Hating Him Wanting Him : A Contemporary Romance Collection Read online

  He showed me over to the miniature process area, built a few years back for the historical markup but rarely used anymore. “So, everything you should need will be in this database. Just look for the name, or search in general areas for it. If for some reason we don’t have it, you can pull up the order screen and send it out. Usually you get the piece the same day or the next.”

  I nodded, running my gloved hand over the workspace. “Great. I shouldn’t have any out of the normal pieces. The complexity comes in the system work more than anything. And I started that last night. At least the demo version of it so I could test this out when I’m done.”

  “I wish everyone was as on point as you,” Chris laughed, his eyes shifting upward. “Up, heads up, you seem to be in celebrity status right now. The CEO even came out to watch you work.”

  I could feel my shoulders freeze as I reached over and grabbed several pieces to take over to the oiling station. As I flipped back around, I glanced up, finding someone I wasn’t expecting to see again ever. My eyes started at his perfectly shined shoes, moved up his expensive dress pants, over his dark teal shirt and black tie, and then stopped abruptly, on his face.

  For a moment, my mouth dropped open, and I felt like I should say something, but I didn’t. I really had no idea what to conjure up anyway. Words were never really my thing. But standing there, looking down at me, was the same exact guy from the bar the other night. His name was Evan, and in my drunken haze of that night, I could still tell he was a decent guy. In fact, he was the kind of guy a girl meets, becomes a high profile girlfriend, marries, and has a dog named Jack with. But that was not where my focus was. I had far too many things to do in my life before I reached that sector of my goal planning.

  With my eyes still locked on him, I stepped forward, catching my foot beneath the wheel of one of the rolling carts. I tripped forward, several of the pieces flying out of my hands. Chris jumped, grabbing the cart and I immediately set the remaining pieces in my hand down so I could chase after the others. Great, there I was, crab-walking across the lab, grabbing small metal pieces before they rolled off into the drain.

  Chris was good, helping me scoop them up, laying them on my workstation. He chuckled as he handed me the last piece. “Looks like I found your weakness. Everyone gets nervous about the big heads coming to watch them. Don’t pay them any mind. I’ve met Evan. He’s a nice guy. Wanted to be hands-on in the company and then it blew up, like skyrocketed and now he has a board, and a million responsibilities, and all that stuff. I feel bad for the dude. He acts like a zombie when he’s around here. But I guess not too bad, he is the man with the checkbook.”

  I gave a fake laugh, my mind on the night I met him, how dreamy I thought he was. How he listened to everything I had to say. I could feel my cheeks getting warm right then, and glanced up to see him turning to walk out. He flashed me a quick wave, too fast for me to wave back and then he was gone. Good lord, that was not at all what I was expecting by the owner of the company.

  When I had one intake as a college student for my internship, I expected to be one of those boring histories of the company, but there was nothing. I had planned on asking about it, but I was thrown into the pit that day, never having seen an innovation team run before. It was wild, and the thought of knowing about the CEO ran right out of my mind. I was pretty sure they could have told me the Count from Sesame Street was the owner and I wouldn’t have blinked. It was the place I had dreamed of working for years. It wasn’t like I expected to sit drunk at a bar with him years later, telling my college horror stories.

  I put the thoughts out of mind, there was no reason for me to get all crazy about it. I had worked really hard on the project and it needed to get done. I was sure I’d have more than enough to talk about with Lily, the girl was going to freak out. I wonder if she remembered Connor telling her that he worked for the place. It probably didn’t matter if he did, she was pretty sloshed that night and I was surprised she remembered her own name the next day when I saw her.

  Buckling down, I worked through the day, getting the project put together the best that I could. It was a miniature version with a port to the system. When I loaded the mock system in and flipped it on, everything began working right on cue. Chris stood behind me impressed. “That’s crazy. Wow. It’s an uninterrupted system. But what if a piece over in the back brakes? Does that stop everything?”

