Sometimes It Is Rocket Science (23 page)

After hanging up with his future brother-in-law, Robert opened his project management software.  The software, developed by himself during his time at MIT, had helped him plan everything from his first acquisition to the purchase of his New York City penthouse.  After the saving the file onto his private server, he began filling in tasks.  By the time he was called to his first meeting, there were sixteen tasks under the project titled “Marry Georgiana Collier.”

Elizabeth Chesterton was renowned for her dinner parties.  An invitation, elegantly handwritten with a fountain pen on crisp white linen paper, was worth twice its weight in gold.  The guest lists were eclectic and small.  The atmosphere in the long, narrow formal dining room was often thick with awkwardness.  The Chestertons’ plain white china was at least thirty years old and showed its age.  There were no floral centerpieces or hired musicians. 

In thirty-five years, no one had declined an invitation to the Chestertons’ quarterly dinner party.  Ian Chesterton’s gift to his wife for their tenth wedding anniversary had been a little-known but highly talented personal chef.  The food he prepared was exquisite, and Elizabeth had a gift for pairing his delicious creations with the best Texas wines.

While everyone else at the table scraped the bottom of their bowls of chilled tomatillo soup and tucked into the chipotle shrimp tostadas, Georgiana pushed rice around her plate.  The meal smelled divine, but there was something about sitting across from the man who’d tried to kill her mentor and her precious brother that killed her appetite.  Judging by the miniscule dent Robert had put into his food and his untouched wineglass, she guessed he was having as difficult time as she was.  It was impossible to tell if his discomfort was due to Prask’s presence or Phillip’s.

Feeling eyes on her, she brought a forkful of rice to her mouth and chewed slowly.  She set the fork back onto the plate with a quiet
clink
.  A warm, masculine hand covered hers.  Robert’s thumb slid across the fluttering pulse in her wrist.  He bent his head so that his lips brushed the curve of her ear.

“Do you think Mrs. Chesterton offers to-go boxes?  It would be a shame to see such fine food go to waste.  I would prefer to enjoy my dinner in less toxic air.”

“Rumor has it that Mrs. Chesterton gets a deal on the cleaning crew because she feeds them leftovers,” Georgiana whispered back.

“How much do you think it would take to convince her chef to work for us?”

Georgiana’s heart tripped at his insistence that there was going to be an ‘
us’
, but she kept her voice steady.  “He’s loyal.  Every year Regina Gardner offers him an obscene amount of money to work for her and he’s refused every time.”

“Pity.”

“Mr. Norwood!” 

At Elizabeth Chesterton’s call, Robert lifted his head.  He kept his hand on Georgiana’s and flashed his hostess a charming grin.  “Yes, ma’am?”

“While I lament your father’s absence, it is good to see your face around my table once again.  I threw one of the first engagement dinners for your parents, did you know?  They used to fall away into their own private world much like you and Ms. Collier have spent the past two courses doing.”  Elizabeth’s affectionate smile took the sting out of the rebuke.  “I am so very happy for the two of you.”

Before Georgiana could formulate a response, Prask pushed his chair back and held his wine glass up.   His lips were curled in a mockery of a smile.  His dark eyes were fixed on Georgiana’s face.  “A toast to the young lovers.  May they have many happy, prosperous years together.”

Robert squeezed her fingers.  The muscular thigh pressed against hers tensed.  His smile didn’t waver a bit.  His voice was like ice-coated steel.  “Thank you, Prask.  Coming from someone with your
experience
with matrimony, I can’t begin to express what your encouragement means to us.”

Prask’s face reddened.  The knuckles of the hand holding his wine glass turned white.  The eyes fixed on Georgiana narrowed.

Phillip leapt to his feet.  He banged the side of his glass with the blade of his butter knife.  “Hear!  Hear!  If anyone deserves to catch Prince Charming, it’s Georgie.  Congratulations on your happily-ever-after.”  He winked at her while the others chimed in with their congratulations.

