My Nerdy Valentine (Nerds, #7)(20)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

FedEx box in hand, she walked down to the door marked COOPER AND SCOTT, INVESTMENT BROKERS. A brunette receptionist, who looked much more pulled together than Amanda felt, greeted her with a smile and a cheery welcome.

"I’m here to see Will Sloan," Amanda said.

"William? Let me see if he’s in. Who shall I say is here?"

Amanda gave her name and waited while the receptionist did her thing. So Will was still called William at Cooper and Scott. Amanda liked the idea that she, Justin, and the customers at Geekland knew him as Will. She felt as if she had access to another side of him. It wasn’t quite the Clark Kent/Superman transformation, but it leaned in that direction.

He came to the front of the office looking more William than Will. In his gray suit and conservative blue tie, dark hair neatly combed, he gave no indication that he’d been at the bar last night slamming down Raging Bulls and kicking trivia butt. Then again, that image might not work so well with potential investors.

The surroundings ratcheted up the nerd factor, too. It was Dilbert personified, a gray-partitioned cube farm with computer keys clicking and phones buzzing. The fluorescent lights overhead made everyone look a little gray. Amanda had never thought about the lighting in Gloria’s office, but now she appreciated the discreet wall sconces and table lamps.

"Hi, Amanda." Will looked pleasant, but his gaze created a distance between them.

This would be tougher than she’d thought. He’d obviously decided to write her off after last night’s conversation at the bus stop, and he might not be willing to reverse that decision. If he took the package without inviting her back to his office, she wouldn’t have the chance to ask him about the boyfriend thing.

No, not boyfriend. That term belonged in high school. The word that applied in this situation was lover. As she stood there looking at him, she had a decidedly sexual reaction to the idea of Will as a faux lover.

She easily could be tempted to get rid of the faux part, despite, or maybe because of, his buttoned-down exterior. She wanted to muss him up and bring out the person who’d had such a high old time last night. Whoops. She was in major attraction mode.

That meant that asking him to help her was a really bad idea. Okay, she’d go into debt and get that alarm system. Setting up a pretend relationship was too risky for her, and unfair to him. She’d been right to reject the idea last night.

"Gloria asked me to give you this." She held out the FedEx box.

He glanced at the package and then looked into her eyes. The distance he’d created before had somehow evaporated. "Come on back."

His eyes really were gorgeous. She’d never made love to a man with green eyes. She wouldn’t be making love to this man, either, no matter how much electricity was shooting back and forth between them.

She needed to blow this cube farm before something happened that she’d regret. "I need to go." She extended the box in his direction, wiggling it slightly to indicate he should take it off her hands.

"Let me talk to you for a minute." As if assuming her consent, he started down the hallway created by the partitions.

She’d been outmaneuvered. She could set the box on the receptionist’s desk and leave, but that would be awkward and impolite. She followed him into his cubicle.

Once there, he turned to her and lowered his voice. "Okay, what’s going on?"

Her heart was beating a mile a minute. "I brought you something from Gloria."

"I don’t mean that. I mean the way you were looking at me just now."

She had no choice but to lie. "I don’t know what you mean."

"The hell you don’t." He took off his glasses and kissed her.

FIFTEEN

Kissing Amanda today was the best decision Will had made in ages. He should have done this last night, too, when they’d been standing all alone at the bus stop. But he’d been worried about ruining his plan, so he’d let her call the shots.

At the moment, she wasn’t calling any shots. She was going along with this kiss in a most gratifying way. The package she’d been holding dropped to the commercial-grade carpet with a muffled thud as she wrapped both arms around his waist.

She felt so good, so perfect in his arms that he almost forgot she’d never been there before. They’d spent too much time talking. Kissing was more straightforward, and he sent his message with all the clarity he could muster. She seemed to read that message perfectly.

When she opened her mouth a little bit, his brain cells began to disintegrate in the heat. If he didn’t call a halt now, he’d have his tongue in her mouth and his fingers at the buttons of her blouse. The kiss was a great idea on a personal level, but not so smart on a professional one. He was still a very junior member of this firm.

