A Reckless Night

by Van,P. G.

  “Yeah, you’ll need to prove to us you are not a…you know,” another intern chimed in.

  “I don’t need to, but I’ll do it for you,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Anything?”

  “Yes, just no partying after work okay?”

  “Okay, we need you to join our team on a game,” the girl said giggling and Varsha knew she was going to take the bait. She didn’t want to be branded as a stuck up or worst, a boring bitch.

  “I am listening,” she said pulling out her towel and clothes and remembered she was at the mercy of the hand soap to wash her hair and body.

  “Oh, and you’re gonna need this.” She was delighted to see a small pouch with the basic bath essentials.

  “You guys knew I was going into the tank? I wasn’t even top ten, how did you guys raise so much money?” She was in disbelief.

  “A trip to the scary cave helped tremendously.” The girls giggled.

  “What scary cave?”

  “Do not tell the other guys we told you this.” The intern hushed.

  “What’s the big secret, gals?” Her hair was weighing her down as it dripped but she couldn’t contain her curiosity.

  “You know Kris?” She nodded.

  “That guy scares the crap out of us with his broody looks, but he was the one that helped us win this challenge,” the intern whispered.

  “What?” She was pissed.

  “He was looking for ways to get off the list because someone made a huge donation for him to go into the tank.” She bit her lip to suppress the smile that surfaced when she remembered the fat check she wrote to get him into the water and realized how it backfired.

  “So he was your anonymous generous donor?”

  “Yes. You know how he is; he barely talks and didn’t really let us speak fully. He asked us to text him the amount that would push you to the number one spot five minutes before the start time, and he dropped off the check.” Varsha realized how different Kris was at work. He stayed so composed that people found him intimidating. Not her, the intimidation fueled her.

  “He is hot but untouchable,” one of the girls pouted.

  “Girls, call me boring, but it’s not a good idea to make a comment about your coworkers’ looks.”

  “Oh…back to your score on the boring scale.” The girls giggled making her roll her eyes at them.

  “What’s that game?”

  “Okay…The game requires you to go to certain geo locations to identify and capture some creatures, and if you catch the top three creatures, we will accept that you are not boring.”

  “Creatures? Live animals?” She was shocked.

  “Varsha, on your phone.” The girls were losing their patience.

  “Fine, what do I need to do?” she asked, excitement brewing about doing something different for a change.

  An hour later, she walked into the conference room where the presentations were scheduled.

  “All right, cute puppies…grab your coffees. I want to walk you through our vendor assessment process,” she declared.

  “Is that the same that Kris gave us?” an intern asked showing her a sheet with well-documented criteria and structured to rate every capability. She stared at the document in disbelief and realized Kris had documented everything she had told him the prior week in their meeting and had published it with her name as the author.

  “Yes, this is a better version of what I have,” she smiled.

  Fifteen minutes later, she loaded up on her ice tea and settled into a spot that was closest to a power outlet for her laptop.

  “Good morning.” She heard a familiar deep male voice that seemed to be addressing her and looked up to meet crystal blue eyes smiling at her.

  “Kevin!!” she said with surprise setting her laptop aside and standing up to put her arms around him. Kevin was her only friend she had stayed in touch with since grad school. They worked for a startup company right out of college, and he had followed her to her current organization but decided to work out of the Sacramento location. He was the same fun guy she met almost nine years ago.

  “I didn’t think I would see you today,” she said laughing and asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be on vacation?”

  “Meh… demos and presentations are so much more fun,” he said settling into the seat next to her.

  Every time she saw Kevin, it reminded her of the team they were part of at the startup company, and the days and nights Varsha, Kevin, and their friends worked together to get their product out. They all tasted the sweet success after a nerve-racking five-year hardship. Her team stayed with the company, but she had to move for reasons she did not fully disclose to her friends. Kevin followed suit and that scattered the rest of the gang across multiple companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.

  It wasn’t until a year ago that she realized Kevin had a major crush on her. When he confessed, she had told him to keep things the way they were and that she couldn’t deal with another relationship. She knew he cancelled his vacation for her, but she didn’t want to probe him more.

  She sat next to Kevin chatting as she typed away on her computer responding to urgent emails.

  “Are you staying tonight?” Kevin asked looking at his computer screen.

  “Dude, you know the answer to that.”

  “When will I get to take you out for dinner?” he said shaking his head.

  “When you come to San Francisco,” she teased elbowing him.

  “Yeah, yeah…”

  She hit send on an email she was typing and realized that her Instant Message window was flashing.

  Intern#1: Varsha…

  Intern#1: Just because we said you were boring, you can’t sulk in that corner.

  One of the girls on the intern team had messaged her.

  Varsha: No, I’m not. I need to charge my laptop.

  A minute into the chat she figured the two girls in the intern program were up to something when one of the girls added the other one to the chat.

  Intern#2: Can we come sit by you?

  Varsha: ??

  Intern#2: Who is the guy siting next to you?

