Apparently deciding to ignore the most important point of their conversation—the client was actually happier with the new meeting time—Bob plowed on. “Why can’t you rent a car so that you can…this meeting?”
A click sounded from across the table, and Kady looked up to find that Colton had closed his laptop and sat staring at her. No, scowling. And clearly listening in.
Ugh. She’d been so intent on handling Bob that she’d momentarily forgotten she wasn’t having this conversation in private. She got up from the chair, crossed the room, and closed herself in the bathroom. The last impression she ever wanted Colton Brooks to have of her was that she couldn’t hold her own in this field—in any and every manner.
What part of “terrible storm” don’t you understand? she thought, as she fought to hang on to her composure. “I wish I could,” she said in a tone you might use with a pouty toddler. “But there’s literally nothing here. The nearest car rental is at the airport, which I can’t get to.”
“Something you have to learn when you’re a program manager is how to manage competing time commitments. If you can’t, I’ll reassign Carson’s project,” he said. Click.
“Asshole!” she whispered as she braced her hands on the counter. She forced a deep breath. “He doesn’t matter. None of that matters. Because you’ll get the contract and then you’ll be out from under him.” She nodded, the pep talk releasing some of the tension in her shoulders.
Facing the door, Kady straightened her spine and relaxed her expression. She didn’t want Colton to think the call had ruffled her feathers in the least. Flicking the light switch off, she opened the door and smacked face-first into six foot two inches of hard masculine flesh.
Chapter Three
Hands braced on either side of the doorjamb, Colton stared down at Kady. God, she was a little thing. But lush, with sexy, feminine curves—the feeling of which was now emblazoned all down the front of his body from where she’d just walked into him.
“What was that about?” he asked, the heat of anger stirring in his gut. Someone had been hassling her.
“Oh,” she said with a shrug that was supposed to come off as nonchalant. “Just work, you know.”
“No, Kady. I don’t know, which is why I’m asking.” He was well aware that she had to deal with a lot of bullshit from the men she worked with and competed against. The whole computer field—from programming to security to games—was male-dominated and somewhat proudly chauvinistic. Colton didn’t agree with it in the slightest, but that didn’t make it any less true. And for someone like her? Who was not only brilliant at the work but feminine and beautiful and sharp-tongued? Yeah, she dealt with more than her fair share of it.
“Bob was just worried about a meeting I had scheduled tomorrow, that’s all,” she said.
And now Colton was getting pissed for a new reason. Kady was lying to him. “Bob Chase is a tool,” he said. “And he was hassling you about something over which you have no control, cutting you off, and generally, from what I could hear of your side of the conversation, being a pretentious, overbearing blowhard.”
She shrugged again. “Pretty much. No biggie.”
Except that wasn’t true, either. Colton had known this woman for more than fifteen years. He knew her facial expressions, intonations, and body language—though, admittedly, not as well as he wished he could. And right now, the cast of her eyes, furrow of her brow, and curl of her shoulders all read that the call had upset her. And that combined with the fact that she wasn’t being straight with him made him a little crazy. “Why did you go in the bathroom to finish the call?”
“Just trying not to disturb you,” she said.
He stepped closer, so close they were almost touching. “You are so full of crap right now. You know that?”
Blowing out a breath, she retreated into the darkness of the small room and leaned her butt against the counter. Crossing her arms, she said, “Wow. You might want to brush up on how to win friends and influence people, Colton.”
He hit the light and followed her into the space. “Don’t deflect.”
Her green eyes flashed at him. “Why are you pushing me on this right now?”
“Because I don’t like to see someone I care about getting treated like shit, especially not by someone in a position of seniority at their job.” It sure as shit would never happen in my firm. When she dropped her gaze to the floor, he bent down enough to force their eyes to meet. “How bad is it?”
“It’s the same old BS. And nothing I can’t handle.” She looked to the side.
