Page 6 of Courting the Consequences

She looked fucking beautiful.

Kevin watched as she walked by while looking down at her phone, lost in thought. “Morning Boss Lady,” Kevin greeted.

“Oh,” she breathed, hand flying to her heart.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He frowned slightly. She wasn’t usually so lost in thought. She typically kept her head up and greeted everyone by name as she passed them.

She turned to face him, and a bright smile lit up her face when she saw who it was. “Morning, Kevin. No, it’s my fault. I should watch where I’m going. HR has enough safety meetings about this very topic,” she laughed lightly, shaking her head.

He smiled and fell into step beside her. “Work just extra busy, or something else got you distracted?” He phished for info. It had been almost three weeks since she hugged him in the stairwell, and in that time, he had barely seen her. He almost thought she was avoiding him.

“No,” she shook her head, “I was texting my brother. We’re planning a weekend away just the two of us this winter.”

“And what does a weekend away look like for a CEO?” Kevin smirked.

She rolled her eyes at him and smiled. “It looks like snowboarding in Pineridge,” she answered easily.

Kevin’s eyebrows rose in shock. “Well color me surprised,” he chuckled. “I’d expect a girl like you to be more into skiing.”

“Nah,” Kara smirked, “too boring.”

Kevin laughed and nodded, “Touché.”

“How’s your morning going?” she asked, looking up at him. He was almost a foot taller than her. They headed into the cafeteria, her heels clicking with every step.

“Can’t complain now that I’ve gotten to see your beautiful face,” Kevin replied, watching her carefully. He had kept his voice low so others around them wouldn’t hear.

Her cheeks turned slightly pink as a smile graced her lips. She glanced up at him before looking around. There was no one near them, though they were standing in the middle of the cafeteria. Everyone was minding their own business.

“Could have sworn you might have been avoiding me,” Kevin added now that he had her buttered up.

Her smile fell slightly. He could see the emotions warring on her face before she locked them down again and the cool and collected mask slipped into place. She nodded vaguely though, glancing down almost sheepishly. “I might have been,” she admitted. Her hands came up to smooth out her suit coat. “I’m sorry,” she glanced back up at him.

He furrowed his brow in confusion as he stared down at her. “Why are you apologizing?”

“For avoiding you? I wanted to thank you for being there for me when I was having a moment that day. You were there for me and I appreciated that,” she said softly.

Kevin frowned. She sounded like she was talking about a design choice or a meeting agenda, not something as disturbing as beingchokedby an ex-employee and needing to be comforted. “Are you sure you’re OK after everything that happened? It’s alright to not be OK, you know.”

She sighed and glanced around. This really wasn’t the fucking place for this conversation. He wanted to take her into his arms and hold her close, tell her he’d take care of her and never let anything bad happen to her again. He couldn’t, though.

“I’m honestly OK,” she forced a smile on her face and glanced behind him.

“Morning, Miss Carmichael,” Kevin heard a woman say from behind him.

“Good morning, Jen,” she greeted before turning back to Kevin. “I have to go. It was good to see you again. I’ll check in later on the remodel,” she gave him a tight smile.

Kevin sighed and nodded, putting on his show. “Have a good day, Miss Carmichael.”

“Bro,youcan’tdothat here.” Derrick “Devil” Halson heard Kevin groan from behind him as he pulled out a cigarette while on the loading dock of the electrical building of Carmichael and Associates. It was his second week on the new job site, and Rockstar had been on his ass all day.

“Chill, I’m heading outside,” Derrick replied, tucking the cig behind his ear. He may be new to the job site, but he’d been with Taylor Construction and Mechanical for years. He knew each site had regulations on where employees could smoke, and within those regulations, their own crew generally found places that were acceptable because of who they were. Like when they were on the roof, as long as they didn’t leave a mess and had proper ashtrays, no one cared.

For whatever reason, his buddy was extra uptight today. Bro needed to get laid. More and more of their crew had started rolling in over the last several days, and with them, Kevin grew increasingly on edge. He had a good gig going here. Derrick could see why Kevin didn’t want their crew screwing up. But they all knew better. Johnny was a hothead on a good day and a bear on a bad day. He drilled jobsite etiquette into all of them.

Derrick led the way out the loading bay door. Just as they stepped out into the blazing May heat, Kara Carmichael herself walked up, looking pinned to perfection. Her perky tits were confined behind a painfully conservative green dress. Conservative to Derrick at least. There was no cleavage shown. And as always, a suit coat covered her arms. Derrick wondered if that was part of the company’s dress code, the women having to stay covered like some Stepford wife. God forbid a man see a bit of skin.

“Hey Boss Lady, you’re awfully far from your ivory tower. Coming down to mingle with us lowly peasants?” Kevin shot at her. Derrick glanced back at his buddy to see him smiling at Kara.

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