Working It (15 page)

“Drew?”

He looked up, blinking at the darkness. He only had his desk light on. “Jade?” He immediately felt guilty. “I'm sorry. I didn't know you were still here.”

“I know.” She smiled. She looked tired, too. “I
would've stopped in to see you, but you looked like you were on a roll.”

He nodded. “All the fires are put out. Damn, I'm exhausted.”

“I can tell.” She paused. “Ken just went home. I think it's just us.”

“Just a couple more things and then I guess I can go home, too.” He looked at her. “And you, too, if you want.”

“I was thinking about it.”

She sounded serious—and a little hesitant. “I'd love to have you at my house, Jade.”

“I know,” she said. “But…well, you've got one week until the investor meeting. And it's obvious that you've got a lot going on here.”

He frowned. “Well, yeah.”

“So I thought I'd go home.” She paused. “To my home.”

He felt surprise like a belt. He was used to seeing her. He was used to being around her. Hell, they'd spent almost every waking moment, and lately most sleeping moments, within four feet of each other. “You're going back to L.A.? Tonight?”

“You're going to be here for a few more hours, Drew.” She squared her shoulders. “I am not asking for sympathy here, but you're not going to know I'm alive until you take care of this factory.”

He sighed. “I can't help it, Jade. That's the whole point—that's why I've done all this work. Why
we've
done all of this work.”

“I know,” she said quickly. “But honestly…what do you think you're going to manage with me tonight? You're going to go home, hopefully eat something, and collapse.” She shrugged. “You don't need me there.”

He felt a tugging at his chest. The thing was, he wanted her there. She was comfort, and strength.

He wasn't quite sure how to say that, so he said, “Are you sure you're going to be okay driving? It's two hours. Maybe you could just…”

“It's not that late,” she said, “and you've done most of the driving for three weeks. I guess I ought to try just to make sure I remember how.” She laughed a little. “And don't worry, I'm not abandoning you.”

“I wasn't thinking that,” he countered quickly. Probably a little too quickly.

She shrugged. “I'll be back on Friday. I figure we'll be able to work more on the weekend, when most of your people are gone and you're less distracted.”

He nodded. “Okay,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Well, drive carefully.”

She grinned, and a little gleam lit in her eyes. “I will be. Oh…and, Drew?”

“Mmm?” He was trying to turn back to his paperwork. He had to focus. She was right, he had way too much work…

She was in front of him in a blink. He only had time to look up before she was straddling his lap, kissing him with fervor. He drank her in, getting drunk on the taste of her. One hand moved to her hip, moving her against him, and the other hand threaded through her hair, pulling her to him even as she clung to him of her own will.

After long minutes, she tugged away, both of them breathless. “I wanted to make sure you didn't forget me in four days.”

Four days? He doubted he'd forget her in four lifetimes.

“Just get your stuff taken care of in L.A.,” he
rasped, stroking the denim of her jeans as she pulled away. “And hurry back here.”

She gave him one last lingering kiss, then strode out of the room and into the dimly lit hallway…and, he noticed she never even looked back once.

 

“J
ADE
. It seems like forever.”

Jade glanced up from her desk, her eyes blurry from staring at her computer screen for hours. “Betsy. Hi. I thought you were at meetings all day.”

“Just stopped back to follow up on a few things.”

Jade's gaze fell on the clock she'd received after five years with Michaels & Associates. “Jeez. Is it eight o'clock already?”

“Time flies, huh?” Betsy laughed. “Welcome to the fast track.”

Jade laughed with her, albeit weakly. “Yeah. Well, I finished up that digital organizer stuff you asked for. It's waiting on your desk.”

Betsy's perfectly outlined lips pursed in a moue of disappointment. “I was really hoping you'd be a little more timely with that,” she noted. “I could have used more time to go over the notes.”

