LADY BUG
A Kindle World Novella
By K. Lyn
CONTENTS
Sleeping with the boss is nothing new, but Catrina should know better than to sleep with her employee. She’s older and wiser than the sexy man whose tight fitting pants cause her temperature to rise whenever he’s near. He makes her feel like “Mrs. Robinson” when she thinks of seducing him, which is daily. Determined to forget him, she agrees to a blind date, but her scheming young employee has other plans for her.
Catrina Haring sat against the back wall of the office, bored out of her mind. This was nothing new. Her day began at eight o'clock in the morning when she got up and ate her plain old breakfast of bran flakes. After that, she would dash to the office and make sure that she sat behind her desk, like usual, before her employees arrived. Usually by noon one of her telemarketers would mess up a sale, and then she would have to yell at them. Which brought her to the now… the boring, frustrating, "I'm thirty years old and still eat microwavable dinners by myself" now.
She frowned, leaning over her desk, as she picked at her meal of strawberry yogurt and a salad that looked more like shriveled green leeches than spinach. A strange, disgusting smell wafted off of it. Picking up her plastic fork, she flipped the piece of spinach over and grimaced. That was boring too.
Just as she contemplated opening up the work forbidden video streaming sight to watch pointless laughing babies and monkeys throwing shit at passersby, somebody knocked on her door. Her heart sped up. Was it sad that she prayed some terrible incident had occurred in the call center, just so she would have something to do? Probably.
"Come in," she said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms - a power pose, just like she had seen on the early morning show last Saturday.
The door opened and somebody stepped through it. Somebody not boring and, in fact, quite perfect from his shoes to the curve of his tight ass. She gasped as she eyeballed jeans so tight they were not work appropriate, yet she would let it slide anyway, just because she needed something to shake up the boredom that was her daily life.
It was Dan. Dan Swanson, to be exact. A gorgeous twenty-three year old boy who had started here only a year ago and had driven her crazy since day one. He had dark black hair that was mussed with just enough gel, his eyes were dark and smoldered like the caverns of hell itself, which she was sure was where she was going after their time together, and his chin was strong and coated with a dusting of day-growth that made him just masculine enough to cause her to squirm.
"Cat?" Dan said, as he looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
Shit. He used her special name. She tried to ignore the memories that popped up into her head. Dan, crawling along the bed butt naked, his cock dripping, as he said, "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where are you?" Maybe she would have preferred her boring work day.
She slammed her hand down on her desk and stole a look at the office door that Dan shut and then locked behind him. "Okay, what gives, Dan? I broke up with you, remember? Do not call me Cat. I am Boss or even, hell, Ms. Haring to you, but I am not Cat. Not in any sense of the word."
Like pussy. She grimaced.
"Right, Ms. Haring," Dan said. He drew out her name in a seductive way that caused a chill to run down her spine, and she had to fight down the un-boss-like urge to shove her foot into his shin. Bastard.
"Why are you here, Dan?"
"Okay, first off, if I have to call you Ms. Haring – "Once again he drew out her name in a seductive manner that made her both cringe and squirm at the same time. " – then I honestly think you should call me Mr. Swanson. It's more fitting."
"If that's what you wish, Mr. Swanson," she said, though the words sounded disgusting on her tongue, like vomit. She had always called him Dan, from the moment he stepped into the office and flashed her a devilish and charming grin. "I repeat, though, what are you doing in my office? If it is un-work related, then I suggest you leave now. We have no business socializing."
Dan lifted up his hand. There was a plastic bag in it. "I've brought some lunch. You seem bored and lonely. I thought I could liven things up a bit."
You sure did. "Listen, I am not bored or lonely. This is a work environment, which should be respected and – "
Ignoring her rant, Dan sat in front of her and started unpacking his lunch. He had a small pudding, a sandwich that was peanut butter judging by the way it smelled, and a bag full of miniature orange carrots. She scowled at him. His childishness drove nails into her head. It was a reminder that she was too old for him, the reason why she had broken up with him to begin with.
"What are you doing?" she moaned, pushing her face into her hands.
