Vibrizzio (7 page)

“Now we have to rework every single one of the graphics, rewrite the entire report, and we’re all set,” Hayden said with a sarcastic bite to his tone. “Remember much from your data analyst days?”

Lyssa groaned. It’d been a while since she’d worked with that software, but she was far more familiar with it than Hayden was since he’d never been entry level at Fox & Keaton. She pushed her chair back. “I’ll fire up Jamie’s computer—you get the coffee brewing.”

While she loaded in the numbers, Hayden sat at the cubicle directly across the aisle and went through the old report, marking the text with red ink. As Lyssa finished each graphic, she printed out a draft and handed it to him. After she had finished loading the numbers, the reports came fast. She didn’t bother sitting back down, instead standing to click at her keyboard, cueing the next printout. She’d been back at the office for over four hours now, and fatigue was setting in, so she bent to prop her elbow on the desk and rest her chin on her cupped hand.

Hayden had likewise made himself comfortable across the aisle. His chair was turned sideways and his legs stretched out in front of him with one arm leaning on the desk. His hand threaded through the short waves of his dark hair, supporting the back of his head as his blue eyes flicked over the papers in front of him. His focus was intense, and the two of them worked in silence except when words were absolutely necessary.

Lyssa found a parameter that needed tweaking and slid her eyes sideways for the shift key. In her peripheral, she noticed that Hayden’s eyes were no longer on the papers in front of him—while he lounged against the side of the desk, his gaze had wandered toward Lyssa’s derriere. She hadn’t noticed that when she’d leaned over, this choice component of her physique had extended out directly toward him.

She clicked the key and moved her eyes back to the computer. “I’m having lunch with Sabine on Monday, so you’d better be nice.”

Papers rustled as Hayden apparently recollected himself. “I think I’m being very nice. Besides,
nice
wasn’t part of the deal. All I have to do is not tell anyone what I saw in your overnight bag, and I haven’t.”

“That’s enough to get me to put in a
good
word for you. If you want me to put in a great one, you might want to refrain from pointing out that I have a big butt.” The graph started to print, and she stood straight, turning toward him.

His hand fell to the desk, and he pulled his legs in, sitting erect. “I never said anything like that!”

“Oh, really?” Lyssa walked over to her own desk and came back with her phone. She pulled up his recent text and read aloud: “Ahem: ‘get ur nicely rounded ass back up here’.”

He crinkled his eyes and tilted his head while the elegant lines of his mouth curved into a slight gape. “How is that not nice? I even used a form of the word
nice
.”

She turned the phone around and held the screen out toward him. “Translation: get your ginormous backend up here.”

“Uh uh, no way.” He emphasized his point by standing. “Nicely rounded is a good thing. I thought you knew that. Isn’t that why you always wear pants? Because of the way they curve up from the seam and hug your … ” Apparently thinking better of finishing that statement, he reversed the motion of his hands, which had started to curve in front of him as if cupping the asset to which he referred. “Come on. Don’t tell me your juicy posterior isn’t your boyfriend’s favorite part your body.”

Lyssa lowered the phone. The flattery she was beginning to feel was stung by the mention of her no-longer-existent boyfriend. “Because the rest of me is so horrible, right?”

Hayden groaned. “That’s not what I said. What’s up with you tonight, Bates? You’re twisting everything I say into a put-down when all I’m trying to tell you is that you have a nice ass. But look, I know the ‘nicely rounded’ comment—even though it was a
compliment
—was unprofessional. I’d just gotten off the phone with Carlo and was a little stressed, but that’s no excuse, and I’m sorry.”

Lyssa gave a small nod, taken off guard by his forthright apology. “Okay. Thanks.”

“For the apology or the compliment?” Hayden pulled his lips tight, but his flirtatious smile showed through—by design, Lyssa was sure, so she didn’t answer, instead half turning to look back at the screen. “Fine. Don’t answer, but can we at least agree to my right to silently and respectfully admire it?”

Lyssa bit back a grin. “I suppose I can allow that.” She returned to her work, but, feeling self-conscious, covered her nicely rounded ass by sitting while the remaining drafts printed.

