Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) (3 page)

He’d taken everyone except
one
. The
most important one at that.

At least she moved on career-wise. She might
not have been as good, or as experienced, but at least she moved up
to bigger and better things. She at least beat Sean in that.

That was
if
it were a contest. And
being that it was all she had to focus on to ease the pain, it’s
what she went with.

She heard the doors closing and looked up
lazily, ready for all this to be over. That was when the world
flipped upside down.

It was Sean.

He was wearing a suit that was glued to his
perfect body. Those big broad shoulders, that upper body vee going
down into the thin hips. His tight butt atop strong, defined
thighs. She licked those thighs once. She moved against that
washboard stomach. She felt those large hands cup her breasts and
tease her nipples.

The room got dense and her face was burning.
Her breathing sped up, but she couldn’t seem to get enough air.

“
Help
!” she pinged Tory.

Tory glanced at her, saw the crisis, and
smoothly got out of his seat to greet Sean personally. He steered
Sean toward John.

“Water?!” Ben pinged.

“RELAX. BREATHE. BREATHE. BREATHE.” Marcus
typed.

The Circus was looking around in confusion
and anxiety—it didn’t take much to rile them up. At the moment,
they clearly had no idea what was going on, but were ready to bail
anyway. They would be ideal in an emergency, because like rats,
they’d find the quickest way out, women and children be damned.

She followed Marcus’s advice as she nodded to
Ben. She kept herself from bracing her hands on the table as she
filled her lungs with air. She bent over to get a pencil out of her
bag to hide her face until she was sure it wasn’t red anymore, and
then she looked up.

Straight into the fathomless green eyes of
Sean McAdams.

His hair was longer and lighter, and his face
was tanner, but it was the same high cheek bones, the same strong
jaw, and the same sensuous lips she spent hour after glorious hour
kissing. His beauty more than took her breath away. Her memories
didn’t do him justice. All the hours she spent sitting on her surf
board daydreaming couldn’t compare to this one moment. Her memories
were cookie cutter cut outs of the real thing.

She didn’t realize the pain could be this
acute. In two years, it wasn’t just his beauty she’d forgotten. It
was how much their separation still hurt. How much she still loved
him. How that love—still so fresh, still feeling so right—hadn’t
diminished in the slightest.

John started talking about their great new
ideas for the latest product. He talked about their successes, how
they reached their audiences, their goals as a company, and how all
of that would create the perfect arena to house this campaign. It
was a load of crap. All of it.

Krista didn’t care, though. She couldn’t
focus. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from Sean, but then she
didn’t have to. He greeted them as a whole, called out special
greetings for Marcus, for Ben, and for Krista, but he didn’t meet
her eyes again. Then he thanked Tory for taking the time to see
them.

Sean led the show. If Krista’s side had the
Circus, Sean’s was the side show act. Like the first presentation
they did together those many years ago, Sean was the mediator. He
talked to Krista’s team while Larry set up. He then helped Larry
relay his information. He did the same with Phyllis. He teamed up
with John for some other ideas, and talked about how hard they
would work for the account. He didn’t meet Krista’s eyes, not once,
throughout the whole of the presentation.

Inside, she was being torn apart. Her world
was being ripped to shreds, and the memories were bleeding down her
core. She wanted to crawl into a corner and cry herself hoarse.

Outside, she was a cool breeze. A little
ruffled maybe, but not a big deal. She had mastered professionalism
to hide her bitch persona until question time, so she was an old
pro at hiding all her inner feelings from her audience.

When the presentation was done, they opened
it up for questions. Krista’s team, unlike Sean’s, was a well-oiled
machine. The Ivy Leaguers asked their questions, which were
generally easy to answer in Krista’s opinion. The amount of people
that struggled with the answers, though, made their questions
essential. Krista gave them a hard time as a rule, just because
they were ridiculous boys, one and all, but they did do their job
well.

Unlike some companies, Sean seemed ready for,
and expecting, every one.

