Talking Dirty with the CEO(42)
At that, her glare became fierce with challenge. “No, of course not. Though you know, if you’re tired, we can rest a little longer.”
Joseph laughed. He liked that about her. The hint of an of iron backbone beneath her stutter and her vulnerability. With more confidence, she would be formidable.
“Nope. I’m done resting. But before we ride on, remember that surprise I mentioned?”
“Is this going to be the ‘surprise, a hill!’ kind of surprise?”
“Would I do that to you?” Pulling off his backpack, Joseph unzipped it and took out the tiny music player he’d borrowed from his R&D department. It was in development, but he hadn’t been able to resist the chance to show it off to her. She was such a gadget girl and he was dying to see what she thought of it. Man, he hoped she liked it. The possibility that she might not made him nervous.
“Here,” he said and put it into her hand.
Christie stared at it, eyes wide. “Is this…?”
“Ashton Tech’s newest product? Yep. What do you think?”
She’d already picked it up and was playing around with it, swiping her fingers across the touch screen, brow furrowed. “Wow, this looks amazing.”
Joseph allowed himself a small burst of pride and ignored the twinge of relief. “Well, yeah. It is.”
A huge smile broke over her face. “Hey, you even put some music on here.”
“Yeah, I did. Put on all the Gothic metal bands I could find. You’ve probably heard them all, but the Plague Dogs one only came out this morning.”
“Oh my God, I love Plague Dogs.” She glanced at him, eyes alight. The smile that curved her mouth could have put the sun to shame. “Thanks, Joseph. This is awesome.”
The look on her face, the simple joy there, made a strange tightness settle in his chest.
He tried to ignore it. “Well, it needs beta testing. So have a listen while we ride, okay?”
“Sure.”
“And hey,” he said before he could stop himself, “thanks for coming out with me today. I know you didn’t want to.”
She blushed. “Damn. What gave it away?”
“Probably the look of trepidation on your face when you saw the Lycra.”
She laughed. “You got me. I confess that physical activity isn’t my favorite thing. I’m more a couch potato gamer type of girl.”
“So what made you come then?”
Her smile turned shy. “You sat with me for a whole hour last night. Seemed only fair that I come out and spend an hour doing stuff with you.”
He shouldn’t push it, he knew he shouldn’t. Yet still he found himself asking. “So, you only came out of fairness then?”
Christie glanced away. “No.” A small hesitation. “I came because I like…being with you.”
Oh man, it was pathetic to be fishing like this. Even more pathetic to feel such satisfaction with her answer.
Unease shifted inside him at the thought.
Christie gripped the handlebars of her bike. “What about you?” she asked, glancing back again. “Why did you want me to come with you?”
The unease deepened. Which was odd because he’d never found the truth difficult before. But he made himself say it because she deserved it. “Because I like being with you, too.”
Her expression lit up. “Well that’s good. Bike riding must be sucky with someone you don’t like.”
“Yeah, it is,” he agreed. “Very sucky.”
They stared at each other a long moment. Then Christie looked away again, down at herself. “So, okay, where the hell do I put the player in these stupid clothes?”
Yeah, a change of subject was good. No, it was perfect.
“I’ve thought of that.” Out of his backpack, Joseph found the armband he used when listening to his own player.
“You’re really quite handy, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m a regular Boy Scout.” He wrapped the armband around her slender forearm. “Be prepared, that’s my motto.”
“And mine is ‘never let the bastards grind you down.’” She grinned at him, warm and open and generous.
The tightness in his chest became even tighter.
“Come on, Love Machine,” Christie said, sticking the earbuds firmly in her ears. “I’ll race ya.”
…
Christie had no idea how long she had been riding. It felt like forever. Her legs were heavy iron bars that wouldn’t do what she told them and worse, every time she stopped, she felt dizzy and wanted to puke her guts out.
But even though going for a bike ride had sounded like the worst idea ever in the history of worst ideas, it was made easier by the cool music player Joseph had given her. She was dying to get home and play with it some more, but in the meantime there was the new Plague Dogs album and that just rocked.