“If you could just show me….”
“No,” he snapped as soon as she started speaking. “We’re not playing by your rules anymore,” he snapped. “Friday, I would have given you some tips. It might be too late already so get your reports, and get back up here,” he said ominously.
Darcy only nodded, not arguing anymore. She had no idea how long this would take, but any amount of time spent in his company was too long. Even now, she was forgetting that he had regretted kissing her. She was remembering how wonderful it had been to be in his arms and wanted that feeling again. Her body was turning traitor on her and she didn’t know how to stop it.
She turned on her heel and left his office, closing the door softly then almost running down the hallway to the elevators. Back in her office, she fought the tears and pressed the buttons that would generate the reports he’d demanded.
Thirty minutes later, she was back upstairs, her arms piled high with reports. She knocked on his door and he looked up immediately. “We’ll work in the conference room where we can spread the data out,” he said, and pointed to a connecting doorway.
Darcy walked into the conference room and started spreading out the reports. Michael came in and sat down in the seat right next to her and took several reports. She flinched when his arm brushed against hers. He glanced at her, but then looked down at the report. “Okay, here we go. We’re looking for any kind of aberrant…” he explained the details that might indicate that a virus had gotten through and how it had happened. Darcy nodded and took another report, this time from a pile on the other side of her, not wanting to risk touching him again.
They worked through the morning and found several of the details but still had not determined how the virus had entered the server. He snapped at her several times when she looked through the documents and missed the items they were looking for. Unfortunately, her mind was not on the files and she knew it. Her mind was on his broad shoulders and intense blue eyes. She was fascinated by his intelligence as well.
“Darcy, concentrate. Here are two that need to be highlighted.”
Darcy grabbed the papers back and highlighted the lines of code that were incorrect. “Sorry.”’
Eating lunch at the conference room table, she pushed through the files and finally found what they were looking for. “Is this it?” she asked, pointing to the code that seemed suspicious.
Michael bent over her, his arm propped on the back of her chair. He was so close, she could feel the warmth emanating from his body and smell his spicy aftershave. She tried to move away, but she was trapped on the other side by the conference room table.
“That’s it!” he said. “Good job.”
Darcy was elated. All she wanted to do was get out of there and head back to her office. Now that they knew what the problem was, how it got onto the server, it should be a simple process to get everything cleaned up.
He moved away from her and took the pages. “Here’s what we need to do now,” and he rattled of a list of instructions that would enable them to save their data. “How about dinner to celebrate?” he asked, tossing the report back onto the conference room table.
Darcy glanced down at her watch. “I can’t. I need to get all this done,” she said, indicating his list of instructions, “and then I have something to do this evening.”
“What are you doing?” he asked, moving closer.
Darcy didn’t want to tell him that she had a pottery class. For some reason, it sounded too artsy to admit to someone as masculine as he was. Even now, with his sleeves rolled up and his tie loose around his neck, he looked sexy. “Um, it’s just something I’m working on.”
One eyebrow went up. “Sounds secretive.” Darcy smiled slightly. “You’re the one who told me I should get out of the office more.”
“Date?” he asked. Michael tried to sound casual, but his jaw clenched at the idea of anyone but him touching her, kissing her. He had no right to be feeling this way, which only made him more frustrated.
“Not really,” she said, wondering about the spark in his eyes.
“Not really? But you won’t tell me what you have planned.”
Darcy got mad at this point. “Look, you’re the one who told me to get out and live more. I’m just following your instructions. So if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do and need to get it done as quickly as possible.”
With that, she picked up her reports and left the conference room as quickly as possible.
Back in her office, she dumped the reports on her desk and fell into her chair, thankful it was there because she wasn’t sure her legs would hold her any longer since they were shaking so violently.
Darcy rushed through his instructions, pressed the “Enter” button on her computer and held her breath. “Wow!” she said, amazed at how quickly the server rebooted. She ran a series of tests and there appeared to be no bad effects from the virus. All the data was still available. She sat back in her chair and breathed a sigh of relief. That meant no more long days sitting beside Michael, she thought. For some reason, the thought depressed her instead of making her feel better.
Tuesday, Darcy was working through some problems when her phone rang. She looked at her watch and noted that it was almost five o’clock. She wanted to wrap things up quickly so she could get to her cooking class. They were making quiche tonight, the details of which Darcy thought were fascinating. “Darcy Madison,” she answered automatically as she clicked open another e-mail message.
“Were you going to follow up with me on the virus issue?” Michael asked, deceptively quiet.
Darcy could feel the anger through the phone. She didn’t answer fast enough for him she guessed because he answered for her. “Obviously not if your silence now and over the past twenty four hours is any indication. Get up here,” he said and hung up the phone.
Darcy’s hand shook as she put the receiver back in the cradle. She stood up slowly and made her way to the executive offices.
His secretary’s desk was empty already so she went to the open doorway and knocked. “You called?” she asked, trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
“Come on in,” he said and tossed the papers back down onto his desk.
Darcy was self-conscious since he watched her walk across the room to stand in front of his desk. For some reason, it felt like she was a recalcitrant kid stepping into the principal’s office. “What’s up?” she asked cheerfully.