6
May
“Huh . . . ” To say he was surprised was wrong, but Oran clearly didn’t expect the waiting room outside his office to be empty. Glancing at his watch, he inhaled deeply and frowned as he turned to his secretary behind her desk. “Malory, where the hell is my nine-thirty?”
“Oh, he never showed. I sent him a message confirming, but he replied that he sent one of his subordinates, a woman named May Hart.” My brows nearly flew off my face at that, and Oran shared a questioning glance with me before I shook my head. “I explained to him that either he shows up or the meeting is canceled. He reminded me, ‘as per my last email’ that his subordinate is more than capable.”
Malory rolled her eyes at the desk lingo, and I clenched my jaw at the absolute mess this day had become. Nothing had gone the way I expected, and she propped her elbows on the desk on either side of her keyboard. Her pretty model face scrunched up in distaste, and I could see Oran frown out of the corner of my eye.
“Direct that glare somewhere else, Oran. Your morning is free. By the way, I heard from this cute guy on the twenty-ninth floor that the Hanford meeting did not go well.” Oran nodded before taking my elbow to lead me into his office, and I glanced around as I crossed the threshold. I could barely wrap my head around how David would jumble things up so damn bad, but I had a pretty good idea why.
“You know, Oran, I’m the youngest on my team by fifteen years or more. I think this was a setup to create a cause to fire me.” Perching on the sofa against the wall, I clasped my hands together with a tired sigh. “This wasn’t how I expected my morning to go.”
“Regardless, you’d still be missing a meeting. If you ask me, it’s a good thing you picked the right one. My meeting with David was to discuss an appropriate dry-dock expansion. Unless you feel like impressing me again?”
“Didn’t you just open a dry-dock a couple days ago?” Dropping down next to me, Oran made himself comfortable and crossed his knees, and I twiddled my thumbs a little as the left side of my body tingled excitedly. “Why do you need more?”
“It’s for a private port up the coast, not the one in Seattle. The wharf is being built right now, but I have a feeling the project will be delayed a good few months because David’s probably going to get fired if the audit team finds what you think they’re going to find.” He shot me a questioning look, and I held my breath in expectation as he propped his cheek on his fist. “You went to an architectural program, assuming you did extremely well to get hired so young, allow me to pitch you an idea.”
“Okay.” Twisting to face him fully, I nodded, and Oran sat up to rest his forearms on his knees as thoughtfulness drenched his handsome, sharp features. “I’m . . . just fair warning, I suck at buildings. That’s why I do boats.”
“It’s not a building. What do you think of an aesthetic nautical vessel, one with ‘wood’ and sails and all that, with only the essential modern amenities like bathrooms and proper sanitation and safety installations and a fairly weak engine?” My brows rose in surprise, and Oran pursed his lips thinly as he cocked his head. “It would probably be a coastal vessel, but it’s really just a whimsical notion at this point.”
“Um . . . I’d have to do some research, but itsoundsplausible. Why do you want to do something like that?” For a long moment, Oran simply stared at me, his gaze more intense through his lenses, and heat crept up my neck. The silence rang in my head, and I reached nervously to tuck my hair behind my ear before he spoke up.
“I just thought it was a cool idea, to be honest. A ship like that not stuck in the harbor as a memorial or showpiece, even if it didn’t make money, it’d still be really, really cool. There’d be certain safety regulations we just can’t get around, of course, but . . . ” Trailing off, Oran inhaled deeply as he straightened, and I nodded firmly in understanding. “There are uses for it— RenFaire and weddings and other practical reasons to rent an aesthetically accurate period ship. But how cool would it be to just look at something like that?”
“You know, Oran, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to just build you a boat in your backyard.” He smirked with a huff of a laugh, and I smiled wider as my cheeks heated. “I wouldn’t mind looking into it, seeing as I’m going to have at least a week of free time on my hands.”
“I appreciate it, May.” I had a feeling Oran really, really liked boats— like a kid with a model, except much bigger and more comprehensive. His dark brown eyes sparkled with gratitude. The air stilled, and my chest tightened while my heart beat faster, harder against my ribs. Leaning the short distance between us, I cupped his hard jaw, and strong hands immediately wrapped around my sides. Electricity skittered across my face and down my neck when my lips touched his, but my breath hitched when he pulled back and squeezed my sides.
