My Nerdy Valentine (Nerds, #7)(11)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

None of that excused him. He could have headed off this current excruciating moment with a call to Gloria, and he hadn’t done it. Because of that, he was reduced to lying through his teeth.

Gloria gazed at him for several long seconds. I don’t believe you."

So much for his ability to lie effectively. Apparently he couldn’t do anything very well these days.

"But if you want to play the secret valentine game, I can do that." Gloria began unzipping her leopard-print jumpsuit.

William froze. "What are you doing?"

"Amanda said you had a stock recommendation for me." She drew the zipper down to her waist, revealing a black lace bra.

For the life of him, William couldn’t remember what the hell it was. He glanced at the doorway to his cubicle. There was no actual door there. Anyone walking by could see right in.

He lowered his voice. "Please zip your outfit."

"Silly boy. People have better things to do than worry about what’s going on in here."

"Gloria, I’m not interested in that kind of relationship with you. I appreciate your business, but—"

"I don’t have much time. My clients will arrive at two.

Just tell me about the stock you want me to buy." She fingered the clasp of her bra. "Do not unfasten that"

"Just tell me the company. Then I’ll give the okay and be on my way."

"Software." He swallowed and glanced at the door again. "I’m going to have to ask you to zip up."

"I will in a minute. What do you like about this software company?"

"I was impressed with their assets."

"I love it when you talk dirty."

He groaned. "Gloria, please . .."

"That’s all I needed to hear." She flipped open the catch on her bra and her br**sts spilled out. "Allow me to introduce my assets."

He tried to keep the panic from his voice. If a senior member of the firm saw this, William would be history. "Please cover up. You’re endangering my position."

She smiled, pulled the bra back together and fastened it with a click. "Speaking of positions, what’s your favorite?"

Under the circumstances, silence seemed the only way to go.

"Your face is red, William, which I find endearing. It’s fine to be shy in the beginning, but when I’m finished with you, all that shyness will be gone. For the time being, I’ll let you be my secret valentine. Just so that doesn’t go on too long." She zipped her jumpsuit and stood.

He let out his breath. For all his bad luck recently, at least no one had wandered by his doorway while Gloria was showing off her knockers. He might as well be thankful for small favors.

"Go ahead and buy that stock," she said. "Use the money market funds. I’ve been asking my very old broker to invest those and he never got around to it. I’m glad to have a young and virile man handling my … assets."

William kept his voice as low as possible. He didn’t want anyone in the office overhearing this volatile conversation. "I think we need to rethink doing business together, Gloria. I’m not comfortable with how you see our relationship developing."

"Oh?" She lifted her eyebrows. "I wondered if we’d get to this point, and here we are already. I can understand if you don’t feel right hav**g s*x with a client."

William winced. That statement had been way too loud. But what could he do, run around the desk and clap a hand over her mouth? She’d probably interpret that as foreplay.

"If that’s the case," she continued, "then I’ll be happy to transfer my accounts back to my old and creaky broker. I’d rather have sex with you than increase the value of my portfolio. I have my priorities."

He lowered his voice another notch. "You won’t be hav**g s*x with me."

"Oh, yes I will." She gave him a long, appreciative look. "But unfortunately I have to leave, now. I’ll talk with you later, my secret valentine."

He decided getting her out of the office was priority number one. Getting rid of her as a client would be priority number two, except that she’d think he was only doing it to clear the way for sex. Maybe keeping her as a client while maintaining a moral stance was the safest way to go.

Then again, when it came to Gloria, he wasn’t convinced anything was safe.

Although Amanda tried to tell herself she wasn’t interested in what had happened in William’s office, she was on the edge of her seat waiting for Gloria’s

return.

Gloria arrived sporting a tiny smile. She looked smug, in fact. And she headed directly for her office. How could she do that? She was always giving Amanda way too much information, but the one time Amanda wanted it, Gloria was withholding.

"I found a book on sex trivia," Amanda called after her. "It’s titled Titillating Trivia. I put a rush on the order." "Good." Gloria kept walking.

"Do you still want me to look for other toys? I didn’t have a chance to do that yet."