  Intern#1: Does he work for the company?

  Intern#2: Does he work at this location?

  She chuckled looking at her screen when she realized the girls were awe struck by Kevin. She wasn’t surprised because he was drop-dead gorgeous with dark silky hair and crystal blue eyes and had a bunch of girls dreaming about him all night when they worked together at their previous company.

  Varsha: Kevin, yes, and yes

  She looked up from her laptop smiling at the interns drooling over Kevin’s Tom Cruise looks. She scanned the large conference room for the interns and a second into her scan, her eyes locked with angry brown eyes that lashed out at her.

  Kris was sitting almost ten feet away from her, but she felt the burn on her skin from the intensity in his stare. Her body quivered at the realization he was reacting to her interaction with the hunk sitting next to her. She stared back at him enjoying the death stare and refused to look away. She basked in the heat of the moment enjoying the jealousy Kris was feeling and smiled at the thought of him feeling possessive about her.

  His face broke into a smile after a few seconds, but she knew he wasn’t thrilled with the guy sitting next to her. She smiled back but looked away quickly when she saw the interns approach her.

  “Hey, girls!! You want to hang out with me?” she mocked.

  “Yes, Varsha. You are not that boring, you have very interesting friends,” one the girls whispered as she took the chair next to her.

  “Girls, didn’t you attend the ‘Respectful Workplace’ training last week?” she mocked.

  “Yes, we did and that’s why I am not in his lap,” the other girl whispered giggling.

  “I am staying out of this, I have no time for high school drama,” Varsha declared laughing.

  “Just when we thought you weren’t boring,” they teased her.

  “Whatever!!”
she said mimicking their tones and winked at them as the presentations commenced.

  Varsha sat patiently with fifty other folks in a huge conference room as one vendor after another made their presentation as to why their product was superior over the other products in the market.

  Half way through the morning session, one of the girls sitting next to her leaned in and asked, “How well do you know Kris?”

  Varsha was surprised with her question but managed to conceal it and said monotonously, “Not well at all. He joined the company less than a month ago.”

  “Are you guys allowed to date your coworkers?” the intern asked curiously.

  “You guys are behaving like teenagers now,” she said firmly.

  “Well, we were teenagers a few years ago so it’s fine.”

  Varsha had grown fond of the girls over the past few weeks they had worked with her. They reminded her of her college days and felt nostalgic, but she couldn’t mislead the interns.

  “Not discussing anything other than the presentations, girls,” she declared.

  “You are still not off the hook. You are playing the game,” one of the girls winked.

  A few minutes later, Kevin leaned closer to her and asked, “Something going on between you two?”

  “What? Who?”

  “You and the new guy, Kris.” Kevin’s voice was calm.

  “No. What are you talking about?”

  He shrugged and said, “Just asking.”

  “I’ve known you for too long, Kev, why did you ask?”

  “Well, the staring contest,” he chuckled.

  “What? What the fish Kevin?”

  “Will someone ever piss you off enough for you to say actual ‘F’ word?” he teased and she caught her breath remembering the first time the words slipped past her lips the night she spent with Kris.

  “Shut it, Kevin. What staring contest?” she insisted.

  “So, this is how the morning went for the rest of us in the room. The presenter says something, then he says something that is incorrect almost on purpose, and you correct him and you two would look at each other like no one else existed around you.”

  “That’s nonsense,” she denied even though she remembered looking at Kris, his eyes boring into hers, unfaltering, and all she could do was return the stare and refuse to blink or look away.

  “You need to stop calling bullshit on everything and see what’s out there for you,” he said his voice stern.

  “Kevin…please.”

  “If you were staying tonight, I would have told you this at dinner and since you are not, you need to hear it now,” he said not giving up.

  “Thank you!! I will think about it.”

  “Just because you were with an asshole, doesn’t make every guy an asshole.”

  “Yes, I agree.”

  “Now, ask yourself if you find the new dude interesting.”

  “Kevin, stop.”

  “Your eyes wander around and end up in his direction every time you look up. Screw company policy. There’s nothing wrong in dating a coworker as long as you keep it outside work.”

  She shook her head refusing to respond, but she knew he was right. Even if she changed her mind, she knew she had pissed Kris enough for him to not want anything with her.

  Chapter Eight

  Varsha’s alarm went off at five-thirty on Saturday morning. She had driven back from their Sacramento office the previous night and was up to play the game her interns had challenged her to play.

  The game was designed to have every player compete against each other or have teams play against teams. The game randomly generated the creatures based on the location picked up by the phone. She wanted to get the creature hunt done before Myra woke up. She put on her robe, grabbed her phone and the baby monitor, and headed into her small yard.

  She glanced towards Kris’s yard and didn’t see him. She knew he was either asleep or he had decided to stay overnight for the team events that morning. She fired up the game and started moving around her yard for the imaginary creatures.

  Ten minutes into the game, she was kicking ass and was excited she had cleared multiple levels. She finally got to a point where she had a creature that was on Kris’s side of the fence and was almost within reach.

