Me And Mr. I.T. (Kupid's Cove Book 2) (6 page)

I chewed on that for a bit while I ate a few fries off my plate. They were cold and covered in steak juice, but still edible. I noticed a pink tinge to her cheeks as she finished her food, which told me she was bothered having to explain her reasons to me.

“I guess that’s fair enough, but I think you would be irritated if I called you Ms. Marketing.”

“It would irritate me because it makes no sense and it’s not catchy or cute. Come on, you gotta admit Mr. I.T. is catchy and cute.”

I had to hand it to the woman. I was trying to earn points on my side of the board, but she had all of them in her hand to start with.

“So you’re saying I’m cute.”

“No, I’m saying the nickname is cute,” she clarified.

I grinned, shaking my head as I laid my napkin on my plate, and set it all back on the tray Hani had left.

“I’ve done my job then tonight, as Mr. I.T. You should be up and running right away in the morning. What projects do you have left to finish up before we can get started with Operation Oats?”

“Operation Oats? What are you talking about?” she asked, her fork halfway to her mouth.

I so knew I was going to get in trouble for this, but I was going for it. “Operation Oats, because Honey Bunches-”

“Of Oats,” she groaned, her fork clattering to the plate and she pushed it away. “For the love of Pete can we not name it after a box of cereal?”

I shrugged. “Sure. Operation Us?”

I notice a glint in her eye and then she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her beautiful chest. A chest I had full access to earlier. It would be a vision that tortured me tonight, without a doubt.

“How about Operation Me and Mr. I.T.?” she asked, smirking.

I sniggered and shook my finger at her. “You’re funny, and cute, and completely out of my league, when it comes to sparring.”

“So I win?” she asked, her cheeks even pinker than before.

“Operation Me and Mr. I.T. it is. How long until this operation gets underway?”

She sighed. “I’ll need tomorrow to finish helping Kate with the charity event, and assign my other projects to my staff. Once I have that all squared away I’ll be free for however long Operation Me and Mr. I.T. takes.”

I knew she was being sarcastic using the title, but I was so planning on calling it that from now on. It made the ‘Mr. I.T.’ part a little bit more palatable.

I smiled, leaning back and assessing the woman who seemed out of her element. She was afraid to look me in the eye, so I might as well go for gold and see what happens.

“I’m hoping it takes a long, long time for Me and Mr. I.T. to reach a conclusion.”

I was grinning, but as expected, she was not. She looked like she had just eaten a sour lemon, her face pinched and her lips pulled tight. I stood from my side of the desk, our makeshift table after we finished our computer work. She was in her desk chair and I sat on the edge of the desk, my arms crossed on my lap.

“If you aren’t careful your face is going to stay that way,” I said, pointing at her lips.

She was closed off, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes downcast. “It’s a natural reaction to thinking about spending long amounts of time with you,” she quipped.

I leaned over onto my thigh so close to her ear she could feel my hair brush her cheek. “Am I really so unpleasant you can’t even think about spending time with me?”

She never moved her head, but answered me in the same tone of voice. “That’s what you aren’t understanding, Maltrand. The problem isn’t that you’re unpleasant. The problem is you’re exactly what I’m looking for, but we work together.” She hesitated on the last word, as if she didn’t know what else to say.

I took the chance and moved in, letting my hand slide behind her neck and tugged her closer to me. “All the more reason to get to know each other well,” I whispered. “I lie awake at night knowing you’re on the other side of the wall and I think about that night a few months ago. I can’t tell you how much I wish you had been sober. I would have done this,” I whispered, turning my head until our lips were touching.

I felt as if she held within her, the answer to what I’ve been searching for all these years. Somehow, she knew the things I needed and the way I longed to feel. She made a sound like a kitten in the back of her throat as the kiss intensified, and I eased off her lips slowly, going back in for a shorter, slower lip lock to break the spell she held over me. I looked into her eyes and knew that spell would never be broken, whether we ended up together or not. One way or the other, I would remain lost in this woman for the rest of my life. After kissing her tonight, I strengthened my resolve and vowed to make sure ‘Me and Mr. I.T’ lasts far longer than a few weeks.

