Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2) (50 page)

“But what if I hate the work and leave?”
Tory looked at her askew. “I mean, not saying I will or anything.
It just seems like all your eggs are in one basket,
you
know?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Hopefully we’ll never have to. So. Do we have an agreement?”

“I have to talk it over with someone first.
There are some things I have to tie up. But you can stop
chasing.”

Tory nodded, “Sean will tell you that you
should have upped my offer.”

“I know. He went over how to sell myself and
everything. But, your offer seems fair to me—any more and I’d
suffocate under the pressure. If I agree, then we’ll give it a
year. If it is no longer fair—well, then we’ll dance!” she laughed
as she had a sip of wine.

Tory laughed, too, “He has your best
interests in mind. One might say he is more worried about you than
himself.”

“I don’t know about that, now. He has his
chess board set up. I am an important piece, sure, but I am still
but a piece.”

“Poetic. And I would say you are
the
important piece that the player cannot do without. But sometimes
you have to sacrifice the Queen early with the intention of
reclaiming her later in the game.”

She needed to take up chess. “Okay, let’s
get back to work.”

Tory laughed and they continued the rest of
the dinner in amiable conversation.

When Krista made it to Sean’s house she had
her clothes ready for the next day. She was tired, but more so, she
was anxious. With Tory’s offer on the table, she knew she needed to
tell him sooner rather than later that she would be moving. She
would need a long,
long
cry after this all seeped in, but
she would wait until she was alone for that.

Per his instructions, she let herself in and
made her way up to his bedroom. As she opened the door she was met
with soft music and candlelight. The floor and bed were covered
with red rose petals.

The room was beautiful! Something out of a
fairytale. It made her heart ache.

She walked to the bed and wondered where
Sean was. Obviously he’d planned for her to see this alone.

On the bed was a note and a shallow, long
box. Under that was a larger box. On top of the boxes was an
envelope. The note said, “Open the boxes first.” she complied.

The first was a sapphire pendent surrounded
in diamonds. It was absolutely
beautiful
. She laid it aside
carefully and opened the larger box, and then nearly fainted. It
was a silky
Gucci
dress! Gucci! He was giving her freaking
Gucci!
Her hands were shaking as she opened the envelope.
Inside it said, “You said once that you got Michael Kors because
you couldn’t afford Gucci. Since that day I’ve wanted to buy you a
Gucci dress. Something to remember me by. You changed my life. I
will love you always. Yours forever, Sean.”

She’d said that to Marcus in the limo on the
way to the company wine dinner. It had been a passing comment made
in jest. Sean had cared enough even then to internalize and
remember.

With tears in her eyes, she felt hands on
her shoulders. She bowed her head. “You know.”

“That you are going to move? Yes,” Sean’s
deep voice was next to her ear.

“How?”

“I think all your friends know you have to.
There’s no use fighting the inevitable.”

Krista still hadn’t turned around. She
couldn’t face him. “What about you?”

“I can’t leave, Krista. I want to. Lord
knows I want to go with you. But I can’t leave just yet. I have my
house here. I can’t leave my job yet—I need that VP title. And
there is my sister to think about. I have to let you go.”

Tears came harder then. So much for crying
on her own. It felt like her middle was being extracted from her
chest. “
Are you pushing me away?”

“Yes.”

“But I thought we went over this? I thought
we weren’t going to do that to each other?”

“We don’t have a choice, Krista. I can’t go
with you, and you can’t stay. I don’t want to know where you go
because I don’t want that crazy ex of yours following you through
me. I think we need to make a clean break. Move on.”

Krista started crying so hard it felt like
her spleen was coming out of her mouth. Sean turned her around and
held her tight. He picked her up gently and set her in the bed.

“We still have a few weeks.”

She nodded mutely as she cried into his
chest. He lifted her chin and kissed her tenderly. She fell into
the kiss with abandon. She felt his fingers deftly stripping her of
her clothes and felt wetness on her face from his cheeks. Once he
had her clothes off, he quickly removed his own. Without further
ado, he covered her body with his, whispering that he loved her,
and moved between her legs.

