Chapter 13

Merrick

“I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner,” I said as I handed her the roses. “I couldn’t figure out what to say.”

Kristina looked like a movie star in her elegant white dress. I had already talked with her friend Beth and coordinated my outfit with hers, but I couldn’t have anticipated just how stunningly beautiful she was going to be. Her red hair was pulled up and showed off the curve of her neck. The plunging neckline enticed my imagination with all the memories of her delicious body.

“You just spent four million dollars for a car,” Kristina said with a smile. “That’s got to be some sort of record.”

“Actually, I also got a date with it, so I’m comfortable with how much I donated.”

“I would have gone out with you again; you just had to call. I’m sorry …”

I grabbed her and kissed her before she could finish her sentence. There was no more of that nonsense. I knew now that she hadn’t intended it to be some sort of trickery, and I didn’t want the moment to be marred by the back and forth of apologies.

Her body pressed away from me for a moment before she let herself lean fully into me. She still cared for me; I felt it in her lips, and I felt it in how her arms reached up and around my neck. There was an instant relief as I realized we were going to get through this. No matter what else happened, I knew we were going to be together.

The feeling of her soft lips against mine filled my mind with memories. The chemistry between us was electric and even stronger than it had been while we were together on the airplane. This girl was mine. No questions about it; I wanted her more in that moment than I had ever wanted any other woman.

“You don’t apologize. I need to apologize,” I started as I pulled her off into a corner. “I was a jerk. A huge jerk. You were right; I know you. I know you didn’t keep that a secret because you were trying to get my money. I know this deep down, and I’m sorry it took me so long to come out with it.”

“Okay,” she said with a small smile.

“Okay? That’s it?” I laughed.

“Yep. I accept your apology.”

“There is one other thing,” I said as I tried to look a little sad. “I talked with Maxine, and she is going to shut down her charity. It didn’t really matter how much money you raised. I think she actually gave you that benchmark so she would have an excuse to close. She didn’t think you’d actually reach it.”

“What? But I did reach it. We will have plenty of money to fund this year,” I said as we walked to a quiet spot near the back of the hallway behind the stage.

“I think she was tired of her social quest and wanted to get back to being a socialite.”

“So I’m out of a job? Crap that kind of sucks right before Christmas.”

“Actually, I have my own tech education charity, and I’m going to work with Maxine and merge the two. I’ve got some great connections with the Boys and Girls Clubs, and I think we can get the programs into all of the clubs throughout the country.”

“Wow, that’s amazing, Merrick. That’s really awesome. I believe all kids should have access to learning code; it is the future.”

“I’m glad you are so passionate about it because I’d like to ask you to run the organization for me as my CBO.”

Kristina looked excited but also seemed very concerned about what I had just said to her. I knew it was a long shot that after all we had been through she would want to work with me. Even if we did decide to continue dating, it was probably not the best idea to work together too. But I would be busy with my investment firm, and she could head the charity. Even if we had a falling out, which I didn’t think we would, I trusted that she would be a strong leader for the charity.

“I don’t know …” she started to say.

“You don’t have to make your mind up right now. There’s a lot to figure out still, and Maxine and I will go through all those details; just say you’ll think about it. Say you’ll at least give it a thorough look when we come together with all the details.”

“I was going to say I don’t know what a CBO is.” Kristina laughed.

“Oh, it’s the Chief Business Officer. Basically, I’d have to be the CEO since it’s in my name, but you’d run the day to day operations of everything.”

“I don’t know. It’s probably not a good idea for me to work with you.”

My heart sank. It sunk lower than I thought was humanly possible. She had kissed me back; I felt it. I could tell she still had feelings for me; there was no way she could deny that. But I wasn’t going to fight her about this; if she didn’t think being around me was a good idea, then that was how it had to be.

“I understand,” I said reluctantly. “Thank you for all you did to organize this. It’s a very worthy cause. I’m sure I’ll find someone to run the organization. I better get going.”

Kristina grabbed my hand and pulled me back toward her. She held onto me tight as her eyes looked like she was about to cry.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to work with someone I love,” she managed to get out before the tears started to roll down her face.

“You love me?” I said as I grabbed her into my arms.

“Yes.”

“Well, then we can figure everything else out! I don’t care. I’ll hire someone else to run it if I have to!”

Kristina wrapped her arms tight around me as I held onto her with all my strength. No matter what was ahead of us, I didn’t plan on letting her go. The way I felt with her in my arms was more powerful than anything else I had experienced. She was mine, and together we were going to live one damn happy life.

***

“Let’s go, people; we have the board meeting in two minutes,” Kristina hollered as she walked quickly down the hallway.

Her high stiletto heels clicked on the floor, and I couldn’t help smiling as I watched her walk past me. The fitted business suit she had on was professional, yet I knew every inch of what was underneath it and couldn’t stop thinking about what I was going to do to her when we got home that night.

“Let’s go; you know we’ll get in trouble if we are late,” I said to September as the two of us walked toward the boardroom. “Are you excited for the meeting?”

“No way … I never know what to expect in these things. I’m nervous.”

“Even with Kristina being in charge?” I laughed. “She loves you. There’s nothing to be nervous about,” I said as I held onto the blue Tiffany and Company box in the pocket of my blazer.

I was going to propose to Kristina at dinner that night. I had it all planned out and couldn’t wait for our workday to be over with. I bought the biggest rock I could find in the store. The emerald cut diamond practically glittered right through the box it was so big.

“No, Merrick, she loves you. I’m just that quirky coworker who she kind of likes. She’ll still tear me up if I’ve done something wrong.”

“Let’s go, guys, find a seat. We have a lot to talk about.”