“
Thank you
,” she mouthed at a chuckling Phillip. 

Dessert was a rich, moist
tres leches
cake topped with Kahula-flavored  whipped cream.  As she’d missed most of the meal, Georgiana felt no guilt over devouring every crumb on her plate and a few from Robert’s.  Robert’s arm was a heavy, reassuring weight around her waist as they waited in the foyer for the valet to return her Aston Martin. 

“I hope you will allow me to host an engagement dinner for the two of you.  I served jambalaya and stuffed crab for your parents’ engagement soiree, Georgiana.   My Ian hired a lively Zydeco band and we set up a dance floor in the backyard.”  Elizabeth settled a hand on Robert’s arm.  “It was steak and an opera singer for your parents, Robert.  For the two of you, though, I see something intimate and elegant.  Please say you agree.”

Georgiana let herself get swept up by Elizabeth’s enthusiasm and the thrill that came from all the attention Robert had lavished on her during dinner.  She forgot, for a moment, that the engagement was a sham. She could picture a room filled with their closest friends and family members chatting and dining on Elizabeth’s chef’s culinary delights.  She would have Robert glued to her side and a permanent smile etched on her face.  Tab would glut himself on cake, and Dan would enjoy the company.  Tears pricking the corners of her eyes, she slipped out of Robert’s grasp and hugged Elizabeth.  She pressed her cheek to the older woman’s. 

“Of course we agree, Mrs. Chesterton.  We would be honored.”  She retreated back to Robert’s side.  “All you have to do is let us know the date, and we’ll keep our schedule free.”

“Thank you, dear.”

Robert snatched the keys to her car from the valet before she had the chance to grab them.  With a huff, she slumped in the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt.  Guilt settled low in her stomach.  Why had she agreed to an engagement party?  There was no engagement.  She added Mrs. Chesterton’s name to the list of people who were going to be hurt when she and Robert finally put an end to the charade.

“So that was your precious Phillip,” Robert said, cautiously maneuvering the car through the dense evening traffic.

“He’s not precious and he’s not
my
anything,” she snapped, eyes squeezed shut and head tilted back. 

“I like him,” Robert muttered, a note of surprise in his tone.

Georgiana let out a wry chuckle.  “Most people do.  Phil’s very likeable.”  She rubbed at her throbbing temples.  “We would have been better off as friends.  A marriage between us never would have worked.  I can see that now.  In fact, he reminds me a lot of you.”

“Devilishly handsome and charming?”

“Driven.  Brilliant.  You have the market cornered on ruthlessness, of course, but he tries.  As much as I hate the way he ended things between us, I give him credit for recognizing that he needed a wife who could help him realize his ambitions.”

“I have already realized mine,” Robert said. 

He took one hand off the wheel and settled it on Georgiana’s knee.  She could feel the heat of his skin through the linen of her pants.  She found herself shifting towards that heat, despite the warning bells going off in her head.  She was weak, so weak when it came to him.

“We don’t suit, Robert.  And we deserve better. 
I
deserve better.  I don’t want someone to marry me just because he can see spending the rest of his life with me.  I want someone to marry me because he can’t imagine living one day without me.”

Silence reigned for a long moment.  The hand on her knee twitched, slid up her thigh.  “You’re a romantic.”

“So it seems.”

She turned her head to look out the window at the bright city lights.  There was no point in mentioning that her stupid, romantic heart seemed to be partial to the man sitting next to her.  It wasn’t just that he was good with Tab and understood the basics of organic chemistry and valued family as much as she did. It was the way her day brightened just by seeing his smile at breakfast and the way her pulse skittered at the mere brush of his hand against hers.  It was how she could go to him with a problem and have complete faith things would work out.

Robert parked her car in the garage and followed her up the stairs to the kitchen.  The lights were on in the living room and the sounds of simulated gunfire echoed down the hallway.  She recognized the voice of the narrator from one of Tab’s favorite games.

