She closed her eyes and let herself feel the ache for a moment, which ended when a soft, concerned voice stirred the silence.


204 Melissa Good

“Dar?” The carpet muffled Kerry’s bare footsteps as she came over and perched on the edge of the bed, putting a hand on the older woman’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

The ache eased, and Dar nodded, opening her eyes and giving the blonde woman a wry grin. “A little too much to drink last night.”

“Ah.” Kerry smiled back and waggled her other hand. “I have a bit of a headache myself. I figured some breakfast would help. I ordered it up, and I’m downloading stuff. “

“Good.” Dar rubbed her face with one hand and yawned. “What time is…

Ah, okay. We’ve got a little while. In that case, I need to take a nice long shower.” She rolled over onto her back and stretched, arching her back to work a kink out. “I’m not used to these damn mattresses.” She gave Kerry a wry look. “I miss my waterbed.”

Kerry’s fingers itched to set to work on those muscles, dimly visible through the cotton of Dar’s T-shirt, but she counted to ten and controlled herself. “Are those really comfortable?” She stood up, moving away from her boss’s warm body and walking over to stand near the window, gazing out.

“Oh yeah.” Dar sat up and started to get out of bed. She glanced at her shirt, then stopped in mid-motion and sat back down, staring at her own shoulder in puzzlement. Reaching up with a curious hand, she removed several golden strands caught in the nap of the fabric. She stared at them, rolling the soft hair in her fingertips, then glanced over at Kerry, who was still peering out the window with great interest. “You sleep okay?” she asked curiously.

“Yeah…yeah, I did. Um, I haven’t been up that long, just a few minutes, really. I slept just fine. Um. How about you?” Kerry found the small boats zipping around the lake fascinating,

“Like a baby.” Dar felt a smile edging her lips. She cast her dice on a gamble. “You, um, you always snuggle up like that at night?” then held her breath, waiting for Kerry’s answer. The sudden tightening of the blonde woman’s jaw, and the stiffening of her back was it’s own answer. Dar swore she could see the “oh shit” form on Kerry’s lips, before the younger woman spoke.

“Sorry about that, it’s a stupid habit. I’ve got this big panda thing, and I, um…” Kerry felt herself babbling, and she could feel herself blushing badly.

“Hey.” Dar broke in on the stumbling words. “Relax. Didn’t bother me a bit.” She chuckled, brushing it off to ease Kerry’s obvious embarrassment. “I do it myself. I’ve got two big pillows at home. I’m always wrapping myself around them. Don’t worry about it.”

Kerry didn’t answer for a minute. Then she took in a breath, seen as a shifting of her shoulders, and released it before she turned around. “Well, I’m glad you understand. Um, so you were going to fill me in on this plan of yours? I mean, if Mark came through, which I guess he did, because he called, and…”

“Kerry.” Dar’s voice stopped her nervous speech. “C’mere.” She waited until the smaller woman hesitantly approached, then patted the bed’s surface.

“Sit down.”

“Um…” Kerry settled uneasily on the edge of the mattress and fastened Tropical Storm 205

her gaze on her knees, horribly embarrassed.

“Listen to me, okay? We’re friends, right?” Dar asked gently.

Shy green eyes lifted to hers. “You’re my boss,” Kerry replied softly, as though that explained everything.

“Just forget about that for a minute.” Dar’s brows contracted. “I haven’t known you that long, and you haven’t known me for that long, but I think it’s fair to say we get along pretty well, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Well, that’s good.” Dar fished for words. “Because I really appreciate having someone around I can think of as a friend, and I’m glad we have a chance to get to know each other.”

Kerry relaxed a little. “Me too.”

Dar considered her next statement, knowing she was coming close to crossing a line. “I don’t want you to feel, um…awkward…about the fact that we’re friends, and that you…I mean, that we like each other.” She stared hard at the carpet, then looked back up at Kerry. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Kerry considered it. “Yeah.” She finally exhaled. “I do. It’s just strange.”

“Because we work together?” Dar hazarded.

“Because I work for you,” Kerry corrected gently. “I don’t…it just feels very weird.”

“Mmm,” Dar mused. “Does it bother you?” She queried hesitantly. “I…I mean…” she lifted a hand and dropped it, “that we’ve gotten so friendly this fast?”

That finally got a tiny, relieved smile from the younger woman. “No. I just didn’t want you to think I was trying to get something from you or that I was, um…”

“Sucking up to the boss?” Dar inquired lightly. “I never considered it for a moment. You’re not the type. And believe me, I should know.”

A hesitant smile flitted across Kerry’s face. “Your opinion matters to me. I appreciate you saying that,” Kerry murmured. “I’ve just, I’ve never really gotten so friendly with someone this fast before. It’s a little strange for me.”

“Me too.” Dar hitched one knee up and rested her hands on it. “But I guess there’s a first for everything, eh?”

Kerry ran her hand through her hair and chuckled. “I guess.”

Dar’s lips curved. “So you can relax, all right?” She patted Kerry’s knee.

“Besides, you give great hugs. I don’t want to miss out on one just because you’re worried about what I might think of you.”

Kerry breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Wow, that’s good to hear, because I have this habit of touching people I like without thinking. I didn’t know if that was bothering you. I didn’t even realize I was doing it until last night.”

Ah. Clearing the air. “Well…” Dar scratched her jaw. “Funny thing about that. I absolutely, positively hate people touching me, as a rule, and people coming into my personal space gets me livid…as a rule.”

“Uh.” Kerry bit her lip.

