The Temp (7 page)

13

“Sir?”

“I told you to call me by my first name.”

“Roman?” her heart fluttered like a hummingbird. Her eyes travelled along the glass. At the touch of a button, they’d tinted to black, completely opaque. She’d been here two weeks and she had never known they could do that. Suddenly this glass box was no longer see-through, their privacy guaranteed.

Privacy,
a blacked out glass box confined with a demi-god.

The static electricity charged to full throttle, fully enclosed, unyielding throttle.

“Oh god,” Eve stumbled forward and gripped the edge of the desk. Her face scrunched as she tried to breathe,
in and out.
In and out, like she was supposed to.
In and out. In and out. In and out.
There was no escape. Eve opened her eyes, Roman stood before her. She gasped, her chest hurt.

Was she hyperventilating?

“You don’t do well in confined spaces,” it wasn’t a question, merely a statement.

Her chest heaved. “It takes me a minute to calm down.” She was caught for the moment in her own turmoil and then he was looking at her.

That look, those hooded dark pools of light and dark.

“You’re ok now?” there was a hint of fear lining his voice.

“I’ll un-tint them”-

“No, I can handle this.” She needed to better herself, her fears. For so long she’d been afraid. She finally nodded, her fingers bracing white over the edge of his desk.

Roman sat down at the desk and folded one leg over the other and clasped his hands together. Then he surveyed her in that naked way. Naked. There was an intense quiet in the room.

“Eve,” his head tilted to the side. “Eve.”
Oh,
when he said her name like that, it sent shivers down her spine and back up her neck. Her knees slackened, she fought the urge to sink into the chair.

Two could play at this game. 

“Roman,” she stepped around the desk. “Rome.”

“Nobody’s called me that in a long time,” his voice was low.

“Nobody but me?” Eve smiled. “Can I keep it?”

“Keep what?”

“Your name, can I call you Rome?” her face lit up with the thought of possessing a name no one called him but her, only her.

“You didn’t want to work for me another week.” It wasn’t a question, it was purely statement. His head tilted to the side again surveying her in that way. “Why?”

She was utterly naked under his gaze, those hooded dark pupils of his, that mouth quirking up at the sides, all sphinx and coy and impenetrable. There were so many things she wanted to do. She wanted badly to grab him right there and thrust him upon her,
thrust
, who said thrust these days? This wasn’t a lovelorn romance novel. She wanted to feel his body, his lips and it wasn’t at all like her. She wanted this, him and the ridiculous romance novel.

…Then again.

She wasn’t the kind to take such a bold step. She couldn’t.

Eve stepped back closer to the door. “If that’s all, I’ll be heading back to my desk,” her fingers pressed on the handle. “Rome,” she smiled lilting to the name, the sound vibrating on her tongue. Her grin twinkled back at him and she was out the door.

She could do this…one more week of his body, his eyes, his stare. Seven days of his heavenly scent, his warmth in her presence, his electricity. Her nerves twitched.

Oh god,
she couldn’t wait that long.

*

“How have things been going?” Trigger said. He leaned against the wall in the alley, his grey suit darker in the shadows.

Eve jumped as usual. She hadn’t expected him to be there.

The alley had become their usual spot to rendezvous.

“Why do you ask me these mundane questions?” she panted getting over his impeding icy presence.  “Why do we even meet up? If they need me they’ll call on me won’t they? Why bother with all these check-ups?”

Trigger’s brow rose. “That’s not necessarily how it works. They take an interest in everything, every angle. I’ve been asked to monitor your relationship with Roman.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” he narrowed on her. What did they know? They couldn’t possible have any idea could they? Trigger shouldn’t know, couldn’t. Her feelings-

“He gave me one more week,” Eve said. She hated this, herself and even Trigger Raines to a degree since he was here with her forcing her to give information to blackmailers.

“One more week,” he said. “We need more time.”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” her fingers fiddled with the handle of her bag.

“You don’t have a choice, like I said; this is the mess you’re in.”

“Trigger?” Eve stammered. Something in his voice was stranger, guarded impatient almost. “You mean the mess we’re in.”

“Exactly, I’m the pawn and you’re the rook.” It didn’t feel that way. Eve was the pawn and she was totally in play. “We need to find a way to make you permanent.”

Her eyes widened. How had they known? That had been her idea, only days before. “I thought I’d be
your
temp when his one comes back.”

“They like this arrangement better. Think of yourself as a sleeper agent who gets activated when you’re needed and they want you in the best possible position when they need you.”

“A sleeper agent, like the KGB?”

“Exactly.”

“It’s that who we’re working for?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Eve,” Trigger laughed and rubbed his jaw. “We’d be deemed terrorists if that were the case.”

“I’m not a terrorist and I’m not a spy.”

“Relax, I don’t even know who we’re working for, I know it’s not them.”

“How do you not know who you’re working for?”

“Eve.”

“How?”