"Having lunch," he said, opening his chocolate pudding, the dessert first, and grabbing a plastic spoon. "What does it look like?"
"You have got to stop doing this," she said, smacking her face with her hand. "I broke up with you, remember?"
"You still love me."
Dan dug into his pudding and raised it to his mouth seductively. With a pop, he pulled the crème from his mouth and half of it still remained in the spoon. Her mouth watered as the smell of chocolate wafted over to her. Damn him and damn withered spinach. She defiantly took a bite of the disgusting shriveled flotsam that was her salad and grimaced. It was no chocolate pudding and it tasted like it had come out of a horse's ass.
"Do you want some?" Dan asked, smirking as she grimaced and chewed her salad.
"No," she said, defiant.
Before she could blink, a spoon appeared before her. A chocolate filled spoon. She grimaced. It did smell good, and it wasn't like the two of them hadn't shared spit before. Yet it felt so intimate, taking the chocolate pudding from him. She shook her head and frowned. Shrugging his shoulders, Dan opened his mouth and ate some more of the pudding. When he was done, he licked the spoon completely clean and then grinned at her.
The memories that washed over her at that moment were horrifying and yet intriguing. She remembered sitting on her couch with her legs spread as he ate her out, and she moaned and squirmed as she dug her fingers into her office chair. One thing that Dan was good at was pleasing her. He was never selfish, always took the time to make sure she got her pleasure first. Being with him felt so good.
She shook her head, trying to forget just how good it was.
Turning in her swivel chair, she looked at the time. One o'clock. Lunch was over. She was shocked that she was more disappointed by this than relieved. She would be the boss again, and he would obey her, otherwise the sectional manager would yell at him.
"Lunch time is over," she said.
Dan studied her, his smile fading. "I guess it is."
Frowning, she looked at her desk and studied her dark blue nails. A hot hand landed on her bare leg, and she glanced upward, her heart pounding, as Dan ran his fingers up her skin. She felt her clit grow warm and her panties become damp, even from that slight touch. His dark brown eyes, smoldering and hot, overwhelmed her. Hypnotized her.
"Ms. Swanson," Dan said.
She was too stunned to comprehend coherent thought. Instead, she let out a confused grunt and then a, "Huh?"
"I miss you," Dan said. "I miss being with you."
Once again she grunted. His breath smelled of chocolate and his mouth was tantalizingly close. Before she could breathe or say something else, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, hard. His mouth was hungry and his tongue adventurous as he nudged his way past the opening of her lips and plunged inside. She gasped against his lips and he pressed himself closer, harder, and then dropped to his knees.
As they kissed, Cat knew that she should back away, but his mouth on hers, hungry and demanding and earnest, made her forget why she wasn't supposed to want him. His hand, hot and callused from hard work, ran up her thigh. He rubbed the opening to her clit with his index finger on the outside of her panties but did not push the silken material aside to plunge inside of her. As she spread her legs for him, eager for more, she was stunned when he moved his hand away and pulled out of her mouth with a slurp. When he stood up, she gasped.
"Well," Dan said, smiling at her, "good lunch, Ms. Swanson."
"Uh-huh."
Maybe today wasn't so boring after all.
Stiff legged from sitting too much, Cat stood up and wandered over to the water cooler where some of her callers talked during their break. Samantha Allen and her friend, Trina Rob, stood there, socializing. Samantha was a sweet, thirty-five year old woman with two kids and a scumbag ex-husband who had left her high and dry without alimony, and Trina Rob was a perpetual player, always with one guy or another.
Not that Cat could judge. She had dated a twenty-three year old kid who was her underling, and he still managed to get under her skin. Maybe it was because he was correct about her. She did still love him. Too much so, in fact. Sometimes she half wanted to crawl back to him on her hands and knees, and heaven knew what he would do with her then… though she'd likely enjoy it. She licked her lips and frowned.
"Catrina?" Samantha said, grabbing her arm and squeezing it. "You kind of zoned out there. You okay?"
"Sure," she lied.
Trina examined her. "Alright, if you say so. You look kind of pale or something…"
A head popped over the cubicle next door. Damn. She had forgotten how close Dan was to the water cooler. Even after she looked away, she could feel his smoldering gaze on her back, and possibly other areas as well.
