Naughty Temptations

Chapter Five-1

Chapter Five

Lois’s cell phone vibrated, and she looked at it, even though she knew she shouldn’t. Every time she saw a message or a text or an email from Drake or Dragun, she wanted to answer it, to communicate with them, but she knew she couldn’t. She had to be strong and ignore them. There was no future for an ordinary person like herself with two such very special men as them.

At home and back at work, she could hardly believe she’d gone to their home and made love with them both. Not that she regretted the s*x at all. It was just that she didn’t know why she’d broken her cardinal rule of s*x on a first date. Why the f**k had she ever agreed to go with them?

She’d succumbed to the desire to Google them on Monday, and it’d told her far more clearly than even seeing their beautiful home on its huge acreage had done, that she was completely unsuitable for them. Oh sure, rich and handsome men f****d ordinary women all the time, but all that was ahead for the woman was a really good memory and then a broken heart. Lois already had the wonderful memories. Now she had to be very strong and stay away from the broken heart.

She even learned the name “Kelekona” meant “dragon” in Hawaiian, which was an interesting piece of trivia, but not relevant to anything,.

She couldn’t possibly be in love with them after one date and a one-night stand. Therefore, the pain she was feeling now was nothing compared to the pain she would feel if she answered any of their emails or calls or messages.

But damn it was hard. She wanted to be with them. They were everything she’d ever dreamed of in a man and so much more.

That’s the point, she reminded herself. They’re so much more than you can ever deal with. They’d be bored with you in a month, maybe less than that, and then your heart really would break.

Lois deleted the message unread. Several times this week they’d sent her books on k****e. It’d been easy enough to delete them since she didn’t have a k****e or an iPad or even a generic brand tablet. All she had was her ancient laptop. Today, however, there were several pdf attachments to the email from Dragun. Once again, she remained firm and deleted them all unopened. But damn it was hard. So very hard. She wanted to tell them she cared about them. She wanted to tell them she’d spent the best night of her life with them. She wanted to explain to them why she had to stay away from them from now on. She wanted— She wanted them. And that could never be.

They deserved a beautiful woman each, one who was smart and educated as well as pretty and who would be a fitting partner for them at all the fancy society events they must attend.

Lois had even Googled DDK Design, their company, to learn a little about it, but she’d made herself stop reading, as it was just another painful way of reminding herself about what could never be. Still, she’d seen enough to know they were rich—or at least comfortably off—and that their company was doing a whole lot better than Optimized Design was right now. Also, that they’d told her the truth. DDK Design concentrated on apps rather than the types of programs Optimized Design developed.

Lois put her cell phone back in her pocket and sniffed to get rid of the watery mist clouding her eyes. This is the only sensible way to behave. It’s like pulling a Band-Aid off. One harsh rip and it’s gone instead of picking at the edges for days.

So why did it hurt so much?

Once again, she shook her head, refusing to back down and look at her cell phone’s deleted calls folder. Somehow she hadn’t quite managed to empty her trash yet, but she would. Soon.

There was a light tap on her door, and she looked up to see Rodney from IT standing there. His face was fiery red, and he looked most uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong, Rodney?”

“Bree said— Uh, Bree asked me to ask you— Uh—” He turned around and pointed down the hallway, his face blushing even redder, and then he raced away.

Lois jumped to her feet. Bree needed her, but why? Where? And why was Rodney so embarrassed? Then she realized Bree had probably mentioned the ladies room. It was the one place women could speak to each other without being overheard in this old building, but poor Rodney had probably thought it was a message about secret women’s business. Just in case it was, Lois grabbed her purse out of her desk drawer, but she thought more likely Bree had something private to tell her.

Complying with company policy, she bent down to log out of all the programs on her computer, before leaving her desk, although why it was so important when they never had any visitors made no sense. Still, she did it from habit, and then, with her purse slung over her shoulder, she hurried down the hallway to the ladies room.

Lois pushed the door wide open to make the lights turn on before stepping inside. Someone’s cell phone was being used as a flashlight, propped up against the mirror over the sink, and someone was either upchucking or crying, or both, in one of the stalls. The stall door was open, and Lois could hear Bree’s soothing voice, “Let it go, honey. That stupid song is quite right. Just let it all out, and then you’ll feel better.”

Bree pushed the door shut. This was clearly not the kind of conversation Mr. Mallory ought to hear about. Fortunately, Rodney could be trusted to say nothing to anyone. Ever since Sherry had been terminated, he’d gone from not particularly talkative to almost completely silent. Lois suspected that some days he hardly spoke to anyone at all, alone there in IT all day.

She took a few more steps into the ladies room and peeked into the stall. Since she’d been invited here, she guessed that finding out who was in there with Bree couldn’t be termed an invasion of privacy.

