Page 49 of Love to Hate You

From somewhere across the room, a ringing starts but I’m having trouble focusing with her hand massaging my hard, aching dick.

“That’s my phone,” she says. “I should grab it.”

“No,” I groan in protest. She’s got me so worked up I can’t see straight.

“Hang tight, baby,” she says with a cocky, little smile and slides off my lap.

“Christ,” I rasp and drop my head back, feeling like I’m going to die. When the haze of desire lightens a bit, I sit up and listen to her end of the conversation. And it doesn’t sound good.

“What?” Charlie asks, clearly sounding distraught. “No. We haven’t had any issues with it.” She makes a few agreeable sounds and apologizes. “I completely understand, but if you could give us a few days-”

She looks over at me and furrows her brow.

“No, I get it.” When she lifts two fingers to massage her temple, I walk over and sit on the couch next to her.

She’s upset and I lay a hand over her knee and squeeze, hoping to reassure her a little. After another minute, she hangs up and drops her face in her hands.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“That was Micah from Silver Network.”

Silver Network is a huge client and they’ve been using TB Tech software for the past five years. “Okay. What’s going on?”

“Ever since they installed the update, the software has been a mess. Full of bugs. He’s threatening to break our contract and find another vendor. If that happens it’ll cost us millions of dollars.” Her voice cracks.

“We won’t let it. We’re gonna fix this, okay?” I grab her chin and tilt it up, forcing her to look at me. “They’re in California, right?”

She nods. “L.A.”

“So, we fly out tomorrow and smooth things over. We’ll zoom with our IT genius and Samuel can get the glitches fixed.” The frantic look in her eyes dissipates and I press a kiss to her lips. “I’ll drive you home so you can pack. Plan to fly out at the crack of dawn, okay?”

“Okay.” Her gaze drops. “I’m sorry tonight was ruined.”

“Nothing was ruined,” I say and take her hands in mine. “I don’t know about you, but I had a great dinner. And dessert,” I add with a mischievous grin.

“Me, too,” she says and squeezes my hands. “To be continued?”

“To be continued.”

The following morning, Charlie and I fly out on a 6:00 a.m. flight from JFK to LAX. Unfortunately, I don’t think either of us got much sleep and I don’t do much more than rest my eyes when I’m flying. Samuel, our tech guru, is going to log in remotely and I hope to God he can fix the kinks. Losing Silver Network isn’t an option and Charlie and I discuss our game plan during the entire plane ride out west.

After landing, we take an Uber to a hotel right outside the airport and I’m about to book two separate rooms when Charlie tells me only one is necessary. My blood instantly heats and heads straight down to my dick. “Are you sure?” I ask.

She nods and my mouth drops open in surprise when she pinches my ass. “Vixen,” I hiss. Even though I’m looking forward to tonight like crazy, I know we have a busy and extremely important day ahead of us.

We pull our small roller suitcases behind us, take the elevator to the fourth floor and take turns quickly freshening up in the bathroom. I keep glancing at the bed and images of Charlie, naked and writhing beneath me, fill my head.

Oh, man, it’s going to be a long, torturous day.

The Silver Network offices are located in Century City and after crawling through L.A. traffic for too long, we arrive at the tall building. I pause as we head up the walkway, nudge Charlie’s arm and point to another building nearby. “Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs,” I say in my best John McClane impression.

Charlie gives me a bewildered smile.

“That’s Nakatomi Plaza.” Nothing but a blank look from her. “Die Hard?”

“Never saw it.”

I grasp my heart like I’ve just been shot in the chest. “You’re kidding me, right?”

---