Trina examined Cat. "See, you're doing it again."
"Doing what?" Cat asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Zoning out. Licking your lips." Trina shrugged. "It looks like somebody just gave you a piece of cheesecake."
Or something better, she thought, frowning. She shrugged.
"Well, anyway," Trina said, "that doesn't matter. I was actually going to come to your office after the shift was over, so you have good timing. I know this is a conflict of interest – "
"Though you've always been too awesome to care about that," Samantha said.
" – but I was wondering whether you would be interested in a blind date," Trina finished, shooting Samantha a scowl. "He's a really great guy. You'd like him."
Behind her, Cat heard the sound of something heavy being dropped on the floor and then Dan swearing. She frowned.
"A blind date?" Cat asked, swaying from side to side. That may be just what I need in order to get Dan off my back… Strangely, that made her heart feel cold and empty, but she shook it off. "Okay. When were you thinking?"
In the reflection in the screen of an off computer, she saw that Dan made faces at her back, like he had just shoved a whole lemon in his mouth and attempted to swallow the juices. She did her best to focus on Samantha and Trina, who both ignored Dan as if this was an ordinary occurrence.
"I was thinking that, so you can meet him first, I could bring him to the company party next week." Trina grinned. "That way you would know that I wasn't bringing you a freak of nature, and it would be comfortable surroundings. What do you say?"
The company party? She frowned and ground her teeth. The company party meant that Dan was going to be there, dressed up in his ridiculous boy costume that was three sizes too small for his lean, fit, sexy body. There was a good chance he would try to monopolize her and her blind date, yet, on the other hand, it would be an opportunity to show him that things were truly over. She frowned.
"You okay?" Trina asked. "Your face just fell. You don't want to do it?"
Raising her hands, she shook her head violently. "No, it's fine. Please bring him. I would be glad to meet your friend. What's his name?"
"AJ," Trina said, smiling the cat-that-got-the-canary grin. "He's a baseball player."
Behind Cat, Dan swore and yet something else fell to the floor with a loud thud. She grimaced.
Fuck me pumps. That's what she called them. Maybe they were a little inappropriate for work, but she didn't care. She was now four inches taller than her five foot six frame, and she loved the way the shoes made her butt look in her flaming red dress. She no longer felt as though she had jumped out of the pan and into the fire – she felt like she was the fire.
After leaning forward and applying a last dash of bright red lipstick, she smirked as she thought of the way Dan would gasp when he saw her. Probably his jaw would drop. No, she thought, shaking her head. You aren't supposed to care about Dan anymore, remember? This is supposed to be about what's-his-name. Allen or Aaron or something. She swore and reminded herself to ask Trina what the blind date's name was before she made a complete fool out of herself.
There was the sound of buzzing and she left the bathroom and headed over to her apartment's intercom system. The intercom allowed her to talk to the person on the front stoop, making it so only people she knew could come inside and yell at her. It was heaven sent in New York.
She pushed the button to talk to the person buzzing her. "Hello?"
"Your taxi is here, ma'am. I'm the driver."
The taxi. Right. She had called him thirty minutes ago, because she never drove to the party. It was guaranteed that she was going to be drunk, and the last time she had ridden the subway plastered, some guy had groped her. Of course, she had tripped into him, but she knew the boob grab had not been called for.
"I'll be down in a moment."
"Yes, ma'am."
Turning, she scurried over and grabbed her bag. She checked the contents for all essentials. Mace? Check. Lipstick? Check. Tampons? Check. Gum? Check. A pack of condoms just in case she met Tom Cruise in an elevator? Check. She swung her purse over her shoulder and stalked out of her kitchen with keys in hand. She made it down the stairwell in thirty seconds and climbed into the taxi. The taxi driver pulled out into crazy Thursday night traffic that reminded her of why she didn't drive.
It took ten minutes to reach the office, and when she got out of the taxi she realized that with all her lipstick, gum, mace, and condoms that she carried, she had forgotten a bare essential – a jacket. Even in summer, the night breeze was chilly. Tom Cruise was out of luck. With how cold she felt, if he stuck his dick in her, it was likely to freeze and fall off due to frost bite.
