Inspired by Night: - a sexy new age romance (6 page)

Chris Knight:
Steven doesn’t seem to think you’re dull
.

Olivia Jones:
Steven is a nerd; he’s straight out of a computer games design degree and his ambition is to do what I’ve done. I’d be offended if he wasn’t at least a little impressed by me, but I’m really only of interest to a small minority of people.

Chris Knight:
I loved that Jerk Chicken video by the way.

Olivia Jones:
*rolls eyes*

Chris Knight:
Haha! Steven said you would do that!

Olivia Jones:
He’s learning!

Chris Knight:
Right, on that note I will let you get back to your Saturday evening. Any plans?

Olivia Jones:
I’m playing
Lego Batman
on the PS3.

Chris Knight:
On a Saturday night?

Olivia Jones:
Told you I was dull ;)

Chris Knight:
Hmmm I think there’s more to you, Olivia Jones. I look forward to finding out what makes you tick!

Olivia Jones:
I think you will be disappointed, sir.

Chris Knight:
We shall see. Speak to you soon, Liv.

I felt a stab of disappointment that the short conversation had ended, but I had a feeling I’d be hearing from him again. I wonder what he means about finding out what makes me tick. I shook my head smiling to myself and switched on the PS3.

Chapter Seven

All too soon, the weekend was over and I found myself opening up the office at 9 a.m. Having staff had certainly made my timekeeping more consistent. Steven was an early bird, or maybe he was just making a good impression. I yawned loudly as I made a mental note to speak to him about his preferred start time. I’d certainly like an extra hour in bed!

His voice interrupted my thoughts, making me jump.

‘That was a big yawn. Must’ve been a good weekend?’ There was a hint of teasing in his voice, mixed with surprise. I shook my head.

‘Whatever impression I gave you last week, I’m not a morning person. I usually roll in at 10 a.m. at the earliest. The joy of being the boss!’ I smirked.

‘Well you never did tell me a start time, I just assumed it was 9 a.m. I would be more than happy to come in at 10 a.m.,’ he suggested, almost pleaded.

I bristled slightly with annoyance that he was trying to set a later start time and then scolded myself. Be nice, Olivia Jones. You already decided you wanted him to come in later. I swallowed my irritation and reminded myself that Steven didn’t annoy me any more; maybe I should just give him a key to open up? I couldn’t decide whether I was ready to trust him with keys to the building. Maybe in a few weeks.

‘Yeah, good plan. Starting tomorrow!’ I made my way to the kitchenette to make a cup of tea and settled on the sofa.

‘Come sit for a minute,’ I called over before he sat down at his desk. He wandered over and took the proffered mug of tea from me. He looked wary as he sat down; perhaps he thought I might say something about Friday night. Maybe he thought I was going to kiss him.
Ha!
As
if!

‘Good weekend?’ I asked, much to his visible relief.

‘Yes, it was good. Quiet after Friday night. Wow those guys sure can drink. I expected Friday night drinks after work to finish by seven; there’s some serious drinking going on there, does that happen every week?’ I nodded and he whistled through his teeth, then grinned. ‘Good, I enjoyed it. And why not finish off a hard-working week with a few beers? Will you come again?’

‘Oh, I don’t usually bother with all that,’ I waved my hand dismissively.

‘But you had a good time?’ he asked insistently.

‘Well yes, I did, although the best bit was sneaking home pretending to be secret agents!’

He laughed at the memory.

‘You did me a huge favour helping me hide from Melissa, thanks,’ he said warmly.

‘No worries. I saw Steph’s photos on Facebook.’

Steven’s cheeks flushed slightly and I wondered if he was embarrassed by his comments about me.

‘That Chris guy sent me a friend request,’ I added. He didn’t seem too surprised by that.

‘Chris spends a lot of time online, he likes to add to his ever-expanding network of friends. Plus, he will want to see more pictures, check if you’re as hot as he thought you were in that photo!’