But he didn’t want to stop. This mouth-to-mouth communication with Amanda seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Ending the kiss when she was so eager seemed totally unnatural. He did it anyway.

The moment he lifted his head, the spell was broken. With a gasp, she backed away as if he had cooties. She was trembling, though, and he took some comfort in that. So was he.

Her eyes were wide with shock. "What was that all about?"

He put his glasses back on. He could think better wearing his glasses. "I should ask you the same thing. Last night you told me to get lost, and this morning you were looking at me with bedroom eyes."

She had the good grace to blush. "I… have to admit that I… find you attractive."

"That’s nice."

"No, it’s inconvenient."

"Not for me. I’m enjoying it." He crossed his arms over his chest so he wouldn’t reach for her again. The next kiss would undoubtedly pick up where the first one left off, and that could mean violating Cooper and Scott’s company standards of office behavior.

She took a deep breath. "I can’t allow myself to do that. I’ve explained my reasons."

"Something tells me you’re nothing like your mother."

"I’m more like her than I thought. Two semesters ago I fell for a guy and in no time my grades were in the dumper. It was hell salvaging that semester, but I poured on the extra credit and saved myself."

His telephone rang. "Excuse me a minute. Don’t go anywhere." He picked up the phone, and just his luck, it was Gloria.

"I’m taking a break while my clients complete a little oral exam in my office," she said. "I noticed Amanda’s not back yet. How did you like the book?"

"It looks very interesting." He glanced at Amanda and mouthed Gloria’s name.

She rolled her eyes, reached for the FedEx carton, and pulled the book out. Turning it face out, she held it so he could see the cover. Titillating Trivia was written in gold script against a whorehouse-red background. Cartoon characters in various bawdy positions and states of undress surrounded the title.

He grimaced.

"I thought it was right up your alley," Gloria said. "Good for cocktail chatter. Speaking of that, I would invite you for a drink tonight, but I’m swamped with work. Glad you like the book. Bye."

After she hung up, he stared at the phone for a minute. "Something’s wrong. She didn’t push for a date."

"She’s going for mysterious and unavailable, to see how that works."

"Oh." He replaced the receiver on the phone. "Well, it won’t. Now where were we?"

"I think we were at the part where I leave and go back to Gloria’s office, a sadder but wiser woman."

"Please don’t go yet. You were telling me about some guy who turned into a roadblock. Whatever happened to him?" After that kiss, Will was in deep enough that he needed to know if some ex was lurking around.

"He told me I was stupid to worry so much about grades. When I wouldn’t abandon my studies for him, he took off. I have no idea where he is."

"I don’t mean to malign your ex, but.. . Cancel that, I do mean to malign him. He sounds like an idiot."

She shook her head. "I was the idiot, thinking I could maintain a love affair, a job, and my studies all at the same time. Something had to give."

"Not if he’d had a better sense of time management."

That made her smile. ‘There was no time to manage. If I want to follow my dream, I need to make the tough choices."

She gazed at him. "Thanks for the kiss." Then she started out of the cubicle. "It was lots of fun." "Wait."

She glanced over her shoulder. "You don’t understand. I really can’t take a chance that I’ll sabotage myself."

"What if I commit to making sure that doesn’t happen?"

"You can. Keep your distance."

"Ouch."

"I don’t mean that to be as negative as it sounded." She paused. "The problem is that I like you too much."

"Damn it, that shouldn’t be a problem."

"At this point in my life, it’s a big problem. See you later, Will."

He searched for something, anything to make her stay a little longer. "Have you found any more valentines in your desk drawer?"

She paused again, but this time she didn’t look at him. "No."

Good thing he’d put his glasses on, because otherwise he might have missed her slight shiver and the way her body went rigid afterward, as if she were bracing herself against another involuntary, telltale movement.

"You must be relieved," he said. She didn’t look at all relieved.

She glanced at him. "I am."

