Since I Fell For You(21)
“This must be a pretty boring job for you, watching a bunch of computer geeks all day, isn’t it?”
He looked momentarily surprised by her change of subject. “I’m not bored at all. It’s my job to deal with physical threats, but the kind of threats you’re protecting people from are coming faster and darker all the time. What you’re doing with your digital security software, it’s important. And plenty interesting.”
She was surprised that he truly did seem to find her job interesting. Most guys she’d dated outside of her industry were either bored to tears by her career or threatened by her being the CEO.
“What kind of people do you usually work with?”
“Athletes. Politicians. Actors. Musicians.”
“So I’m your first nerd girl, huh?”
When he stopped in mid-sip of his water, she realized it had sounded like yet another double entendre. One she hadn’t meant despite her whole seductress plan.
Or had she? Because somehow the idea of being Roman’s first nerd girl didn’t sound all that bad…
He recovered first. “Definitely the first who keeps calling herself a nerd and a geek. Less than that got you a black eye back when I was in school.”
“In my world, nerd and geek aren’t insults. As far back as I can remember, I was always the president of the computer club. And honestly, there’s always been so much gossip about my family that a bunch of kids throwing those words into it wouldn’t have made much difference.”
His face was often a mask that she couldn’t read, but in that moment, she saw what looked like empathy for her past. Maybe even commiseration, as if his own childhood hadn’t been a bed of roses either. Yet again, she wanted to shift from patiently waiting for him to open up, to asking direct questions that would help her better understand all of Roman’s many intriguing layers.
One of his teenage fanboys brought over their pizza. “Here you go, Roman. Hope you like it.”
The kid kept standing there until Roman took a bite and said, “Best one I’ve had in years.”
“Thanks, man.” The smile on the kid’s face made it look as if he had just won the lottery. He scooted back to tell the rest of the staff.
“They really do love you here.”
“They’re good kids, but they’ve heard too many stories.” She wanted to ask him to tell her those stories, but before she could, he said, “Not like with your employees. Today, when you were working with them, you were the sun everyone was revolving around while you made magic happen with the servers.”
His compliment made her insides feel all warm and fuzzy. “My team is great. Super smart. Nice too. Any one of them could start their own company. It’s an honor to have them working for me. Especially when we’re tackling difficult puzzles like we were today.”
He studied her as if he was confused about something. “The puzzle of what you were working on appealed to you despite the reason for the extra work and how angry you were about it, didn’t it?”
Most people could know her for years and not understand this. But Roman had gotten it inside of one day. She couldn’t help but think back to what he’d said, about how the last guy she’d dated hadn’t understood her. Roman clearly did.
“I’m not at all happy about the attack, of course, but figuring out how to thwart the bad guys is always interesting. It’s part of the reason I decided to focus on digital security as opposed to building other kinds of software applications. That, and the fact that I want people to feel safe whenever they’re online.”
Somewhere in there, she realized what a terrible job she was doing of seducing him into breaking his bodyguard rules. She should be talking about anything but software applications. If only her female cousins were here right now to give her a refresh on their flirting lessons from all those years ago.
What was it they had said? Lean in close, then flatter him. And if that didn’t work—Pretend he has something on his mouth and reach over to help him clean up.
Scooting her chair closer, she looked deeply into Roman’s eyes. “I know this may come as a bit of a surprise, but you make me feel really safe.” She’d meant to say it as mere flattery, but as soon as the words left her lips, she realized she meant them. She still didn’t need a bodyguard, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t noticed feeling extra secure whenever Roman was near.
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Finally, he replied, “I’m glad.”
The moment hung between them, heavy with exactly the kind of sparks she’d previously told herself were integral to succeeding in her plan to make him quit. Only, it didn’t feel so much like a plan anymore.