‘Well I expect he will be disappointed then. We had a brief chat actually, he seems interesting.’ It was more of a question than a statement. It suddenly seemed important to me that Steven had a good opinion of him.

‘Yeah he’s great; I lived with him at uni. I grew up a lot when he moved in.’

I noticed the tone of his voice, telling me he was more mature than his years, not that his age was my only issue. My mind returned to Monday morning and a thought occurred to me;

‘Oh shit, I forgot to text Steph, she’s going to be so mad at me.’ I looked up at him thoughtfully and smiled my brightest smile. ‘Can you do me a favour?’

‘Anything, Ols. You’re the boss remember?’ he teased.

‘OK, well I was meant to text Steph, let her know where we had gone to on Friday night. I forgot. Thing is, she’s a bit into you so she might think I took you away to keep you all to myself or something.’

A small smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, his eyes warm with contained laughter.

‘But I didn’t tell you that, obviously,’ I flushed. ‘So anyway, she’s going to be mad, can you phone up the lunch order? She won’t be mad at you, tell her what happened and get me off the hook too if you can?’

‘How much to tell though? Will she still be mad at you if she knows it’s you I want, not her?’

My eyes widened and I froze. No! He didn’t just say that out loud? I blinked and he laughed.

‘Relax, Ols, it’s not a big deal. I like you, if you don’t feel the same or feel some need to deny you feel the same, that’s cool. I know I need to prove myself to you.’

I didn’t know what to say so I nodded and, pushing myself up off the sofa, I made my way to my desk. I needed to get an office built in; I didn’t think I could cope sharing a room with Steven. I listened in while he made the lunch order to Steph. By the end of the conversation, he was laughing and I knew I was off the hook. He didn’t tell her he tried to kiss me of course, he’s not stupid and he knows the extra generous portion sizes are because of her attraction to him and the hope of something more. I still couldn’t believe he was so open about his feelings, but then I reasoned; he is a nerd, and nerds do deal in facts and evidence. His feelings were out in the open and he knew where he stood, no confusion, no distractions. I envied him his simple outlook. He seemed content, not in the least bit embarrassed or upset by my rejection. He was sure enough of something between us that he felt able to wait around for me to trust him. Could I trust him? Or was this just part of his long game? This was a problem of being self-employed, no one to ask about the rules. If I had a boss above me I could go and talk to my boss, be open about it, and just see what happened. Maybe I just need witnesses. Should I take on more staff? Could I cope with that many people? Yes if I had my own office!

My mind started drifting, picturing myself in a little office, comfy swivel chair, sturdy desk with a new iMac. A name plate on the door. Staff working in the open-plan office outside. Steven walking in, locking the door behind him and striding across the room, kissing me, laying me across the desk …

‘Ols, you’re doing it again.’ Steven’s voice broke through my thoughts, bringing me back to reality.

‘What?’ I asked, slightly disoriented and disturbed by the direction my mind had gone.

‘Staring at me. You can’t tell me you don’t want me then sit staring at me longingly,’ he teased. How is he so comfortable talking about this, I wondered. He grinned at my obvious discomfort. ‘May I inquire as to what you were thinking?’ My face reddened, causing him to laugh. ‘Must’ve been something good. Were you thinking about me kissing you?’ he asked hopefully.
Bingo!
I frowned and shook my head and he pretended to look disappointed. I scrabbled about in my mind for a subject.

‘I was thinking about Edinburgh …’ I said.
Oh really, Olivia Jones, and what about Edinburgh were you thinking?
‘There’s a conference there in a few months, networking, workshops, latest developments, that sort of thing. I thought you might like to go? You’ll be great at the networking, I’m not very good at it at all, and it’s about time we got out there.’ Really? A conference? Where had that come from?

‘You’d let me loose as the representative of Inspired?’ he smiled. ‘That is very trusting of you.’ There was a note of sarcasm to his teasing voice as he emphasised the word ‘trusting’.

‘I’m trying,’ I said quietly, and his face grew serious. He smiled and nodded.