I ran my hands along her cheeks and then dropped them to take her hands, which trembled in mine. “I’ve been dreaming about doing that for months now.”

“Me, too,” she said breathlessly.

I only needed to look into her eyes to see exactly what she wanted, but couldn’t ask for. I lowered my lips to hers again, and gave her the comfort and desire she needed, the only way I knew how.

Chapter Five

Ellie

I woke up late this morning, which is something I never do. I never oversleep, miss an appointment, or arrive late to a party. Nothing irritates me more than when people disrespect my time by being late. However, never before have I stayed up until midnight eating steak and shrimp with a good-looking guy. Why do I have to think of him as a ‘good-looking guy’? Why can’t he just be a guy? Why does the fact that he’s got good looks make it so much worse? Or does that make it better? Would it be easier to work with him if he’d been slapped with the ugly stick? I shook my head. I was even confusing myself with this line of thought. The better question might be, ‘Why were you up until midnight making out with a good-looking guy?’

I groaned and put my head in my hand, remembering the kisses we stole right here in this office, and the one in front of my door before we parted ways last night. He took a chance and kissed me, but what happened inside me when he did, took me even more by surprise. I enjoyed his kisses, I wanted more of them, and I didn’t even care that we worked together. Those three things made for a bad combination, and I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do about it.

I glanced at the clock again at the bottom of ‘Slick,’ the name I gave my new computer. I’ve accomplished more in the last three hours than I have in a whole day with the old one. What I hadn’t accomplished was figuring out a way to worm out of ‘Operation Me and Mr. I.T.’ No one else has the experience or knowledge of Kupid Enterprises to undertake this size project in my department, and no one else can snoop through employee data the way I can, either. I’m not trying to sound too big for my britches, but the marketing department only consists of three of us, and two don’t have a marketing degree. That left me to deal with Mr. I.T. and his good-looking, professionally styled hair that I discovered curls around my fingers perfectly, by myself. That wasn’t the only thing I wanted to curl my fingers around, though. His well-toned thighs begged to be touched as they strained within their denim trappings.

I threw my hands up and stood. “You know nothing about his well-defined, toned thighs, Ellie. Good Lord, you sound like a teenager lusting after the hero of the newest vampire movie.”

I had to get away from this place for a few minutes. Maybe a walk over to Katie and Gideon’s chalet would help me forget about
him
. Until their home was finished, Katie and Gideon lived in the largest employee apartment upstairs. I think we all breathed a sigh of relief about six months ago, when they moved into their new bungalow. Not because we didn’t like having them there, but it was hard to have down time when the boss lived across the hall. After they moved out, their apartment was empty, so Flynn and Winifred moved in. Winifred has become a bit of a housemother to all of us singletons and Katie-Bug has become our favorite little girl. We were definitely one big happy family, except for the one of ‘us’ who was stealing from the hand that feeds it. I wasn’t happy about this turn of events and I would work day and night if I had to in order to find out who was trying to destroy our livelihoods.

After my trip to Katie’s I would have to bite the bullet and get together with Mr. I.T. to make a game plan on how to attack this rather large project Gideon had thrown in our laps. I picked up my messenger bag, ready to make what would be an arduous trip across the beach in this wind, when there was a knock on my office door. I looked up, lost my balance, and tipped over all in the same motion.

“Ellie!” the man at the door exclaimed. He was next to me instantly and I looked up at him from my vantage point on the floor. The look on his face had me laying my head back on the carpet and covering my eyes with my hand. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. What are you doing here?”

He cleared his throat before replying, “You don’t look fine from where I’m standing.”

I dropped my arm and pushed myself into a sitting position. “It was time to do my morning stretches,” I explained, taking his proffered hand and letting him help me into a vertical position again.

“I’m sorry if I scare you. It’s not my intention.”

