Page 33 of Work with Me

I stopped breathing. Had Cooper Fallon accused me of sleeping with my client?

Jackson stood, fire in his eyes. “Now just a goddamned minute. I am not sleeping with Alicia. We are coworkers. That’s all. You know I’d never lie to you, Coop.”

The men stared at each other, Jackson’s anger slowly melting Cooper’s ice like a blowtorch. Silent words passed between them, the way Melissa and I used to speak without words, to know what the other was thinking. Though we’d never done it two thousand miles apart over videoconference gear.

I stood, too. “Absolutely not. We don’t even like each other.”

When Jackson looked at me, his eyes had lost their flash.

“I mean, we’re strictly professional. I—I don’t need to like you.” I closed my eyes. Shit, I kept digging myself in deeper. One of them was going to fire me, for sure, and then I wouldn’t be able to pay the life insurance premium that was due by the end of the month.

And the worst thing was that it was a lie. I liked Jackson. Or at least respected him. Although it drove me nuts to code with him, he was brilliant. And funny. He acted like he cared about the team. He’d thought to buy them dinner, even if he’d gotten unlucky with a batch of bad sushi. He’d checked on me the day I’d had to leave early for Noah’s conference.

Did he act like a prima donna? Yes. Did he think he knew more about coding than I did? Absolutely yes, and, as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Did he look down on me because I was a woman? Did he act like I threatened his ego because I had coding skillsandwore skirts? No, and that set him apart from most of the men I’d worked with.

But what the hell had he done in May? That would’ve been right before he’d come out to Austin. It must’ve been pretty terrible to result in exile. I stole a glance at him, but he was staring at Cooper on the screen, the tops of his cheekbones stained red.

I shook my head. Regardless of our opinions about each other, we needed to work together to finish this project.

“Look, Mr. Fallon—”

“Cooper,” they growled at the same time.

“—we’ve had a couple of setbacks. But I know with the talent on the team, we can turn it around and finish on time. Give us two more weeks. I promise, we won’t let you down.”

Cooper’s gaze flicked over to Jackson, who dipped his chin a fraction of an inch.

“Fine. But I want a daily progress report, Alicia. Don’t try to hide anything.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. And I—we won’t let you down.”

He settled a long stare on me, and although my eyes burned, I didn’t blink until he looked back at Jackson. “You stay,” he said. “Alicia, I’ll see you in two weeks.”

On my way to our work area, I stopped at the refrigerator and grabbed as many cans of ginger ale as I could carry. We weren’t stopping for anything until we had something great to show Cooper.

And as for Jackson Jones, there would be no more after-hours texts. I wasn’t about to let even the whiff of fraternization near me. Nothing would prevent Weber Technology Consulting from earning Cooper Fallon’s testimonial.

13

JACKSON

Hoursafter the call with Cooper, I was in the zone, Led Zeppelin blasting in my headphones, when a tap landed on my shoulder.

Lifting off my headphones, I turned to see Tyler, his satchel strapped across his chest. “I’m taking off. Unless you need anything?”

We were the only ones left in the area, and the lights were turned off in the space next to us. “What time is it?”

“Eight-fifteen. Lose track of time?”

“I guess so.” I’d almost finished the module I was supposed to have completed on Friday before the Bad Sushi Incident.

“Anything I can help with?” He tapped his fingers along the side of his jeans.

“No, I’m good.”

“Oh.” Nodding, he shoved his glasses up. “Okay.” He nodded again but didn’t move. “You doing all right?”

“You mean the—” I rubbed my belly. My abs were still sore from all the heaving I’d done over the weekend.

---