Page 46 of The Fix Up

He looked away from Holly’s cleavage. He felt dizzy, but he also felt in control. Confident. In command.

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” he began. “Thanks for joining me here today to learn a little more about what Langley Enterprises can do for you. I’m really excited to share some of the new features of our newly-engineered Brewmaster 5000 deluxe fermentation system and how it can make Kleinberger Brewing even more amazing than it already is.”

“Good,” she said, undoing another button. “Sincere flattery and genuine passion. You’re not justsayingyou’re excited, yousoundexcited.”

“I am,” Ben said, meaning it in more ways than one. He strode across the front of the room and turned to the whiteboard. He picked up the dry erase marker and began to scrawl a few words on the whiteboard. “Is anyone here familiar with the term ‘viscous fingering?’”

“Um—”

He turned from the whiteboard to see her looking flushed and beautiful as she stared at his hands. She uncrossed and re-crossed her legs again, and he wondered what she was thinking. “Viscous fingering is the formation of patterns in a morphologically unstable interface between two fluids in a porous medium, and I’d like to tell you how viscous fingering can help Kleinberger up its game in terms of the brewing process.”

“Is this supposed to be turning me on?”

Ben grinned. “In the rectangular configuration, the system evolves until a single finger forms. In the radial configuration, the pattern forms fingers by successive tip-splitting.”

Holly licked her lips. “I have no idea what you just said, but it sounded really good.”

“Undo another button,” he commanded, feeling bolder as he recapped the dry erase marker.

He watched as a smile played over Holly’s lips, her lavender-gray eyes flashing with interest. She flicked open another button. Ben stared right into her eyes, not letting his gaze dip into the visible valley of cleavage. There’d be plenty of time for that.

“Another thing that sets the Langley Enterprises system apart is stimulated emission.”

“God, yes.”

“This process occurs when a photon interacts with an atom’s electron, causing it to drop to a lower energy level. Now, before I explain how that applies to the brewing process, I’d like you to go ahead and undo another button.”

She grinned. “My pleasure.” She flicked open one button and another, then pulled the shirt open wide, shrugging it off her shoulders. She wore a lacy black bra and a salacious expression that made Ben’s pulse kick up three notches. “I’m throwing in another button for your commanding presence in the boardroom.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said, wishing he had the same amount of control over the hard-on now straining against the front of his pants. Damn flat-front trousers didn’t have a lot of extra room. He saw her gaze drop to his fly and knew she could see how much she was getting to him. How much she turned him on.

“As I was saying,” Ben said, not entirely sure what he’d been talking about. There really wasn’t much blood left in his brain. “If you turn to page six in your handouts, you’ll see a detailed diagram of the new Brewmaster system. You’ll notice from the screw positions that?—”

“Screw positions, yes.”

“—that the Langley engineering team thought of everything, right down to the hardware. Stripping won’t be an issue…” He grinned at Holly. “Panties, please?”

He didn’t expect her to reach up her skirt, and he really didn’t expect her to pull out a lacy black thong. She tossed it at him, making it the first time in his whole life he’d been pelted with underwear for talking about science.

God, it’s good to be a geek.

Ben caught the panties and kept going. “The manufacturing process for this equipment is also quite unique to Langley Enterprises. Using a heated rod, we penetrate the backside of?—”

“God,” Holly said and tugged the fastener out of her hair, letting it fall free from her tightly wound bun. Her hair slid dark and liquid around her bare shoulders, and Ben felt pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to focus much longer.

“You should definitely talk more about penetration and rods,” she said. “Do those use fukalite to make them harder?”

“No. They’re already hard enough.”

“I can see that.” She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “Nice job improving your posture. No more slouching. You’re very erect now.”

“Thanks to you. I appreciate your pointers.” He stared at her nipples, which were jutting sharply through the lace of her bra. Was she as turned on as he was, or just cold?

No way she’s cold. It’s a million fucking degrees in here with the air conditioner blasting.

Ben cleared his throat. “Let’s turn our attention from the equipment for a moment and talk a bit more about Langley Enterprises. As you know, we’re the number one engineering and manufacturing firm in the nation. We have distribution channels in forty-seven countries, and an annual budget of more than a billion dollars. Those are tools we have at our disposal to help clients like Kleinberger.”

“Excellent,” Holly said, nodding as Ben strode from the whiteboard to stand in front of her. “Money. Power. Prestige.”

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