Swearing at the cold, she reached inside her purse and searched for her office keys. Her hand trembled so bad that she felt as though it was about to vibrate itself straight off her arm. Just as she located her keys and unlocked the door, a coat so heavy it nearly knocked her over landed on her shoulders. She screamed, whipping out her mace, and pointed it straight into a man's face. Dan's. And he wasn't in a beach boy suit.
This year he wore a suave black suit and a tie the color of red wine. His normally askew hair was now combed down, though a few hopeful waves had yet to be tamed. He looked different. Older. Yet he still looked so very young and Dan-like. Her heart sped up. She peered at the coat that was laid over his shoulder, and noticed that it was a very stylish black faux fur jacket that appeared to have cost a small fortune.
"Dan?" she said. "Why are you here an hour early? It's normally just me finishing the party set up."
Dan smiled at her. "Easy. You always forget to bring a jacket, even during the winter. I noticed it was particularly cold tonight. I thought I would just watch your back, that's all."
She was touched and had to force a defiant expression on her face.
"Dan, come on." Her brow furrowed. "You really shouldn't do stuff like that for me."
Reaching forward, Dan cupped her chin with his warm hand and made her look at him. There was silence for a moment. She felt as though she choked on her own feelings.
"Tell me the truth, Cat," Dan said. "Do you really want to meet that guy AJ?"
AJ. So that was the date's name. It figured that Dan would remember and she wouldn't. Her brows furrowed as she looked at him. She could tell him the truth – the answer was no – but she didn't want to. Confusion filled her. Dan was so much younger than she. Still a child, practically, but the way she felt about him…
Luckily, Dan saved her from herself. He grabbed her hand, encircling her fingers with her own, and moved to step inside. As she followed after him, her heart pounding, she noticed that his back was stiff. When she caught up with him and stole a look at his face, she saw that his eyes looked red… like he hadn’t slept.
"Dan, are you… okay?"
Dan didn't say anything. Cat jerked to a stop and forced him to do the same.
"Come on, Dan, look at me," Cat said, forcing him to turn around. "Don't do the macho man thing. Are you okay?"
As Dan studied her, she realized then that she had made a mistake. Bringing AJ to the party had been stupidity, and seeing Dan look the way he did with his red-rimmed eyes and his stupid, so-not-him suit, made her feel sick inside. She didn't want him to change, especially not for her. She loved him the way he was.
"Cat, do you know what I think about every morning when I get up?" Dan asked, frowning at her. "Do you?"
Cat shook her head.
"You. Every damn morning I think about you." Dan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Yet another lock of it came undone from the gel and stuck up at an angle. "And every night, too. I have never, ever stopped loving you, and it kills me that you love me too and you still hold me at arm's length… and the idea of you with another guy – "
"Dan, come on," Cat said, her eyes wide.
"No, Cat, let me finish." Dan brought up his hand in a tight fist. "The idea of you going out with another guy and leaving me behind makes me want to…"
Dan threw his fist into the side wall and then he swore and yelped. Catrina rolled her eyes as Dan held up a red and swollen fist and stared at it. Reaching forward, she took his hand and felt the top of it, over the knuckle. His rough skin felt good beneath her fingers, though it was now hot to the touch.
"Dan…" Catrina said, still caressing his hand. Confusion filled her.
"Cat, please, why can't we make this work? The age difference isn't that big."
With a sigh, Cat stared at him. She was once again filled with strong sadness. How could she ignore him when he looked at her like that… when she wanted him just as much as he wanted her? She frowned.
"I'm your boss, Dan," Cat said.
"Then I'll quit my job."
In shock, Cat studied his face and saw how passionately he looked down at her. Like he meant those words. He really would quit his job for her. In that moment, she tried to think about how her life in the office would be without him in it. It would be just like lunch before he came in – so the same, so boring. Yet the last time she had been in a relationship with him, she had been a coward and run away.
As if reading her mind, Dan said, "Don't get scared, Cat. We can make this work, you and I. Please just give me another chance."
