Just Evil (16 page)

“Kit, Kit Griffin.” She inched closer to the elevator. “But
I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to interrupt him.”

After eight years working as Jake’s secretary, Ginger knew
every aspect and detail of the man’s calendar and schedule by heart. It was her
job to know. She was certain this woman wasn’t on his schedule. But Jake rarely
had visitors who were so pretty and so young. For some reason she thought that
he’d be upset if she let this woman leave without letting him know that she’d
been here.

Ginger flashed an easy smile. “I’ll be right back. Would you
like something to drink while you wait?”

“No thanks. I’m fine. Look I don’t want to bother him. If
he’s busy, I’ll just see…I’ll see him some other time…I’ll see him…later.”

Ginger was still smiling at Kit and oozing warmth. “I’ll
just let him know you’re out here. Please sit down. I’ll just be a minute.”

When Ginger reached her desk, she wrote Kit’s name and the
fact that she was in the lobby on a Post-it® note with a purple marker. She
peeled off the yellow paper from the pad’s dispenser and, without knocking,
opened Jake’s office door.

He was listening to a man’s voice over the speakerphone,
showing a mild interest in the conversation, when she waved her finger with the
note to get his attention.

He looked slightly annoyed for about two seconds until he
saw what it said. Without waiting to interrupt the caller, without saying a
word to Ginger, he shot up from his chair and left the person on the other end
of the phone talking to air.

Ginger smiled. Some days it just paid to have a hunch.
Amused, she took a seat in one of the comfortable leather chairs in front of
Jake’s desk with her steno pad. In Jake’s absence, she dutifully scribbled down
whatever the caller rambled on about; all the while she absentmindedly wondered
about the blonde.

Jake was in the lobby in under two minutes flat. And when he
saw Kit, it was as if he hadn’t seen her in days rather than hours. When he’d
dropped her off at her house after they’d dealt with Collin, she’d been wearing
his clothes.

Looking at her long legs in the short slice of denim skirt,
a rush of adrenaline caused his heart to skip a beat. She was holding some file
folders clutched to her chest.

Keeping his voice level, he said, “What a surprise. I’m glad
you stopped by.” Glad didn’t cover the way he felt. He wanted to throw her down
on the lobby sofa and start nibbling down her body inch by inch.

But then he noticed how uncomfortable she acted, how tense
she was. Had something happened?

At the sound of his voice, a funny thing happened. When Kit
turned to face him, the image of the kiss they’d shared that morning popped
into her brain, and she had to remind herself to breathe. The pissed-off
feeling about their differences vanished, and she stood there trying to get her
mouth to work. After several seconds of just staring, her brain finally kicked
into drive and worked in sync with her mouth. She tried to sound casual and
cool when a few words squeaked out. “Just thought I’d see how the CEO lived.”
Mortified, she realized she sounded fourteen again. But he seemed genuinely
pleased to see her. 

 “Come on back to my office. I’ll give you the grand tour
after I get off the phone.”

“But you aren’t on the phone.”

He shot her a wide grin. “Technically, I am. I’ll show you
my office first.”

As he took her hand and led her down a hallway, it occurred
to Kit that if they had sailed to Catalina they might have explored more than a
day at sea: but each other’s bodies as well.

And she would really love to find out what was under his
starched shirts and pressed pants. Just picturing him sans clothes caused a
spike in her lust factor. Maybe it was the hope of kissing him again or the
prospect of something more. Whatever the reason, desire flooded her. The
emotion was so strong she was annoyed with herself, annoyed at how seeing him
sent her into cardiac overdrive.

Back in his office, Jake patted the empty leather chair
beside Ginger and motioned for Kit to sit down. Ginger automatically handed her
notes off to Jake. But before getting up to leave, she flashed Kit another warm
smile. Less self-conscious, more comfortable now, Kit smiled back.

Reading Ginger’s notes, Jake slid back into his chair and
picked up the conversation as if he’d never left the room. After asking a few
relevant questions of the caller about the man’s current billing system, he
then ran through a checklist of the software’s features before ending the call.
And now it was obvious to Kit that Jake had left in the middle of his
conference call to greet her in the lobby.

