Falling Into You (Geek to Chic) (11 page)

Alex:
 
You know what I meant.
 
This is
the worst time for you.
 
The final push
means no time for extracurricular activities.
 

Derek:
 
You seem to make time.

Alex:
 
Of course I do. I’m not a monk. Plus, I don’t date I’m only interested
in a few hours of fun.
 

Derek:
 
Whatever I know what I am doing.
 
She will work here for a few weeks, I will get to spend time with her
everything will work out.
 

Alex:
 
I still think you’re the dumbest asshole alive for trying to pull this
off but more power to you.
 
Now if
you
will excuse me, some of us have work to
do.
 

The annoying
voice in the back of Derek’s mind told him Alex was right.
 
Derek didn’t have time for a real
relationship at this point in time.
 
If
he was being honest, he didn’t have time for a relationship period.
 
He was married to his company.
 
Derek was drawn to Roni though, in a way that
he couldn’t even begin to explain. Nor had he ever felt this pull with any
other woman before her.
 

As he sat
there debating what his next move should be with Roni, in walked the subject of
his great internal debate.
 
“Its 1:30 and
you haven’t eaten.
 
I took the liberty of
running out to the deli down the street and getting you a meatball sandwich. I
also grabbed you a couple more Dr. Peppers.
 
I saw a whole bunch in your trash can. I figured you had an addiction
going for the pop.
 
And what kind of
assistant would I be without enabling your addiction.”
 
She closed the door behind her this time he
noted.
 

“Crap I didn’t
even realize it was that late. Thank you for thinking of me and my addiction. Are
you going to eat with me?” He knew he should be working, but he could spare 15
minutes to be in her presence even if all they did was eat.
 

“I did.”
 
She held up a second bag as proof. She sat
down in one of the guest chairs in his office.
 
As they both set their lunch on the desk, she looked at him and looked
away quickly.
 
“Can we not be a boss /
employee during lunch?” She seemed nervous as she asked the question.
 

Derek
nodded.
 
“I would like that. I am not a
very sociable person when I’m in CEO mode.
 
Even regular every day Derek isn’t a social butterfly.” He went for
self-deprecation, but was sure it came across slightly pathetic.
 

“I know CEO
Derek does not like people at all.
 
However, regular every day Derek seems to do just fine in the world.
 
Look at this past week.
 
You were met with a multitude of social
events; meeting new friends, after I knocked you into their table, going out
with a girl whose clumsiness seems out to get you and her friend who is out to
kill your friend.
 
And let’s not forget
the whole walking in on the COD marathon.”
 
She had ticked each example off on her fingers. “All events that someone
with no social skills would have been overwhelmed by, you on the other hand
seemed to enjoy every minute.
 
Well,
maybe not the parts where your life was in mortal jeopardy due to my
clumsiness.”
 
Roni ended with an
optimistic smile.
 

Derek sat
quiet for a moment, trying to process her reasoning.
 
He decided the only response he had was a
shrug.
 
He took a large bite of his
sandwich so that she would not think it was odd he was not responding with
words.
 

“You don’t see
yourself that way do you?”
 
She said with
her head tilted to the side in confusion.
 
“Is that why you work so much?
 
Because you don’t want to be around people?”

Derek really
didn’t want to have this conversation right now.
 
No one knew about his social anxiety not even
Alex.
 
No one had ever figured out how
uncomfortable he was in social situations, until Roni that was.
 
And she had figured it out in a matter of
days.
 
“I like being around people I
know.
 
The social obligations of being
the CEO, cocktail parties and charity events, mostly, take a great deal of
energy for me though. So when it comes to my personal life I keep my
socializing to a select few who I am comfortable with.”
 
Derek stared at his desk the entire time he
spoke, not wanting to see the look of pity on her face at his admission.
 

After a period
of silence, Derek’s curiosity got the best of him.
 
He looked up to see Roni had the biggest
smile on her face.
 
One of almost pure
excitement.
 
She turned shy in reaction
to the confusion displayed on his face, tucking a piece of stray hair behind
her ear.
 