Dar shrugged. “Every rule has an exception, they tell me, and I guess you’re it. No, it doesn’t bother me at all, for some reason.” She gave the younger woman a wry look. “That was kind of a surprise.”


206 Melissa Good

“Oh.” The blonde brows knit. “Good surprise or bad surprise?” Kerry felt her composure returning, and she realized things were actually going pretty well. Dar wasn’t upset about…things…at all.

Suddenly serious pale blue eyes captured hers. “A very good surprise, Kerry. It’s been a very long time since I’ve felt so comfortable with someone. I don’t make friends easily.”

Kerry felt herself drowning in that intense regard, and she reached out in pure reflex, curling her fingers around Dar’s as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “I’m glad,” she replied simply, giving the hand a squeeze. They gazed into each other’s eyes, and Kerry felt her heart start to pound a little faster.

A knock on the door broke the tableau, and Dar dropped her eyes, a tiny smile playing around her lips. “That’d be breakfast, I guess.”

“Yep.” Kerry released her hand, and stood, running her fingers through her hair as she padded to the door and peeked through the eyehole. “I hope you’re hungry. I think I over-ordered.”

White teeth flashed in a grin. “Starving.” She got up and checked the time. Eight thirty. “Let’s eat, then get moving. I’ll fill you in on the plan while we eat.”

THE GLASS-WALLED conference room seemed warmer to Kerry as she entered behind Dar’s tall form and closed the door after her. A large LCD

presentation screen had been added to the far wall, and the IBM team looked, if nothing else, smug. She put her laptop and a folder down next to John, then seated herself, giving him a reassuring smile. “Hello.”

“Hi.” He leaned closer. “Did you get the proposal?”

She nodded and tapped her folder, watching Dar saunter to the first seat nearest the front of the room and sit down.

“The IBM group was working all night. They’ve got this whole whiz-bang presentation to do. I’m a little concerned,” the account team leader whispered. “What do we have, other than the paper?”

“Shhh.” Kerry nodded to the far door, where Michelle and her retinue were entering. “Dar has something planned.” She eyed the Disney executive, surprised when the woman scanned the room and let her gaze rest on Kerry’s face for a long moment before drifting off . I must be sunburned, she realized ruefully. Oh well. She took a quick look at Dar’s face, realizing the darker-skinned woman didn’t show the pink that she did.

“Well.” Michelle put down a leather-covered folder and drummed her immaculately painted nails on it. “Thank you all for being prompt.” She looked first at Jerry, then at Dar, who had slipped off her jacket and was seated casually, her weight resting on her elbows. She had chosen to wear a sleeveless, low-necked white cotton shirt, and she looked cool and comfortable, in direct contrast to the men, with their tight ties and buttoned collars.

“It’s a pity you were tied up last night, Dar, Jerry and I had some wonderful conversation.” Michelle’s eyes were sharp, and she let a brief, thin smile edge her lips.


Tropical Storm 207

Dar didn’t even twitch. She just returned the smile with a lazy one of her own. “Sorry I missed it. Hope you had as good a time as I did.” Suddenly, she was glad she’d turned down the Disney exec. It was obvious she was enjoying the liberal fawning of the bidding process, and Dar felt a quiet satisfaction that she hadn’t stooped to that. Of course, it also might mean she’d dropped the ball and lost the account. She hated losing. It didn’t happen often, and if she lost this one, knowing she could have sewn it up was going to hurt, in more ways than one.

Kerry shifted a little in her seat and cleared her throat.

Or would it? Dar knew herself to be skirting a chasm she’d never anticipated and she wondered just how much it would take to simply push her over that edge.

“Well, let’s get started.” Michelle had obviously decided she wasn’t going to get a rise out of Dar, so she sat down. “I believe we have presentations from both teams?”

Jerry leaned back and laced his fingers over his stomach. “Ladies first.”

He smiled sweetly at Dar.

She shrugged and gave him an amused look. “Okay, if you insist, you go right ahead.”

Against her will, Michelle bit the inside of her lip and looked down, then cleared her throat. “Jerry, go on so we won’t be here all day.”

His face reddened, but he complied, laying out his materials and launching into his presentation, using the display screen to illustrate how they would realign networks and put servers in place. It was interesting, and Dar reflected that he really did know what he was doing. It took forty-five minutes, though, and she caught Michelle peeking at her watch before he finished. She nodded quietly to herself. A good, solid presentation, worthy of the reputation of his company and probably a very competitive bid. Jerry wanted this; the publicity alone was worth low-balling the price.

Michelle nodded at him as he finished. “Thank you. That was very comprehensive.” She paused, then turned and looked at Dar, raising a ginger-colored eyebrow in question.

Dar remained seated and leaned back, resting her weight on the arms of the chair. “Kerry?” She motioned the younger woman forward with a jerk of her head. That was a surprise. Even her own people expected her to do the presentation; certainly Michelle had.

Kerry took a breath, then stood and picked up her laptop, tucking it under her arm and walking to the front of the room. She efficiently disconnected the display screen and plugged into her external video port, then booted up the laptop and requested a cellular connection to their network. She glanced up as it was connecting. “This was an interesting scenario to develop a solution for,” she commented. “Because in order for an interactive system to work, you have to make it easy to use and complex in its design all at the same time.”

She brought up a network diagram, setting counters and narrowing the focus. “This is your current data communications network.” She started the monitors running “You can see, your current utilization runs into bottlenecks here and here, mostly because of the bandwidth requirements, especially in 208 Melissa Good the video link.”