“I know enough to know they’re another competitor in the market.” She narrowed on him; it was the most she’d ever heard of her blackmailers ever and absolutely nothing to go on. Trigger moved off the wall and stepped towards her. It had been an eternity since she’d last seen him. He was dressed in a light grey suit and black leather shoes. His blonde hair appeared dirty in the shadows. “His secretary is coming back in a week. That’s all I could get, one more week.”
That’s all he could get?

“Roman said Melinda was sick,” a hand flew to her mouth. “What did you do to her? Is she going to be alright?” fear pulsated deep in her core, this was beyond manipulation. This was another level entirely.

“It wasn’t my idea. They assured me she’d be fine. I don’t like it either.” His words never hit her, Eve was numb all over. Was this what they were truly capable of? Hurting innocent people? “It’s nothing serious. I had no part in it I swear. Eve, you have to believe me,” his hands were raised in surrender.

“I have to go,” her voice was hoarse. She had to get out of here. She couldn’t look at Trigger, see
them
pulling the strings,
his
strings. Eve moved out of the alleyway and out of his reach.

She shuffled into the throng of people heading god knows where. Her heart pounded all the while. She bit her lip until she tasted blood.
Seven more days.

It wasn’t freedom, it would never be.

14

“Did you need help packing?”

“Sure, can you wrap up some of these dishes?” Trisha brought down some dishes from the cupboard. Eve sat in Trisha’s apartment at one of her kitchen stools wrapping dishes in newspaper. Trisha was moving in a month, it wasn’t enough time. Eve fiddled with the newspaper. “I only need a few dishes for me and Jack; the rest can be packed away.”

“You’re sure getting a head start on things.”

“You know how it is with the shifts I get,” Trisha sighed. “Who knows when I’ll get a chance to do it?”

“How’s Jack?”

“He’s crying a lot more recently, I think he knows we’re leaving soon.” Trisha and Eve had lived in the same building for the last six months. They’d both moved in the same week and had gotten acquainted from the start. Now Trisha was moving to a bigger place in Jersey for her and Jack. She was a single mother and new to New York. Her sister’s husband owned a restaurant in the business district so she could waitress there when she wasn’t working day shifts at the coffee house.

“How’s the packing coming along?” Eve said. Much to her dismay her only friend in New York, the only person she felt she could fully trust was moving out.

“Alright, can you take Jack while I finish up here?”

“Sure thing,” Eve took him upstairs to her apartment. She’d been meaning to follow up on what Trigger had said about the blackmailers.
They
were the competition to Roman Industries Ltd. It wasn’t much to go on, though it gave her an idea as to what to look into. She balanced Jack on her knee as she opened her laptop. Her first goal had been to share her secret with Trisha, seeing her with Jack days before; it was too selfish to pull them into her problems. No. Maybe one day when this was all over there’d be a guy far away from this dog-eat-dog world and a life far from complicated. Someone like Roman Pierce, like, as if there was a comparison.

She typed the keywords into the search engine.

Roman Industries Ltd. Major competitors.

She needed to find out who exactly was blackmailing her. The search engine came back with over 10,000 sites. Eve sighed and began scrolling. This wasn’t going to be easy. She’d have to know the history of the company and all its major competitors if she was to have a chance at finding her way out. 

A half hour later Jack crawled underneath the desk and pulled on her stocking. “I don’t know what to do Jack,” Eve picked him up and cradled him on the desk. She didn’t have an answer, not even close. Roman Industries Ltd had at least five major competitors and several minor companies in the running. There weren’t any more clues to narrow down her search. She was sincerely out of her depth.

Eve gazed at the boy in her arms, his innocence shot straight to her. There was a permanence about him that could never be undone. Trisha might have had a life before Jack, an utterly different life. She’d heard a few snippets of her previous world. Jack was a permanent change and for the better, Trisha a single mother with a thousand and one things against her and nonetheless she didn’t regret the day Jack was born.

Permanence.

Like Trigger said.

And then it hit Eve what she would do.

She needed to be permanent at work, not only a temp. Roman wouldn’t be able to hit on her to her dismay but weighing him up against the blackmail, blackmail was far worse. She needed to do her job so she could get in and get out as quickly as possible. Regardless of what Trigger made her do she could divide her personal life from her work life. That was the key to this, permanence and division. Eve folded down the laptop, burying her head in Jack’s chest. She’d never been a permanent before and there was no way Roman would make her permanent. No way. And what of Trigger?

Maybe. In the meantime, all she could do was fantasize of the man in the glass box and the day she could finally be with him, even if her instincts told her not to, even if every fibre in her body was against it.

15

Day 1-Monday-The Office

“Sir, you wanted to see me?” Eve said, fingering the papers in her hands. Roman’s brow raised in warning. Eve cleared her throat. “I mean, Rome.”