“I like that I’m becoming one
of those selected few.”
 
Then she looked
horrified, almost like she didn’t mean to say that out loud.
 
“I mean I
hope
I’m becoming one of those select few.”
 
Now it was her turn to look down at the desk.
 

“You most
definitely become part of that selected group.”
 
He replied softly.
 
They both ate
in silence after that.
 

Looking at her
watch she hopped up, packing her trash away.
 
He sat there in complete stillness, wondering why she suddenly was on
the move.
 
As though she had read his
mind.
 
“You have a meeting with Jim and
Craig shortly.
 
Time to put that CEO face
back on. But before you do I have a very important question for you.”
 
The large smile on her face ruined the
serious tone she was going for.
 

Derek licked
his lips and smiled back.
 
“What would
that be?”
 
He leaned back in his chair,
locking his hands behind his head.
 

“Would you
like to go out tonight?”
 
Her smile never
wavered as she asked her question.

“Ms. Atlas are
you coming on to your boss?”
 
He teased.

“Nope.
Remember, we are not boss / employee right now.”
 
She explained.

“Oh right, well
in that case, yes, I would love to go out with you tonight.
 
Why don’t you let me take you to dinner to
save you from cooking?
 
Which would most
certainly end in a kitchen accident.”
 
He
loved teasing her.
 

She
laughed.
 
“That would probably be best if
you want to keep your temporary assistant around.”
 
She walked around his desk. Placing a chaste
kiss on his lips.
  
“Ok, now we can go
back to being the Mr. Callaway powerful CEOO and Ms. Atlas incredibly beautiful
and talented assistant.”
 
She winked at
him before turning to exit his office.
 

The rest of
the day flew by for Roni.
 
She scheduled
the meetings Derek needed for the week and began working on the costing and
estimates for Alex.
 
She was so engrossed
in her work she did not hear him walk out of his office.
 
A hand settled on her shoulder, causing her
to jump.
 
She spun around to see an
amused Derek is standing behind her.
 
She
placed her hands over her chest.
 
“You
think it’s funny to sneak up on people boss man?”
 
She asked with a fictitious scowl.
 

He tapped his
watch. “You see it is 6:30, so I am no longer ‘boss man.’” He held out his hand
to help her rise from her chair. Giving a quick glance around the outer office
to see if anyone was left, he leaned in to whisper in her ear.
 
“Now that we are back to being Derek and
Roni, I can think of several things we can do together that are far better than
working.”

Roni felt the
heat of his words all the way to her toes.
 
She had several ideas herself.
 
“Well then let’s get out of here.
 
How about we start with dinner, I’m starving.” She grabbed her purse and
shut off her computer.
 

Derek pulled
out his iPhone.
 
“Perfect I will make us
reservations at Capital Grille.”

Roni snatched
the phone away from him.
 
“Derek, I have
been in heels all day, what I want is to go somewhere casual that isn’t going
to have a fit when I slip my shoes off under the table.
 
How about we grab pizza at Pasquini’s?” She
pleaded.
 

“Are you ever
going to let me take you out for a nice dinner?”
 
He asked through his smile.
 

She put her
finger to her chin, as if she was in deep thought.
 
“Nope.
 
Not that kind of girl.
 
I like
comfort over style.
 
Now come on, let’s
go before my stomach embarrasses me by growling.”
 

He laughed and
took her hand, leading her to the bank of elevators.
 
“I am sure there is some rule in the dating
handbook that says I am required to take you to a nice candle lit dinner within
the first month of dating.”
 

She shook her
head. “You must not be reading the updated version of the dating rule
book.
 
The last version I read said the
girl, me in this case, gets to choose where to eat.
 
And tonight I choose pizza.” They stepped
into the elevator as she finished her sentence.
 

The second the
doors closed, he had her pinned to the wall. Kissing her fiercely. Her purse
fell to the floor as she wrapped her hands around his neck drawing him
closer.
 
His hands were running wildly
over her body.
 
