Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2) (8 page)

“I got more crap then gold in this brain,
girl, I told you that.” Marcus laughed.

Krista speared him with a glance, “Are you
planning to remember everything I say, or do you think it wise to
write a few things down?”

Marcus shut his mouth with a click. He was
handed a notepad and pen from a silent Ray. Everyone else, learning
the lesson from Marcus, got pen and paper at the ready. Except for
Sean, who could have given the lecture, and was therefore
excused.

“Oh, before we begin, I should point out,”
Ben said as he angled his head to look at his notes. “Marcus had
some holes, so I patched them up. Also, the idea was one of the
best so far, so I did a few embellishments and added a few
intricacies. One or two more angles as well. I didn’t think you
would mind, Marcus.“

Marcus laughed in glee and patted Ben on the
back. Ben smiled with the wordless praise.

“Yes, you two are the masters of the
universe. Also time wasters,” Jasmine said in a bored voice.

Marcus settled down again.

“Thank you, Jasmine,” Krista said, then
launched into the idea, how it started, what was tweaked and how it
was translated for the poor research schmucks. After that she
explained what she did to it, and in which stage it was passed on
to Jasmine and Kate. Finally she went over the assembly line she
wanted to create, getting Sean’s nod that it was the most efficient
approach that would also work for him.

When she was done, she looked at Jasmine and
Kate in turn as she said, “In the future, I want you two to get
familiar dealing with Ben, Judy and Marcus on your own. Less hands
in the pot means the less muddled the logical brain can make
creative thinking.”

“If
we decide to stay and work this hard forever,” Jasmine said,
shaking her head.

“You will,” Krista replied, turning a page
on her note pad. “Sean will talk you into it. And if he fails, Ray
will.”

Krista looked up again, noticing Sean’s eyes
glued to her. She got an unexpected jolt of pleasure before she
turned red and looked away. His gaze stuck.

“And if he fails we will torture and
possibly kill you unless you change your minds,” Marcus
finished.

“Finally,” Krista continued, staring at
Jasmine to stop an oncoming joke, “the result goes to the Captain,
where he and Ray pitch the idea to John. John tells the Captain he
is all wrong, at which point Ray steps in with a rope-a-dope. The
saga ends with John telling our fearless Captain to make the pitch
to the client. The end. Any questions?”

There were. A lot, actually. Even Sean had a
few, wanting to better understand how Research got all their data.
He was no doubt thinking about future projects, intending to demand
a change in the way the information was acquired. Throughout the
entire question-and-answer segment, Krista had to silence the jokes
and stop the chatter. With Marcus and the girls teaming up, there
was no end to their fun.

Correction: there
was
an end to the fun;
her name was Krista.

When everyone was finally satisfied, Krista
looked to Sean for any last comments. She was surprised to see him
and Ray staring with open mouths. Sean recovered first, shook his
head to clear it, and said that was good, everyone go back to what
they were doing.

“Look at all the notes I took!” Marcus
exclaimed. He tilted his notepad to Krista like a child showing off
his drawing.

“Now what will you do with them?” Judy asked
in mock wonder.

“Frame everything, probably,” Jasmine said
dryly.

“I just might,” Marcus walked out with Ben
and Judy.

Krista followed suit, her mind on half a
dozen things she still needed to do. When she got back to her desk,
she realized she was being followed. Sean was taking a seat in one
of her visitor chairs.

“You stalking me?” she asked as she checked
her email.

“Yeah. I was hoping to catch you naked.”

“You gotta drill a hole in the bathroom for
that. I’ll show you the one I did in yours.”

He smiled and rubbed his eyes. “Where did
you learn to hold meetings like that?”

“That is the standard procedure when dealing
with Jasmine and Kate. And now Marcus. You give them an inch, they
will never get anything done. You tell them what to do with a firm
hand, they will work their asses off.”

“It was impressive.”

“Thanks. I learned early, as you heard, that
A’s meant calming the beasts.”

