Corporate Fire: Corporate Romance Book 1 (11 page)

Royce laughed all out. “I'm trying not to hope for that happening again before we leave. I'm not sure how long I'll be on waivers with you.”

“It depends on how you answer my questions. Could you pass me a waffle?”

He swapped her plate for a waffle plate, and she licked a forkful of whipped cream before he said, “I live in Maryland.”

Grace slouched. She'd guessed it wouldn’t be in Colorado, but the reality always seemed worse than what was in her head. “Damn.”

Royce wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin before sliding over and kneeling before her. “I can just have the company send me to Denver instead of home on the weekends whenever you want. And if they don't go for it, I have a lot of frequent flier miles. It's part of my benefits.”

She cupped his face in her hands. “And then what? Even if I found a job in Maryland, it's not like you'd ever be there either.”

He placed his hands on her hips and kissed her softly.

When he pulled away without saying anything, she said, “You mentioned you grew up here. Do you still have family here?”

His hands tightened on her hips. “My parents and brother. I haven't talked to my brother for years.”

His voice sounded angry. She said slowly, “So you're not looking to move back here.”

“Denver's big, and it would be easy to ignore my brother especially since as you say, I'm never around anyway. And I miss the mountains, but my job is important to me.”

She stared straight at him and finally had the nerve to ask the question she'd been wondering most about. “Why do you lay people off for a living?”

He frowned and said, “I guess that's a fair question. I'm good at it. Corporations are rat bastards. I want to make the process a little better.”

“Why not just let them do their own dirty work? You're good with people. You could thrive in a dozen other jobs.”

“No fair using my lines back at me.”

With more clarity than she'd had all weekend, she said, “Your job is going to be a sore point between us. I don't see how to get around it.”

He pleaded, his eyes looking like a little boy's. “Why don't we just give a weekend relationship a try?”

“You have no idea what you're asking. I've never allowed a man inside my apartment.”

He blinked as if without comprehension. He recovered quickly and said, “That's okay. We'll take it slow. I've got a lot of vacation time and can stay for maybe a week when you're ready. You could stay at the hotel with me, and we could see how it goes.”

She couldn't answer. Her body definitely wanted to stay close to him at all times, and her heart was screaming at her to give it a try, but her brain kept stopping at the thought of him in her apartment. Eventually he'd want to see it.

Royce had hurt her before they were even a couple, and now he had the power to cause so much more damage. Her brain was trying to shield her from the possible devastation.

Royce broke her thoughts with a kiss. His lips warmed her down to her toes and made her recall the feel of his fingers massaging her in places that had never brought her so much pleasure. When he ended the kiss he said, “I know accepting my job is going to be a struggle for you, but please give us a chance. Last night blew me away, and I know you feel the same because you allowed yourself to be vulnerable with me.”

Grace's skin erupted in goosebumps as he ran his fingers over her arms. “When you were gone this morning, and then when you got called into work, I freaked out. I have no job, I have a broken leg and this man who is so kind and caring travels the country doing corporate downsizing. You're going to have to be patient with me.”

“I have no qualms about that. I'm sure you'll tell me when I've pushed too far.”

She nodded her head.

“Are we good then? Do I get to drive you home?”

She smiled. “I think you're my only choice. I probably used up all my favors with Jill by bawling to her this morning.”

He scrunched his eyebrows together. “You know, she told me she was going to kill me if I broke your heart. A friend like that is not somebody you can 'use up all your favors' with.”

“Did she really say that?”

“Yes, why's that so hard to believe? I assumed by the way she ripped me a new one that you two are close.”

“I think of her as my best friend, but she has a lot of friends who I think are closer to her than me.”

“Don't do that.”

“What?”

Royce gripped her hips harder. “Don't sell yourself short. You're a great person. People like you. I had to fend off two assholes this weekend alone just to get to you.”

Grace giggled and looked down. She really wanted it to work out with him.

He spoke again in a tone that seemed hesitant. “Is Jill the assistant from Mile High Innovations?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I think she hates me. Did she know I was the one who laid you off when she spoke to me earlier?”

Grace squirmed. “I'm not ready to tell her that yet.”

She couldn't read his expression. “You're going to have to open up to her. I know you hate my job, but if this is going to work, you have to tell people close to you about us. I have no intention of hurting you.”

“No one ever does when they fall in love.” She held her breath after the words had left her mouth.

Royce grinned. “I'm glad we both understand what's going on here.”

His kiss made her reel. His hands raked over her body. She wanted to forget breakfast and go back to bed.

He kissed her cheek to her ear and whispered, “Can I eat you out before we leave?”

Her body turned rigid.

He pulled back. “Did I say something wrong?”

She shook her head. “I'm not ready for that. I can't do that. I've never--”

His phone rang, but he didn't answer it. He kissed her lips and said, “It's okay. We'll talk about this later. Ted's calling, so I should probably take it.”

“Sure.”

He stood and walked out the door, probably afraid he'd say something to Ted to freak her out again. She turned back to the waffle and finished it while she waited. At least she’d been saved from telling him she'd never received oral sex before. She figured that would make him give up on her entirely. She just had too many oddities.

13| Jewel Chase

Royce's flight to Tulsa left at 4:10. He'd taken her keys to put their skis in her SUV. In the meantime, she did her standard grooming ritual the best she could, even putting make-up on, and got dressed. She quickly realized there was no way she could get jeans to fit over her wrapped leg, so she put her ski pants on along with a crimson sweater.

Fatigued by the effort, she sat back down on the bed and picked up the Sudokus. By the time Royce returned, she'd hit a groove much like she did when she programmed.

He said, “Man that pencil is flying. You ready to go?”