  Refusing to give up, she grabbed a ladder and set it up against her fence and climbed up trying to get closer to the creature. She looked at the door in the fence and debated if she should dare open it and grab the creature. She looked up at the second floor where the master bedroom was and saw the blinds were completely down and the huge glass door on the first floor showed her the entire dining and kitchen area, and no Kris in sight.

  She took a deep breath and opened the door in the fence quietly and walked towards the creature looking at her phone. The game was also built to have the creature move around if someone has been trying to trap it for too long. The creature was moving and was moving up a tree.

  She cursed under her breath and followed the creature to a stop on the tree as she walked towards a huge pile of potting soil. There was enough soil for the pile to give her the few feet boost she needed to catch the creature. She took off her slippers and gingerly walked up the four-foot mound of moist soil.

  She stood on top of the heap trying to stay steady while she stretched her arm out to get closer to the new location of the creature.

  “Seriously?” An overly familiar voice cut through her concentration startling her, and the next thing she knew she lost her balance and started to fall back with her upper body twisted at a weird angle. She took a desperate step along the sinking slope of the mound of soil to regain balance and her other foot crashed flat onto a heavy metal gardening tool.

  She yelped when she felt the sharp object dig into her foot and crashed on her back over the soft soil.

  “Varsha!!” Kris’s voice was strained and cut through the haze. She looked through her eyelashes as he ran to her side and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I am so sorry, sweetheart, are you okay?” he said his voice wavering reviving the memories she had buried a few months ago. Her body reacted to the intensity in his voice, and she flattened her cheek on his chest taking in his masculinity.

  “Varsha, talk to me. Are you okay?” he urged to which she nodded and said, “My foot hurts, Kris.”

  She laid on the soil, her heart throbbing for the man that had a grim expression on his face as he inspected her foot. She groaned as a sharp pang of pain lashed out when he ran his thumb over the arch of her bare foot. If only she had left her slippers on, she could have avoided the damage.

  “Let’s go in.” He gently let go of her foot and scooped her into his arms. She involuntarily wrapped her arm around his neck as he lifted her off the ground.

  “Put me down, I can walk.” He was walking towards the patio door of his house when she said, “Kris, Myra is sleeping.”

  “Are you suggesting we do something before she wakes up?” he chuckled annoying her. He changed directions and headed towards her house.

  “Put me down,” she gritted her teeth.

  “You are a lot lighter since I did this last time,” he observed.

  “Shut up, Kris,” she barked as he stepped into her living area and set her on the large leather sectional.

  “Stay put, will you?” He ran back to his yard. He was back in a minute holding her phone and the baby monitor she thought she had in her pocket.

  He placed her phone and the baby monitor next to her and walked into the kitchen. She watched him as he dampened a kitchen towel in the sink.

  He walked back looking at her without a word and sat next to her. He placed her leg over his thigh and wrapped the wet towel around her foot. The towel was warm and welcoming, and she relaxed closing her eyes as she felt the pain melt away. He wiped her foot clean and rubbed it gently easing the pain with every small stroke of his thumb.

  As he rubbed on her arch and the instep, the pain faded and something else started to brew. She clenched her s
tomach when she started to feel the thrills of pleasure building inside her in reaction to the pressure Kris was applying on her foot. She was disgusted with the reaction her body was having to a simple touch of compassion and chastised herself.

  She moaned inadvertently making her eyes shoot open to look at the surprised expression on Kris’s face. She saw the wicked turn at the corner of his mouth, and she knew she was laying herself on a platter for him to relish.

  He knew instantly when she moaned. He looked at the way her chest heaved, the way her lips parted, and he continued to rub his thumb on the center of her foot increasing the pressure with each rub.

  He watched her reaction as he put his able fingers to work. He leaned forward to take his lips to the big toe and planted a light kiss increasing the pressure with his fingers on her heel and sole.

  Kris waited months to be close to her, to see the passion in her eyes, and to get her to look at him like she did that night. He wanted her, and he had wanted her badly from the time he buried himself inside her for the first time.

  She lay on the couch and felt his lips on her big toe as he compressed every pressure point on her foot sending heat through her veins.

  “Let go,” he crooned.

  “Kris…I…,” her words dove back into her throat when he took her big toe into his warm mouth and started sucking on it.

  “Kris!!!” she cried when the sucking got torturously sweet, blinding her with the intense sensation. She was wet and soaked and her climb was approaching. She let out an inaudible cry when an intense orgasm crashed into her. She panted and gasped for air as he continued to touch and caress her foot and peak after peak hit her until she lost the ability to think coherently.

  “You are full of surprises,” he said bringing his lips to hers with crushing force. She fisted her fingers in his hair welcoming the shock of the situation that was deeply satisfying and knew she couldn’t stop. She opened her mouth and tilted her head giving him better access, a lot more than he demanded, and he took it sliding his tongue past her lips for a cajoling kiss.