Lick Is A Four-Letter Word (9 page)

Josh
kicked him this time.
Troy
shrugged, not up to explaining.

“
Troy
and me met the same girl, Linda,” Josh said, finally,
when he realized
Troy
wasn’t going to speak up.

His mom
sat back, putting her napkin on the table. Her hazel eyes, so
like his own,
held confusion.
Troy
decided he hated this conversation.
Hated
it.

“You
met the same girl? How does that work?” she asked after a moment.

“We’ve
agreed to share,”
Troy
ground out, looking at the ceiling.
That needs repainting
, he thought
idly, staring at a scrap peeling off in the corner.

Mary
and Linda exchanged glances. From the corner of his eye,
Troy
could tell they were worried.

“Share
her?” Mary asked.
“Um, what?”

Josh
smiled grimly. “We’re best friends. We both like her. We’re going to try and
ask her out—” He stopped, took a breath. “Take her out together.”

“Josh,
honey,
are
you crazy?” Mary asked calmly. Her tone was
not to be trusted. That was the crazy tone mother’s got right before they
freaked the hell out.

Troy
laughed, contemplating the pain ahead of him and Josh both. Their moms were
going to make them suffer for being so insane. “Yes. Yes he is. And so am I,”
he said, finally looking up. His mom was biting her lip, like she wanted to say
something, but was afraid to. Mary was staring at her son with a speculative
look on her face.

Oh no, wait. What is that look? Why aren’t they
flipping out?
Troy
’s
stomach clenched with fear.

“Well,
whatever makes you happy, dear,”
Troy
’s
mom said, looking from him to Josh meaningfully. She made sure he saw her look,
too.

Oh
shit
,
Troy
thought.
She knows I like him.

Chapter
Six

Three
days later, Felicity was in the basement of her new office building, crouched
on her knees. She swore under her breath. Her bad ankle didn’t really like this
position, and the jolts of pain that kept shooting up her calf weren’t making
her any more cheerful.

“Fucking
piece of shit,” she muttered, jamming her screwdriver into the housing around
their lame-ass server. She’d had to pry this damn thing off more than once to
vacuum out the dust, but someone else had done it last time and they’d screwed
up the metal. The screws were all out and she still couldn’t get the damn thing
off. The move had really messed up their equipment.

“If I
ever find out who did this, they are dead meat,” she ranted quietly, banging on
the housing with the heel of her hand. It didn’t budge. She jammed the
screwdriver into the corner and twisted, hard. The housing finally popped off.
“
Ahh
,” she breathed, leaning over to look inside.

“This
is not how I thought we’d meet again,”
Troy
said from behind her, laughter in his voice.

Felicity
jumped, hitting her head on the corner of the server rack. “
Ow
,
shit!”

“Oh
hell, are you okay?” he asked, coming over and running a gentle hand over her
head.

Felicity
sighed and slumped down on the floor. Thank goodness she’d worn slacks today
because this was not a dignified position. She pushed her glasses up her nose.
“Some bonehead thought it would be awesome to shove the cover back on crooked.
And screw it in like that.”
Troy
was combing through her hair now, fingers massaging her scalp. It felt divine.
“Don’t stop,” she said when he lifted away.

He
smiled and put his hands back on her head. “What are you doing down here?” He
sat on the floor next to her.

She
looked him up and down. Today he wore black pants with a red shirt, top buttons
undone. He looked sexy as hell. His pants stretched intriguingly across his
hips. The red made his skin glow and his hazel eyes bright. She stared at him
until he lifted an eyebrow. She looked down, blushing.

“The
server died and no one knows why. I came down to check the connections. It’s
been acting weird since we booted it up on Thursday,” she said.

“They
sent you down here?”
Troy
sounded irritated.

She
shrugged. “I sent myself. I’m the only one who knows how to set it up
properly.”

“Don’t
you have an IT person?”

She
shook her head and pointed to herself. “You’re looking at her.”

“That
sucks.”

Felicity
agreed. “It does, sometimes.
Mostly though I like doing it.
At least I control all of our backups.” She smiled impishly. “If I left that up
to the rest of the office, they’d never do any.”

“You
can’t have too many backups,”
Troy
said.

“Exactly,”
she declared, delighted by his bemused expression. He actually looked cute,
rather than predatory. That was a first.

“You’re
wearing glasses today,”
Troy
said, interrupting her thoughts. “I don’t remember you wearing them in the
elevator.”

Felicity
nodded, trying to keep her eyes away from his groin.
No staring at his goods
,
she told herself firmly. “I wear contact lenses, too. Today my eyes were
bothering me.
Allergies.”

He nodded.
“Josh has seasonal allergies, too.”

“He
does?” Felicity frowned. “Where
is
Josh?” She looked around.

Troy
huffed. “We’re not attached at the hip, you know.”

She
grinned at him, but just as he finished speaking, the door slammed at the other
end of the room.

Crap
, she thought, disbelievingly.
So much for my
doorstop.

“
Troy
?
You
in here?”
Josh called.

Felicity
banged her head against the server cage.

“Hey,
what are you doing?”
Troy
shoved his hand between her head and the metal. “We’re over here!” he called
out.

Felicity
banged her head against his hand.