Jade bit back a retort. It was on top of her other duties, and she had the Inesco stuff to worry about. Still, she kept silent, simply shrugging. “I'm sorry about that. The Robson account…”

“I will be so glad when you're off that account,” Betsy said with a huff of impatience. “I certainly hope you're bringing this one in. The partners are pretty dubious—especially after this whole road trip business. I mean, what if everybody here decided to work remote?”

Then they'd probably be twice as productive,
Jade
thought rebelliously. But she was tired, and cranky. She'd been in the office for twelve hours. And worst of all, she missed Drew. More than she thought she'd miss anybody. She'd tried burying herself in work to forget about him for a little while, and it wasn't working.

She wondered if anything would.

“Jade?”

She realized that Betsy had continued talking and that Jade had been so deep in her thoughts of Drew, she'd ignored her boss completely. “Sorry. I blinked out there for a moment,” she said, truly apologetic now. “I'm a little worn down.”

“You've got to stay sharp, Jade,” Betsy said. “In this business, there's always somebody younger and hungrier who's bucking for your job. If you don't stay sharp, you get pushed aside. Remember that, Jade.”

Jade nodded. Her parents had proclaimed similar advice from time to time…when they were home. “I'll work on it.”

“Great.” Betsy nodded. “I'll be going home in about half an hour. If I have questions on the organizer stuff, is it all right if I call you?”

“My cell phone will be on,” Jade said automatically.

“Great. It'll either be tonight or tomorrow morning—my meeting's at eight.”

Which meant that any call would be either after nine o'clock or before seven, Jade thought as she watched her boss walk away.

And all this can be mine, someday.

She closed her eyes, rubbing at them with the heels of her palms. She was stressed. She had too much going on. It was funny—when she was with Drew, the
hard work and long hours didn't seem to run her down as much. Maybe that was rose-colored glasses, but when she was able to vent to him, it was like being able to vent to Hailey. He made her feel comforted. He could either make her laugh about it or he'd listen sympathetically.

And, she thought with a grin, he usually had a way of making tension just melt out of her body.

Her body responded with a zing, and she quickly redirected her thoughts. She'd only been away from him for three days. In a way, she was glad…if she was having this much trouble away from him, what would she do when she was on the road for weeks or, worse, months at a time? How would she manage to do her job if all she could think about was Drew and how much she wanted to be with him?

What's worse…did he feel the same way? And when all this was done, what if he decided he didn't want to see her again, ever? What would she do then?

She groaned, leaning her head back and feeling the tension in her shoulder blades like a vise.

She clicked open her e-mail, and smiled to see a note from Hailey.

“Hey, there. Hope things are going well. I'll be down in L.A. in a week or two,” Jade read. “I've still got your key, so keep an eye out for me. I'll be expecting a full report. Hope you're feeling better.”

That was Hailey—always thinking of her. Then she saw another e-mail—from an address she didn't quite recognize. She almost deleted it, until she read the subject. Steel Man Seeks Expert.

She opened it, and laughed, delighted.

“When you read this, I hope you realize that I'm
miserable. I'm neck deep in slides, and without you here, I've discovered they aren't half as fascinating.”

She grinned.

“The hard thing is—I've discovered few things are. Get back here as soon as you can. Drew.”

It wasn't a love sonnet, or anything really romantic, she thought. But her heart still melted and she felt warmth seeping through her. She smiled, a goofy, foolish smile, she felt sure.

He missed her. Suddenly she felt better.

 

D
REW WALKED INTO
his apartment like a zombie. It was finally Friday night, and only seven o'clock. He walked mechanically to the small table by the door, dropping his keys in a bowl of marbles. He couldn't have been more exhausted if he'd been pummeled by a gang of lead-pipe-wielding accountants. Every other night that week, he had been at Robson Steel until eleven o'clock at night. He usually had just enough energy to nuke a microwave dinner before collapsing into bed. Worse, every night he'd dreamed up new nightmares. He gave his investor's presentation in the nude. He faced hordes of angry, unemployed workers as they surrounded his apartment with torches. He'd also had nightmares involving Jade, he remembered. Not that the dreams themselves were nightmares—at least, not at first. Normally the dreams themselves were pure pleasure, seeming as real as if she were there in his apartment. As if she were really in his bed, gasping beneath him as he moved into her. But inevitably, before they got close to climax, she would stand up, gloriously naked, denying him her body to go over presentation slides. He'd wake up, tangled in his sheets, sweating profusely, his body throbbing like a tooth-
ache. He was six feet five inches of sexual frustration, and the added pressure of work only made things worse.

