He sighed and pulled her closer. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
“I do.”
He leaned down until his lips almost touched hers. “What?”
“You agreed to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”
His soft chuckle tickled her mouth. “Then it just became my favorite game in the world.”
She hoped so, because judging from the enthusiastic kiss they were sharing, he’d end up playing that game for years to come.
* * *
Garrett Upton’s inner nerd faces a cross-examination by lawyer Jocelyn Salisbury in
A NERD TO REMEMBER
Don’t miss the next installment of the Nerds and Geeks series coming in May 2016!
Also by Vicki Lewis Thompson
* * *
Nerds & Geeks
Tender is the Nerd
The Geek Tycoon
Nerdy Novels
Nerds Are From Mars
My Nerdy Valentine
Nerds Like It Hot
Talk Nerdy to Me
Gone with the Nerd
Nerd Gone Wild
The Nerd Who Loved Me
Nerd in Shining Armor
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author Vicki Lewis Thompson has such a great time writing romance novels that she’s published more than a hundred of them and has no intention of throwing in the towel. That’s despite being awarded a Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award by Romance Writers of America. If that was a signal to quit, she’s not paying attention. For more information about this prolific author, visit her website and sign up for her monthly newsletter. She loves connecting with readers.
@VickiLThompson
vickilewisthompson
www.vickilewisthompson.com
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