It took a few more hours to finish revisions, double-check them, proof the final report, and then print copies onto hard stock and bind them. Hayden plopped the final copy onto the pile in the center of the long, printing room table and arched his back, stretching and pressing his palms to his eyes while his mouth opened wide in a yawn. His shirt had come untucked a while ago, and now it spread open below the bottom button, exposing a sliver of flat, abdominal muscle and a tiny tuft of black hair as his undershirt lifted with his stretch. Lyssa glanced away, stacking the reports into a small box.

“We’ve got six hours before the meeting,” Hayden said, his voice gravelly. “We better allow half an hour to get there and another forty-five minutes to shower and primp, so that leaves just over four hours to get home and sleep.”

“Do you mind if I head straight to Pineapple’s from my apartment?”

“It’s three in the morning—have you watched the news lately? I’m not letting you walk through Lincoln Park alone.”

“I’ll take a cab.”

“Not alone at this hour, you aren’t.”

“What are you going to do? Chaperone me all the way out there and then head back this way to your place? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, it doesn’t.” He pulled a hand through his hair, and his bleary eyes narrowed in thought. It was strange to see the typically pulled-together Hayden so dangerously close to rumpled. But if anyone could pull off rumpled, it was him. “Do you have makeup in your purse?” Lyssa nodded. “Good. You can stay at my place. We’ll iron your pants and Febreeze your shirt, bada bing bada boom.”

“I … what would I sleep in?”

“I’ve got T-shirts and boxer shorts.”

“You want me to sleep in your underwear?”

He touched his fingertips onto the counter and leaned forward. “Bates, I’m exhausted, and the longer we stand here and debate, the less sleep we’re going to get. You know my plan makes the most sense, so can we go?”

It did make the most sense, and the idea of a quick cab ride to his place in River North was more than appealing. “Okay, but I’ll take the couch. No chivalry,
capisce
?”

He shook his head. “If that gets you to move, then fine.”

Within thirty minutes, she was snuggled under a blanket on Hayden’s couch, wearing his Stone Sour T-shirt, which was long enough that she didn’t also require his underwear. His one bedroom apartment was impressively neat considering he hadn’t expected to have company that night. It was also tastefully furnished with comfortable but stately pieces in a harmonizing blend of neutrals. Grown-up furniture. Unlike her mishmash of hand-me-downs and cheap warehouse finds or Keith and Bill’s Nordic den of blond build-it-yourselves.

Hayden made sure she had everything she needed, and when he stepped into his bedroom, he paused in the doorway. “I’ll shut the door so you and Andre Agassi can have some privacy.”

“What?”

A fresh spark flashed over his weary features. “Double A.” He waggled his thick eyebrows, retreating into his room. The second his door shut, a small pillow that’d been lying on the floor next to Lyssa slammed into it.

* * *

Not enough hours later, Lyssa stepped out of Hayden’s bathroom. She’d taken a quick shower, and after blow-drying her hair and putting on makeup, she’d slipped back into the T-shirt and wrapped the towel around her waist like a skirt in case Hayden was in the main room. He was. He’d set up an ironing board and was pulling the iron back and forth over a pair of dark khaki fabric. Glancing up, he nodded toward the kitchen. “I put out a few choices of coffee pods for you. But sorry, you’ll have to use almond milk instead of cream. Help yourself to fruit and cereal.”

“Thanks.” Her stomach was too unsettled from not enough sleep to eat anything, but she popped a pod into his Keurig and watched him while she waited for her mug to fill. He wore a crisp, pale-blue shirt and navy suit pants. Looking closer at what he was ironing, she asked, “Are those mine?”

“Yep.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I’m already ready, and I don’t mind.” He switched to the other leg and smoothed it out flat, checking that the front crease would be centered.

Lyssa folded one arm over the other and leaned back on the shiny granite counter. “I gotta say, King, this is probably the sexiest thing a guy’s ever done for me.”

He lifted the iron and blasted out a puff of steam. “So this is how you like it, huh? Hot and wet?” Lyssa laughed and poured the milk. “Drink it fast,” Hayden said, giving her pants a few last swipes with the iron and looking at his watch. “There’s no time to get into it now, but on the way over I’ll tell you all about the brilliant idea I had last night.”

