Chapter Thirteen
Addilyn
Addilyn scrolled through question after question of NASA’s online application for their space program. With each one, she assessed her strengths weaknesses, and without tapping into a possibly overly healthy ego about her abilities, she believed that what she had to offer made her a very strong candidate. “I could actually do this,” she whispered to herself.
“Addilyn,” Pam said, seeming to materialize out of thin air next to her desk. “Mr. Worthington would like to see you in his office.”
I swallowed, doing my best to stifle my fear from flashing in my eyes. Does she know? Pam was a hardworking and tremendously talented woman. The last thing I wanted was for her to think that I was trying to sleep my way up the corporate ladder. I’d only been here for three months but I’d already gotten a promotion and a salary increase, all while the work that I was taking on of evaluating the company’s earnings reports against departmental raw data was being kept on the hush-hush in order to not tip off anyone of the need to start covering their tracks. But, as I looked up into Pam’s eyes, I was met with only warm confidence. There was no mistrust or animosity there toward me, and that made me breathe a silent sigh of relief.
“Thanks, Pam,” I said with an earnest smile.
Getting up, I headed to Harris’s office, tapping on the door before opening it even though I’d been summonsed. I heard him call out “come” from within before turning the handle and stepping in, and I was sure to close his office door behind me. The urge to flirt with him always seemed to override my better judgment, and I didn’t want to risk my very unprofessional behavior being seen.
His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes as I walked the distance to his desk, melting me completely so that, just as I’d feared I would, I took his face in my hands and planted a big kiss right on his lips as soon as I got close enough to do so. There wasn’t anything shy about me with Harris, and as soon as our kiss broke, I rolled his chair back from his desk a little and planted myself cross-ways on his lap.
“Well hello to you too,” Harris said, his deep voice doing tingly things to my girlie bits. Unable to resist the naughty temptation, I squirmed in his lap until I felt a now-familiar thickness grow.
“There you are,” I purred, giving him another kiss, but this time instead of heat flaring in his eyes, I saw a wariness.
“I’m going to have to fire you if this relationship continues, you know that, right?” His voice was grave, as if he were reading a man his final rites, but my ears had picked up the most important words in what he’d just said, and my brows arched.
“Relationship? Is that what we’re calling this now?” I was teasing him to mask how happy he’d just made me. If I’d thought it wouldn’t hurt us both, I’d stand on top of the building with a bullhorn to yell to all the world that he and I were hooking up while I threw confetti adorned with his and my initials surrounded by a heart. “I’m going to introduce you to my daddy so that you can court me proper.” He winced, but he didn’t pull away from me. Instead, he held me closer.
“Whatever it takes,” he said, his gaze unflinching as he stared into my eyes.
Oh my God! Things were officially getting real, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that. I wanted it—I wanted him—a lot, but that didn’t mean that I knew what to do when I got what I wanted. “What happened with that guy from accounting, the one that’s been embezzling?” I asked hurriedly, opting to change the subject rather than deal with my emotional response to a man who was so much more than any of the boys I’d dated in the past.
There was a pause before Harris answered. “I took your advice and I met with him before calling the police or reporting him to the board.” His body had tensed, and I knew that there was more that he wasn’t yet saying.
“Did you fire him?”
“No... I put him on indefinite medical leave with pay.” I twisted so that I could get a better view of Harris’s face as he spoke. Harris shook his head. “He looked awful. He’s been battling cancer and putting off using his medical leave so that he’d have an income for as long as possible. He was just doing his best to provide for his family for as long as he was able. But, I don’t think he was embezzling. Do you think that the inaccuracies you found could have been from errors rather than by design?”
I didn’t hesitate to nod my head. “I do, I really do. And, I’m so glad you talked to him before, you know, doing all the rest.”
His expression was earnest. “I’m glad I took somebody’s advice to talk to him first,” he said, giving my thigh a pat. “I hate to think about how much worse that man’s life could have been made if I hadn’t talked to him first. Thank you, Addilyn. Your influence—the difference it made—it means a lot to me.”
“You mean a lot to me,” I whispered, leaning forward to rest my forehead on his. I finally felt brave enough to put into words all that I was feeling. “I’m so glad that you came into my life.”
“Right back at you.” He tilted his head up to take my lips in a kiss that had me melting against him, mind, body and soul.
Everything about him felt right to me. Everything about him was what I wanted in my today and tomorrow. Despite his words of encouragement to chase the stars, I was going to stay put, right here with him.