Page 36 of Resisting Fate
Chapter Eight
Ben couldn’t concentrate Monday morning, knowing Missy would be showing up at one o’clock today. There was work to be done, of course. He and Logan had to keep up with their current clients, figure out marketing for after the holidays to bring in new clients, and they were also setting up investor meetings for January. Checkin was valued at 250 million, and they were looking to raise forty million more to expand with a sales force and even better tech that integrated with some of the older HR systems. They were on the verge, an exciting time for them. Logan’s big brother Jake owned a very successful tech company and had the connections they needed with Silicon Valley investors. Jake hadn’t offered to fund them and they hadn’t asked. Mostly because they didn’t want to muck up family and money. All the guys knew if they asked wealthy Jake for funds for just about anything, he’d step up, but Ben and Logan didn’t want to take the easy way out. This company was all theirs, and they wanted to do it on their own. Kinda like Missy wanting to earn the money on her own to help that family. Another thing they had in common.
Fate.
Get your head on straight!
He drummed his fingers on his desk. His plan was simple—spend these three weeks and two days getting to know Missy as a professional and treating her like a valued employee. The last thing he needed was another disgruntled employee like Ashley. He could not fail. The stakes were too high with the upcoming investor meetings. They couldn’t afford another black mark against him, and he never wanted to let Logan down.
Sex wasoffthe table.
No, it was more than off the table, he would take a vow of celibacy. He shifted uncomfortably. Maybe he should find an outlet for all this pent-up lust. If only he wasn’t so hooked on Missy. Never had a hookup gotten under his skin like she did. Maybe getting to know each other with no sex would lead to some deeper level. Or not. He wasn’t sure how deep he was willing to go in. He wasn’t much for relationships, but this thing with Missy felt different. Hell, maybe they’d end up hating each other after this. Maybe she only wanted sex from him. He could only guess what was going on in her mind. She was practically a closed book.
He had to know more.
He found himself clicking over to the Checkin website, logging in, and entering Missy’s name. Since he couldn’t stop thinking about her, might as well find out more. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t do the same for any temp employee. That was the whole point of Checkin—background checks for short-term employees. Though more and more companies were taking an interest for all new hires. He’d already Googled Missy after they’d hooked up and hadn’t found much on her, just the basics—phone number and address. Bingo. She’d been married before to Louis Braxton, divorced three years later. Geez, she’d been young when she got married, right out of high school. Maybe she’d been pregnant. Maybe she had kids. Maybe the money she was trying to earn for the holidays was for her own family. What was her deal?
She was thirty, a year younger than him. No criminal record. Clean driving record. Several name changes—Carson, Higgins, Braxton, Higgins. Maybe Carson was her name before she was adopted. He wanted to know more.
A hand slapped down on his desk, making him jump. “I want those reports by five p.m. sharp!”
He met Logan’s very amused brown eyes, his own cheeks burning from being caught snooping. “Asshole. When ya gonna shave, huh?” Logan sported a neatly trimmed light brown beard and mustache, going all hipster on him. He took after his blonde beauty queen mom, the only Campbell brother with light brown hair, the rest of them had dark brown, and he had her narrow nose that tilted up at the end like a ski jump. A pretty boy jock—his features too perfect—turned techie hipster. Women loved to gaze upon Logan, but he was never serious with anyone, still stuck on his college girlfriend. The one who got away.
“You look guilty as hell.” Logan rushed behind Ben’s desk to peer over his shoulder. “Whatcha looking at? Porn?”
Ben slammed his laptop shut. “Nothing. Just work.”
Logan nudged his shoulder. “Come on. Share the wealth.”
“Whadda ya want?”
Logan walked back around the desk and took a seat in one of the cushioned chairs. “Bud, you need to get laid if you gotta look at porn on a Monday morning. Must’ve been a roughlonelyweekend. Your hand tired?”
Ben gritted his teeth. It had been a rough weekend. After he’d seen Missy at the mall, he’d spent the rest of the weekend flooded with memories of their wild hookup. He wanted her more than he had before they’d hooked up, and now that he’d done the right thing, offering her a job when she needed it most, his stupid libido had ramped up even more. Like knowing he couldn’t have her made him want her more. This was what happened when you took the high road—you suffered.
“How’s your sweetheart?” Ben asked just to annoy him. That was what Ben called Sabrina ever since Logan claimed she was too sweet for him. She worked in the office downstairs for her relationship counseling practice. Logan had lunch with her sometimes, but insisted, despite their obvious compatibility—the woman laughed at all of Logan’s stupid jokes—that they were just friends. Her kind of sweetness—all quiet, doe-eyed compassion—was the exact opposite of what Ben looked for in a woman. Way too much energy required to keep from hurting her tender feelings. That was one of the things he liked about Missy, a tough practical woman, as matter of fact about sex as he was.
Don’t think about it! Keep your head in the game.
Logan grabbed Ben’s stapler, pulled the top up and fired a staple at him that bounced off his shoulder. “I got us a meeting with Elias Gold.”
“No shit? That’s great!”
“Yup. January’s going to be huge for us. Just watch, all the big-money investors will fall in line once they hear he’s interested.”
He leaned across the desk and they slapped hands in a hearty handshake. “Fucking awesome. When did this happen?”
“Ran into him in the city this weekend at one of Claire’s charity things. Jake talked us up; next thing I know, Elias’s assistant emailed me this morning to confirm.” Claire was Jake’s wife, a movie star moving in elite circles.
“It’s early there, isn’t it?” Ben asked. Elias was based in California.
“He stays on East Coast time to keep up with the stock market, so his assistant does too.”
They grinned at each other.
Ben drummed his fingers on his desk, still smiling. “It’s really happening.”
Logan set the stapler down and jumped up. “It really is. When’s Missy coming in? I’ve got a huge data-entry job for her. You think she can do some accounting too? I want to start pulling the numbers for our meetings next month and put that all together with some cool graphs of our rise to the top.”