Something else was going on. That heated look she’d given him in the outer office had created a bond between them. Sharing an enthusiastic kiss had strengthened the bond, and now his radar was locked in and picking up every nuance. "What’s happened, Amanda?"

Fear flashed in her eyes and she hesitated.

"Tell me, please." His gut tightened. He couldn’t let her handle this by herself.

She swallowed. "It’s probably nothing, but it freaked me out. When I came home last night, there was a message on my answering machine."

He took a breath and tried to stay calm. Getting agitated wouldn’t help her. "So he knows your phone number. That’s not good, but if you’ve saved it, we could try and identify the voice."

"There was no voice, only a song, ‘Hungry Like the Wolf.’"

All the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. "That’s creepy."

"I know." She held his gaze. "I live in a first-floor apartment, and I didn’t sleep very well after that."

He blew out a breath. "I wouldn’t imagine you did. Knowing the phone number is one step from knowing where you live." Although he was dying to ride to the rescue, he held himself in check. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, this morning I’d planned to ask if your boyfriend offer was still open …"

Yes.

"But obviously we can’t consider the idea, now." "Why not?"

She stared at him as if he weren’t right in the head.

He shrugged. "Okay, so we kissed."

"Twice."

"That first one barely counts as a whole kiss." "And this one?"

"No big deal." It was a huge deal, but he was ready to minimize it if necessary. She needed someone to hang around and keep her safe, and he was the man for the job.

"No big deal?" She looked crushed.

"Bad choice of words. I meant that we could get beyond our one-point-five kisses if that’s what it takes for you to feel comfortable with me. You need me around, Amanda."

She smiled gently. "That’s what. I’m afraid of."

"I didn’t mean it like that. You need a guy to make it look as if you’re spoken for. I’m the logical choice."

"Maybe so, but after this morning, I don’t think we can pull off a pretend relationship."

"And I say we can. This weirdo seems to be focused on Valentine’s Day, so once that’s over, he might fade into the woodwork or crawl back under a rock. Then we can end the charade, and each go back to our regularly scheduled programs."

She still seemed skeptical. "I’m not saying that we could pull it off, but just supposing we tried it. How would we handle Gloria?"

He’d thought about that last night before he’d proposed the idea to her. "You tell her about the stalker and explain that you need me to step in for a few days. She’s so convinced of her own sexual attractiveness that I’ll bet she won’t see you as a threat."

"That might be true. She thinks I’m pretty dorky."

He laughed. "Gloria’s perceptions of reality are so skewed that I wonder how she functions."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

It was more than a vote. It was a freaking landslide. But he had to play this close to the vest.

Amanda studied him. "How do you see this working, you being my boyfriend?"

"For one thing, I’d drop by the office from time to time, in case the guy is one of Gloria’s clients. And I’d hang out at Geekland, where we could advertise our status to all your regular customers."

"That sounds logical. Anything else?"

He paused. He doubted that she’d go for his other thought, but he’d suggest it, anyway. "Considering that first-floor apartment of yours, I should probably move in." He waited for her to blow a gasket.

She took a shaky breath. "I think so, too."

You could have knocked him over with a paper clip.

All morning Amanda had blocked the terror that she’d felt while lying in her apartment last night, wide awake and listening for every scrape and rustle outside her windows. In the light of day, she’d felt silly being so afraid of a dumb song on her answering machine. But when Will had asked about any new valentine deliveries, all the fear had come rushing back.

Yes, she could install an alarm system, but an alarm system was a cold piece of technology. She needed to hear another human voice, preferably the voice of a man with broad shoulders and more upper body strength than she had, in case someone needed to wield the vacuum cleaner wand or the collected works of Sigmund Freud.

"I didn’t think you’d agree with me," Will said. "I didn’t know I was going to, either. But the truth is, I’m afraid to stay alone, and Mavis Endicott sleeping on the couch isn’t going to make me feel any safer." She felt a stab of guilt. He was at least six inches longer than her couch. "That’s all I have to offer you, unfortunately. Or maybe I should take the couch, and you can have my—"