Hoping a little distance would clear her head, she moved to the refrigerator and stood in front of the open door.  The blast of cool air eased some of the heat in her cheeks.  “I could toss a quick salad if you’re still hungry.  I think there’s leftover chicken we could slice up.”

The refrigerator door slammed shut.  Strong fingers clamped on her shoulder and spun her around.  Robert’s eyes were dark, unreadable.  His face was like a stone.  “I am not a romantic, Gigi, but I cannot see anyone else wearing my ring.  Bearing my name.  Standing beside me during required appearances.”  He leaned forward and brushed his lips across the curve of her cheek.  Warm, moist breath wafted across her sensitive skin and sent a shiver of awareness down her spine.  “Raising my children.”

“You just want to sleep with me.”

“Yes.”  His insistent lips continued their trek towards her mouth.  “Tonight.  Tomorrow night.  The rest of our lives.”

One hand sank into the mass of hair twisted on the back of her head while the other slid, slow as molasses, around from the small of her back to her hip and then up along her quivering abdomen.  Even through the layers of linen shirt and lace bra, the first graze of his fingers across the curve of her breast stole her breath. 

Sharp, strong teeth nipped her bottom lip; his tongue soothed the slight sting.  She could almost feel her defenses melting one by one.  Kissing had never been high on her list of pleasurable activities.  With Phillip and a handful of other boyfriends, she’d alphabetized the periodic table or reviewed her current projects.  When Robert kissed her, she couldn’t remember the chemical name for water.  His thumb stroked a lazy circle around her nipple.  Her back arched off the refrigerator and her mind went blank.

She looped her arms around his neck, dug her fingers into his thick, silky hair.  His husky chuckle sent a fresh flood of heat surging through her veins.  The thigh he’d wedged between hers and the arm curved around her spine were the only things keeping her upright.  The combustion between them had liquefied her bones and her rational thought.  All that mattered was the taste and feel of Robert.

“Gigi?” Tab’s hesitant voice cut through the heavy fog of lust filling Georgiana’s head.

She turned her head.  Robert’s lips fastened on the curve of her jaw.  Her eyelids slid shut as he unerringly located the sensitive spot behind her ear.

“Gigi?  Are y’all home already?”

Tab’s voice was closer than it had been before.  She forced her eyes open, kicked her sluggish brain back in to gear.  The living room was thirty-five feet from the kitchen.  If he was walking at normal speed….

Robert’s teeth closed around her earlobe.  Her train of thought derailed, crashed and burned in a spectacular blaze.  A strangled moan caught in her throat.

Tab shuffled into the kitchen.  He froze in the doorway, video controller in one hand and bag of corn chips in the other.  “Gigi… oh.  Oh, crap. Sorry!”  He pivoted sharply and fled the kitchen.

The interruption shattered the spell of sensuality woven around them.  She shoved at Robert’s shoulder until he reluctantly took a step back.  Her wobbly knees held her weight, but she felt cold and as if she’d lost something vital. 

“Upstairs,” Robert rasped, his eyes still dark but bright with desperation.  “Please.”

Yes
.  Capitulation hovered on the tip of her tongue.  She swallowed it back.  Sleeping with Robert would be the most enjoyable, memorable, and absolute worst mistake she’d ever make.  How could she release them from their sham of an engagement if she fell any deeper into
whatever
pit of emotion she was diving headfirst into?

“I have to work on the SUV.  Your father and I figured out where that part went, and it’s a dead end.”  She licked her lips, tasted him and nearly gave in.  “Good night, Bobby.”

Robert stormed into the kitchen in a mood blacker than the storm clouds gathering outside.  He hadn’t slept more than a handful of hours.  He’d wanted to chase after Georgiana, to force her to submit to the magnetism drawing them together.  He’d even crafted an argument based on Coulomb’s law, certain that science would convince her when passion couldn’t. 