“Pffft, you don’t scare me,” I said, rolling my eyes toward the top of my head, to avoid looking at him.

“Then why are you trembling?” he asked, still holding my hand.

I pulled mine from between his and bent down to pick up my messenger bag, keeping hold of the edge of my desk. “Why are you here, Mr. I.T.?”

“I’m done with my other work, so I thought we could have a working lunch? We need to make a plan before we get to Honolulu. We have to look concise and together at all times.”

“You’re telling me,” I muttered, “we may have to work around the clock if we want to catch this guy, or gal, and get back home.”

“I’m not in a rush.” He smiled slyly and I was trying not to look exasperated.

“I still have one piece of the puzzle left to snap into place before I’m free. I have to deliver these invitations to Katie,” I said, holding up the messenger bag. “Feel free to have lunch and we can meet up at say, one thirty?” I asked, checking the clock. It was nearly noon, but that should give me enough time.

His left shoulder went up at my words. “We can do a late lunch. I’m not even hungry after that late dinner we had last night.”

I gave him a half smile, half grimace, “Great…” I was trying to think of another way to avoid breaking bread with him when there was a second knock on my door. Apparently, my office is the place to be today. I stepped around him and Katie stood at my door.

“Aloha, Ellie,” she said and I motioned her in.

“Aloha, Katie,” I answered in turn, giving her a hug. “I was just on my way to see you.”

She eyed Mr. I.T. and then looked back to me. “I was here watching Katie-Bug while Flynn picked Winnie up at the airport. I thought it was easier for me to stop down.”

“Let me grab the invitations then,” I said, resting my bag on the desk.

Katie looked at Mr. I.T. and then back to me. “Am I interrupting something?”

He shook his head. “Not at all, Katie, we were making plans to start the new project Gideon entrusted us with.”

Katie sat in the leather chair across from my desk. Today she had on a cute orange sundress that brushed the floor. It had cheery yellow sunbursts in a random pattern across the fabric. She looked better than she did last night, but I could tell something still bothered her.

“Gideon appreciates that you’re both willing to help get this project off the ground. It’s been something he has had on the backburner because he didn’t have the right people to do the job, at least not without constant supervision. Now that he does, he wants to make it happen. Each day the ballrooms sit empty is a lost opportunity as far as he’s concerned. Our Orchid Reef Resort in Honolulu is an even bigger problem than here. I know you two are going to rock this project.”

She held out her fist for a bump and I obliged, feeling a little like a phony because I didn’t want to rock this project. I didn’t even want to be involved in this project. I raised a brow at Mr. I.T. and the look he gave me confirmed my impression that Katie didn’t know anything about the theft of cash.

He leaned against the edge of my desk and nodded. “They’ve been working on minor renovations at Orchid Reef for the last few weeks, as you know. I’m glad when Gideon renovated this hotel he had the forethought to prepare the rooms for the possibility of making them conference and special occasion friendly. It will make my job that much easier.”

Kate clutched her purse to her side. “You’ll have to spend some time there in Honolulu then?”

I spoke before he could this time. “We will, but I can work from anywhere now that I have Slick,” I explained pointing at the new computer. “It will be easier for me to be at Orchid Reef and I can deal with anything that comes up here by telecommunication. We’ll make it work,” I promised.

“I have no doubt, but I asked because I wanted to be sure that you have everything you need while there. I’ll call ahead and instruct them to give you carte blanche.”

“That’s great, thanks Katie,” Mr. I.T. said. “I’ll make sure to look into what we discussed as well.”

“What you discussed?” I asked, wondering what the secret was.

Katie smiled at me. “It’s regarding the event for the law clinic. I would really like to have it in Honolulu. It’s a bigger venue and we have more draw from the bigger island.”

“What about the people from this island who would like to come?”

“Gideon has the helicopter we can use to transport people, but Mally also mentioned maybe we could offer a ferry ride from Maui to Honolulu. It takes about three hours by water, but we were thinking about offering a high class ferry experience, for a price, of course.”