"Yes, please." Gloria started to close her door.

Amanda couldn’t stand it. "Did he admit to sending the fax?"

Pausing with one hand on the door, Gloria glanced back at her. "Yes, but his story was totally lame. He claimed the fax was meant for his mother. I don’t think so."

Amanda bit her lip to keep from laughing. His mother? Nobody would believe a goofy story like that. Of course, he hadn’t had much time to come up with one, and at least he hadn’t spilled the beans about the valentine situation. She was grateful for that, because no telling what would happen if Gloria flew into a jealous rage.

"He sent it to me, all right," Gloria said. "But he wants to play games for a while, so I’ll humor him, although he’s leaving me really hot and bothered. When the Burnsides arrive, delay them five minutes. I need some time alone." Then she closed her office door with a firm click.

Amanda stared at the door for a moment before turning back to her computer to look up some sex toy sites. If there were such a thing as sexual Olympics, Gloria would take home the gold. William had won Amanda’s grudging respect for not taking advantage of all that throbbing sexuality.

When the outer door opened, she expected to see the Burnsides, but instead Justin, William’s friend, walked in. Yikes. She wasn’t supposed to recognize him. So far as Gloria could know, last night had never happened.

Poor Justin looked the worse for wear. His eyes were bloodshot and he kept sniffing, as if he’d come down with the flu. She couldn’t shoo him out when he looked so pathetic.

"Hey, Amanda."

"Hey, Justin." She left her chair and walked over to him. "Listen, my boss isn’t supposed to know that I have a relationship with William. Well, it’s not a relationship, because there is nothing between us, but my boss sort of has the hots for William, and—"

"No sort of about it. Any woman that sends condoms and X-rated chocolate has major designs."

"So you know about that, too."

"Yeah." Justin sniffed again.

"Well, she’d have a coronary if she thought he was the least bit interested in me."

"I get that. Listen, if she comes out and finds me here, tell her I’m a customer from Geekland, which is true. She doesn’t have to know I’m Will’s best friend or that he was with me last night."

"So you’re not here to see him?" She’d assumed he’d stopped by on his way to William’s office.

"Nope. I’m here to see you." Unzipping his coat, he pulled out a box about the size that tissues came in. But this was no tissue box.

Amanda recognized it immediately—the deluxe version of Barmaster.

"I feel terrible that I made things worse between you and Will," Justin said. "So this is a peace offering." He grinned sheepishly. "I bought one for myself, too."

She resisted the urge to grab the box. "You didn’t have to do that. You didn’t know that I’d told William … Will… not to come to my workplace."

"No, but he tried to steer me to a different bar, and I kept insisting it had to be Geekland. So take this. It talks."

"I know." One of her customers had the deluxe version.

She’d coveted it for months but hadn’t been able to justify the expense.

"I took the day off. I’ve been playing with the silly thing since I bought it this morning. After I leave here, I’m heading over to Geekland so I can order something outrageous. I’m in the mood to try new things, do new people."

She gazed at him. His eyes were bright in his flushed face, as if he had a fever. "Don’t take this wrong. I don’t really know you. But you look as if you need to go home and go to bed."

"Nope. ‘Fraid not. That would be the sensible thing to do, and I’m finished with being sensible."

"You could end up really sick." Behind her, she heard Gloria’s door open.

"Don’t care." His gaze flicked over her shoulder and he raised his voice. "Well, Amanda, like I said, I thought you could use this new and improved version of Barmaster. You do a great job at Geekland, and you deserve a top-of-the-line model."

"Amanda, who’s our visitor?" Gloria asked.

"A customer from Geekland," Amanda said. "Justin Haskell. Justin, this is my boss, Dr. Gloria Tredway."

"Nice to meet you, Justin." Gloria came forward, hand outstretched. "If you’re hoping to date Amanda, you’re out of luck. She seems to have confused a degree from DePaul University with entering the nunnery."

"Nope, nope, wasn’t looking for a date. Dating’s too tame for this boy these days. I’m just looking for cheap, tawdry sex."

Gloria laughed. "I like that attitude. Good luck with that goal, Justin."