Rather than corner her in the lab and kiss her until she was beyond logic, he’d tossed and turned and ached.  She was skittish, understandable after Phil, and pushing her would only drive her further away.  If they had a shot at a lasting relationship - and he wouldn’t settle for anything less - he had to be patient.  No matter how many arctic showers he had to take.

Tab was the only one sitting at the kitchen table.  At the sight of Robert, Tab dropped his spoon back in his bowl of mushy sugar-coated flakes.  His cheeks flushed a bright red and he ducked his head.  “Hey, Bobby.  About last night…  I really am sorry.”

Robert waved away the apology with a careless flick of his wrist.  “I’m the one who should be sorry.  Your sister and I shouldn’t do things like that in public places.  We didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Tab nodded once.  He swirled his spoon through the milk in his bowl as he contemplated how much to reveal.  “Phil used to kiss Gigi.  I caught them once in her room.  She looked… I dunno… bored.”

“Not exactly the reaction one is looking to inspire in a lover.”

“She didn’t look bored last night.”  Tab bravely lifted his head to meet Robert’s gaze.  “I’m glad you’re marrying my sister.”

Robert ruffled the teen’s hair on the way to the coffee maker.  “So am I, kiddo, so am I.”   The mug he’d instructed NORA to fill was waiting.  “Where is big sis?”

“I don’t know.  She was gone when I got up.  I think she said goodbye, but I was pretty out of it until Quinn woke me up.”  Tab rubbed his eyes with the back of a hand.  “Dan and Gigi need to work on that sensor for the door.  Quinn’s killing me.”

“NORA, what time did Georgiana leave this morning?”

“The vehicle designated GC-01 passed through the gates at 6:37 this morning.  Sensors indicate there was only one person in the vehicle.  The vehicle was followed by DN-04 with only one occupant.  Facial recognition identifies the occupant of DN-04 as Allan Raggio. ”

Robert wanted to ask NORA what time Georgiana had finally dragged herself up to bed, if she’d bothered leaving the workshop at all, but didn’t want to upset Tab.  The teen didn’t need to know how close his sister was to a breakdown.  Juggling the Collier siblings was proving to be more of a challenge than he’d anticipated.  Fortunately, he thrived on challenges.

He glanced over Tab’s English homework while he ate a breakfast of sugary cereal and fruit salad.  He’d never been a fan of early American literature, but the kid’s interpretation of Hawthorne seemed okay to him.  He wisely left the physics project for Georgiana.

As Allan was still performing the security training at Collier Analytics, Robert drove himself to the Norwood Systems office.  He stood in the glass-and-chrome lobby, considering whether or not to pop in on his fiancée, when his phone rang.  A picture of Georgiana, laughing at one of her brother’s puns, flashed on the screen.

“Good morning, doll.”

“Bobby.”  Georgiana sounded out of breath.  The connection crackled with static.  “Where are you?  NORA said you left the house twenty minutes ago.”

“I’m in the NS lobby.  Is something wrong?”  His mind went into overdrive.  Had Prask made another move?  Gone for the direct hit?  Had someone or something attacked?

“Stay right there.  I’ll be over in a sec.” 

The connection was cut just as he opened his mouth to demand an explanation.  Like a caged lion, he paced the length of the lobby.  His fierce scowl discouraged curious employees from approaching.

“Bobby!”  On tall, sturdy heels, Georgiana sprinted from the rear elevator bank to the lobby.  Her cheeks were red and what had been, at one time, a sleek ponytail bobbed at the nape of her neck.

He scanned her for injuries.  Her pink, short-sleeve sweater was unmarred, but there was a spot of something wet on the left knee of her brown trousers.   As soon as she was within reach, he took the plain, white box from her hands and set it on a nearby decorative table.  Before she could speak, he fastened his mouth over hers. 

“Good morning,” he greeted, smirking at her slightly stunned expression on her lovely face.  He tucked a wayward wisp of hair behind her ear.  “You weren’t there for breakfast.  I didn’t like it.”

