Negotiating Skills (6 page)

Thinking it about it now had Veronica
clenching her right fist tight and signaling the waiter with the
other. The man approached eagerly.

Veronica was about to request another
dink when she felt a warm hand land on her thigh and she stiffened.
Before she could turn and rip Rossi a new orifice, she felt his
warm breath tease her earlobe.

“
Don’t you think you’ve had
enough to drink,” he whispered softly.

Veronica turned to flash him a sugary
sweet smile.

“
No, I haven’t,” she said
calmly, then turned back to the waiter and placed her
order.

“
Barbancourt on the rocks
please, and make it a double,” she said smiling at the waiting
young man.

She felt Rossi’s hand squeeze her
thigh tightly before his hand loosened. She turned back to face him
and leaned in, her eyes glued to his.

“
Remove the hand, slick,”
she whispered to him not bothering to hide her
annoyance.

Instead of removing the offending
hand, he began to move it up and down her thigh in slow sweeping
movements.

“
Hmmm,” he replied back as
he chuckled softly. “I don’t feel like it.”

Veronica was barely able to hold back
an outraged shriek. The man was too arrogant for words. She was
about to reply to his taunting comment, when the waiter returned
with her drink.

To spite Rossi she lifted the drink to
her mouth and finished it in one swallow, her eyes never wavering
from his. She saw his lips tighten into a grim line as the rum
burned a smooth path down her throat to settle with a warm caress
in her stomach.

As the warmth spread through her belly
she finally began to feel the faint fuzzy glow of tipsiness. She
swiveled her head back to the celebratory crowd and smiled warmly
at Adrian.

“
I’m glad you’re happy with
what I’ve done so far,” she said.

Adrian focused back in on Veronica and
gave her a wide charming smile.

“
You have no idea how much
work this application will save us,” he said.

Adrian was the one tolerable spot in
her afternoon. Aside from being friendly and charming, he had
heaped praise upon Veronica and the work she completed on CLEO. It
wasn’t hard for Veronica to muster up a genuine smile and
respond.

“
Just doing my job,” she
replied.

“
Well that’s more than the
last guy did,” he said derisively as he waggled his eyebrows at
her, “I’m pretty sure he just sat around watching
Family Guy
episodes all
day.”

Veronica couldn’t help but laugh at
his insight. She had thought the same thing on more than one
occasion while trying to decipher the thousands of lines of bad
programming code. She felt Rossi shift next to her and turned to
see him frown over at Adrian.

“
Well there’s still a lot of
work to do,” he said sternly.

Adrian’s smile dimmed only
slightly at Rossi’s comment.
What a buzz
kill
, thought Veronica
derisively.

“
Yes, well the work will
definitely be a lot less frustrating now,” said Adrian regaining
his humor. He reached across the table, grabbed Veronica’s hand,
and stared earnestly into her eyes.

“
Marry me, Veronica. I
promise to shower you in nothing but the latest technology and
trips to Silicon Valley at least once a year,” he said
jokingly.

Veronica couldn’t hold back her snort
of laughter.

“
Sorry Casanova, but I don’t
think you can afford the unlimited
Newegg
account I can’t live without,”
she said chuckling and withdrawing her hand from
Adrian’s.

“
Ouch! That hurts,”
exclaimed Adrian placing a hand over his heart, feigning heart
break.

“
Don’t you have a meeting
with the Continental finance group tomorrow,” asked Rossi, in a
flat tone.

Surprised, Veronica turned to look at
him. For a few moments she almost forgot he was there. As if
reading her thoughts, Rossi ran his hand down her thigh and
squeezed her knee hard causing Veronica to stifle a
yelp.

Adrian cleared his throat and Veronica
could tell that he was as surprised by Rossi’s tone as
well.

“
Yes, we’re meeting with
their head of finance and lead accountant in the morning,” said
Adrian.

Veronica barely heard Adrian’s
response. She was too distracted by Rossi’s roaming hand. It moved
from her knee and was slowly making its way up her skirt. She
tightened her crossed legs trying to prevent his
movements.

She couldn’t believe what he was doing
and even worse she couldn’t seem to control her body’s response to
it either. The moment she had felt his hand creeping up her leg her
nipples tightened and she felt desire pool to her
center.

When his hand stopped at the top of
her inner thigh and began to trace small circles on her flesh she
fought hard to hold back a moan. Maybe having that last drink
wasn’t such a good idea, she thought, because as she sat waiting
for his hand to move only a few inches higher, she was finding it
hard to recall all the reasons why she should hate Victor
Rossi.

“
Hmmm,” said Rossi, his eyes
trained on Adrian.

“
Then you should probably
call it an early night. I’ll settle the tab here and wait until our
star programmer here sobers up a bit,” he said smiling slightly to
the group.

Recognizing that they had just been
dismissed, the group made a hasty retreat.

His comment about her needing to sober
up was enough to snap Veronica out of her haze. She took deep
breaths while she waited for the rest of the group to hurry out of
the restaurant.

When they were all gone she counted to
ten, glanced at Rossi’s smirking face, and counted to ten one more
time before dropping her hand to her lap grasping his meandering
hand in a tight grip.

“
I’m not drunk,” she said,
wincing only slightly when she heard the slight slurring of her
words.

Victor raised a dark eyebrow at her
slurred declaration and made no move towards removing his hand from
beneath her skirt.

“
In the past few hours I’ve
seen you put enough liquor away to put any frat boy to shame,” he
said, “Whether you believe it or not, you’re drunk,” he continued
not bothering to hide his smirk.