His eyes turned a smoky topaz in the light, flecks of yellow brimming to the surface, the sunlight sparking shades she’d never noticed before. Roman was classic male beauty in all his powers and forms, set against the Empire State building, his shirt unbuttoned at the top, his sleeves rolled up. A Greek statue of triumph, only those had a tendency to have small…Eve hissed out a breath. She shouldn’t be thinking about his…member.              

“You should write your notes up on a computer.”

“What?”

“Your notes.” Eve tiptoed in and placed the papers on his desk, as if he didn’t already know she was standing there. She went back to the glass door.  “You should type up your notebook,” Roman sat back in his chair.

“I”-Eve didn’t know what to say.

It was exactly one week until she could venture out into Roman Pierce shark infested waters and feel like she could swim. If she could swim. Her patience was wearing thin. The idea of permanence hung heavy on her shoulders. One second she wanted it, the next she’d look at Roman and want to throw herself at him, blackmailers be damned. Right now, it was a tug of war and Roman and the countdown were winning.

Five days, not including the weekend. And if his feelings weren’t mutual? She didn’t know where she stood or even what she wanted out of him. If she could make her mind up-

“I don’t have time,” Eve stumbled over her words, her cheeks flaming before comprehension weighed in. Her notebook. When had he seen it?
Oh, right.

The awkward scene in the coffee house, with her notebook and a kiss, the kiss, those lips, those tingles-Would he remember it like she did?

“Where do you keep your notebook?”

“In my desk drawer.”

“Have you written anything new?”

“A little, it only works when I go to the coffee shop.”

“You mean the same one we were in.”
The very same.
Eve nodded, the flaming of her cheeks deepening from ear to ear. 

For a few heartbeats their eyes held and silence presumed over them. Eve opened her mouth. It was the kiss, the kiss lingering on her tongue, the blood filling her lips.

“Yes?” his lips quirked up in a smile. Her mouth sealed shut. She couldn’t mention the kiss, she couldn’t bring it up first. “Has it always been only the coffee house you write in?” his pupils held a wicked gleam to them.

“Only as of late,” Eve could’ve kicked herself for saying it. She’d given away too much, too soon.
As of late? Why don’t you say it, you coward?

“Interesting,” there was a glimmer in his stare, his hands clasping together and his mouth grazing over his fingers, brushing against them, his lips parting.

Her breathing hitched under his scrutiny.
Keep it together. Keep it together.
Eve swallowed down her question.

“You’re ten o’clock is here, shall I show him in?” she said forcing a poker face to the surface. It took everything not to melt before him.

His brow knit together in a so satisfying way. Roman Pierce, the look of frustration. “Yes, show him in.”

*

The phone rang at 2 am on Tuesday morning. 

Eve answered, “Rome?” her lips quirked up without realising it. No matter what, she couldn’t turn back from his name, even if it sounded unprofessional, even if he’d woken her in the middle of the night.

His breathing came hard over the phone. “Say it again.”

“Rome.” Her heart convulsed. She let out a steady breath.

“You’re driving me crazy,” his voice was hoarse. “Did I wake you?” It sounded so much like a promise of so much more to come. Roman Pierce was calling her in the dead of night, regardless of the time, he was calling her! She had to be dreaming. Eve didn’t answer as she melted deeper under the sheets. “Eve, I can’t wait.” his voice caressed her nerves.

“Can’t wait for what?” it was his turn to let out a steely breath. “Was there anything else?” her voice fluttered with authority, Eve in work mode before six am. Powerful, collected, maybe even a little sexy.
Oh
the way he tickled her senses, the way she was always so innocent in his presence. Her blood sang. 

“Anything you want,” he breathed.

She couldn’t help her mouth drop.
Anything?
“Alright, unless you have a work related matter I suggest you get some sleep,” her voice was part work part playful she hoped. 

The phone was silent for a moment.

Her hands shook over the receiver. Her fingers flexed, she’d overstepped for sure.

“I won’t be sleeping anytime soon,” he said.

It sent electricity sparking down her body.

“I suggest you cut back on the caffeine and late night calls.”

“Don’t you mean early morning?” he laughed. Roman Pierce laughed! Sweet and melodious. Eve glanced at the bedside clock. 2 am.

“What are you wearing?” this caught her off guard. What was she wearing? She sputtered, mouth gaping.

“That is the most cliché thing I have ever heard you say?” Eve choked out, her heart racing a mile a minute. What was she wearing? Despite the cliché, she gawked down as if to check she was wearing what she had originally put on, pink pyjamas and bed socks. Somehow committing to the truth didn’t entice her. 

He laughed out loud. “I like cliché. What are you wearing?”

“None of your business,” she shuffled under the covers. Her eyes skimmed round as if he were indeed watching her.

“You can tell me if you’re not wearing anything.” Her mouth opened, the words wouldn’t come. Her nerves were alive in every fibre of her. Her body was hot against the sheets, sweat forming. She let out a shaky breath. She could feel him smiling on the other end.

“I’ll see you in a few hours, Rome.”

“Be aware you’ll have to wear clothes to work.”

That left her breathless as the line went dead.