Still breathless from the combination of her run and the kiss, she arched an eyebrow.  “I was hoping to save my brother any further embarrassment.”

“So certain that your allure is such that I can’t keep my hands off you?”

Georgiana hesitated.  The teasing grin slid off her face.  She started to wriggle out of Robert’s grasp only to have the arm looped around her waist tighten.

“You would be correct,” he murmured, stealing another lingering kiss.

“We’re going to scandalize your employees.”

“They know my reputation.”  He swept his tongue across her bottom lip.  Her lip balm was lemon sherbet flavored.  It was crisp and sweet and brought to mind warm summer days spent by the pool.  “Yours could stand a little tarnish.”

Laughter, soft and genuine, spilled from her lips.  She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth before smoothly slipping out of his embrace.  “I admit that it was lonely eating my yogurt by myself this morning.  There was no one to challenge me to a Sudoku race.”

“We’ll make it a date then.  Breakfast every morning for the next sixty years.  I’ll leave you to your Sudoku and you keep your mitts off my crossword.”  The tension that had been coiled up in his spine since her phone call dissipated.  Hands in his pockets, he leaned against a marble column and crossed his ankles.  “Look how domesticated we’ve become, Gigi.”

“Oh, the shame,” she laughed.  “Next thing you know we’ll be telling Tab to turn his music down and arguing over who has to take the trash out.”

His eyes fell on the box she’d been carrying.  “Where were you calling from?  The static was terrible.”

“Tunnels.  I didn’t want to risk the skies opening up on me.”

Their buildings were connected through the tunnels that ran beneath downtown Houston.  The private entrance onto the tunnels had been one of the many enticements that prompted Dan Norwood and Jerome Collier to purchase their respective buildings. 

Robert made a mental note to have Allan check the security in the tunnels.  The passageways were brightly lit but often crowded.  It would make an excellent location for an abduction or assault.

“What’s in the box, Gigi?”

“It’s Mrs. Randolph’s birthday.  Your dad usually buys her flowers and a cake.  He texted me this morning to let me know that he’d taken care of the flowers, but hadn’t worked out a solution for the cake.”  Georgiana gestured at the white box.  “It’s nothing fancy, but she likes Oliver’s chocolate brownies.  He iced them with an orange glaze and scrounged up a few candles.”

“Thank you.”  He would have to have Cedric discretely acquire a small gift for the woman who ran his father’s office like a war general.  He couldn’t foresee relying on her as he did Cedric, but the woman knew every skeleton in NS’s closets.  There was an opening in the executive team in Naples, Italy that he and his father had discussed persuading Mrs. Randolph to fill.

Georgiana opened the large white box and extracted a smaller pastry box.  With a shy smile she pressed it into his hands.  “Sour cream coffee cake.  You liked it so much when you were at CA, that I thought you might enjoy a slice.”

Something unexpectedly tender tugging at his heart, he kissed the tip of her pert nose.  “Thank you, Gigi.”

She shrugged.  “No problem.”  A glance at the rose gold watch on her wrist had her face twisting in a grimace.  “I’d better get back.  Yvonne’s out again today.  My goal is to cancel every meeting I have and hide out in R&D until she gets back.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks! If they give me any grief, I’ll just try and think of what you would do.” 

She turned to head back to the elevator bank, but he caught her wrist.  “Have lunch with me, Gigi.”

Her eyes clouded over.  After a long moment, she gave a sharp nod.  “Twelve thirty.  The sushi bar across from CA.”

Rearranging her schedule was ridiculously easy.  As soon as they heard that Yvonne was unavailable, the department heads were eager to reschedule.  Georgiana didn’t want to contemplate what that said about her.  She could be inattentive and short-tempered when meetings ran too long, but she was a generous boss.  She cared about her company and her people.  She didn’t just care about standard operating procedure updates or supplier qualification responses.