‘Sounds great, I can show you all my old uni haunts.’

I shook my head.

‘No I’m not going. I never go to these things. One of the reasons I hired you was to go to these events for me. Use that abundance of charm you’ve got and win us some more clients.’

He looked disappointed. Maybe he thought he could sneak into my hotel room late at night and seduce me. A tingle ran down my spine and I felt a flush of heat through my lower body. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me, this was not helping me forget about him. How was I going to maintain a professional relationship if my body kept betraying me like this?

‘OK,’ he replied, shrugging his shoulders and returning his attention to his monitor, ‘if you’re sure you can trust me to represent you in your absence.’

I watched him for a moment. I couldn’t work out if he was irritated or amused by the conversation. I realised I was sending out mixed messages. What was I thinking? One minute I’m telling him I’m scared he’s plotting to sue me for sexual harassment so he can ruin my business and steal my customers, and the next I’m inviting him to go off to conferences to meet potential clients. Well if the former turned out to be true then the latter was just me handing my business to him on a plate.

Edinburgh. What was I thinking? Of all the things I could’ve said. I should have just said, ‘Yes, I think about you kissing me all the time,’ in a sarcastic tone of voice.

Chapter Eight

That evening I was wrapped up in my dressing gown, fluffy slipper boots, and a blanket. I opened up the laptop and did a search for some programming conferences. The idea had occurred to me after I’d mentioned Edinburgh. Part of my reason for hiring Steven was to network, despite my earlier reservations I knew deep down he wasn’t out to get me. While I still found it hard to believe that he would be attracted to me considering my age and appearance, I didn’t really believe he was trying to sabotage my business and steal my clients. The truth of the matter was that I found his presence distracting, he was very present in the room – even when he was quietly working away I was aware of him and I couldn’t concentrate. I would need a long-term solution of course, but perhaps sending him off to conferences would at least give me some respite in the office.

As I was searching, a Messenger window popped up. I haven’t used Messenger for a long time; I’d forgotten I was even logged in.

Chris Knight:
Good Evening, Liv. How was your weekend?

Olivia Jones:
It was wonderfully quiet. I completed the story mode of
Lego Batman
.

Chris Knight:
*shakes head* You should get out more. Pretty girl like you should be going out and meeting people, not hiding away behind a video game.

Irritation shot through me. Who was he to tell me how I should be spending my time? I thought about ignoring him – he clearly had nothing of interest to say to me and I had better things to do than justify my lifestyle to him. I continued browsing the web, making a note of conferences and upcoming event dates. The message icon started flashing again.

Chris Knight:
Sorry, did I offend you?

Chris Knight:
I used to moan at Steven all the time for wasting his life playing video games. If he wasn’t doing his college work or working at the bar he was playing games. I just didn’t get it. I still don’t. But he seems to be making a living from it as, of course, do you. So who am I to judge?

Olivia Jones:
You probably wonder why I would spend my weekend playing video games after spending all my week working on them?

Chris Knight:
Well yes. Where’s the social life? You have to enjoy yourself too, can’t be working all the time.

Olivia Jones:
I got into programming because I loved playing video games. I wanted to know how they worked and I wanted to create things that addressed all the complaints I had about other video games. But I still love playing them, and it’s hard to play a game you’ve created yourself; there is no excitement, no surprises, and no puzzles to solve. I spend my week working on a game and then I relax by playing something someone else created, I get the all-round experience.

Chris Knight:
Sounds like something Steven would say! I guess you two are all-round video game nerds!

I smiled at that – partly I liked that he had thrown us together as a pair, but partly I liked that he understood our passion for video games.

Chris Knight:
I do have one question though, if I may?

Olivia Jones:
I assume I’m going to hate this question, the fact you’ve sought my permission to ask it. But go ahead.

Chris Knight:
When was the last time you had a boyfriend or went on a date?

It took me a while to respond, not because I didn’t want to answer but because it had been such a long time that I’d been on a date it took me a while to remember.