  I shook my head. “No. It cuts the circuit and moves around. That way one small piece of machinery wouldn’t lose them millions from having to stop all of their processes until they’re fixed.”

  Chris laughed. “That’s pretty awesome. I’ll have it sent up to Evan before I leave.”

  I looked at him with a smile. “You sure?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I got some work I gotta finish up anyways. Go home, you’re done for the day.”

  Giggling with excitement, I headed out. I had the condo to myself for a while since it was the first day of rehearsals with the orchestra for Lily. So, I stopped at one of my favorite pizza places and grabbed a pie before heading over. For the first time in a long time, I put my feet up, clicked on useless television shows and ate my body weight in dough and cheese. It felt weird, like any minute I would need to study for a test or do another assignment. Eventually, though, the food took over and I yawned, dozing in and out.

  “Wake up bitch,” Lily yelled, plopping down on the couch.

  I blinked and sat up, looking out the window. “Oh, I fell asleep. Uh, how was your rehearsal?”

  She grabbed a slice of pizza and leaned back, taking a huge bite. “It was fabulous. They may actually let me perform with them in winter. I’ll have a chair. Or I’m hoping I will. No one likes to be backup. How was your day, you look tired?”

  I nodded. “It was good. I submitted a project to a company contest and they sent me to mockup to create it. While I was there though, I was being watched.”

  She wrinkled her forehead. “By whom?”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “The CEO. And let me just say, he had a very familiar face, and a very familiar friend. Though out of the bar scene it took me a minute to recognize them.”

  Lily’s eyes went wide and she gasped. “No way! Connor and his friend?”

  “Yep, and Evan is the CEO,” I replied. “Looked like Connor was someone important too.”

  She laughed, shaking her head. “How crazy is that? I mean small world big city, right? That must have been so weird for you.”

  I was staring down at my hands, my mind lost on his eyes sparkling down at me from above. Lily kicked at me. “Hello, earth to Mia. Holy hell, you have a major crush on him.”

  Shaking my head, I tried to protest. “No. Just was thinking about the coincidence.”

  She pursed her lips. “Whatever. You totally want him. All of him. Bow Chica Bow-Bow.”

  I rolled my eyes and stood up, walking toward my room. “Good night you heathen.”

  “Goodnight my wannabe slutty friend,” she yelled back.

  In my room, I didn’t even turn on the light. I threw my clothes on the floor and climbed into the bed, pulling the covers up over me. I closed my eyes and visions of Evan started to flood me. They were memories at first, but they quickly began to change. His hot body in my mind’s eye, my hands on his warm skin, his eyes boring into my soul.

  Letting my hands slip down beneath my panties I pushed through my folds and gasped quietly, imagining they were his fingers, his tongue gliding across my wetness. That’s when it happened, laying there in my bed, my legs spread out, my head back. It was the first time that Evan made me come. (Cum is the noun)The first time I could feel everything in my body wanting him. It was the first time that I really truly hoped my imagination wouldn’t be the end of it. It was obvious and clear, I wanted him, and I wanted him badly.

  10

  Evan

  My morning was insane, so insane, in fact, that I had Sharon up in my office trying to give me the synopsis of every mockup to the blueprint proj
ect turned in to me. The whole department had gone all out and not a single one of them had missed the deadline. I was starting to think that the project was almost too popular. I hadn’t even been able to choose which ones to send to mockup so I sent all of them over. In the end I rented out a space for everyone to work because the labs weren’t big enough for all those people.

  “Charles Winnipeg’s is on the pallet to be sent over to the client,” Sharon said, scanning down her notes. “It should be enroute. I had it shipped yesterday, overnight so they could see it. I know you said today was the deadline.”

  I shrugged, rummaging through paperwork. “I told him they would be completed on Friday and we would send them out. But that’s fine, it’ll keep him happy for a while.”

  Sharon’s watch beeped. “Ah. I have to run to this meeting. I’ll be back in a bit. Use the list, I’ve put shipped or waiting for shipping next to everything. The blank ones are sitting here, and your secretary has packing supplies.”