He caught her chin in his fingers and tilted her head to force her to look at him. “I know you can handle it, Kady. I just hate that you’re in the position of having to in the first place.” Maybe he could help. But how? A quick array of emotions flashed through her eyes. Colton frowned. “But why are you hiding it from me?”
“I’m not—”
He arched a brow, calling bullshit on her response before she’d fully voiced it. And the fact that she’d eaten the words proved he was right.
She gently wrapped her hand around his, gave it a squeeze, and pulled it away from her face. For a moment, Colton reveled in the warmth of her skin touching his even as his body registered the gentleness and was once again reminded of just why he could never have her the way he wanted. But if he couldn’t have her in his bed and under his body, then he’d sure as hell do right by her and his best friend and protect her. Defend her. Stand up for her. Not because she needed him to do it. Not because she wasn’t capable of doing it herself. But because it was the right thing to do.
And something deep down inside demanded it of him, too.
She dropped his hand and hugged herself again. “Look, I’m going to say this, and you’re not going to let it make things weird. Okay?”
A sliver of dread snaked around his spine. He nodded.
Kady heaved a deep breath, like she was bolstering her resolve. Then she met his eye. “You have looked at me as a little kid my whole life. And I get it. For a part of that time, I was a little kid. I’m six years younger and your best friend’s little sister. When you were graduating college and entering the army, I was just learning to drive. By the time I was graduating college, you had a career and had fought in wars.” She rubbed her hands over her biceps as if she were trying to warm herself. Colton jammed his hands in his pockets to keep from helping.
Between his ears, the horrible foot-in-mouth things he’d said to her that night in the pool house rattled around—words he’d said because he’d freaked out about the very things she was talking about right now. But the dismissive and insensitive load he’d dumped all over her that night had just been a pack of lies. Fact was, Colton had seen her go in the pool house moments before. He’d sought her out. And he’d known she’d had a crush on him for pretty much ever.
Thing was, by the time she’d hit her junior year of high school, he’d been crushing a little bit himself. His head saw the age difference, but his heart only saw someone who shared his interests, who could teach him things, and who made him feel. And the attraction only grew as he’d come home on leave and seen her, each time growing more and more into a woman. At his welcome-home party, she’d been beautiful and confident and so damn sexy that every rationale Colton had ever had for keeping his damn hands off had flown right out the window.
In truth, when he’d retreated from her that night after Tyler had interrupted what had been one of the hottest make-out sessions of his life—mostly because it involved the woman standing in front of him—Colton had been the one deflecting. Big time. Because his only other option was to give in to what he wanted.
Kady sighed. “I’m not that little kid anymore, Colton—”
“I know.”
“Do you?” she asked, peering up at him. She blinked away and shook her head. “Our age difference isn’t as meaningful as it was when we were younger, so I need you to see me as your peer, as your equal. Not as a little kid or a little sister who n
eeds to be coddled or protected. I don’t need you to worry about me or intercede in anything professional for me. In fact, if you ever did, it would just make things worse. In this field, I have to work twice as hard and be twice as creative to get half the respect. So I keep my complaints to myself and ignore as much of the bullshit as I can because otherwise it’ll make me crazy and distract me from what’s important, which is the work. Which I love. And I’m damn good at it, too.”
“Yes, you are,” he said without thinking. But some things were so true they didn’t require thought. They just were. Anybody would be lucky to have Kady Dresco on their team, so Bob— His thoughts froze midstream. Anybody would be lucky to have Kady on their team…including him.
That thought was like a revelation, opening doors and windows inside his mind and making him wonder why the hell he’d never had this thought before. Because Kady would be an amazing partner—competent, brilliant, skilled, creative. She’d be the kind of person you could count on to get her shit done without needing oversight and to collaborate and brainstorm in a way that made everyone’s work better. Exactly what he needed. Though, for sure, the idea of working with her wasn’t without its complications.
Forcing away that question, Colton released a long breath. Not only was she right in this situation, she’d been right three years ago, too. He hadn’t seen the real her. He hadn’t seen a strong, independent woman. He did now, though. In spades. Damn if it didn’t make her even more appealing.