"Thanks. Well, I need to be going. See you at Geekland, Amanda."

"Sure." Amanda held up the box. "And thank you for this."

"No problem." With a wave and a sniff, Justin left the office.

"What did he give you?" Gloria continued to gaze at the door after Justin had closed it behind him.

‘This."

Gloria refocused her attention. "What is it?"

"A deluxe version of Barmaster. It’s a little flask-shaped computer that gives you the ingredients and mixing instructions for most of the drinks ever invented. And you can record any new drinks in there, too."

"A geek gift!" Gloria studied Amanda with narrowed eyes. "Don’t tell me he’s hot for you."

"God, no."

"Because you know the rule. Any man who walks in this office is off limits."

"Gloria, I’m not dating, period. Besides, I wouldn’t date a guy who’s still reeling from having his fiancée dump him." Then Amanda wondered if she should have mentioned that. Probably not.

"Really?" A speculative gleam lit Gloria’s eyes. "Too bad I already have my Geek of the Week, because a man who’s been dumped is ripe for experimental sex. He even admitted as much." Then she waved a hand dismissively. "But I can’t do them all, now, can I?"

"Guess not." But I’ll bet you’d love to try.

Harvey thought foreplay was highly overrated, but Dr. Tredway had spent today’s entire session on the topic. Now Louise expected Harvey to waste the rest of the effing afternoon demonstrating how much he’d learned. He’d planned to spend the afternoon at Starbucks, hoping Amanda would come out of the building across the street.

Louise obviously didn’t care that he had other things to do. She wanted orgasms, and she refused to do anything except lie there like a lump while Harvey, his head wedged between her thunder thighs, did all the work. What kind of fun was that?

Even worse, Louise had taped a picture of some guy named Heath Ledger on the ceiling of their bedroom. Whenever Harvey accidentally did something she liked, she’d cry out Oh, Heath, do that again! It was bad enough that Harvey was the work horse without some movie star getting the credit

Then he had an idea. If she could call out somebody else’s name, so could he. "Mm, Amanda, you taste like …" He searched for a good comparison. "Like draft beer!"

Louise sat bolt upright "Who the hell is Amanda?"

"My fantasy lover." Harvey lifted his head and gazed up at Louise. He had a funny angle from here. Her boobs looked gigantic and her head was small. It was kind of like watching a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. Louise had recently gone blond, so now she was two-toned—frizzy blond on her head and beer-bottle brown on the part Harvey was currently stuck with.

"Your fantasy what?’

"You have a fantasy lover, this Heath guy, so I decided I’d have one, too, honey cakes." He used pet names to soften her up. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t

"Huh. I didn’t think you had enough imagination to have fantasies."

"Well, I do, lambkins." Louise would be amazed at what kind of an imagination he had, especially where Amanda was concerned.

"And her name is Amanda?"

"Yes." Harvey felt the thrill of danger. Louise was a jealous woman, and whenever she got jealous, anything could happen. Being married to Louise was so boring that sometimes he made her mad on purpose, to relieve the boredom.

"You mean that actress from Boys and Girls’! Amanda Detmer?"

Harvey thought about telling her it wasn’t Amanda Det-mer, that it was Amanda Rykowsky, the receptionist in Dr. Tredway’s office. But he didn’t want her to find that out until after he’d carried Amanda off, like a pirate. In the meantime, he was having fun with the valentines.

He had the best one yet to deliver tomorrow, and if he told Louise about it, she’d get really, really mad. As exciting as that might be, he wanted to put it off until he’d completed his plan. "Yeah, Amanda Detmer," he said.

"I guess that’s all right." She flopped back onto the pillow. "But Amanda Detmer would never go with a guy who looks like you."

"What do you mean, candy lips? I look good."

"Your nose is too big and your chin is too small. Plus you should color that mousy brown hair, and you’re on the scrawny side. You have no muscle definition whatsoever."

He considered telling her that she was a big pile of blubber who had no room to talk, except that wouldn’t get him anywhere except in divorce court. But once she found out that another woman thought he was very handsome and smart, Louise would have a whole different opinion of Harvey Kenton.