Where he would usually pause to take care of
protection issues, this time he didn’t stop. Krista jerked to try
and stop the proceedings, knowing how adamant he was about condoms
despite the pill, but this time he softly cooed to her, and shook
his head. “You said we were protected.”

Krista nodded.

Sean leaned down onto her again, rubbing the
tip of his shaft along her slit. With a small movement, he broke
through slightly until just the head had purchase.

“
Ohhhh Lord,
Krista,” Sean sighed,
coming back out again. He stroked a breast, then slowly pushed his
hips forward, his large manhood plunging deeper. He sighed the
whole way to the hilt, pushing harder to go as deep as he
could.

“Oh Krista,
heaven.
I can’t believe
how good this feels--
”

He was right, it did. It was comfortable,
but erotic with nothing between them. The soft candlelight bounced
off his rippled back as she ran her fingers over him. He slowly
withdrew, feeling the sensations for as long as possible before he
dove back in, still slow, still revering.

“This feels un
real
,” he sighed
again.

She smiled into the soft light as he pulled
himself back out, ever so slowly. The glorious friction sent
spirals of pleasure echoing through her body, but it was nothing
compared to feeling sex without a condom for the first time in his
life. Sean was in his glory. His face said so.

Krista wrapped her legs around him as she
moved her body with his. She met each of his thrusts with her own,
her wetness wrapping him tightly. He moaned as he crashed into her,
unable to think of anything but the feeling. Krista, loving his
intensity, threw herself into him just as hard. Their passion was
burning brighter until they were in a fervor, nothing mattering but
each other. All they were aware of was their partner’s body. All
she smelled was his musty scent; the salty sea on a crisp summer
day. All she saw were his deep green eyes, slightly infused with
gold by the candle light. He filled all her senses and he set her
aflame.

He was thrusting harder and faster now. They
were riding the wave together, higher and higher, faster and
faster. And finally, when the pleasure reached a height that made
time bow, the wave broke, crashing down around them. All Krista’s
nerve endings were ablaze. Her senses flaming white hot. She
clutched onto Sean and fell back to earth.

The next day at work Krista made a decision.
She wanted to give the women in the company a gossip enema. From
what she’d heard, she was still largely an anomaly. The word got
around that she rebuked Sean, which just wasn’t done. She was
looked down upon for that as a snob, but grudgingly accepted
because she had some sense.

Well, she was leaving anyway, so she was
about to shove all their talk right up their asses.

She and Sean rode to work together. No way
would Krista take Muni if she didn’t have to. She was leaving in a
month—everything was arranged. She had enough money to buy a cute
little Honda when she got there. It was practical, it was trendy,
and it would hopefully run forever.

She also rented a cute little two-bedroom
out by the beach. The rent was more than she was paying in San
Francisco, but it was her own place! By the beach! With a car! And
truth be told, the commute was shorter than she was facing every
day, so win-freaking-win!

Except she was losing Sean. And her
friends.

Overall, yes, she was losing. But she chose
instead to focus on the perks of the move. Emily, through Tory,
said that was best. She concurred.

Sean and Krista hit their floor together.
They separated at Krista’s office. Normally, she would start her
coffee pot and pour herself a cup as she started her computer. Sean
would take his dirty cup from the day before, head down to the
break room to wash it, and then fill up while he was there. On the
way back up, he would refill Krista’s sugar and creamer stash. It
was a great system, especially since Krista was lazy.

That day, though, Krista would create some
waves for the pure fun of it. She grabbed her mug, waited a beat to
allow Sean to pass back by with a wink into her office, and then
she followed him. She took the stairs, just to allow a bit more
time, and then purposely sauntered in for all she was worth. She
was quitting—sauntering was expected. Plus, she made this company a
crap-load of money, and they did the bare-minimum to keep her.

Oh yes, sauntering was definitely due!