The room was filled with all our staff and volunteers. Kids Tech had gone from a small dream of an organization to a full-fledged operation within one year thanks to all the work of Kristina and her staff. She really knew how to run things and took control from day one.

It had been a bit of a battle to convince her to run things, but the more we talked about the organization, the more I saw her passion and knew she had to be in charge of things. Our relationship had been solid throughout the growth of the organization too; that was something she had really been worried about.

“So let’s get started. First off, I want to thank all the volunteers for everything you’re doing. We have received some pretty amazing praise e-mails, and I’d like to read some of those first before we go any further.”

This was exactly why Kristina was the perfect woman to run the organization. Although numbers and fundraising were extremely important, the moral of the people who volunteered and worked for us was even more important. I’d learned a lot over the last year of watching her and how she led.

Kristina’s leadership style was different than what I had done with my financial firm; she was in the offices with the staff. She was at events with them and side by side whenever she could. From watching how her staff interacted, I’d developed some of my own programs at Stanley and Associates and increased retention of traders ten percent over the last year. I had always thought there wasn’t enough time for the niceties that Kristina implemented, but I soon realized there was no better time to be nice to my employees than right away.

Our staff meeting went on for only thirty minutes as Kristina had the heads of each department talk about what was going well and what they thought they could improve on. She set some goals for the next quarter and encouraged everyone before sending the team back to their offices to finish their work for the day.

“You know, you’re one sexy boss,” I teased as I closed the conference room door behind the last person.

“Nope, don’t you look at me like that mister,” she said as I walked closer to her.

“Like what?” I teased.

I continued forward as I focused in on the buttons of her suit and my plans to undo each and every one of them. I’d been fantasizing about this day for months since our new boardroom table had arrived.

“I know that look, and no we are not having sex on this table.”

“What? This isn’t that look,” I lied.

“Oh yes, it is mister, and I’m not doing it on this table.”

“You said you liked my fantasy about the boardroom. I think I remember you even saying that you’d love to have sex in the boardroom.”

I grabbed her and pulled her to me before lifting her up onto the table. Her face flushed with embarrassment as she looked at the door to see if I had locked it.

“Is it locked?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Merrick, this is totally inappropriate, you know it is.”

“What? Me having sex with my beautiful girlfriend is never inappropriate.”

“Merrick, what if someone needs us?” she continued to protest while she let me push her back onto the table and start unbuttoning her jacket.

“They won’t need us,” I said softly.

“You know, I knew you were trouble from that very first date.”

“Oh, you did?” I asked as my hands started to take off her blouse.

My lips moved to the delicate fabric of her bra and pushed it out of the way so I could pull her nipple into my mouth. Kristina let out a delightful moan of pleasure which only drove me to tug harder on her sweet body part.

“Merrick,” she said softly.

“I think you want this just as badly as I do. In fact, I think you’ve been fantasizing about it. The hard marble table under your naked body as I move inside of you. You can’t tell me that isn’t turning you on.”

“Oh, it is.”

I pulled her pants off and then gently slid her delicate white lace panties to the ground. She was naked and totally exposed to me as she lay there on the table. My body throbbed with longing for her, and I could hardly get my pants off quick enough.

Her body thrust toward me with longing as I pulled her body to meet mine. It was as if we had both released the most intense energy, and we couldn’t stop. Faster and harder we moved together. The power between us building as we moaned with pure passion. This woman was mine, and I was hers. We had been through so much in the last year together and built one amazing organization.

“Marry me,” I moaned as I felt the pleasure building up to a near explosion. “I love you; marry me, please,” I couldn’t wait for our dinner and I reached for my jacket and pulled the box out as stayed there with her.

“Yes,” she responded without a moment of hesitation. She grabbed the box from me and didn’t even look at the ring inside of it as she wrapped herself tight around me.

“You’re not just saying that?”

“Yes,” she moaned out again as we both got closer and closer to orgasm.

“Yes, you were just saying it, or yes, you’ll marry me.”

“Oh, my gosh, Merrick. Yes, I love you. Yes, I’ll marry you. Yes, yes, yes,” she moaned as her body started to shiver with delight.

My body joined her, and we both succumbed to the primal pleasure. It wasn’t the perfect proposal; it wasn’t something I had planned, but it was a proposal that I meant from deep in my heart.

“Hey, when you guys are done having sex in there could one of you sign this paperwork?” September said from the other side of the door.

Kristina and I both looked totally stunned as we looked at the door and then back at each other. I burst into laughter at the absurdity of it all while Kristina tried to pretend like we hadn’t actually just been having sex in the boardroom.

“We are just talking about the next quarter; I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Um, and did you say yes to him?” September asked. “Because from the conference call that our satellite office was still connected to, it sounds like they disconnected before the big finale.”

“Oh … my … God!” Kristina said as she pushed me off of her jumped up. She clicked the green button on the conference call speaker on the table.

I couldn’t stop laughing as I got dressed and Kristina opened the door a little to talk with September. She still had the blue Tiffany and Company box unopened in her hand.

“They heard it all?” I asked from over at the conference table.

“Yep, I guess they disconnected right after you proposed. Not really my style dude, but to each their own.”

“I can’t believe this. I’m a terrible boss. This is horrible,” Kristina muttered.

“You’re the best boss, and everyone loves you, and I think they’ll get over it. So did you say yes?” September asked as she looked at the blue box in Kristina’s hand.

“Yes,” Kristina said demurely as I wrapped my arms around her and opened the box so she could see the big rock I had gotten her.

“Tell everyone she said yes!”

THE END

Dear reader, here comes my final gift for you!