  I smiled. “Thanks for your help, Sharon. Go, do your thing. I can handle this mess. I really didn’t think through it beforehand so here I am up package alley.”

  She tilted her head at me, not understanding the analogy. I blinked several times trying to figure it out myself. Finally, I waved my hands. “Never mind, that was an attempt at humor. A failed one. Go. You have a meeting to get to.”

  Sharon laughed as she exited the office, leaving me there amongst the mess and craziness. What was I thinking? Everything seemed perfectly fine when I was just sitting back behind my desk with some files and a pen ready to send them on or hold them back. But I knew when I started reading the blueprints, and all of them had opportunity, that things might just spiral out of country?. The only one that Mr. Hashimoto had was Mia’s.

  The girl had gone above and beyond, finishing her professional blueprint in one day and then knocking out her mockup by Wednesday night. By Thursday, the client had it in his possession, though I hadn’t heard anything back. I didn’t expect to though, the man wanted options, and looking at the two page list in front of me, we had definitely done that. All I had to do was get them to him without completely breaking everything on the way over. This would have been a lot easier if the client had been in my area.

  “Sometimes, when the stakes are high and you’re up to your ass in electronics, you just have to say screw it.” Lydia stood in the doorway with packing tape in one hand and a sharpie in the other.

  I let out a deep breath. “What would I do without you?”

  “Normally I would take that as a compliment,” she said walking in and pushing the boxes to the side. “But your father said that too, and look, not working for his company anymore.”

  I chuckled, knowing full well my father fought to keep her more than he fought to keep his own VP. “You know the family loves you.”

  She rolled her eyes and leaned against the table. “Yeah, yeah. Enough with the compliments. You got about ten years’ worth of packages to get out in about two hours. Otherwise you’re going to be flying them over there yourself.”

  I jumped slightly and came around the desk. “Right. Sorry. No rest until everything is done.”

  She tossed me a roll of packing tape. “Good. I’ll address them, you tape them. There’s a guy coming by here to pick them all up for us.”

  With a smile, I put myself in the center of all the boxes, finding the ones already addressed and spreading tape across them. I did it solidly, not wanting the mockups to completely break before getting to him. As I finished taping another box, the phone rang. I looked right and left, finally deciding on the one at my desk. With a leap, I tried to clear a box, but ended up almost face first on the low pile carpet in my office.

  Looking up from the floor, Lydia looked down at me. She raised both eyebrows and reached easily to her right, picking up the call. “Evan’s office, Lydia speaking, how may I direct your call.”

  It was amazing how quickly she could change the tone of her voice. We far too often received calls on that line that needed to go somewhere else. Grunting, I picked myself up off the floor and flung my hand, trying to get the tape off of it.

  “Yes, of course,” she replied. “Hold one moment for me.”

  She turned the phone toward her and put the call on hold. Carefully she looked up at me and paused. “Uhm. That would be the client. He asked to speak to you. He said it was extremely important.”

  I tilted my head back and groaned. “God, I hope he isn’t trying to pull out. Communication between the two of us has been dodgy as hell.”

  She shrugged. “All you can do is answer and find out.”

  Nodding, I climbed over my desk and fell into my chair. I leaned forward and took a deep breath before picking up the line. “Sir, I’m sorry to keep you waiting, I…yes sir… Yes sir, we did send that, she’s a bit faster than the others. I have many boxes sitting here right now waiting for pickup…Mhmm.”

  I waved my hand at Lydia and shook my head, running my palm across my throat like a warning sign. She stopped writing, putting her hand on her hip and listening as I continued the conversation with him. “Of course, sir. Yes. Thank you for giving me a heads up. You too.”

  Hanging up the phone, I put both palms to my face and rubbed them strongly down. I smiled and laughed almost maniacally. I could tell Lydia had no idea what was going on. The stress level that had built up inside of me was the reason thousands of businessmen a day went down in full-on heart attacks.

