Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3)(89)

Sean stood up, and beckoned for Janice to go up with him. She tried to refuse, but he was having none of it. The table could hear her telling him that she would stand up there with him, but would absolutely not speak.

Sean took the stage and enthusiastically shook Tory’s hand. Janice did, too. Sean then said into the mic, “Thank you for this. Really, I should thank my team. They did an excellent job and I pushed them pretty hard to do it. Some so much so that they used a rope 100 feet off the ground as a restroom—“

“Only a little!” Krista yelled at him.

Sean laughed. “Anyway, thanks to my team. And a huge thanks to Janice. I didn’t push the administrative people to win—I let them do their own thing. Janice alone saw to it that she and Marcus kept up her high standard of excellence, and because of that, they did outstanding. Marcus knows I can crack a whip, but I doubt he saw it coming in Janice…”

“She’s tougher than you! And more persistent!” Marcus yelled.

“So a special thanks to Janice who runs L.A. support staff with an iron fist! I couldn’t do it without her.”

Everyone stood to applaud Janice and the support people. The smile on Janice’s face was bashful, but also proud. She was finally getting some real recognition.

As Sean and Janice were leaving the stage, Tory got back on the mic. “Okay gang. As dinner is coming out, we put together a little video for you of your achievements over the weekend. The first clip is our favorite of team work. The rest are just exceptional things we managed to pick out along the way. Enjoy!”

When the stage was clear, a 1-2-3 image was displayed, and then it went into the video. It was of the L.A. region’s puzzle on the ropes course where they had to get through the holes. It looked like they did some editing, thank god, because there were a couple instances when Krista wasn’t all that nice to Bob.

Krista was held up by Sean, being thread through the top hole. The rest of her team had a hold on some of her extremity so she didn’t fall. Her body was rigid with strain, perfectly still. She looked like a rock star holding that pose—it looked as hard as it felt.

Sean’s body was rigid, too. His whole body was flexed and bulging, his arm muscles looked like it was sculpted out of marble. His oh-so-broad shoulders bunched, his cut arms glistened as the sun bounced off his sweat, and his butt wouldn’t quit. More than a few young admin were looking back at him with lust. Krista was thinking along the same lines.

Her mind dipped back to that first puzzle when he rubbed her in exactly the right spot. She felt herself getting wet just thinking about it. Even her mouth was salivating as she looked at him on the screen.

She risked a glanced at him in his expensive tux and saw that he was looking back. They caught each other’s eye and held. Sean’s hunger was plain, as was Krista’s. His body was brimming with desire, hers was begging to be taken, making her breath heavy, making her pant; her chest heaving, her br**sts straining against the confines of her dress.

Sean’s eyes slowly lowered to her open mouth. He licked his full, kissable lips. Then his eyes went lower and caught her cle**age bursting out of her dress, the jewels sparkling within their depths. His hands balled and his legs tensed. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. And finally she decided, if she got a chance to have sex with him that night, she was going to take it. She’d deal with the repercussions tomorrow.

The crowd around them laughed, catching their attention. The screen finished showing the VP of Utah dangling from the plank after he fell off. He was the first of a montage of images surrounding the weekend. There was Dean giving Krista instruction on how to get up the big tree. Perry climbing the rope ladder. A guy from Chicago knocking down Ron in the dunk tank. Blake diving off the platform into the air on the zip line. Some were funny, some were inspiring. There was some admin stuff, but mostly it was various managers or VPs.

Krista had no idea there were that many cameras! She’d never noticed them. Not one! But judging by the footage, most of the area was covered. It was a little too Big Brother for her taste!

Besides the lack of privacy, there were two things that caught Krista’s eye. One was when Sean was throwing at the target for the dunk tank. He was looking out to his left at something, got tapped on the shoulder for his turn, turned toward the tank (and the camera), did his heart stopping smile and a wink before casually winding up to throw the ball at the target. He hit it, of course. The way the light hit his face and body, he could have been an A-list Hollywood star. The younger girls were looking his way in longing again.

Before she could look his way in longing, she saw herself on the screen. She was in paintball gear and was running at a good speed while looking to her left. Suddenly, she looked right. Her left hand reached up and grabbed a branch from a nearby tree, swung to the left and dropped in a bush in one move. She was hidden for a second before she popped up and fired three shots. Without pausing to notice her handy-work, she took off running again. She had to admit—she looked pretty awesome. It didn’t feel super cool at the time because she was just reacting, and also tumbling into a bush and some dirt, but she definitely looked like a rock star on the screen.

Krista looked at Sean, who was staring back with an expression she had never seen before. It was incredulous mixed with desire mixed with wonder mixed with determination mixed with something else. Resolve, maybe? Each emotion was flying by as he looked at her intently. His mouth slowly bloomed into a smile before he turned back to the screen. Krista followed suit, just in time to see Janice standing over Marcus with her hands on her h*ps before the video ended. Everyone clapped and the lights came up.