Marcus asked his questions, which were
preceded by a “ridiculous” ping message. Ben didn’t have any
questions, which was unusual, and probably meant this company’s
ideas weren’t good enough to get his creative juices flowing, and
Krista’s turn was last.

When she had the floor, Sean slowly inched
his eyes up until they met hers. His face was guarded. It was
unreal how bad that hurt. Absolutely indescribable the pain that
surfaced with the ripping and tearing going on in her guts from
seeing that cautious look on his face, after so long, after all
they had. After what they’d been to each other. After what they’d
endured as a team.

Intense hurt turned to anger. Thankfully,
anger turned to cold determination.

Tory was about to step in when Krista said,
“I have a couple questions.”

Sean nodded slowly. Deliberately. But he
didn’t say anything.

John said, “Great! Fire away.” Krista didn’t
miss his nervousness.

“Mr. Smith.” Larry looked at her, sweat
beaded on his forehead. She smiled at him. He smiled back.
Fool
. “I noticed your standard deviation chart was built
using data pulled from a different product. Can you talk about
that, please? I am interested to see how it relates.”

Sean immediately stepped forward to do damage
control. Krista held up a hand. “Sorry, Mr. McAdams. If you don’t
mind, I would like to hear from your Researcher.”

Sean looked at her levelly. Then, slowly, he
smiled.

It was on like Donkey Kong.

Krista wasn’t so naïve anymore. Tory was
right. He could wring the crap out of people, then fill the void
with excellence. She wasn’t nearly done learning, but she had been
an apt pupil so far. She could play the game. Where once she
couldn’t keep up in the ring with Sean McAdams, now she was more
than comfortable going t
ȇ
te-a-t
ȇ
te. What’s more, she
was confident she would come out the winner if a victor needed to
be chosen.

Larry got red in the face and started pawing
through his notes. He sputtered out a load of irrelevant
information until he sort of fizzled out and extinguished. Krista
didn’t know what she’d expected, but she didn’t expect that. She
very nearly laughed. Instead, she hid her mouth behind busy
fingers, pretending to think.

When she was under control again, she said,
“Thank you, Mr. Smith. Okay, Mr. McAdams, you’re up. Same
question.”

Sean smiled again, and answered flawlessly.
It didn’t meet her standards, though.

Which he expected.

They took off. It was a duel between Sean and
Krista, occasionally interrupted by one of the Circus or one of
Sean’s incompetent team members. To every hole she found, Sean was
there with dirt and mortar to plug it up. For every fact that
didn’t check out, Sean had a viable explanation and steered them
away expertly. He was the yin to her yang. He was the swim-up bar
to her pool party. She got hit with pangs of loss each time she
recognized it.

When she had exhausted the great many holes
and problems, there was a collective sigh. Krista’s team were all
sitting back, watching the show, and now they straightened
themselves up again, feeling a little sorry for the presenters. It
had been a long time since she’d dealt with a company so ill
prepared. Sean did exceptionally, considering what he had to work
with. Better than exceptional, actually. He didn’t belong there. He
was too good by half, and it was glaringly obvious.

Tory summed everything up, asked a couple of
questions of his own, and the meeting concluded. Krista desperately
wanted Sean to come by and say something,
anything,
but he
didn’t. He talked and shook hands with all of the decision makers
and followed them out. Krista was left with Marcus and Ben
again.

“Well, you earned your dollars today,” Marcus
reflected.

“And a raise,” Ben said. “You were really
laying into them. They don’t stand a chance of getting our
business.”

“My job isn’t to chase anybody away, it’s to
pop balloons,” she retorted, waiting for the elevator.

“Well, there isn’t a balloon left in San
Francisco, honey,” Marcus said with a chuckle.

“I noticed you were quiet,” Krista said to
Ben. “That’s a rare thing.”

He shrugged. “There was nothing I wanted to
know more about. Nothing that sparked my interest. It was all a
bit…weak.”

Krista figured as much. Ben and Marcus were
treated like celebrities, too. Maybe they weren’t pampered as much,
mostly because they weren’t as scary, and probably because they
were guys and didn’t love presents as much; but accounts tried to
angle their ideas to incite the creative genius that was Marcus and
Ben. Especially Ben.