He was dangerously close to going nuts.

He peeled off his jacket, dumping it on the back of his couch. He was hoping he'd see Jade this weekend. Unfortunately he'd only been able to steal enough time from his workday to snatch five-minute conversations with her…and her cell phone had been dead, as usual, for the rest of the week. He was panicked enough about the presentation to want her advice, but he had to admit, the dreams made him want some other kind of help from her, as well.

No wonder she said this was going to be complicated,
he thought with a humorless grin. He wanted to make love with her, but odds were good that if she was there, he'd be thinking of the investor meeting—and when they were prepping for the investor meeting, he'd probably think of getting her naked. He then thought of her naked, her high, full breasts, the smoothness of her stomach, the curves of her long legs.

Well, maybe it wasn't
that
complicated.

There was a knock on his door, and his heart did some quick double-time beats as he crossed his living room to answer it.
Please be Jade. Not Ken, not Mrs. Packard, not anybody from the factory. Please, please be Jade.

He opened the door, and his wishes were answered. She was standing in her customary dress—black jeans, a snug T-shirt, her hair tumbling across her shoulders in coppery waves.

“Good. I was hoping you'd be home this time.” She walked in, a compact rolling suitcase by her side and a sizable brown bag in one hand. He waited until she'd
put the bags aside and until he'd shut and locked the door before walking to her and enveloping her in his arms. He didn't say anything. He just savored the heat coming off of her, the soothing feel of her against his body.

“Hey, you,” she breathed, rubbing his back in soothing circles with her palms. “That bad a week, huh?”

“Worse,” he muttered, nuzzling the top of her head with his chin. Her hair smelled like flowers…roses, he thought. “But I'm feeling better now.”

“That's nice.” She pulled away enough to look in his face. “Anybody ever tell you that you work too hard, Drew Robson?”

“What do you think?” He laughed. “Doesn't anybody ever tell you that?”

“Not lately,” she said, laughing ruefully. “At least, not in my office.”

All at once, he felt a pang. If he didn't nail the investment meeting, Robson went under. If Robson went under, Jade wouldn't get paid. If she didn't get paid, she might be really good at what she did, but maybe she'd lose her job, right? That was a pretty big screw-up.

Damn.
He felt the tension in his muscles kick up a notch. What was a little more pressure on an already loaded situation, right?

She'd been watching his face, stroking his jawline with her fingertips, so she must've seen his expression change. She pulled a step away from him, her expression stern. “Knock it off. Right now.”

“Knock what off?” He heard the surliness in his voice, scowled. “Damn it. I didn't do anything.”

“My work problems are just that, okay? Mine.” She
crossed her arms. “It's sweet that you're concerned, but let me worry about it. You can't solve everybody's problems and you're not responsible for everybody's well-being. You've got enough on your plate.”

He might have been surprised at her perceptiveness before their three week road trip. Now, he just dug in his heels. “What's on my plate directly affects you,” he pointed out.

She looked for a moment as she had when they'd first started out, her mouth drawn in a mutinous line. Then her expression softened and she reached up and kissed him, her lips coaxing away the frown on his face. When her tongue traced his lips, he parted them willingly, groaning as he tasted her. When she pulled away, his heart was trip-hammering in his chest and his body was tense for an entirely different reason.

“Drew, I think you're one of the most caring, amazing men I've ever met,” she said, her eyes shining. “But, sweetie, you have to take care of yourself right now. If you don't, you won't be any good to anybody.”