“I see. How would you feel if I made you
second in charge? People listen to you where they don’t listen to
Ray. Hell, even Ray looks to your lead when I’m not talking.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes. But I thought asking was nicer.”

“
Ugh!
Fine. Hey, what are you doing after work?”

A brief look of wariness and confusion
crossed his face. “Is there an after?” he asked.

“Yeah, and it’s right before bed. You wanna
go for a run? I have a great way to relieve stress and regenerate
energy. Plus, you can give me a ride home so I don’t have to brave
public transportation. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but public
transportation in San Francisco is the pits.”

“Hmmm. I’ll probably be here for another
couple hours.” It was already 6. Sean was trying to get out of it
nicely. Krista should have let him, but the only thing waiting for
her at home was Abbey and an empty room. She wasn’t seeing Paul
anymore and the lonely nights were starting to wear on her. She
needed the friend he said he would be.

She shrugged, “That’s fine. I can work on
the never ending list you gave me.”

He looked up, seemed half-dead then looked
at his watch, “Get your stuff, let’s go. We’ll do your thing then
order dinner. We can talk about my list. We need to figure out a
way to divide it up better.”

Surprised, Krista reached down, grabbed her
handbag and jacket, turned off her computer, and stood up.
“Ready.”

“Christ, you don’t mess around when it’s
time to go home.”

“I hate the train.”

“Don’t blame you. C’mon.”

Chapter Five

Krista was dropped off at her house to
change. She was worried and excited and anxious and energized. She
even had nervous pee, which she took care of before she left the
house.

They met on the beach, halfway between their
houses. Sean was waiting for her down by the ocean, watching the
cresting waves as she walked up next to him. The setting sun was
highlighting his features, outlining his body and tussled hair. He
turned to her, and his eyes turned luminescent.

Krista was struck by his
look. It held such tender longing her throat constricted. His eyes
were searching as they looked at her,
into
her. He was in a place of
comfort, and he was sharing it with her. He was opening up and
inviting her in.

She sighed like a lovesick girl, meeting his
eyes and being swept away.

“I’m going to tell Jasmine,” he said
quietly, a smile flickering.

“I introduced her to Mr. Montgomery. Within
the meeting she got three different sighs. It nearly killed her.
Poor Marcus got a ton of Thump Birds after that.”

Sean laughed, back to his relaxed self,
“Okay, what’s up first?”

Krista threw him a jump rope, “Get to
it.”

“I hate jumping rope. I had to do it for
boxing all the time.”

“You box?” Krista stepped away from him,
looking for a hard patch of sand. It didn’t exist.

Sean, seeing the predicament, flicked his
head in the direction of the sidewalk. As they started walking he
said, “I did. When I was younger. My dad thought it’d make a man of
me.”

“What did he say when he realized it
failed?”

Sean laughed and pushed her lightly. They
got to the sidewalk and went for it. Krista, seeing she was
outdone, moved away to go at her own pace. Sean rarely got tangled
up and he was jumping really fast. He was nowhere near Krista’s
caliber of clumsy.

When they were done they went for a jog.
Krista was obviously more in shape so she kept the pace light—light
for her, anyway. Which Sean realized. He hated every minute of it,
but being that he couldn’t speed up without dying, he had no choice
but to swallow his pride and get beat by a girl.

They finished with some yoga. Krista still
hadn’t been to a class, but she had looked some things up online
and worked on those. The little she knew was great for focus,
stretching and relaxation. Also for breathing. She didn’t dare try
the moves that looked like a contortionist at the circus—she
figured she needed an instructor and an emergency brake for
that.

They went back down to the waterline so it
would be more tranquil. Even so, Sean wasn’t feeling it.

“I don’t…bend this way,” Sean said in a
grunt.

“Is that code for you sucking at something?”
Krista said with a laugh as she inspected his pose from behind.

He was supposed to have his left leg in
front with his right behind, both legs in line as his hips faced
forward. It was a sort of lunge, with the front leg bent and the
back leg straight. The arms were supposed to be high up overhead
with the shoulders as far away from the ears as they could go.

