Page 45 of The Hard Launch

“And these,” she says, then points gently at her upturned mouth.

I bend down and kiss her slowly, and then I pause.

“Like that?” I ask softly, my lips almost touching hers.

“Almost right,” she says, moving my hand from the small of her back down to where it’s all skirt. I grip her firmly.

“Good. Try again.”

I pull her closer, kiss her harder, and she leans into me. I bring my right hand down next to my left and I hoist her onto the top of my tall desk, pushing my computer aside. She’s above me now, her mouth still on mine.

She pulls back, breathing hard. “Seems like you’re a real self-starter,” she says.

“You have no idea,” I tell her, sliding my hands up her skirt to pull at the stretchy band of lace that passes for a pair of underwear. She lifts her hips to help me get them down, kicks them to the floor when they’re low enough.

Her eyes are serious now, her breathing shallow.

I bend down, push her knees apart gently, and kiss my way up the inside of her thigh. She leans back and I listen as her breath catches in anticipation, as she sighs and shudders, until she moans a bit louder than she ought to, considering where we are.

When I’m done she’s flushed and gorgeous and glassy-eyed. I retrieve the little band of lace underwear from the floor and attempt to put them back on her. I fail and she laughs, takes them away, kisses me.

“Are you sure?” she asks me as she pulls them on, and I nod.

“Recess is over,” I tell her somberly.

“For now,” she says.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

LACEY

I bounce between the tiger team and the video team, checking in with contractors to make sure they understand what they’re building, monitoring QA progress, adjusting requirements, doing acceptance testing.

“Damn, girl,” Trevor tells me after I bring Ella over to him and suggest she might be able to solve his engineering problem with a UI change.

“What?” I ask, hoping he’s not going to say anything about how I’ve been in overdrive since the pre-dinner break. Because I have.

“You make me think that maybe I’m not very good at my job,” he says.

“You’re very good, and you’re closer to done than I am.”

And I mean it; the podcasting piece is looking great and is very close to being ready for end-to-end testing. Sure, an on-demand audio platform is a just a bit simpler than a multi-functional video platform, but I’m a team player. Trevor’s not as bad as I’ve spent the past two years thinking he was.

When I go back to the circular table to check on the video team, one of the contractors is typing with his eyes closed and Ingrid is just staring into the far corner. I think she might be asleep.

“I think it’s time to call it,” Dave declares. We’re fifteen minutes away from our 2 a.m. checkpoint, and the team has officially run out of gas. We pack up our stuff to go get some rest.

“Breakfast is at eight a.m.,” Jonnie calls as we leave. I wonder when, or if, she sleeps.

Jude’s office light is still on as we walk past. Dave pauses at the door.

“Hey chief,” he says. “We’re done for the night. Made some really good progress today.”

Jude thanks him, tells him to sleep well.

I hang back when Dave walks off.

“See you soon,” I say and then I disappear, leaving a confused Jude behind. He doesn’t know that, earlier, I slipped a copy of my key under his door upstairs.