The hard proof of his
arousal pushing into her thigh.
 
She
leaned her head back to catch her breath.
 
Moaning when he began kissing her neck.
 
“If you get to choose dinner, then it is only fair I get to choose a
dessert.”
 
Derek declared.

“We can just
skip dinner and go right for dessert.” Her brain cells were short circuiting in
response to the sudden onslaught of hormones rushing through her system.
 

He rocked his
hips into her, the friction not nearly enough.
 
Just as his hands freed her shirt from being tucked into her pants, the
elevator dinged indicating they had arrived at the parking level.
 
He leaned his forehead against hers, as they
both caught their breaths.
 
“Too bad the
elevator ride wasn’t longer.”
 
He kissed
her one more time quickly and pulled her from the elevator.
 
He beeped his locked in his car, walking them
around to the passenger side.
 
“I say we
go to dinner before getting back to dessert.
 
You’re going to need the meal for stamina.”
 
He kissed her deeply before placing her in
the car.
 

“What about my
car?”
 
She asked suddenly coming out of
her hormone induced stupor.
 

“We’ll come
back and get it later.”
 
His hand was on
her rubbing small circles on her thigh. She really wanted to demand that they
skip dinner, but her mouth was not capable of forming the words.
 

They made it
to the restaurant quickly since it was only a few blocks away.
 
They sat in the back at a small, eclectic
table.
 
The restaurant was lit dimply,
decorated as though you had taken a single piece of furniture for all the
surrounding houses.
 
It was her favorite
pizza place in town.
 
They ordered a
veggie pizza and a couple beers.
 

“So tell me
more about your family.
 
I know all about
Caroline and Netty what about your parents?”
 
She asked as they waited for their pizza to arrive.
 

He took a long
pull of his beer.
 
“They live in Miami
now.
 
They moved there right after
Caroline graduated from college.
 
Both of
my parents were engineers at Lockheed Martin.
 
They worked a lot when C and I were little so we had a slew of Nannies
until we got old enough to look after ourselves.
 
They visit once a year, and call.
 
That is enough for both C and I, they can be
a lot to handle.
 
Alex’s family became
our adoptive family.
 
Caroline and I both
spend the holidays at the Porter’s home. His parents are amazingly kind. And by
how they act you would never guess they had been married for almost forty
years.” The irritation he had when he spoke of his own parents shifted to joy
and love when he spoke of the Porters.
 

“I am sorry to
hear that you are not close to your parents, but glad to see you are close to
Alex’s folks.
 
I take it Alex is close to
his parents?” She asked the last bit out of curiosity.
 

Derek
laughed.
 
“He is the definition of a
mama’s boy.
 
He loves his parents.
 
Goes over to their house for dinner at least
once a week.”
 

She looked at
him, completely dumbfounded. She waved her hands in front of her face. “Wait,
wait, wait.
 
Alex, aka Super Asshole, the
man who probably doesn’t know the name of the girl he is in bed with right now
is a mama’s boy?” She broke out in laughter at the thought.

“Yep.”
 
He leaned in with a mischievous smile on his
face.
 
“You have to promise not to ever
tell anyone about this next part, and I mean no one. Pinky swear?”
 
He held out his pinky for her.

Roni giggled
some more wrapping her pinky with his and shaking. “Ok, now that I have sworn
to the all mighty pinky, tell me.”

Derek laughed
softly.
 
“He even goes to the spa with
his mom for pedicures from time to time.”
 
They both busted out in uncontained laughter.
 

Their pizza
arrived just as they were starting to gain some control.
 
“So what about your family?
 
You hardly spoke about them when we went to
lunch.”

Roni
smiled.
 
“My parents still live here.
They are enjoying their retirement by traveling.
 
They call all the time to check in.
 
My sister finds it annoying, I kind of like
hearing about their adventures.”
 
She
took a bite of the pizza before she continued.
 
“My sister, Bree, is a year younger than me.
 
She lives in Breckenridge.
 
She owns a small gallery up there.
 