“Sounds like you wear many hats. You get the usual
commission on that sales call?”

“Only when it closes. I’m glad you came. Did I tell you
that?”

Self-consciously, she put the file folders down on the floor
next to her. “I’m ashamed to say I brought you my father’s social security
number and some files Connor Boyd sent me that I was concerned about. But after
seeing you in action, I don’t expect you to waste your time looking at them
now. In fact, I can’t possibly ask you to make time for my problems.”

“Hey, if Connor Boyd sent you papers, I’d like to take a
look.”

“Okay, if you’re sure. But promise me you won’t spend more
than ten minutes on the stuff.”

This woman had an innate sweetness about her and she didn’t
get it from Alana. Alana could have played the wicked witch of the north every
day of her life in the role of a lifetime. Kit was looking at him intently,
waiting for an answer. Finally, he said, “Sure.”  His mouth curved into a sly
smile. “Would you like the grand tour?”

“I’m not exactly dressed to meet your co-workers. Maybe…”

Before she could put up much more of a protest, he was in
his element, telling her, “What are you talking about? You look great. Come
on.”

The tour took her through accounting, marketing, and
testing, ending up in the engineering department, where Jake left her in the
capable hands of Dylan Burke while he took an important call from Japan.
Despite knowing Jake for as long as she had, she’d never actually met his
friends.

With his dark blonde hair pulled back into a stubby
ponytail, Dylan looked more like a cross between surfer and rock star rather
than a programmer in charge of research and development. His blue eyes were
warm and friendly, and since he was dressed quite a bit less conservatively
than Jake in worn jeans and a golf shirt, he immediately put Kit more at ease.

After Kit showed interest in the surfing pictures hanging on
the walls of his office, Dylan kicked back in his chair, put his feet on the
desk, and Kit listened as he talked about curls and waves and the best spot
he’d ever surfed, which was hands down Angourie Beach on the north coast of New
South Wales.

When he found out she enjoyed surfing, he grinned and said,
“Then I should probably tell you about Jake’s first time up on a board. It
wasn’t pretty. We were twelve. The three of us—Jake, Reese and I—went to spend
a month of summer vacation at his grandmother’s house in Santa Cruz. We were
novices just starting out. Even though the guy could out-lap either of us in a
swimming pool, Jake kept falling off his board; never got the hang of it that
day. So we kept going back every day for a week until he finally stayed up
longer than twenty seconds.”

He laughed at the memory and Kit heard genuine affection in
his voice as he talked about his friends. This was special, she realized, like
what she had with Baylee and Quinn. “How long have you known Jake?”

“Came from the same neighborhood in the Bay, been buddies
ever since grade school, where we were alphabetized, Boston, Brennan, and Burke
in Mrs. Kurth’s first grade class. Mrs. Kurth was really big on organizing and
order. I’m pretty sure trying to handle the three of us in the same class for
nine months probably drove that woman to drink. I can’t much blame her, we were
a handful back then.”

“And you’ve all matured so well now, right?”

They were laughing when Jake came through the door.

On the way back to his office, Jake made a side trip into
one of the empty conference rooms. As soon as he shut and locked the door, Kit
saw the flicker in his eyes and knew why they’d made the stop.

Leaning his body against the door, he positioned her between
his legs, pressing her body to his. He lowered his mouth to hers. A flash fire
ignited. Kit kissed him back with such force, their teeth knocked together. She
felt him harden like stone.

When a knock on the door interrupted them, Jake swore under
his breath, closed his eyes and purposefully hit the back of his head lightly
on the door. Curious, she asked, “Is it always like this?”

Without opening his eyes, he nodded. “Most times it’s
worse.”

“Years ago, that software you created turned out to be a
living, breathing monster, didn’t it? It’s like one of Alana’s horror movies,
the monster just keeps growing, getting bigger and more demanding.”

He laughed and some of the tension drained away. As another
knock sounded from outside the door, Kit pulled the weight of her body off his.
Surveying his condition below the belt, realizing his disadvantage at the
moment, she touched his face with her fingertips, kissed his cheek and offered,
“I’ll answer the door. I don’t think they’re going away anytime soon.”