“Will
you stop that?” he said, exasperated.

Felicity
looked at him. “I had the door wedged open for a reason.”

Troy
’s
hazel eyes went wide. “You don’t mean…”

“
Troy
, shit! I think I
just locked us in down here,” Josh called.

Felicity
nodded. It was kind of ridiculous how they kept getting locked into places
together.

Troy
started laughing. “This can’t be real. I bet I’m asleep and dreaming this. It’s
a good dream, too.”

Felicity
wasn’t as amused. Her ankle hurt, her ass ached from the cold floor, and she
was beginning to get goose bumps from the air conditioning. She’d worn a
sleeveless top since it was another hot day outside. She hadn’t grabbed her
sweater when she’d come down, thinking she’d only be down here a few minutes.

“I
wish
I was dreaming,” she muttered.

“Don’t
say that. It’s not the end of the world, being stuck with the two of us,”
Troy
protested.

She
patted him on the arm. “I’m happy to see you, don’t worry.” She looked up as
Josh came into view between the stacks of equipment and shelves.
“And Josh, of course.”

“Someone
shoved a chair in front of the door,” Josh said. He smiled sheepishly at her.
“I moved it and the door slammed shut.”

“Hi
Josh,” she said, smiling back, despite her frustration. He looked just as yummy
as
Troy
in his
khakis and green button-down shirt. He’d rolled up the sleeves, showing the
muscles on his forearms. “I’m the one who shoved the chair in the door.
To keep it from closing.”

“Oh.
Yeah, about that.”
Josh ran a hand over the back of his
neck. “Sorry?”

“We’re
locked in, aren’t we,”
Troy
stated dryly.

“That
we are.” Josh sighed and sat down, crossing his legs pretzel-style in front of
him.

Damn,
he’s limber,
Felicity thought. Her brain supplied
her with all the ways his flexibility would make him awesome in bed. She felt
herself flush as she struggled to get a grip on her imagination.
The last
thing I need to do is start picturing them naked.
Again.

“Cell
phones don’t work down here, do they?” she asked, instead of ripping their
clothes off, like she wanted.

“It
doesn’t matter if they do,”
Troy
said, pulling his out. “It’s after hours. It’ll be a while before someone can
come and let us out.”

Felicity
dug in her pocket and pulled hers out, too. “I have two bars. I’ll call my
friend Sue to come get us.” She slid her finger across the screen. When her
friend picked up, Felicity gritted her teeth, knowing exactly what was going to
happen. “Hi Sue.”

“Felicity!
Why are you calling me at
nine o’clock on a Monday night? I thought you were going to go straight home to
bed? You told me your ankle hurt,” Sue said.

From
the looks on Josh and
Troy
’s
faces, she could tell they’d heard every word.

“Listen,
I’ve kind of got myself in a pickle, Sue.”

“A
pickle, huh? You know, it’s never good when you start using food metaphors,”
Sue replied. “What did you do now?”

“Actually,
I’m the one who did it,” Josh said, taking the phone from Felicity’s hand.

Felicity
could hear Sue’s squeal loud and clear. Josh winced and moved the phone away
from his ear.
Troy
began laughing silently, poking Josh in the leg and making scrunched up faces
at him. Felicity didn’t dare look at him or she would start giggling, too.

“Yes,
I’m Felicity’s friend, Josh. Yes, it’s my fault we’re locked in. I moved the
chair. Yes,
Troy
is here too.” He looked at Felicity helplessly.

“She
knows about us?”
Troy
asked quietly.

Felicity
nodded.
She ignored Josh who was sending pleading looks her way.
I
bet he didn’t expect Sue to just start babbling at him.
She lifted her
hands and let them fall, as though to say:
sorry
. She made no move to
rescue him. He’d grabbed her phone. He could suffer the consequences.

“The
door locked from the outside. We’re kind of stuck here,” Josh explained,
looking more and more uncomfortable.

God
knows what Sue is telling him
, Felicity thought,
somewhat amused.

“Okay.
Okay, thanks.” He slid his finger across the display and handed the phone back.
“She says she’ll be here as soon as she can.”

Felicity
winced. Sue was going to take her own sweet time getting to the building. She
chewed on her lip, wondering how to break it to the guys.

“She’s
going to let us stew here for a while, isn’t she?”
Troy
asked, bright guy that he was.

Felicity
nodded.
“Yup.”

He
looked at her, hazel eyes calculating. “Give me your number.”

She
blinked at him, confused by the abrupt change in conversation.

“You’re
an idiot,
Troy
.
You’re supposed to say, ‘Can I please have your number, Felicity?”” Josh said,
prodding
Troy
meaningfully.

Felicity
stifled a laugh. For two supposedly grown men, they were kind of adorable.

“May I
please have your number?”
Troy
dutifully asked. He’d stretched out on the floor, leaning back against the
shelf next to her server rack.

“Sure.”
She rattled it off.

Troy
punched it into his phone,
then
called her, face
intent.

She
lifted her eyebrows and answered. “Hello
Troy
.”

“Hello
Felicity.”

He
didn’t hang up. Instead, he glanced at Josh, and the two men exchanged a look
that suddenly seemed fraught with tension.