Page 3 of Work with Me

My sister’s words echoed back to me from years ago.Life is short. Don’t wait for what you want. Ask for it, and then take it.She hadn’t lived long enough to follow her own advice. But I’d taken her words to heart, and I knew what I wanted: more time with this guy’s gentle fingers and bottomless eyes. “Hey, Jay, I’ve got that meeting now, but maybe you’d like to get a coffee sometime?”

He glanced again at the door behind me. “I’m sorry, I…can’t.”

My belly went tight and heavy, and my cheeks heated. “Oh, okay.” Did he have a girlfriend? Was Marlee more than his assistant? Or maybe I was in shock and had hallucinated the signs of his attraction. Served me right for putting myself out there. For following Melissa’s advice.

I needed to get out of there. Regroup and focus on my meeting. I hitched my bag higher on my shoulder. “I have to go. Thank you for your help.”

When I held out the shirt to him, the gray fabric was smeared with blood. Gross. I snatched it back before he could touch it. “I’ll wash this out tonight and bring it back tomorrow. I’ll leave it here in the lobby in the morning?”

“Sure.” He bent again, showing that tantalizing sliver of his back, and picked up a golf ball–sized hailstone. He pulled a sock from his duffel and wrapped it around the hunk of ice before dropping it back into his bag. I had to smile despite my embarrassment. If he was anything like Noah, Jay would stash it in the nearest freezer and pull it out to examine later. Scientific curiosity always melted my nerdy heart.

Though this scientist-slash-first-aider’s heart didn’t feel the same about me. My cheeks blazed again.

He opened the door and held it for me.

I walked through, careful not to brush against him. The heat had spread down my neck to my chest. I spotted a sign for the restrooms to the right and turned toward it without looking at him. “Thanks again.”

“Anytime, Alicia.”

A few minutes later, I clipped a visitor badge to my lapel, mentally donning my armor again.Back on track. Kicking ass. No more distractions, no matter how sexy.

Another tall man strode through the security sensors, extending his hand to me. “You must be Ms. Weber. I’m Cooper Fallon.”

I sucked in a breath. Chiseled jaw, sandy-blond hair, eyes the color of bluebonnets. I’d seen photos of him—the CEO of Synergy Analytics had been on the cover ofForbesat least twice, plus I’d Googled him, of course—but photos hadn’t prepared me for six-feet-something of tanned skin and trim physique accentuated by a crisp blue shirt, tailored slacks, and a creaseless sports coat. I passed my hand over my slim black skirt, wrinkled from the drive over.

Mentally giving myself a shake, I grasped his hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fallon.”

He didn’t ask me to call him Cooper.

“Stairs okay?” he asked. “We’re meeting on the second floor.”

“Sure.” A little cardio might settle out my nerves. Taking a deep breath, I followed him through the security sensors to a wide, open staircase. Climbing, I looked around me. Wide wooden planked floors, exposed ductwork in the ceiling, bright reds, oranges, and blues in colorful splashes on the walls that reminded me of the Hill Country in spring. “How long have you owned the building?”

“Not long. We bought it from a company that decided to move to a remote workforce. We’re living in the space for a while before we decide to make any changes.”

“But Synergy didn’t go remote?” I almost smacked my forehead.Obviously, Alicia. They’re here.

He waited for me at the top of the stairs. “No, we take a collaborative approach to software development. Jamila says that’s what you prefer, too?”

I smiled at the mention of my mentor. I could almost feel her standing next to me, saying,You got this.“Absolutely,” I said. “Teams can get so much more done when they’re located together, when they don’t have to rely on email or even instant messaging for communications.”

“I’m glad you think so. I’m sure you’ll fit right in with the team.”

He pulled open a frosted-glass door to a conference room. Inside, most of the chairs were taken. A quick glance told me the meeting attendees were all men; no surprise there. And at the head of the table—

“Jay?” I lifted a hand to my forehead. Was he one of the developers I’d be working with?

“Alicia!” Jay stood, his smile quickly turning to a frown as he glanced from me to Cooper. “What’s going on, Coop?”

Maybe that hailstone had done more damage than I’d thought. Or maybe I’d been too infatuated by a pair of sharp, dark eyes. But seeing the two men together, the puzzle pieces snapped into place. Cooper Fallon and my-friends-call-me-JayJacksonJones, cofounders of Synergy Analytics. The business brains and the programming muscle that’d started the company in their dorm room at Stanford and had grown it into a Fortune 1000 company in less than a dozen years.

Why the hell did Jackson Jones needmeon a programming project?

Beside me, Fallon straightened. “Ms. Weber is here to help set direction and move the project forward.”

Over the phone, he’d told me I was there to rescue a struggling project. Huh.

Jackson’s stare went flinty. “As the project lead, it’s my role to set direction.”

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