“I might need a minute.” He moved away from the door while
Kit switched places with him. Taking a deep breath before gradually turning the
lock, she opened the door so that no more than a crack was revealed and saw
Ginger.

“I’m looking for Jake.”

“He went to get me a soda from the break room, said I should
wait for him in here. He’s been gone a few minutes, might have made a pit stop
at the men’s room on his way to get me the drink.”

“When he gets back could you tell him Chuck is on the phone
from New York? There’s a problem with the Eastman contract and it needs to be
taken care of tonight because it has to be in the client’s hands by nine
o’clock in the morning—that’s nine o’clock New York time, but six o’clock here.
Hence, the problem with the contract will need to be resolved tonight.”

“Got it.” Kit closed the door, looked playfully at Jake and
winked. “Looks like you’ll be conducting Crisis Management 101 for the next few
hours now that all hell’s broken loose because some guy named Chuck waited
until the eleventh hour to do what he should have done several days ago. The
contract isn’t ready and now it seems he’s hit the panic button because it’s
due at the client’s in the early morning AM.”

Jake grinned at her assessment of the situation. “You’re
pretty good at this.”

“I’m pretty good at a lot of things.”

“Will I ever get to find out?”

“Maybe.”

 “Do you want to wait here or come back to my office with
me?”

She looked at her watch. “I should get going. Traffic will
be brutal.”

“Stay. I’ll take you to dinner when I’m done with Crisis
Management.” He reached out, took her hand in his, brought it to his lips,
kissed the palm. “Stay.”

She looked into the depths of his blue eyes and realized she
didn’t want to go. What was it about him that she was so attracted to anyway?
Since the first time she’d looked up and found him standing in the doorway of
the file room in Morty’s law firm staring at her so many years ago, she knew
she loved him. She sighed and gathered up whatever strength she could muster
and said softly, “I can’t, Jake. I’ve been gone from the shop most of the day.
I promised Baylee I’d get back in time for her to take Sarah home.”

“What about—later?”

“Sure. Will you be finished up here by say, six-thirty or
seven?”  

“I guarantee it.”

“Then come for dinner.”

A lightheaded feeling hit him at the prospect of spending
another evening with her. “I’ll walk you out.”

She shook off his offer. “Not necessary, and you’ve got a
crisis to manage.”

“But if I walk you out, I get to spend more time with you.”
It sounded like the most juvenile comment he’d made in twenty years.

As she opened the door to the conference room, her lips
curved, “But wouldn’t your time be better spent wrapping up that crisis so
you’ll be on time for…dinner?”

He drew in a deep, shaky breath. He wanted this woman. He’d
known her when she was a kid, knew what she’d looked like at fourteen. Wasn’t
there something wrong about that? But God, she was like fresh air he needed to
breathe. His raging hormones made him feel like a randy fifteen-year-old
struggling with his libido.

When they got to the elevators and the door opened, tired of
waiting, he took Kit by the arm and pulled her into the elevator with him. As
soon as the doors closed, he drew her into his chest and gave her a
mouthwatering kiss every bit as good as the one he’d given her in the privacy
of the conference room.

She was pretty sure the only reason she remained upright was
that he had hold of her. Her bones were like pools of mush that matched her
brain. When the elevator dinged at ground level, he released her, and they both
walked out into the lobby trying to act as if nothing had happened.

Kit put her fingers to her lips, found them swollen from
that kiss—no she corrected, from two of his kisses that had been like
heat-seeking missiles. Kit looked up at him once again, needing some
reassurance they were on an equal playing field. “I do have one question.”

“What’s that?”

“That kiss just now and the one, the other one in the
conference room, and the one on the boat this morning, am I to understand that
maybe now after all this time you no longer think of me like a little sister?”

To keep from touching her again, he shoved his hands in his
pockets and leaned in where only she could hear. “News flash Kit, not now nor
have I ever thought of you as a little sister. If I had, it would have made
things so much easier.”