Bree was crouching behind Deirdre, holding her blonde ponytail over her back with one hand and rubbing her shoulders and back with the other. Deirdre worked with old Bill in the warehouse. She did all the paperwork for their sales, and he did the physical packaging and shipping. A lot of their products didn’t really need paperwork anymore, since the days of sending a CD with installation instructions or a paper booklet were almost gone. Most games, apps, and software these days could be downloaded with the press of a button, and the website had places where clients could click on FAQs or ask the help desk.

Was that why Deirdre was upset? Was Mr. Mallory planning to let her go and replace her with some more links on the website? That would explain why Bree was there. Since Cathy in reception had been let go the previous week, Bree was supposed to do all the website updates now, apart from tricky coding things that were part of Rodney’s job.

Two minutes must have passed because the overhead light flickered off, and all that was left was the cell phone light over the sink. Actually, placing the phone in front of the mirror was clever. The mirror reflected the light nicely, making it brighter than Lois had expected, although nowhere near as good as the overhead light of course.

“Do you want me to open the door again?” she asked softly.

“No, I’d better wash my face and get back to my desk. I’ve been gone too long already. Mr. Mallory is sure to notice, and then he’ll fire me.” Deirdre’s voice ended on a hiccup and then a sob.

“Hush now, honey. It’ll be all right,” soothed Bree.

“It’ll never be right. Mr. Mallory’s going to terminate me for sure, and then I’ll be like Sherry. It’s been months, and she still hasn’t found another job. She’s been applying for work as a barista and as a waitress in every coffee shop in town, and she’s a qualified IT specialist. If she can’t get another job, I never will, and we’ll lose our apartment without my salary to help pay the rent.”

Deirdre’s sobbing got louder, and Lois stepped back to the door, leaning on it, hoping to deaden any sounds.

“I didn’t know Sherry hadn’t found work yet.” And that made her look terribly self-centered. It was bad that she hadn’t made any effort to catch up with Sherry.

“She’s applied for more than fifty positions and only had one interview, and she hardly looks pregnant yet. My tummy is sticking out already. No one’s going to believe I’m not three months yet. Me and Johnny want this baby so much, but where am I going to get another job?” Deirdre wailed.

Lois sank back against the door. Deirdre was pregnant too? No wonder she was scared since Mr. Mallory had terminated Sherry. “Congratulations” hardly seemed the right thing to say under the circumstances.

Reluctantly she pulled out her cell phone and stared at the screen. She knew some people who might be able to employ Sherry or at least help her find a job where pregnant women were allowed to work. They might even have a vacancy for Deirdre if Mr. Mallory terminated her. And Lois had to admit it was just the sort of thing he might do.

But how would that make her look after ignoring them all week and only answering them to beg favors for her friends?

Bad. That’s how I’ll look. Mean and nasty and self-serving and greedy. But what else the f**k can I do? They really might be able to help.

Lois’s index fingers hovered over her deleted messages. Could she contact them? Should she?

No, of course she shouldn’t. It was going to open her heart to further hurt and make her look ungrateful as well. They’d know she only wanted to use them instead of liking them for themselves, when the truth was she really liked them far too much to get involved with them and drag them down to her level.

Finally she clicked on the most recent message, which happened to be from Dragun and typed in, “What’s DDK Design’s policy about pregnant IT staff?”

*****

Dragun was almost going bald tearing his hair out over Lois’s actions. Or inactions in this case. Not only hadn’t she replied to any of his or Drake’s emails or text messages, she wasn’t even opening them. He’d resorted to putting an invisible “read receipt” on all his messages, and she hadn’t opened a single one, not even the ones with books or pictures attached to them. Whatever philosopher it was who’d said women were curious and piquing their curiosity was the way to their hearts hadn’t met Lois, obviously. Dragun was sure she was curious, but he couldn’t figure out how the hell to attract her attention.

And Drake wasn’t helping. Drake was going after Karl Mallory with a single-minded devotion to a cause that made bloodhounds appear lazy. Drake had pushed the forensic audit team so hard they’d doubled their fee, but neither Drake nor Dragun cared as long as it eliminated any likelihood of Lois being in the wrong.

The searches weren’t complete yet, but the chief auditor was building a very strong case that the problem was Mallory and that he was acting alone, abusing Frank Wilson’s trust and company information Frank had given only to him.

So, when his cell phone beeped with an incoming text message, Dragun had no interest in it at all, assuming that it would be something to do with work and he could deal with it when he got around to it, that there was no rush. But five days of pulling his cell phone out and staring at the screen a dozen times a day had built into a habit, and he swiped across the screen with no anticipation or hope in his heart, just a niggle under his skin that he was about to be disappointed yet again.

“Lois? Lois? Holy s**t, she’s finally answered me. Thank the goddess.”

Heart alight with happiness, he bent over his screen.

What’s DDK Design’s policy about pregnant IT staff?

“Lois’s pregnant? She can’t be pregnant. We used condoms. No, no, that can’t be right. No one knows they’re pregnant in less than a week. Some other man must have done it. Someone before she knew us. I’ll kill him, the cur. She’s my mate. Mine, mine!”