“
Well if that’s the case,
wouldn’t you consider this taking advantage of me,” she said
glaring at him and then glancing pointedly down at her
lap.

“
Hmm, you have a point
there,” he said. He leaned forward and placed a finger from his
free hand, beneath her chin, drawing her head up to meet his
gaze.

“
I tell you what,” he said.
“I’ll trade you for it.”

“
Trade me? There’s no trade
or negotiation here,” she said glaring at him.

“
Come on Veronica, where’s
the fun in that,” he said chuckling softly.

“
How about a friendly
drinking game at the very least or a game of Truth or Dare instead”
he asked.

“
Are you on drugs,” asked
Veronica scathingly, “What part of your tiny little brain thinks I
want to be here right now?”

“
Okay Truth or Dare it is.
I’ll go first. I choose dare,” he said ignoring Veronica’s cutting
remark.

“
How about you just move
your hand and I decide not rip you a new ass hole,” she
seethed.

“
Okay,” said Ross, smiling
softly at her.

Veronica felt Rossi’s hand flex
underneath her skirt. She released her grip on him to allow his
hand to withdraw.

“
Dare accepted,” he
said.

Veronica saw a gleam brighten his eyes
and before she had a chance to voice a protest, she felt his
unhindered hand plunge forward. His fingertips paused for a moment
to stroke her smooth nether lips and she couldn’t hold back the
aroused whimper that escaped her mouth and she barely held back a
moan when his finger slid into her damp folds and began to slowly
brush her clit with light teasing strokes.

“
What are you doing,” she
managed to ask in a low croaking voice.

“
Just playing the game,” he
said.

His gave flickered across her face and
Veronica felt his hands adjust once more. He replaced his stroking
finger with his thumb and with a slight turn of his wrist his
forefinger slid down her slit to rub just above the rim of her
pussy.

“
You dared me to move my
hand and I did. Now it’s your turn. Truth or dare?” he
asked.

Veronica could barely think past the
heat blazing through her body. She struggled to take smooth deep
breaths, despite her racing pulse.

“
I don’t like games,” she
finally managed to get out in a relatively smooth voice.

She watched as amusement twitched
Rossi’s lips upward and felt his finger slip past her rim and
plunge into her core.

“
Truth it is then,” he said
while his finger plunged slowly in and out of her.

“
Why did you stay last
night,” he asked.

Veronica stared at him with a blank
look of incomprehension. It was so hard to think past the feel of
his fingers on her. She couldn’t keep from clenching around his
finger or her hips from rolling to meet his fingers.

Her core was greedy for more of him.
She couldn’t even muster up her earlier anger. All she could focus
on was the pleasure his fingers were giving her.

“
Why did you stay,” he
repeated stopping the movement of his thumb and fingers.

“
I wanted to leave you the
report,” she said huskily desperate for him to resume his
ministrations.

He began to rub her clitoris again
with his thumb in partial reward to her response. Her breath began
to hitch. She was so close to the edge.

Weeks of sexual frustration had left
her body hyper aware. Heat began to prickle at her neck and sliver
up and down her back. As much as she wanted the release of orgasm
she fought to hold on to some form of control.

“
No that’s why you were
there. Why did you
stay
,” he asked again.

Veronica shook her head at him and
pressed her lips firmly together.

Despite the obvious evidence pooling
between her thighs, she refused to voice her attraction for him.
She didn’t want to admit that the situation wasn’t what kept her
from leaving, it was what made her stay. The opportunity to see him
in such a sexual state had been too tempting to ignore.

She watched Rossi take in the line of
her firmed lips and she let out a moan when he plunged two fingers
deep into her.

“
No truth then,” he said,
stroking deep into her with an increased tempo. He leaned closer
over her. His lips were only a breath away from hers and his eyes
stared deeply into hers. She licked her lips and braced herself for
his reaction to her refusal to respond to his question. She inhaled
his scent, a heady mix of earth and spicy vanilla. It engulfed her
and she didn’t know if she could handle him stopping. Her brain was
just too fuzzy with arousal, too consumed with the need to
come.

“
I guess we’re going to have
to settle on a dare,” he said. He withdrew his fingers from her
core and Veronica let out a small whimper of protest before she
felt his forefinger join his thumb and pinch her
clitoris.

“
Come for me,” he demanded
before his lips covered hers. Veronica fisted her hands on his
chest and moaned into his mouth as she splintered apart in a wave
of pleasure.

VICTOR SAT IN HIS CAR DEBATING how to
best deal with a certain Ms. Veronica James. Several weeks had
passed since their encounter in the restaurant and he was still
struggling to gain some ground with her.

His hands gripped the steering wheel
in frustration as his mind flashed back on that night for what felt
like the millionth time. The taste of her mouth as she came apart
on his fingers had ingrained itself in his memory. Even now just
the thought of it was enough to make his dick twitch in
anticipation. Unfortunately the moment his lips left hers that
night she jumped from her seat and hurried to the rest
room.

After several moments of waiting
Victor realized that she wasn’t going to return to the table.
Cursing under his breath he threw several bills on the table to
cover the tab and rushed from the restaurant.

He ran out just in time to see
Veronica rush around the corner. He hurried behind her but had
enough sense not to approach her. He followed her a few blocks and
watched to make sure that she got home safely. He berated himself
the whole way, not for rushing his seduction but for being dumb
enough to let her leave the table.

Admittedly he originally planned on
taking it slow, teasing her into a confession after a few more
panty-less encounters, but he hadn’t liked the way Garcia flirted
with her. Even though he only knew Veronica a short time he didn’t
like the idea of the notorious womanizer getting his hands on
her.