Page 7 of Baby One Last Time
Yeah, I’d screwed up one job pretty spectacularly and had put everyone in danger on another, but there was still the matter of that insanely high close rate Derek and I had achieved, and the fact that my performance hadn’t suffered—much—after our separation. Derek’s hadn’t suffered at all, and he’d been with HEAT for over three years before I came on board, so I wasn’t shocked when X returned him to the role of team lead when he left me, then promoted him even higher at the end of August. That didn’t mean I wasn’t a little miffed.
I decided to push some more. “And a paid vacation as soon as this next job is over. I haven’t had one of those since last May.”
It was risky, bringing up May. Derek and I had both earned two weeks off and were supposed to have spent them in different spots on the globe. That wasn’t exactly what went down. Pun intended. That was the beginning of all our trouble.
“We can come to an agreement, I’m sure,” X said.
In the year since I’d met her, I’d learned you have to get X to spell it out if you want to hold her to a commitment. “And that agreement is what, exactly?” I asked.
“You can have the raise.” Which meant she’d planned to give it to me anyway, which made me wish I’d held out for more. “As for the vacation, let’s just see how this mission turns out, shall we?”
Translation: if I screwed up badly enough, I wouldn’t have a job to vacate. But hey, if X decided to kill me, it would be a lovely time of year to die. On the flip side, if I did well, there’d be a vacation full of wine, chocolate, snuggling in front of a roaring fire, and doing delightful and unspeakable things to…
Well, shit. Probably not that, since I was about to be working with the object of my illicit fantasies.
“I know you didn’t ask for my opinion,” Derek told X, “but I think she’s worth it.”
X’s face flashed bright red. I’d never seen that color on her before. It couldn’t be good. “You are correct: I did not ask for your opinion. And now seems like the opportune time to remind both of you about our company policies. In fact, Cynthia, I think it’s best if you retake all of the policy orientation training. It didn’t seem to stick very well last time.”
Great. That meant a full day of sitting in front of a computer screen watching tutorials and taking online quizzes to prove I hadn’t fallen asleep during the lame-ass presentations.
“As for you, Derek.” X turned toward him.
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. At least I wouldn’t suffer alone. Maybe he’d be assigned to the computer terminal right next to mine so I could watch his agony up close and personal.
“You’ll be TJ’s backup if Kessler doesn’t toe his line,” X finished.
Hey, that didn’t sound like punishment at all. In fact it sounded like...
“Wait, does that mean TJ is my team lead?” I asked.
“Yes,” Derek answered. “Is that a problem?”
I shook my head. “No. He’s good.”
“Remember that a week from now when you come to me to complain about him,” X said. With that, she turned on her heel and joined my new team lead and the two men and two women previously known as my landscaping crew. My ears perked up when X mentioned the time of their flight out of LA. It was unlikely, then, that they were my new long-term teammates.
“So explain something to me,” I said without looking at Derek. “If TJ is my team lead, and you’re his superior—”
“Superior isn’t exactly the right word. It’s more of a mentor-protégé situation.”
“Not exactly” were words of evasion. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Still sounds to me like you’re the boss of him.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “In some ways, yes.”
Well, damn. This was even worse than last year when I’d been desperate to do the nasty with my colleague and senior agent-on-the-ground. Now I was condemned to lust after my boss’s boss. I slid my eyes sideways to take in the sex catnip poured into tight jeans standing beside me and plotted all the seductive ways I could taunt him so he’d be as miserable as me while we worked in close proximity. But every scenario in my mind ended with both of us naked, which could not happen. Probably.
“Hey Cynth,” Derek said without looking at me, using the nickname he always saved for when he was about to kiss me.
I cleared my throat and tried to think about baseball stats to distract me from my previous thoughts. Unfortunately, I didn’t know any baseball stats.
“If we’re going to get through this assignment,” Derek continued, keeping his eyes straight ahead, “you’re going to have to stop looking at me like you haven’t eaten in a month and I’m breakfast, lunch, and dinner all rolled into one.”
“Actually, it’s been four months.” Almost to the day, our last night together before X separated us for good.
That got his attention. He stared at me with raw need. “Same.”
Then the lustful look was gone, replaced by the façade of my boss’s boss.
