nbsp; He jingled the key, then slipped it in the lock. “Here goes nothing.” The door swung open and he flicked at the light switch just inside.
“Oh,” Kady said. “Looks like third time’s a charm.” In the positive column was the fact that it was a rain-and-masturbator-free room. In the negative column was the fact that there was just one bed. As in, one. For both of them. She stepped inside, dropped her bags onto the little round table in front of the window, and slipped out of Colton’s coat.
The door clicked shut behind her and Colton settled his bag on the floor beside a chair. He lingered by the door for a long moment, hands on his hips as his gaze surveyed the typical motel accommodations. Did this room feel small or did Colton just seem to take up a lot of it? He took off his shoes, then turned on a few lamps, peeked into the bathroom, and generally checked things out.
Kady stepped out of her waterlogged heels, but then didn’t know what to do with herself. The rain drummed on the roof loud enough to compete with the whirr of the air-conditioning unit, which chilled her wet blouse and made her shiver. What she really wanted was a hot shower, but given the odd tension hanging in the air like a fog, she thought it might be a little early to start getting naked. “Well,” she said, shoving away the thought of Colton totally bared to her eyes. “I think I’ll check some email and return some calls.”
Colton ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah. Me, too. No doubt my in-box has exploded in the last eight hours.”
Taking a seat at the table, Kady smiled as she unpacked her laptop. “Guess that’s what happens when you’re the boss man, huh?” Two years ago, he’d opened his own computer security services firm in Boulder and immediately won contracts working with the military and defense contractors who prized his experience with the army’s Cyber Command both in the States and while deployed on field teams overseas. Truth be told, Kady envied the autonomy he had working for himself.
“Like you wouldn’t believe. But I haven’t found anyone I want to take on as a partner, yet.” With a sigh, he grabbed his laptop bag and settled into the chair across from her. A flash of lightning threw shadows over the table for a moment. “I brought a surge protector if you want to plug into that,” he said.
“That’s so awesome I’m not even going to crack a Boy Scout joke. This storm is crazy.”
Colton gave her a droll smile. “Your restraint is unparalleled.”
Ha! You have no idea, Colton. I’m trapped in a tiny room with the only man I know who’s capable of giving me an orgasm and I haven’t jumped him. Kady smiled to herself as she bent under the table to plug in her power cord, then she set up her laptop and hot spot and logged in to her firm’s network. She ran through a few easy emails and peeked over the top of her screen at her roommate. Brow furrowed in concentration, his brown eyes moved as if he were reading. She watched him for a moment, struck by the fact that it was…kinda nice to be sitting here working with him like this.
Though they did the same kind of work and saw each other at conferences and occasionally when competing for contracts, like today, it had been years since they’d actually worked on anything together. One of the first times had been when he’d come home to her house with Tyler for Thanksgiving his sophomore year in college. His parents’ marriage had been a total train wreck and Colton and his sister, Sophie, had never seemed like their first priority, so occasionally the Brooks siblings would end up at the Dresco house for a holiday meal. Kady’s mom loved hosting them both, and having Sophie around, even as shy as she was, gave Kady someone to hang with besides the annoying boys.
But that particular Thanksgiving, Colton had been entirely stressed out over a final project on network protection. Curious what college-level computer assignments might look like, Kady had sneaked into Tyler’s room when Colton had taken a break and looked over his materials. He hadn’t been happy when he’d caught her going through his notes until she made a few suggestions that helped him solve his research problem. They’d worked on it together the rest of that night.
His gaze cut to hers. “Why are you watching me?”
Busted. Kady ducked her chin to hide the heat filling her face. “Pfft. Get over yourself. I’m not watching you.” Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she answered another email.
“Uh-huh. I think you missed me, Dresco,” he said, that old arrogance filling his tone.
She tossed an eye roll his way. “That would be like missing my dentist. Totally never happens.” Another chill set her to shivering. She wished Colton’s coat was dry enough to be warm, but that was going to take a while. So she went to the bathroom and grabbed one of the towels to wrap around her shoulders. Examining herself in the bathroom mirror, she looked kinda ridiculous and her hair was a wavy disaster, but at least she was warmer.
Colton’s gaze tracked her as soon as she returned to the main room. “You that cold?” he asked with a frown.
“It’s fine.”
“She says as her teeth chatter.” He pushed the top button of his dress shirt through the hole and worked downward.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away. “What are you—”
“I’m gonna turn on the heat long enough to dry my button-down. Then it’s all yours.”