Feeling like a kid playing hooky, she practically skipped down to her private workshop.   There were six open projects waiting for her.  That didn’t include the problems with the biodegradable hydraulic oil problem she’d promised Dan she’d work out.  She needed to design a quick model that would help Tab with his physics project, too.

Two and a half hours later, she had made absolutely zero progress on any of her projects.  She stared blindly at the prototype prosthetic leg on her worktable.  No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on her work, her mind constantly looped back to Robert, to what would have happened if her brother had not interrupted them last night.

What was his motivation, though?  Why was he so insistent that they get married?  Was it because of his father and his board?  How much of the affection in his eyes was friendship and how much of it was more?

Shaking her head, hoping to dislodge memories how
right
it had felt in Robert’s arms, she reached for the soldering iron.  The connections near the joint weren’t as neat as she liked.  It was a minor issue that would have passed a quality inspection, but she preached perfection for all prototypes.  Sloppy prototypes inevitably led to sloppy final assemblies.

If she agreed to marry Robert, would it be realistic to expect fidelity?  Monogamy was not, as far as she knew, in his lexicon.  She refused to be like the typical society wife who politely looked the other way when her husband’s eye wandered.  In addition to a closet romantic she was, apparently, possessive.  If she asked, he’d agree.  Comply for a few years until he grew bored with her.  He’d stick to his vow, but he’d resent her.  Hate her.  Their marriage and their friendship would crumble and she’d be left with nothing.

A ball of white-hot fire burned the knuckles of her left hand.  “Shit!”  Tears welled in her eyes as pain radiated across her hand.  With another curse, she switched off the soldering iron and surveyed the damage.   The skin on two knuckles had already started to blister.  She blew on the burns, hoping the cool air would ease some of the pain, and reluctantly made her way to the in-building clinic.

Burns coated with aloe and hand wrapped in gauze, Georgiana toured the Research & Development department.  Nothing there could hold her attention, either.   There was no point in fighting it any longer.  Disgusted with herself, she grabbed her purse and left a note with the receptionist.  The tunnels were packed with the pre-lunch crowd.  She could hear the faint sounds of traffic and rain as she hurried to the Norwood Systems entrance.  She pressed her thumb to the scanner and waited for the door to open.

Robert glanced up from his laptop screen when the heavy, wooden door that separated his office from Mrs. Randolph’s squeaked open.  An obviously disgruntled Georgiana stomped into the office and plopped onto the plush visitor’s chair in front of his desk.  His eyes fell to the white bandage covering her left hand.

“What happened?”

“An object lesson in why one should never operate a soldering iron when one is distracted.”

Robert’s lips twitched.  “Would you like me to kiss it and make it better?”

“No!”  Georgiana cradled her hand against her chest.  “This is what happens when we kiss.  Keep your lips on that side of the desk.  Keep everything else over there, for that matter.  We don’t want to risk me accidentally setting the building on fire.”

“I appreciate the enthusiasm for our lunch date, Gigi.  I hadn’t expected you to be nearly two hours early.”

“I couldn’t concentrate,” she bit out, teeth bared as if the admission caused physical pain.  “You wanted to discuss our relationship.  Let’s get it over with.  Where do you see this going?”

“You, me, four hundred of our closest friends, a church, a dress, cake, and a couple of rings.”

She blinked.  “You’re serious.”

“As I have stated on several occasions.”

“Can you even spell monogamy, Bobby?”

“A lifetime of you?  Not as big a sacrifice as you’re making it out to be, doll.”  He planted his hands on the desk and leaned forward.  His steady gaze snared her wary eyes.  “I have only proposed to one woman in my life, Georgiana Collier.”

“You didn’t actually.”  She swallowed when his eyes narrowed.  “Propose that is.  I mean, technically, you could say that it was a proposition, but…”

“Georgiana, will you -.”

“No!”  Georgiana flew out of her chair to cover his lips with a finger.  “No.  I believe that you want to marry me, but I don’t believe it’s for the right reasons.  Not the ones that a marriage should be built on.”