Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(83)

“I can talk about this?” Marcus asked with one foot theoretically out of the office, ready to sprint down the hall and find the first ear he could.

“Go crazy. This though…” Sean held up a finger. “Not anything else.”

Marcus’s face lit up. “This is so much better than anything else!”

And he was gone.

“You didn’t need to do that, Sean,” Krista said uncomfortably.

“That wasn’t really about you, Krista,” Sean replied sincerely, trying to catch her eye again. Embarrassment was covering her like a blanket.

“Him and I—you were just the catalyst. I’ve wanted to get him fired for years. Now I get the green light to try. You, unfortunately, were just the modem.”

“Okay,” Krista deflated. “I need to get to work.”

“You won’t get written up, Krista. None of his grudge matches ever do.” Sean reached to put his hand on her arm, but resisted at the last second, landing limp at his side. He worried she’d flinch again, or worse, that tears would spring up.

“I need to get to work,” Krista said again, still avoiding his eyes.

Sean sincerely hoped it was the thing with Jacob that caused her face to point at the floor, otherwise he didn’t get it. The woman licked him, for God sakes. How could she go back to acting like she didn’t want him?

Although, maybe she’d thought he rejected her. He had gone still. Not even a playful remark. Certainly no encouragement. Maybe she felt she’d stepped over the line and no one was there to catch her. Or play with her.

Sean closed his eyes, ignoring those who said hi to him. Oh holy God, he would love to play with her. With his tongue. Until she was writhing, tangled in his sheets, begging to come.

He slipped into the bathroom to hide his hard-on. He had on boxers and slacks. Not a winning combo in this situation. He needed to start wearing boxer-briefs when she was around.

When he finally got back to his desk, something occurred to him. Two seconds after the bite, after she’d softly moaned and stroked his chest while breathing on the wet skin from her lick, she’d jerked and swore. Like she hadn’t meant to do it, but did it anyway. Like she’d lost control there for a minute.

Which meant…she liked him. She liked him, but didn’t want him. She felt it, but didn’t want to give in to it because of his reputation. A reputation she was convinced he deserved.

How do you compete against your other, more experienced half and win?

With a girl like her, friendship was the pits. It was like being in a race car and slowing down for a yellow light. It wasn’t his style.

Game on.

An hour and a half later, Sean saw a pair of troubled blue-gray eyes looking at him from over a packet of paper.

“Done already?” Sean asked, surprised.

Krista stayed in the doorway. She still looked extremely embarrassed. He tried to keep the smile from his face. “Passable, right?”

“Right. Come in.”

She hesitated.

“Are you expecting me to go to you?” Sean laughed, trying to get Krista comfortable again. It was a little disconcerting how seriously she was taking that physical slip-up. It didn’t bode well for Sean’s chances in getting her to go out with him.

“No, of course not.” Krista gingerly entered the office.

“I don’t bite,” he said without thinking.

Her face flushed a furious shade of red. Sean immediately reached for the paperwork to try and hide the moment. He couldn’t stand up too far, though—not without a barrel to hide his once again raging hard-on.

Krista nearly threw the packet at him and backed up toward the door. “I put it together the best I could,” she said quickly. “But Ben will probably change it.”

Sean looked through her materials. It was nearly ready to go as it was. “Did you put in different images?”

Krista nodded, looking out at the hall. “Now that I have access to the art database I can look for images that go better. Art and Research need to communicate more often or all the presentations will continue to be disjointed.”

“Fat chance.”

Krista shrugged.

“Okay, let’s get going. Do we need to call Ben before we leave?”

“You want me to go?” Krista’s face drained of color again. She didn’t want to be alone in close proximity with him. She probably felt she owed him an explanation. She wasn’t aware that he didn’t need it.

“I think that would be best, don’t you?” Sean asked casually, leaning back and putting the packet on his desk. “I don’t know where you live and I’ve never met your roommate.”

Krista sighed. “I guess. When?”

“Now-ish?”

“Okay.”

Sean moved from around his desk, closed and locked his office door, and then he was ready to go. They took the elevator down to the basement level parking garage.

“You pay for parking?” Krista asked, surveying all the fancy cars.

“No. Perks of making the company money.”

Sean led her around a candy-apple red Corvette to his BMW.

“Who does the Corvette belong to?” Krista asked as she eyed the shiny sports car.

“One guess.”

“John.”