“Really, I’m fine,” she managed as he shrugged off the white cotton and revealed a V-neck T-shirt that did absolutely nothing to hide the contours of his muscles. Helpless to stop herself, her gaze traced over the definition of his chest, his stomach, his shoulders, his biceps. The man was cut to such perfection that it made Kady want to trace every dip and curve with her fingertips. Just to see if he was as hard as he looked. Heat lanced through her blood.
“You don’t get to be a thirty-two-year-old man without learning that when a woman says she’s fine, she’s really not.” He arched a brow that challenged her to disagree.
She smirked but kept her mouth shut because, on the one hand, he was right. And on the other, his rightness made her want to ask where that kind of wisdom had been three years ago when he’d been a total ass.
In a quick series of movements, Colton adjusted the thermostat, moved the table out from in front of the window, and draped his shirt over the back of his chair to dry. Sitting again, he scooted his chair closer to the stream of warm air rising up from the vent.
“Well, thanks,” Kady said, settling back into her chair. First the coat, then offering her his room, now the shirt. Since Tyler was often around when she and Colton saw each other, she wasn’t used to him stepping up to take care of her like this. Not that she was the kind of woman who needed taking care of all the time, but who didn’t admire and appreciate a well-placed chivalrous gesture? Kindness was sexy.
Peering over his laptop at her, he winked. “That’s twice in one day.”
Leave it to Colton not to quit while he was ahead. “Don’t count on a third.”
His eyebrows raised in an expression of challenge. “I bet I can make you say thank you at least one more time today.”
The words “I bet” froze Kady’s fingers where they sat on her keyboard. She’d always had a hard time ignoring those words, especially when they came out of his mouth, as they often had over the years. And he knew it. She met his gaze and arched her brow. “The stakes?”
He tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. “Breakfast at the diner. You thank me, you buy. You don’t, I buy.”
Kady shrugged. This was gonna be easy as pancakes. “Why not? A new contract and free breakfast. I think I like the desert.”
“Contract isn’t yours yet,” he said, giving her a hard stare. “And neither is breakfast.”
She tugged the towel tighter around her shoulders. “Just a matter of time,” she said.
He shook his head as if in exasperation, but the corners of his eyes crinkled. “Bet starts now. I think I’ll eat a light dinner tonight so I’m extra hungry for breakfast.”
Kady bit back a grin. “You’re ridiculous. You know that, right?”
“Maybe. But you like me.”
Kady i
nhaled to respond, but she was saved by the bell. Or rather, by the vibration of her cell phone against the veneer of the table. Her stomach dropped at the name on the caller ID. Bob Chase, her immediate supervisor at Resnick. “Hello, this is Kady Dresco.”
“I thought you were going to be back in time for the site visit with Carson tomorrow,” Bob said without as much as a hello. The fact that she’d gone over his head to propose going after the project at this Panther Canyon facility had significantly moved her name up on his shit list. When she’d gotten the tip about the request for proposals here, Kady had known she couldn’t go through Bob with it. He’d either block her effort or take credit for the find—or both. So she’d gone to Mr. Resnick directly with full awareness doing so would earn Bob’s ire. But she’d decided it was worth the risk, and she’d been right. Resnick had been impressed enough by her identifying the job and her proposal for it that he’d given her the green light to bid as the project manager—which meant landing the contract was in essence a promotion. To not have to work for Bob Chase would be a dream come true… “If you can’t…commitments on smaller projects, how do you think…to manage bigger ones like this boondoggle you’re on…?”
Despite the weak cell service, Kady got the gist of Bob’s tirade. And she wasn’t really surprised. But boondoggle? Seriously? Was it 1953? Kady sucked down the snark and made nice. “I understand, Bob. And I apologize. There’s a terrible storm here and the airport canceled—”
“None of which would’ve been a problem…stayed at the office,” he barked.
Anger settled into Kady’s chest and a multitude of responses rushed to the tip of her tongue. Like, reminding him how lucrative this contract could be, because the initial systems they wanted were just the start of a potentially long-term relationship with this facility and others like it. Like, that Resnick had given Kady his permission and blessing to be here. Or even, just maybe, that he was a giant hemorrhoid. “I understand,” she said instead, forcing some sugar into her tone. “But fortunately, Carson was fine rescheduling for Friday afternoon, which actually worked better with his schedule.”