If Ben picked up an idea, leaned forward on
the desk with clasped hands, and starting imaging ways to work with
it, spin it, use it—well, Tory and his Circus got out their note
pads. An excited Ben always meant great possibilities.

After Ben shaped the idea to how it would
work best, he’d turn to Marcus and say a couple words to ignite
Marcus’s creativity. If Marcus picked up what Ben put down, then
the company made money—if Krista didn’t destroy their numerical
foundation first, of course.

They were a helluva team. And Tory knew it.
He didn’t fully realize what he had in the beginning—what Sean had
found and put together—but as soon as he did figure it out, they
remained a unit; the best unit in the entire, monstrous company.
The three-pack made the company cash, as well as making themselves
big bonuses. Ben might think of Krista as his lucky penny, but it
was them as a unit that made the magic.

Just think what they could’ve been if Sean
had gone with them.

“Where is dinner tonight?” Ben asked, cutting
through Krista’s mental landmine.

“I want to see Kate and Jasmine. So, if you
all want to head my way?” Krista said.

“We have dinner with John and friends.”
Marcus turned to Krista as they rode the elevator down. “Your
biggest fan, Monica, planned it.”

Krista rolled her eyes at Marcus’s sarcasm.
If anyone hated Krista more than Monica, the girl that thought she
beat Krista out to get in Sean’s pants, she didn’t know them.
Thinking on the dinner, Krista’s stomach erupted in nervous waves
again. Would Sean bring a date? If so, who?

They filed out of the elevator and Krista
smelled that familiar smell—the sun heating up your skin as the
ocean breeze rolled over you.
Sean.

He didn’t spare her a glance as she walked
by, Marcus laying a hand on his shoulder as a means of saying
goodbye; but the dang Circus were all talking baseball or something
stupid with him, so that was the end of that.

It was not so much interesting as horrifying
how much her splintered heart hurt.

“Krista,” Tory said as she got into the car.
He got in behind her.

“Hey Tory.”

“So, as you are probably aware, it is
unlikely we will be working with them.”

“I figured.”

“I am impressed with how you handled
yourself. I feel slightly sorry for their presenters.”

“Just doing my job.”

“Doing it well, yes. You still work well with
Mr. McAdams, even if in opposition.”

“I give you leave to call him Sean,” Krista
said with a laugh as she looked out the window. “Yes, I do, don’t
I?”

“Yes. What are you planning to wear
tonight?”

Krista was glad he changed the subject. “I
have to buy something. I have a desire to look fabulous.”

“Yes, of course. I wondered if you wanted to
call Emily? She longs for any excuse to shop.”

Krista laughed again and agreed. Emily,
Tory’s wife, was always a good time.

Chapter Three

That night at dinner, Krista showed up with
Marcus and Ben. Both were looking snazzy and conservative, as
usual. Going out to top rate dinners was standard on these trips.
In contrast, Krista was wearing a sleek, sexy number that was
not
standard for these trips. Curves and bust were on
display in a fabulous deep red dress. Ben and Marcus both commented
that she looked beautiful, but other than that, not a word was said
about it. They weren’t dummies—they knew why she wanted to look
good.

The three made their way to the bar, like
they had a million other times. These trips were starting to all
blend into one similar memory. Except this time, Marcus knew nearly
everyone there. At first he introduced everyone, but then he just
started leaving Ben and Krista for longer periods as he caught up
with old friends. That guy was nothing if not social.

Krista stood at the bar waiting for her drink
when she realized Ben was slowly melting away down the bar.

“Krista.”

Her stomach dropped out. She half turned to
face Sean.

“Hi Sean.” A million emotions were going
through her, but she kept her face clear and her demeanor calm.

“It’s been a long time.”

“Yes.” She looked into his eyes. How could
she forget that brilliant green? Those bottomless depths? How could
the years have detracted from the memories of this handsome man?
But here he was, looking dashing and in charge, more handsome than
she could’ve ever remembered. Nothing else existed but him.