"Oh, Dan."
He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around her. His lips pressed against her forehead. She let out a long, content sigh into his neck. Being in his arms felt so good.
"I want to do everything with you, Cat." Dan breathed against her hair. "I want to marry you. I want you to be the mother of my children. I want to wake up with you by my side. You could be fifty years older than me and I would still want you, because you would still be you. I love you so much."
Heart pounding, she stepped away. She scrambled to think of the reasons why she and Dan shouldn't be together, but Dan had confronted them all. He was like that, always running at thing head on. Maybe it was he who should have been the manager. He wasn't the one that always forgot his damn jacket.
"I love you, Cat," Dan repeated, smiling at her.
Her mouth opened. Did she dare say it? A breath of air left her.
"I…I…" She stepped forward and pressed her hand against his chest. "I love you, too, Dan, and I'm sorry… about the last couple of weeks, about the two of us fighting. It's all my fault."
"Not all your fault," Dan said, smirking. Just when she leaned forward to kiss him, he said, "Just mostly."
Feigning anger, she pushed him away and stomped to the elevator. Dan moved after her, chuckling, and she held the door open for him. When he got through, she expected him to play along with her game. Instead, he rushed forward and gathered her in his arms, pressing his hot, fierce lips against her own and filling her mouth with his sweet wine taste.
The elevator moved beneath them, but she didn't care. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, the shoulders she knew so well. Her stomach grew hot, and the heat traveled lower and lower, all the way down into the base of her body and into her clitoris.
Dan turned around and hit the red stop button on the elevator. The elevator halted mid-way and he smirked at her in a goofy manner that drove her to insanity. But the hair irritated her to death. The hair was not Dan. It was corporate, and so boring. Her life had been that way ever since she'd broken up with him. Stepping forward, she ran her hand through Dan's hair and then ruffled it, causing a mess. His eyes widened in surprise.
"There," she whispered, leaning against his hard body. "That's way more you, just the way I like it."
A deep chuckle left his throat. "So you like me as me, huh?"
She shrugged her shoulders and looked away, blushing.
His hand gentle, he turned her head in his direction. She was overwhelmed by the smoldering of his eyes, so amazing. It made her stomach churn and her body fill with want. Maybe Dan had played with her at the office a little, but it had been so long since he had filled her completely, driving her to insanity with his thrusts.
Stepping forward, she kissed him and he drove his tongue into her mouth, hard. His tongue filled her, making her body hum. She shivered beneath his lips as he roughly shoved his way in again and again, just like with his cock. Reaching up, she grasped his hair and held his mouth roughly against her own. It felt good to be that way, pushing him against her like that. A sigh of affection left her throat, and she moaned his name, "Dan."
As if she had said the magic word, Dan picked her up, positioned her against the wall, and placed her ass so that she was against the hand rail, with her legs wrapped around him. The bottom of her dress bunched around her hips in thin folds of silk. The fact that Dan's body was all that kept her from falling to the elevator floor caused her blood flow to quicken and her pussy to grow wet with juices.
His hands explored, his fingers skimming all the way from her ankles to her knees and then up to her thighs, where he placed his hands on her hips and pushed at the dress fabric more, exposing her pink lace thong. He ran his fingers over the side playfully, with a grin on his lips.
"This is new," he said.
It was. She had bought it last week. The fact that he knew her lingerie that well caused her to frown.
When she did not respond, he dipped his head down and kissed her, running his mouth over her plump lips. As he filled her mouth with his tongue, his hand dipped down again, running gently over the folds of her underwear and over to the top of her dripping pussy. She was soaking it through, desperate, but Dan had always been the master of teasing, in the office and in the bedroom. Instead of applying the pressure that she so desperately wanted, he instead lightly ran his fingers over the folds of the lace, causing her to get dripping wet but not relieving any pressure. The bastard.
She moaned, arching her back, trying to increase the pressure of his fingers. A chuckle left his throat and caused her body to vibrate. He broke apart from the kiss but still gently rubbed her pussy, and then he leaned his forehead against her own, looking straight into her eyes with an expression of love and passion.
"Do you want me inside you?"