Apprehension gripped me in a vise as surprised eyes locked on mine, and my heart hammered hard when they narrowed into slits. Butterflies assaulted my abdomen, but Oran didn’t protest when I craned my neck to kiss him again. Shuffling to straddle his lap, I pulled up my skirt a little before gripping the back of the sofa, and the taste of him stained my lips.
Calloused palms slid down to grip my ass, and I moaned with a shudder. Goosebumps washed over my entire body under my clothes when Oran tangled his hand in my hair, and a gasp escaped me when he flipped me onto my back flat on the sofa. Grinding against my lace thong, he tore his lips from mine to trail heat down my neck, and I closed my eyes to savor his mouth on my skin.
But a bucket of frigid water dumped on us when my cell phone started to blare, and I tensed as the generic ringtone burrowed into my scope of comprehension. Above me, Oran’s hot, frustrated exhale flowed under my shirt and down my belly, and I groped around blindly for my purse.
“It’s my team lead.” Clearing my throat of its huskiness as Oran ground his forehead against my sternum with a harsh grumble, I frowned darkly at my phone. Thumbing the green button, I took a huge, stabilizing breath before holding the device to my ear, and the taut hunk of man on top of me started quietly unbuttoning my shirt. “Yeah, David?”
“What the hell is going on, May! I sent you to a meeting, and you fucking get them to audit us! They’re taking all the equipment, the computers, the schematics, the models— everything! What did you do?” Pulling the phone away from my ear, I scrunched up my nose in disgust when David practically whined like a baby. I mean, what did he expect? He lied to a whole bunch of people, for a long time, and then sent me, the butt of his lie, to a meeting with them. Arching slightly as I waited for David to stop screaming into the phone, I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth when Oran kissed the swell of my breast.
“You stole my work and passed it off as your own, and you outright lied about the promotion,andyou weren’t nearly as clever as you thought trying to get a reason to fire me.” The angry tendrils of smoke steaming from my boss’s ears seeped through the phone at my reply, and it took everything in me to remain professional and not blast him. “You know what happens now, right? You’re going to be fired for fraud and theft, David, and anyone on the team who knew about it or was involved in it is going to get fired, too. Which, let’s be honest here, everyone knows about it, and the partners on my projects probably knowingly signed off your name as lead concept designer, which means . . . the team is getting shut down if I’m the only one left.”
“You bitch.“ David hissed the slur, and Oran paused kissing down my abdomen to glance up at me through narrowed eyes. Shaking my head slightly, I frowned and mouthed an apology, but he simply sat up, and I inhaled deeply, following suit. “I’m going to sue you for professional slander. Every project, I was involved with. And if I get fired, I’m taking you to court!”
“Oh, no. I’m so scared.” The deadpanned reply made my ear burn against my phone speaker, and I ran my hand through my hair and closed my eyes to take a deep, calming breath. “Also, you do know I’m currently inyourmeeting with Mr. Santino, right? And because you didn’t show up, he’s considering contracting me independently instead of our whole team. You screamed loud enough that he heard everything you just said.”
Oran snorted, covering his mouth to stifle his laugh, and I winked at him as satisfaction tore through my chest at David’s stunned silence.
“I’m going to my lawyer. I’ll see you in court.” David hung up on me in a huff, and I set my phone in my lap to heave a massive sigh. There was no doubt in my mind that my boss would really take me to court. He wouldn’t win, but he’d make my life very difficult. As if I needed it. As if I could handle anything else.
“Would you like me to escort you downstairs?” The offer surprised me, and Oran reached to start buttoning up my blouse with a small, knowing smile cresting his cheeks. “I’m not that much of a Neanderthal. You should get home and prepare, May.”
“You think he’s really going to sue me?” My tone heightened, and I frowned under furrowed brows as I rubbed my cheek roughly. “But won’t he just be found out, and it’ll blow back on him?”
“I think he’ll really sue you, yes. He’ll try to bully you into it, most likely. If he’s aggressive enough . . . ” Trailing off to cast me a look, Oran leaned back to adjust my collar, and my frown deepened. “Also, you should get to work on that idea I proposed. Chances are, your job won’t be available when you get back, if what you say is true. You’ll have to be transferred to another team.”
“Can I have your number?” Blurting out the question, flames licked my cheeks when Oran’s smile morphed into a huge, shit-eating smirk, and I puffed out my lips in a huff. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“You’re cute, May. Of course, you can have my number.”