Sean had the lunge easily. It was getting
his hips and torso to twist that was the problem. It flat-out
wasn’t happening. He couldn’t turn his hips and body enough to get
the pose right. He was twisted all catawampus and having a hard
time with his balance. If he couldn’t get the pose, which was
Warrior 1, there was no way he’d go onto Warrior 2.

Krista walked to the side of him, keeping
her laughter to herself. She put one hand on his shoulder and one
on his side, thinking that if London Bridge fell down, it wouldn’t
be directly on top of her. Not that it was a terrible thought, but
the sand was cold and wet.

As her hands made contact, Sean flinched
before he caught himself, then stilled.

“Easy
now, big fella,” Krista said with a snicker. She put her
palms on him again and felt his deep rumble of a
chuckle.

Ah, heaven.
His body was pure paradise. Hard, cut,
oh-so-masculine—she couldn’t stop herself from pausing there for a
minute, her hands resting on his warm, broad, glorious lateral
muscles.

Pulling herself out of her lust daze, she
cleared her throat and got her business face on. This sucker would
bend if she had to bend him herself!

“Okay, now, go with it,” she said as she
pushed with her right hand and pulled with her left. She was trying
to show him how to move to get the pose.

“Not working,” he said stiffly. “You are
going to push me over.”

Krista could feel his muscles flexing under
her palms. His back arched and bowed, trying to stay poised. The
muscles rippled.

“Work
with
me, dumb-dumb, not against
me!”

Desperately trying for self-control, she
kept her left hand on his back and reached around his torso with
her right to push on his chest gradually. The play of muscle on his
front was equally as marvelous as his back. He was hard everywhere,
no ounce of fat on his body what-so-ever.

Krista gulped against the sudden hot
flash.

“Are you helping or trying to make it
worse?” Sean asked, cutting through Krista’s mental picture of his
bare chest.

“Cripes, Sean, have you ever stretched in
your life?”

“I have
muscle,
darling. Yoga dudes
don’t.”

“
Yoga dudes
certainly
do,”
Krista replied, removing her hands regretfully and circling
him, looking for the malfunction. “They are just more
flexible
with it. Get
back in pose. I’m going to try and help you from the front. Maybe
you’ll bend better if you can see what I’m trying to
do.”

Sean gave an irritated sigh and tried to
contort his body again, this time getting a little closer to what
they were going for.

“Breathe,
Sean, that’s part of it.”

The breath he took wasn’t exactly what
Krista was thinking. She had a feeling there might’ve been a swear
word mixed up in there somewhere.

Krista stood in front of him, the sun nearly
gone now. Orange light splashed across his face and hair,
illuminating his eyes and highlighting the peaks and valleys of his
face. He looked like the statue of David in repose. Here, on the
beach, he gave off more radiance then she had ever seen. He was at
home here where elsewhere he was just on loan.

“Right,” she inspected him. Then she met his
eyes. The sinking sun lent a glow that made them look otherworldly.
He was focusing on her with a wary expression.

She probably should have been wary, too, but
she couldn’t think that far ahead.

“Let’s…see.” She stepped up to him slowly,
dropping her eyes to see which parts of his torso she would guide.
As she neared the hairs stood up on her arms.

“Okay,” she breathed softly. “I am going to
put one hand on your torso, right here...” She moved her right hand
to the area just above his pec. This time he didn’t flinch. She
looked up to meet his eyes. They were looking down intently, a
softness in them she hadn’t seen before overlaying a familiar
hunger.

“I am going to put my other hand on the back
of you, right...” She reached around him slowly, not breaking eye
contact, having to step closer to get her arm around his big body.
Their chests were almost touching as she softly put her other hand
on his back. “…here,” she whispered.

She leaned closer to his face, to his parted
lips. His eyes watched her approach, heavy-lidded, wariness gone.
Krista felt light all over. The lighting, the waves crashing behind
them, the calm and quiet of the beach, all cast a mystical quality
on the moment.