She gave him a disgruntled look and squirmed. Was he really going to make her say it?
When she did not respond, he pushed around the flaps of her underwear and ran his hand down the shaved upper bump of her pussy and then moved downward, so that way he massaged the outer flaps of her dripping body without pushing himself inside. She groaned and arched her back with want. Chuckling, he used his other hand to trace the place where the top of her dress caused her breasts to spill over, making her eager for more.
"If you want me inside you, you're going to have to say it," he said, kissing her forehead gently as if she was an innocent child and that he wasn't playing with the dripping folds of her pussy.
It was hard to debate the consequences of giving up her pride that way. It didn't matter, she reasoned. It was just him and her. She bit her bottom lip as he teasingly played with her opening with two fingers but did not plunge into her cave. She was going to ask, and both of them knew it.
"Inside," she gasped.
"I'm sorry. I didn't catch that." Dan grinned at her wickedly.
"Inside of me, you asshole," she said. "Now."
"As you wish."
Before she could open her mouth to yell at him, he slipped his index finger inside of her and forced all other thoughts from her mind. Her eyes rolled back and her body screamed with pleasure as he pumped inside of her, again and again, driving her closer to coming. She felt as if she was going to die from the pleasure of it all.
As he pumped inside of her, his other hand dropped lower and played with the silk material over her breasts. At first he only grasped one of them, massaging it, and then he circled the nipple, which had become pebbled as her need for Dan's cock grew. She moaned, loving both touches, his hand over her breast as well as his finger plunging into her body again and again. Her pussy had become so wet that she had begun to slip from her place on the rail.
Just when she was inches from coming, her back arching in pleasure, he removed his finger from her body and taunted her with a gleaming grin.
"Back inside of me. Now," she demanded, desperate.
A low chuckle left his throat.
She heard Dan unzip his pants and then he pushed them off completely, onto the floor. Licking her lips, she looked at him, seeing briefs instead of the ridiculous boxers that said things such as, "I like bananas!" and "Give me some nuts!"
"Looks like you have some new underwear, too," she moaned, not sure if she liked it.
He shrugged. "Just in case this suit thing worked, I thought I'd go the whole nine yards. I told you. I'd do anything to be with you. Anything."
A moan of remorse left her throat and she leaned forward, gripping his face and looking into his now sad eyes. She had been a horrible, selfish ass. She knew that now.
"We're together again, now, okay?" she said. "I'm sorry."
Leaning forward, he gave her a kiss that told her of his longing, his want, for her. His hands ran over her pussy and her ass as he did this. She shivered with want as she felt his hard cock pressing against her opening through the thin fabric of his briefs, and she spread her legs further.
"Please," she whispered against his lips.
Grunting in response, he pushed his underwear down until they were at his ankles, and then she looked down at his large, familiar, throbbing cock. With one hand, he reached down and grabbed the pants that were now on the floor and pulled out a condom package. It took him several attempts to open it because his fingers were so wet with her pussy juice.
"I want to put it on you," she said, smiling at him.
Nodding, he handed her the condom, and as she slid it over his cock, hard and veiny, she shivered with want. He stepped back then, pulling her away from the wall for just one moment, and then yanked her lace underwear down her trim legs where she then stepped out of them. In a millisecond, he had her where she had been before, except he spread her legs apart even further and pressed his cock head against the opening of her body. She spread her legs and shut her eyes in desperate waiting for his thrust. But he didn't move. She opened one eye.
He smirked at her and she punched him in the arm.
"Just wanted to remind you of who you're making love to," he said, leaning forward and stroking her cheek just once with damp fingers that smelled like her own fluids.
That was when he thrust into her, pushing himself deeper and deeper, harder and harder. As he pounded into her with his hot rod, causing her to gasp, her heart sped up and cries of pleasure left her throat again and again. She wrapped her arms around his strong back and dug her fingernails into his skin.
His grunts filled the air as he moved inside her, pushing as hard as he could. He began to kiss the top of her breasts, taking her fragile flesh between his teeth. As he thrust into her again and again, he pulled the strap off of her dress and revealed her left breast. He took her nipple in his mouth, lapping at her tip and then sucking the whole nipple between his teeth. After that, he nipped at it, and pain and pleasure went through her like a seizure, causing her need to go through her stomach as well as her pussy.