She didn't look up when she spoke. “Would you mind putting my books and laptop bag in my suitcase?”

“Sure.”

She heard him gather them up, but then he sat down next to her instead of putting them away.

He said, “So what's up with the app books? Are you working on something to sell?”

Her pencil slowed, but she didn't answer right away. She hadn't even told Jill about Jewel Chase. She'd been planning to. She just always chickened out.

She said, “It's no big deal. Just something I do for fun.”

He placed his hand at the top of the puzzle book and pushed it down. “I think it is a big deal because you're not telling me about it.”

He'd put on an indigo sweater over his black t-shirt. He still hadn't shaved, which was sexy. His eyes wouldn't release her from his gaze, and she ended up telling him her secret.

“It's just a little game I thought I'd upload and see what happened.”

“See what happened? You've gotta market those things.”

“I'm sure it's not worth marketing.”

“Can I play it?”

Grace put her pencil and puzzle book down. “I thought we had to go?”

“Where do you live?”

“Downtown.”

“We have time.”

He waited while she took the phone off the nightstand. She didn't unlock the screen right away. He leaned in and kissed her neck and cheek and lips. When he reached her lips, she wrapped her fingers around his neck and made him linger.

“Don't go,” she said. “Call in sick tomorrow, and we'll stay here another night.”

He kept kissing her and laid her back on the pillows. “Not a good idea when I just talked to my boss.”

He scooted to the side of her and held up the phone. She hadn't even noticed he'd taken it from her hand. He said, “As much as I want to make out with you, that'll really make us late. Show me your game.”

She grabbed it back and said, “This is yet another secret no one else knows about. I never even told Jill.”

Royce held her closer. “You need to let people in. They're not all out to get you.”

“Says the man who fired me.”

He squeezed her and kissed her until she thought maybe they would make out until they had to leave. But he eventually pulled away and said, “That's not an everyday situation. I really want to see something you enjoy doing.”

“Promise me you won't tell me it sucks or anything like that. I couldn't take it right now.”

“I swear.”

She finally unlocked her phone and pulled up a screen with bright colors and a little intro song with a chime at the end. The words Jewel Chase appeared, followed by a simple maze, and Grace said, “You have to solve the maze and catch the jewels. You get bonus points for solving the maze fast, but you also get bonus points for catching more jewels. At the higher levels the jewels become rare, so if you miss them, you may never see them again unless you start back at the beginning.”

With a clearer mind than she had the night before, she ran her finger through the maze, capturing all the jewels and finishing well under the time limit. “That's it. Do you want to try the next level?”

“Yeah, this is cool.” He punched continue. He traced his finger through the maze and arrived at the end just before the time was up. “Oh man. I didn't get any of the treasure.”

“But you got to the end of the maze, so you get to go to the next level.”

Royce clicked continue, and this time he collected all the jewels, but he was far away from the finish when the time ran out. “Hey, what happened to all the jewels I got?”

“You didn't make it to the end, so they disappeared.”

“Oh, it is so on. I’m restarting.”

Grace leaned against Royce's shoulder rapt with joy. The game was just how she'd hoped—challenging enough to keep him interested and not so difficult that he gave up. He got stuck on level six and then again on level nine.

Grace looked over at the clock and said, “Hey, it's eleven. What time is your flight?”

“Crap.” Grace heard the losing sound, but Royce grinned at her. “You have to market this. It's really addicting.”

“I don't know how to do any of that.”

“I do—or used to. That's what I got a degree in, and I’ve kind of kept up with it.”

“If you have a degree in marketing, why on earth do you fire people?”

He set the phone on the bed and tried to take Grace in his arms, but she pushed his hands back. He said, “I don't want to talk about my job.”

“But I do. And I told you about Jewel Chase, so let's hear it.”

His blue eyes smiled, and she couldn't resist him a second time when he leaned in to kiss her. He had the softest lips she'd ever felt, and the way his tongue teased her made her forget the question. But he broke off the kiss and said, “I had a really hard time finding a job after college. Honestly so many people were losing their jobs at the time, when I saw the notice at Greener Pastures, I thought the firing business was the place to be. And it had travel. I love walking outside of the airport and into a new city, realizing that the world is so much bigger than one town. Even if I've been in New York City for a week and travel to Tuscon, Arizona, I still get that amazed feeling of how big the world is.”

Grace hadn't done much travel beyond Colorado, but the way he talked about it made her wish she had. “Lots of careers involve travel without the other part of your job.”

He groaned, stood up and grabbed her suitcase. “I don't want to argue with you about this right now. We need to hit the road before I ravish you. You're just too damn good looking to be alone in a bedroom with, when sex is off the table.”

Grace flushed all over. No one had ever complimented her like that before. She always thought of her looks as tolerable and pleasant at best—certainly not in his league of model muscles and good looks. Words escaped her lips before she'd thought them through. “Let me go down on you again.”

In an instant, he released her suitcase and dove onto the bed again, somehow mindful of her leg. His kiss was long and full of a passion that beat out anything she'd felt from him before. Her mind spun when he broke it off and said, “Don't offer that again because I won't be able to refuse a second time. I know your leg hurts, and we really need to get going.” She opened her mouth to say something, but he put his fingers on her lips. “I'm serious. I can't take the torture. I hate leaving you before making love to you, but I knew it would be that way even before my boss called.”

Grace nodded her head and placed her hands on his cheeks. “Thank you for being so understanding.” She gave him a kiss filled with sweetness before he stood up to pack away her books and laptop.

“I have to text Ted your address so he can pick me up. I'll apologize right now for whatever offensive thing he's going to say.”

“I'll just punch him.”

Royce grinned. “Many women would thank you, I'm sure.”