After college, she had all these offers from
large companies, but she just isn’t built for the 9-5 world. Actually, she
would have done well at your company.
 
She is like you, a computer genius.”
 

Derek gave her
a bewildered look. “So why the gallery and not some big software company.” He
asked before shoving an entire slice of pizza into his mouth.

“Boredom.
 
Computers are easy for her.
 
And she says it’s isolating.
 
She likes to be around people, hence the
gallery.”
 
She shrugged.
 

“You know I
still don’t know what company you worked at before coming to work for me.”

“You mean what
company I got fired from?” She teased.

“Yes, I guess
that would be the correct way to ask the question.”
 

 
Inhaling deeply she answered.
 
“Conner and Walker Inc., or as I nicknamed it
Douche Bags R Us.” Roni looked up to see Derek scowling at her.
 
Crap, what had she said?

***

Derek finished
his almost full beer in one long swallow upon her answer.
 
Not even tasting the liquid as it went down.
“You worked for Chad and Michael?”
 
The
distaste in his voice was impossible to hide.
 

Roni leaned
forward, her eyes large. “You know those guys?”

“Unfortunately,
Alex and I have known them since high school.
 
Completely spoiled assholes.
 
Their daddies handed over the company to them the day the graduated
college.
 
They never had to work for
anything.”
 
He shook his head.
 
Derek hated those two assholes for all the
crap they pulled on him in high school.
 
“So why did they fire you?
 
Please
tell me that you spilled an entire pot of scalding hot coffee on one of them or
something like that. ”
 

Roni smiled
and shook her head.
 
“Sorry to
disappoint, but my clumsiness is not what got me fired.
 
Since I know there is no love lost between
you and those dip wads I will tell you. Luckily I didn’t work directly for
either of them, but Michael was always in my department.
 
And he always made a point of coming by my
desk.
 
Always making comments that made
me feel sleazy. The day he fired me he came on to me in a very inappropriate
way.
 
I don’t know what came over me that
day.
 
I guess I just had enough.
 
I guess I got a little bit like Izzy.”
 
Derek was confused at her last comment.
 
“I slapped him, hard.
 
So I was fired on the spot.”
 
She shrugged.
 
“But it all worked out.”
 

“Why didn’t
you sue his for sexual harassment or something?
 
Had I known that, I would have beat the crap out of him when I saw him
at the meeting that day.”
 
Derek’s fist
gripped the beer bottle so hard he was surprised it did not break in his
hand.
 

“Michael was
always careful never to let anyone hear him.
 
So it would have been my word against his and I just didn’t feel like
going through that.
 
Wait a minute that
was the meeting you were going to when I knocked you over?”
 
She sounded shocked.

“Yep, we
bought some land from them for the new facility.
 
You will be happy to know Alex fucked them
completely on the price.”
 
He smiled at
her trying to relax his muscles after the revelation that the cock sucker
Michael had been pursuing her.
 

She giggled a
little and reached for his hand. “Well, I will have to take Alex for a pedicure
as a thank you.”
 

Derek laughed
all the tension from before leaving his body.
 
He brought her hand to his mouth and placed a small kiss on her
palm.
 
“I’m sorry you had to go through
that, but at the same time I am glad I was walking into that building at that
moment.
 
It may have been another year
before I finally asked you on a date at the rate I was going.”
 
He kissed her hand again.
 
“Are we ready for dessert?”
 
He asked, looking at her through half lidded
eyes.
 

“Mmmm dessert
sounds great.
 
How fast can we get out of
here?”
 
She wiggled her eyebrows at
him.
 
He moved quickly, throwing bills on
the table to cover the bill.
 

He practically
pulled her out of the restaurant in his rush to get her alone.
 
Derek needed a taste of her before they drove
to his house.
 
He pushed her up against
the side of his car, shoving his hands into her hair, and he kissed her.
 
Her mouth opened on contact giving his tongue
access.
 
Her hands were at his waist,
holding him close to her. He loved the feel of her hands on his body.
 
He wanted more.
 
“Come home with me.”
 
He made it a statement rather than a
question.