Chapter 5 - Lex

It's Friday evening and we convened in the Gold Room for our weekly meeting.

Liam has proposed developing a new and ultra-secure maps app for iPhones and Android phones. What he has proposed has tremendous potential. The maps app will be built so that the location of the person using it will not be stored, and cannot be used for tracking the person. With more and more users worried about their privacy, we are sure that most users will prefer our app over the existing ones.

"The preliminary market research is positive. Most of the users polled said that they would shift over to a maps app that did not breach their privacy," Liam says, projecting the data from the market research on the screen.

"Do we outsource it or build it ourselves?" I ask.

"Outsource," Damon says. "It will be cheaper and quicker."

"I vote for outsourcing as well," Pat says.

The others nod their agreement.

"Lex, didn't you say that you met the CEO of a new start-up that specializes in building mobile phone apps?" TJ asks.

"Oh yes. Met them at a tech conclave a couple of months back. Hang on, I have the CEO's business card in my office. I'll ask Nic to get it. She knows where it is."

I reach for the intercom on the desk and call Nic to tell her what I want.

Within moments, there's a knock on the door of the Gold Room. Nic comes in with the card. It has only been a fortnight, but she has proved herself indispensable. She is thoroughly efficient, and I feel like my day is better organized than ever. There are no wasted stretches of time at all.

"Thank you," I say with a smile. Our fingers brush as she hands me the card, and as always, I feel that tingle along my spine. I don't know why I feel this way every time I touch her.

"You're welcome," she says with a smile. My gaze is drawn to her lips as it invariably does about a hundred times a day. Desire shoots straight to my loins as she bites her lower lip when she notices me staring. I wish it were my teeth on her lip.

As she turns around and hurries out, my eyes rove over the delicate curve of her neck, her narrow waist, and her perfect ass encased in a pencil skirt.

TJ pulls out a silk handkerchief from the pocket of his suit jacket and hands it to me.

"Here," he says with a wicked grin.

I cock one eyebrow and look at him questioningly.

"What's this?"

"You might want to wipe the drool off your face," he says, grinning widely. I roll my eyes and flip him off.

Pat pretends to pick up something from the floor and holds out his hand to me.

"What now?" I ask, taking the bait, knowing it's going to be as silly as TJ's comment.

"Your jaw had dropped to the floor. Thought you might want it back," he smiles and winks at TJ. I slap his hand away.

"Haha. You guys are a hoot," I say with a deadpan expression.

"What? We're only trying to help!" TJ says with a wicked grin.

"That's enough now," I say, knowing that the chances of dropping it just yet are zero.

"We were almost burnt to a cinder with all the sparks flying around," Liam pipes in. Damon is the only one who is silent.

"Go on, say your bit," I say, looking at Damon. "Maybe then we will be able to get on with the meeting."

"You're not going to act on your lust, are you?" His brown eyes are serious as he asks me this.

"Yes. No. I don't know," I say, rubbing my face.

The others exchange startled glances.

"Lex, you can't seriously be thinking of sleeping with her? Do you have any idea how complicated it will make everything?" Liam asks, his green eyes boring into mine.

"I know," I sigh. "But you guys saw just how attracted I was to her right from that very first night at The Sitting Duck. I have never felt this way before."

Liam's eyebrows rise high up on his forehead at my admission.

"Do you think that she's your soul mate?" Pat asks, wide-eyed.

"No!" I deny vehemently and perhaps a little too quickly. The truth is, my dragon behaves very strangely when she is around. He is tame, content, purring happily inside me whenever Nic is near. When we part for the day, he actually whines. But just because he is behaving like a love-stricken puppy doesn't mean that Nic is my soul mate, does it?

Damon has a strangely speculative look on his face, whereas the others look frankly uncomfortable.

"Come on, you guys. You know how I feel about a soul mate. It's too risky!"

They say nothing.

"She's not my soul mate," I deny forcefully. Why won't they believe me?

"Well, in that case, all the more reason to keep it in your pants," says Damon.

"Maybe. Or maybe not," I shrug.

"What do you mean?" Liam asks.

"I think if I sleep with her, I will stop obsessing over her."

"Worst idea ever!" Pat says, leaning on his elbows on the desk. He looks at me intently, probably trying to figure out if I am joking.

"Is it?" I plow on. "The way I see it, having her around me all the time and not being able to do anything about it is driving me crazy. So if I sleep with her, I will be over her."

"You can't be serious, mate," TJ says with a somber expression on his face. For once, his blue eyes are not looking mischievous.

"I don't know what else to do! She is terrific at what she does and I don't want to lose her."

"Lose her?" Liam asks, raising one eyebrow.

"I meant replace. I don't want to replace her. I don't know how long we'll be able to keep up this charade and pretend that we are not attracted to each other."

I look around the room, trying to see if they are with me on this. I need them to understand. I need them to know that she's not my soul mate and there can never be anything meaningful between Nic and I. But they're not sold. They're all looking at me identical dubious expressions.

"Does Nic know that you want to sleep with her?" Damon asks. He cuts to the point as always.

"Well…" I hesitate.

"So no," he says, fixing me with a stare.

"She does know. She almost went home with me the other night, didn't she?" I ask. I can't help it that my voice is raised. They're all making it more complicated than it needs to be.

Damon is unfazed by my outburst.

"‘Almost' being the operative word," he says evenly.

"Well, she's also confessed her attraction to me. So there you have it."

It makes a few jaws drop.

"So she wants to sleep with you as well?"

"Yes," I say simply and want to leave it at that, but can't. I won't have her name ruined.

"But she says she won't as she doesn't want to jeopardize her career," I say and pinch the bridge of my nose.

"At least one of you is acting sensibly," Liam murmurs.

"She is a temp! There isn't even a non-fraternization clause in her contract! It's not like I will be breaking any rules by sleeping with her," I press my point.

"You forget that she doesn't want to sleep with you," Pat says.

"No! She wants to sleep with me, but won't. Look, enough already. Let's get back to the meeting," I say, looking at the screen pointedly.

Nobody says anything for a brief while.

"Sure," says Liam eventually. "Just one thing before we continue." He exchanges a brief glance with Pat. For an instant, there is such sadness in both their eyes that my heart goes out to both of them. I know what Liam is going to say, but I let him say it. He needs to say it.

"I've been down this road before. You remember how it almost ended me?"

I nod. It was a dark and difficult time for all of us, but especially so for Liam and Pat. It is a testament to their bond as brothers that they recovered from what happened all those years ago. But my situation is different! Nic is a stranger! And she's not my soul mate.

"Just promise me you'll be careful," Pat says in a low voice.

"I promise," I say, looking at each of them in turn, willing them to trust me. They decide to let it go for now.

"So what is the start-up called?" Liam asks.

It takes me a while to realize that he wants to know the name of the start-up I had talked about a little while back.

"Uh, KobiTech," I say, looking at the card in my hand.

"Right, so we get in touch with the CEO tomorrow," Liam says.

For the rest of the meeting, we only discuss the app and nothing else, and I am glad for it. While there are definite advantages in working with your best friends, there are disadvantages as well. Nothing slips past them. They throw strange glances my way from time to time, but I ignore them.

My mind is more or less made up though. I am going to woo Nic and get her to agree to a one-night stand. Our constant proximity is affecting her as badly as it is affecting me. I need to prove to myself once and for all that she's not my soul mate. The only way to do that is to sleep with her. It is the forbidden nature of it that is making it all the more tempting. I'm sure I wouldn't have felt the attraction with this intensity if she was just some random woman, and not my executive assistant.