Page 76 of Work with Me

One corner of her mouth turned up. “I guess it is. I didn’t really think about how sad it’d be to leave a company after only a couple months. Occupational hazard.”

“You don’t have to leave. You could stay.”

She glanced around at the other programmers, packing up for the day. “The team is breaking up. Amit says he’s going to work in the data modeling group. It wouldn’t be the same.”

“I’m staying. You could work with me.”

“Cooper seems to think you’re going back to San Francisco.” She tucked her phone into her purse.

I kept my voice low. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow. I promise.”

The light came back into her blue eyes like sunshine on Lady Bird Lake. I wanted to see that light every day. I wanted it to be the first thing I saw in the morning and the last thing I saw at night. I wanted it on workdays and weekends.

Fuck. What was this? It wasn’t friendship, not even the kind I had with Cooper. And it wasn’t lust. I’d never wanted to stay and see my partner in the morning, her makeup on the pillowcase and her hair mussed. And I certainly hadn’t wanted them to see me, naked, all pretense of power gone, just Jackson Jones and his fucked-uppery.

Alicia wasn’t like that. She saw past the figurehead position and the cash in the bank. She’d seen me humiliated, and she’d seen me soar. She believed I wasn’t a complete waste of space. That I had value. That I could be more than I was. And maybe I could, with her by my side.

“So…celebration?” Both corners of Alicia’s mouth kicked up. And it hit me. The project was over. Alicia no longer depended on Synergy for a paycheck. We could be together now. As in, be. Together.

“Yeah.” After the team dinner, I’d take her to my place. We could finish what we’d started on my couch after the Halloween party, in the park with the bats. In the Synergy ladies’ room.

Her eyes widened at what must have been a starved-wolf expression on my face. And then her smile broadened. “Walk me out?”

Right then, if she’d asked me to walk her into the depths of hell, I’d have said the same thing. “Yeah.” Then, louder, “Hey, guys, I’m going to walk Alicia to her car. We’ll meet you at the restaurant.”

I grabbed the keys to my truck, my wallet, and Alicia’s laptop. She hefted her purse over her shoulder and checked the desk and drawers one last time. When she was ready, we walked downstairs to the IT cave, where she turned in her equipment and her badge. She had a kind word and a thank-you for everyone we met, from the IT intern to Ivan at the front desk.

I walked her to her Honda, parked a few spots down from my rental. I flipped my key fob around my finger, suddenly reluctant to let her out of my sight. What if she changed her mind and decided to go home to her family? “Want to ride over with me?”

She opened her car door. “No, I’d rather have my car in case the party goes late. But you can ride with me if you’d like.”

I bounded to the passenger door and slid inside. Even in the shadowed garage, her eyes glittered so brightly I almost slipped on my sunglasses.

“You were amazing on the project,” she said.

“We’re a good team. I wish you’d think about—”

She stopped my words with a kiss, devouring them in a blaze of heat. And I was no fool. I went with it, sliding my hand up her shoulder, around the back of her neck, holding her to me so I could delve inside her softness, tasting her passion and sweetness again. I’d stay here, inside her cramped Honda, my knees smashed against the plastic console, the nubby cloth headrest catching on my beard, until my limbs cramped and I couldn’t meet her lips anymore.

The whoop-whoop of a car alarm startled us apart.

“Want to get out of here?” I caressed her hand where it lay on my inner thigh.

She cleared her throat. “I could use a drink.”

“I’ve got beer at my place. Unless you’d rather go out with the team?”Please don’t say you’d rather go out with the team.

“Perfect. I’ll text Tyler and say I’m going home. You’ll text Cooper and tell him you’re not coming?”

I nuzzled behind her ear. “You could tell Tyler we’re both ditching.”

She rolled her shoulder, and I stopped kissing her soft skin. Not looking up from her text, she said, “I still need that testimonial from Cooper. I’d rather he didn’t find out about us until I have that up on my website.”

My not-so-shriveled heart swelled. She’d saidus.Maybe she felt the same strange feeling I did.

While she drove the few blocks to my apartment, I couldn’t keep my hands off her. I rested my hand on her knee, playing with the hem of her skirt and watching her breath quicken the higher I inched it. I caressed the soft skin of her inner thigh the way I’d wanted to do since dinner with her family. Goosebumps rose on her skin, and I smoothed over them. When we stopped at the light right before the turn-in to my complex, she gripped my hand, leaned over, and kissed me fiercely. “Stop that. I want us to get to your apartment safely. Then I’ll let you fulfill that promise you made on Friday.”

“Promise?” I whispered. I remembered it. I’d promised her all night. I wriggled in my seat, my jeans suddenly too tight.

---