I could feel my lips frowning and I wasn’t sure how to tell her it wasn’t a good idea.

“You don’t like the idea?” she deduced by the look on my face.

“I like the idea of drawing more people over from the other island, but the law clinic is here. Personally, I think the people of Maui who want to come, but can only afford a smaller donation, would be excluded. They like to help their own, but they don’t have the funds for both. Besides, I think Kupid’s Cove is a much better venue. Nothing against Orchid Reef, but the beach isn’t as big or secluded as Kupid's Cove. Just my opinion.”

Katie looked up at Mally and back to me, then sighed. “You’re right. It’s why I’ve been hedging on doing it there and asked Mally to check into the options for me. I guess I should have asked you.”

I laughed a little and shrugged. “I understand that sometimes you like to come up with ideas on your own, but running them past the marketing girl might help work out the kinks. I agree with you that a lot of the more affluent community members attend these events to donate, so they wouldn’t think a thing of paying to be ferried to the destination while enjoying high-end food and entertainment. Maybe we could work it backward and bring people from Honolulu here? We could offer an overnight stay at the hotel in the package deal.”

They both beamed at my suggestion and Mr. I.T. bumped me in the shoulder a little. I came dangerously close to falling down again. He grabbed me last minute and Katie had jumped up to grab me as well.

“Ellie, what’s going on with you?” he asked, the worry evident in his voice.

“Nothing, I just wasn’t expecting you to bump into me.” I tried to gloss over it and move on quickly. “What are your thoughts on having it here as planned with the option for Honolulu guests to attend? Since we’re going there to work with the contractors I could get the ball in motion.”

Kate sat back down, though she kept an eye on me as she spoke. “I think it’s a great idea. If the weather’s nice, I also plan to host an outdoor event. It would be much more fun to host it on Kupid’s Cove.”

I frowned. “I can see I’m going to have to remake the invitations. None of this information was on my radar when I made them.”

I handed them to her and she patted my hand. “I’m sorry, Ellie. This all came about in the last couple days. Let me see what we can do with them.” She looked through the three different samples, her eyes round when she looked up.

“These are stunning, Ellie,” she whispered in awe. “All we’ll have to do is change a bit of the technical information and these will be perfect.” She held up the one with the palm tree, beach and blue water, the printing done in midnight blue. “This one is my favorite. It will go perfectly with the theme.”

I raised one brow. “Actually, it doesn’t. We talked yesterday about the Lover’s paradise type theme. Did that change?” I asked looking between the two of them. I could tell he didn’t know anything about it either. We both fixed our eyes on Katie, who looked sheepish.

“I decided that’s overdone, so instead it’s going to be a pageant slash singles auction!” She was grinning, her hands clapping as she squirmed in the chair with excitement.

“Excuse me? Do I even want to know what that is?” I asked glancing at Mr. I.T. He had one brow in the air and both arms crossed in front of him.

“Picture a cross between Miss America and The Bachelor. The eligible bachelor and bachelorettes will model traditional Hawaiian fashions and participate in a short question and answer session. Then, those in the attendance will have the opportunity to bid on the single ladies and gents for a dream date. If they’re married, they can bid and gift the date to someone else. It’s all in good fun, but people will eat it right up.”

I did a full body shiver. “It sounds horrifying, Katie...”

She snorted and her full bosom shook with laughter. “Oh, if you could see the look on your faces right now. This is awesome, I’m so glad I got to be the one to tell you. You know you’re both going to be on that stage strutting your stuff, right?”

Mr. I.T. cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”

She nodded vigorously. “You’re both eligible, gorgeous, and a great catch. You’ll be our biggest draw.”

I was waving my hands in front of me before she even finished. “Oh no, no, no. I won’t be able to be involved that night. I’ll have so much to do last minute to keep everything running smoothly. Maltrand will, too. He’ll be needed to run interference with technology problems.”

I could see him nodding from the corner of my eye and I moved my head in rhythm with his, but I could tell Katie wasn’t buying it.