She walked into the break room with a hop in
her step. Sean was standing by the coffee machine, chatting with
Mable, who was exactly the gossipy jerk Krista was hoping to meet.
He looked cordial as always, but Krista could read the irritation
in his eyes. He wanted to be away, but he didn’t know how to
disengage from the conversation. He was way too polite. Always had
been in K-Jaz’s eyes, which was the term Krista used to refer to
the dynamic duo.

Krista walked in briskly. Sean glanced up,
caught sight of her, and his eyes widened. He barely stopped
himself from smiling. He was doing damage control.

“Krista,” Mable said, half-turning to see
what Sean was looking at. “I haven’t seen you down here in a long
time. You’re leaving your office, huh?”

“Well, I
did
land the big account,
after all. I figured a coffee break was due,” she walked up next to
Sean, who was a puppet in this whole thing, slid her hand along his
lower back and winked at him. “Hey babe.”

He did smile then.

Krista turned to face the disbelieving
Mable. “Just came down for some free java.”

“Oh?” Mable said, looking at Krista’s arm as
it disappeared around Sean’s back. Her eyes darted up to Sean, and
then settled back on Krista’s, a crease forming in her painted on
eyebrows.

Krista rubbed Sean’s back again, smiled at
him with Bambi-eyes, then got some coffee. Go big or go home,
right?

“So, uh, I heard you got a job offer?” Mable
said, clearly on shaky ground. She didn’t like Krista—so the gossip
said—but she also didn’t want to miss a chance for excellent gossip
no one else had.

“I did, yes. I’ll be changing jobs. A higher
level with a better title and more money.”

“Oh. Great.”

Sean waited patiently as Krista straightened
up and came to stand next to him again. She slid her arm through
his.

“Ready?” he asked her.

“Yup. See ya Mable,” Krista said as Sean
gestured her in front of him. He guided her out of the room with
his hand low on the small of her back, almost on her butt—much
lower than was professional.

It brought tears to Krista’s eyes that he
was openly admitting to being with her. He hadn’t done that with
any other woman in all the time he’d worked there. It meant he was
serious, that he really liked her, and as long as she was okay with
being the villain, he would be open about his choice.

“You could have warned me,” he said with a
laugh as they entered the elevator.

“I just thought, why not, you know? Those
gossipy ladies can all go to Hades if they think I’ll bow down to
them because they are jealous ol’ hags!”

“Yikes.”Sean said, cupping a butt cheek and
squeezing lightly. “Krista is on fire, watch out!”

“
Well?
I don’t want to spend our last
month together hiding our mutual, uh, thing.” She turned to him
with a devilish grin, cupping his balls. Obviously they were alone
in the elevator.

“Our mutual
thing
?” Sean asked as he
got closer, bending to kiss her neck. “Love, you mean?”

“Does your office have shades? I
forget.”

When the elevator chimed, Sean put more room
between them, then let her lead the way out.

“I still have to work here. But yes, it
does.”

Krista got a thrill as they halted in front
of her office. Sean was looking at her with equal parts love and
desire. “Dinner tonight?”

“Of course.”

He did a quick scan, and then he kissed her.
When they broke apart, he winked, and turned toward his office.
Even if Krista hadn’t felt his wood, she could tell by the way he
walked that he was in need of a quickie.

Too bad he wasn’t quitting, too. She could
finally get that fantasy checked off the list!

Sean took her to an upscale steakhouse on
the other side of town. It was definitely a man’s eatery. The whole
place was wood: wooden tables, wood bar, wood walls, wood
stairwell. Granted, those things were usually made out of wood, but
this place showed it off. It had a cherry finish instead of paint.
You could
see
that it was made of wood, and even sort of
smelled of wood. The place was packed, but probably 75% of the
clientele were men. Tables of men, guys with their wives or
girlfriends, and even male waiters.

“This your favorite place, then?” Krista
asked Sean. He was transparent.

He smiled that secret smile, but spilled the
secret by kissing her, “I love you, baby.”