  “If you don’t spill it, I’m going to be forced to give you a sharpie mustache. Though they can be debonair in theory, they look ridiculous.” She was shaking the pen at me.

  Putting up my hands in surrender, I chuckled. “No wonder my father used to call you a bully.”

  She pursed her lips and lifted her chin. “I happen to be amazing. Amazing. Anyway, tell me what’s going on.”

  I put my hands out to the side. “Stop all of this for a little while. Well, for good. We have a winner. There’s no need to send anymore.”

  Lydia narrowed her eyes and grabbed the clipboard. “That’s either Winnipeg or the new girl. And I’m pretty sure Winnipeg just created a time machine and wants to see if it will work.”

  Laughing loudly, I nodded. “Yes. You’re right. If you could have her sent up here, I would appreciate it. And toss me her file so I can just see what her background and such is. She was hired during that crazy time in my life. I haven’t ever worked with her or anything.”

  Lydia nodded, putting the cap on the Sharpie. “Alright, but I’m getting the boys from downstairs to come move these boxes. Where do you want them to go?”

  Glancing around I shrugged. “I guess R&D storage for now. We might be able to use them later in other projects. Waste not want not.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “You’re too much for me. Sometimes I wonder if you weren’t the milkman’s baby. At least until you give me that raised eyebrow look, it’s identical to your father’s. Pain in the ass the two of you are.”

  Laughing, I listened as she made it back out the door and called downstairs for some help. There was shuffling and banging around and she came back in, climbing over boxes to bring me the file. “I’ll call down for the winner, let me know when you’re ready for her.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. And just have the guys come on in.”

  So, there I stood, Mia’s information in my hand in a sea of boxes. I knew I was far too excited to get the chance to see her again, but I just couldn’t help it. There was something about this girl that was irresistible, at least from a distance. Now I was going to get to tell her that we were spending weeks together in California. This might just be hard to keep professional, at least from my side of things. Of course, I’m not known for my restraint. I kind of always did what I wanted to do and up to this point, it paid off but I knew that would bite me in the ass one day.

  I didn’t know anything about this girl, but the file would give me a little more insight, and I hope it made her realize that I
was actually a good guy. I never actually thought I would turn around and find the hot nerdy girl at the bar was actually one of my employees. It was still crazy to me.

  Climbing over some of the boxes, I slid in behind my desk, almost tipping my chair over with me in it. I grabbed the side and pushed myself back and plopped the file on my desk. I had never been that excited to look at someone’s file before. I was like a child. I opened the file up and a voice came over the boxes.

  “Oh. Good lord this is going to take me until next week,” the guy said to himself.

  I stood up and he jumped a bit. “Oh, sorry sir, I didn’t know you were…in there.”

  Laughing, I flipped the file shut and tossed it in the basket on my desk. “Did they only send one of you?”

  He put his hands out, his shoulder up. “I guess so. They have a lot going on so I was really the only one they could spare and that’s because I’m new.”

  With a sigh, I stepped up on my desk and jumped down in the middle. “Well, I can’t really have you spending your first days with the company doing manual labor on your own. Bring that hand truck in and we’ll pile these boxes up onto the cart.”

  “About time you did something,” my secretary said with a smirk.

  “Ignore her, she’s a bitter woman,” I said in above a whisper. “I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

  “Tony,” the guy said, shaking my hand.

  “Nice to meet you, I’m Evan,” I replied. “Come on, we got this.”

  We hauled the boxes out on the huge cart they sent up from shipping. Back and forth until the thing was full. I went with him down to storage since he didn’t have any way of getting into it. By the time I got back, my secretary had straightened out my room, taken my outbox stuff out of the bin and made it look like new again.

  Plopping down in my chair, I unbuttoned my top button, sweat on my forehead. I knew I was doing something before I left, but I got so distracted by Tony, the people I met along the way, and getting everything unloaded, I wasn’t sure what it was. Of course, with everything on my plate, that happened a lot. The day was turning around for me, and it felt really good to be part of my company again. Maybe this was the change I needed. The streak of good luck.