That was enough to drive her to come, to make her head fly back and cries of passion and need to leave her throat. Dan pounded into her a few final, desperate times before he came, filling her up and making her grunt. When he was finished, she lay her head back against the elevator wall, panting.
Slowly he eased her to the ground, and she wobbled dangerously on her heel, panting and dripping with sweat. As he held her close, swaying, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders again and felt a twinge of guilt. Workers rode in this elevator, and now the whole area smelled like sex. She reached back and touched the bar where she had been balanced – it was sticky still. She and Dan had always been spur of the moment lovers, but never like this and hardly ever at work. She frowned.
Gently, Dan placed his hand beneath her chin and titled her head back, making her look at him. His brow furrowed.
"Please, please don't tell me that you're changing your mind about us getting back together," he said. "I don't think I can take it."
She kissed him on the lips. "It's alright. We're alright. I was thinking more about the state of the elevator."
A mischievous grin crossed Dan's face and he kissed her forehead. "Cat, I think I got that problem solved."
"Do you?" Cat smiled. "You're a regular laidback beach boy, aren't you?"
Dan raised an eyebrow.
"I think our office would miss that ridiculously tight swimming trunk outfit you wore last year," she said, smirking. "After you help me set up, how fast do you think you can change?"
His grin widened. "You hate me in this suit, don't you?"
"I loathe it."
The conference room was filled with the sound of laughter as Catrina nursed her drink. Samantha stood at her side in a dress of periwinkle blue. She smiled a lot, but that probably was because she was drunk.
"What happened to the elevator, anyway?" Samantha asked. "Why is there a big 'out of order' sign on it? I rode it just this morning and it was fine."
Heat filled her face. "A skunk got into it."
"A skunk?" Samantha's eyes widened. "How did that happen?"
Great going, Cat, she's going to ask more about it now. She frowned and shook her head. "It was a horrible, horrible incident. All stunk up now. The janitors left the front door open, and the animal got in."
"That really is horrible," Samantha said, hiccupping.
With a frown, Cat raised her own drink to her lips and tasted cola. She looked at Dan in his bright blue shirt and green pants… the combo was all wrong. Next to them stood AJ. Gorgeous, muscular, dumb as a brick, AJ. The one that she had seconds ago told that she had gotten together with her ex-boyfriend and wasn't available to date. Trina was not happy, but Cat was the boss. It was one of the great benefits of being able to tell people what to do. With a frown, Cat took another sip of her drink. Mid-gulp, she looked straight into Dan's eyes and began to cough.
Dan waved Trina away and she and AJ shuffled off to a corner. Dan raised his hand and gave Cat the 'come hither' symbol. She looked both ways, feeling embarrassed even though nobody watched them, and then headed over to Dan. When she reached him, he grabbed her and held her close. He smiled at her.
"What do you want for a birthday gift, Cat?" Dan asked.
"I don't think it's customary to give gifts this early in a relationship."
Dan smirked. "Okay, fine, but just a little 'make up' gift then."
Cat looked both ways to make sure nobody watched them and then she pecked him on the lips, but just once.
"You would have gotten that anyway," Dan said, "but I do have something else for you."
She frowned, looking down at his crotch, expecting to see something moving. A chuckle left Dan's throat, and heat filled her face.
"No, not that," Dan said, and then he leaned in close enough to whisper, "but you can have that later for free, too."
"Then what is it?"
Rifling through his bag, he pulled out a ring box and pushed it into her palm. She opened it and stared. The ring was real, with a white diamond in the center laid in fine white gold. The ring must have taken him ages to buy on his salary.
"Why did you give this to me? You didn't even know that we would make up."
Dan smiled at her. "It's like I said, Cat. Even if you hadn't taken me back, you would always be my first, last and always."
Touched, she leaned her head against his chest, no longer caring who saw them. "Don't worry, Dan. You know how it is with us cats – sometimes we leave, but we'll always come back."
~End~