She gulped down her first sip. “You were supposed to be sleeping, not thinking.” Snatching her pants from Hayden, she returned to the bathroom to get dressed, then sucked down the rest of her coffee, and they caught a cab. On the way to DH’s Chicago offices, they reviewed the order of their presentation, which ended up taking the entire cab ride to get through. Stepping out, Lyssa asked, “So what’s this brilliant idea?”

“No time now. We’ll talk about it after the meeting.”

From Lyssa’s perspective, the presentation went smoothly. The DH executives nodded often, and their questions and comments indicated that they were satisfied with their choices. Shep had remained relatively quiet but didn’t appear to be displeased. In the end, the DH executives decided to move forward with Ardent Capital Management.

As they shut their freshly prepared reports, Hayden said. “We considered throwing something a little more radical at you, but after what the fund’s been through with Blaze, going conservatively seemed the best route for this placement. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with other portions of the fund.”

Shep twirled a pen and sat back, a smile tugging at his lip. “What do you have in mind?”

“It’s a bit premature for me to say,” Hayden admitted. “I have to work it all out with the asset allocation team, but rather than the typical approach—picking a candidate based on cursory visits and statistics and hoping it’ll work out—what if a small segment of the overall fund was dedicated to a pool of untested but promising up-and-comers? When one breaks away and proves themselves, you can up their allotment. There are a lot of interesting, smaller, cutting-edge managers out there; but by the time they build up a long enough track record to even be considered by a sizeable fund like yours and then pass through all the stages of due diligence, you’ve missed out on a big chunk of their returns. If they were already part of the line-up, then as soon as they proved themselves, the process would be streamlined, and you could move them quickly into a bigger position.”

Shep looked bright-eyed and alert for the first time that morning, tapping the table with his pen while the low rumble of his characteristic chuckle rolled up and out his throat. “You run it past your allocation team, see what they have to say about it, and then we’ll talk. If they give you any trouble, tell ’em Shep is enthusiastic about it.”

Hayden only let his smile spread so far, but Lyssa could tell he was fighting an all-out goofy grin. They shook hands with the executives and said their goodbyes with a promise to meet again in early November—this time in Dallas.

The Fox & Keaton associates left the building and walked a couple of blocks before Hayden turned to Lyssa. “Sorry I brought up the idea for a wildcard manager pool without discussing it with you first. It’s just … Shep actually yawned in the middle of our presentation, and I couldn’t walk out of there letting him think we’re plain vanilla.”

Lyssa nodded. “It’s okay—I mean, don’t do it again, but I get it. Is this something you really want to pursue?”

“Hell yes. Don’t you think it’s appealing?”

Lyssa shrugged and then shook her head to ward off the tiny prickles poking at her temples. “I guess.” The adrenaline from the meeting was draining quickly, and all the sleep she’d missed the night before slammed into her. “When did you … how … ”

She hadn’t realized that her head had been drooping until Hayden caught one side of her face and lifted it. Peering directly into her eyes, he asked, “Are you okay? Did you eat anything this morning?”

She stared back, smiling lightly as she imagined the rich blue of his irises as swirling fairies. Her eyelids fluttered, and the next thing she knew, the side of her face was pressed into Hayden’s chest. One of his hands pressed into the middle of her back, and the other was in her hair. With a sharp inhale, she pulled back and stood straight, leaving both her hands pressed into his chest for support. “I’m so sorry, I … ”

One side of Hayden’s mouth lifted. “You swooned over me. Don’t worry, happens all the time.”

“If I had any strength left, I’d choke that cocky grin off your face.”

“Aha, so hot, wet, and violent—that’s how you like it. I learn something new about you every day, Bates.” He curled his hands around the backs of hers and slid them off him, keeping possession of one. “Come on. I’m going to take my starving partner out for some eggs, and then we’ll get you tucked into your own bed.”

“Alone.”

He squeezed her hand as they moved down the sidewalk. “Of course, alone. Well, except for your buddy, Double A.”

Chapter Seven

At lunch with the girls from work, Lyssa found it easy to put in a good word for Hayden. In fact, she put in several. As the nine F&K females batted a collection of conversations back and forth across the large table, Lyssa gave him a mention whenever it felt natural: “Hayden’s been really great to work with. I’m learning a lot from him” or “Hayden is so fun to tease because he’s got a great sense of humor and can take it.” Soon, she found she was doing it without even trying. “Hayden’s amazing in stressful situations, totally keeps his cool.”