In the Beginning continued

Chapter 8
She had felt his presence in the office before she saw him. The receptionist at the front of the office seemed to be new because she was not letting her get through without filling out countless forms.
“I really don’t need to fill all these out,” she told her, “Just call Jonathan Sanchez. He is waiting for me.”
The receptionist looked at her in a dismissive way as if to say Yeah right, and I’m the Queen of England.
“Jessica,” Damon stated, “What seems to be the problem?” He came right up to the desk and stood next to her. She could feel his warmth just float out to her.
“Mr. Rosado,” the receptionist started, “This woman claims to have a meeting with Mr. Sanchez and says that she does not need to fill out the proper entry forms. I did not think it wise to let her in without the proper paperwork due to our problems at the moment.”
“Jessica,” Damon began patiently, “She is here to solve our problems.” He took her hand and she felt herself hold it firmly in her grasp. “I’ll take her there myself so don’t worry about the paperwork.” There went her hands off policy. Though technically she hadn’t put her hands on him, he hand taken her hand in his, she mused.
Damon rushed her from the reception area and took her into his office. She shouldn’t have come in here with him. It was the wrong thing to do. She couldn’t erase the feeling of his hand taking hers and the warmth that gave her. She would not mind holding his hand forever.
“I’m sorry about that,” he began, “Jessica’s new and I guess that she’s trying to prove herself, so she’s very strict about comings and goings.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said as she moved as far away as she could from his desk. She looked around the room at everything but him. Her eyes landed on a picture of Damon and Rebecca. They looked so great together. She was so blonde and beautiful and he was so dark and handsome. They were well matched and it made her sick to think about it.
He came closer to her. She had been so engrossed in looking at the picture that she did not notice his closeness. He hated the look on her face. She was sad and upset and all he wanted to do was wrap his arms around her and comfort her. These impulses seemed to beat every other thought in his head and in a matter of seconds he was next to her and his arms wrapped themselves around her body as if controlled by something other than his mind. And he was. The emotions and thoughts coursing through his mind were at war with one another but they soon quieted when her hand covered one of his own.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he asked of her, his voice sounding concerned and his tone laced with meaning. He wanted to know if she felt that she should be the one in the picture with him. He needed to know if she felt that touching him was like coming home. He needed to know if her heart was beating as wildly as his own now that she was in his arms.
She looked up at him and their gazes caught. She began to pull away from his embrace, but then thought better about it. When else would she have the chance to be touched by him this way? She gazed down at the picture of him and Rebecca and reminded herself that he was engaged. That voice in her head that she could barely keep under control told her, he’s with you right now, not with her. His arms are around you. He is concerned about you. Thinking that led her to do what was probably the worst thing she had ever thought to do. She leaned into his body and sighed softly.
Damon tensed immediately. God only knew how much he wanted to grab her and kiss her troubles away. He relaxed as soon as it was possible for him to do so, especially after that thought. He was halfway there already with her completely ensconced in his arms and her mouth was close to his own. He bent his head down slowly and pressed his lips lightly on hers.
One little taste that’s all he thought it would take for him to comfort her and fulfill his curiosity. She wrapped her arms around his neck and almost immediately his light kiss turned into a full-fledged exploration. He needed to know the contours of her lips, then her teeth, and finally what would it take to get her to purr and moan in his mouth. His hands wanted to be everywhere at once and her hands weren’t behaving any better. They went in his shirt, wrapped around his neck, and touching his face. The kiss seemed as if it would never end, until they heard a crash and came apart suddenly. The picture of Damon and Rebecca had fallen to the ground reminding Vale that she was being an idiot to give in to impulses. She pulled away from him and began to apologize for what had just happened, but he put a hand up and silenced her.
“Vale,” he said, “I’m the one that needs to be sorry. I started the whole thing and I am the one involved with someone right now. None of this is your fault.” He knew what he was saying was the truth. None of this was her fault. It wasn’t her fault that he was exceedingly attracted to her. It wasn’t her fault that wanting to make her happy and relieve her stress was becoming second nature to him. It certainly wasn’t her fault that he had wanted to know what her lips would taste like. And now he knew that those lips tasted as sweet as honey.
“Damon, whatever you say you can’t take all the blame,” she said passionately, “All you wanted to do was comfort me and all I wanted was the comfort you offered.” She bent down and started to pick up the frame and the bigger pieces of glass that had fallen on the floor.
He had to create some distance between them or he’d start to touch her again. He walked over to his desk and then he heard a knock on the door. “Come in,” he called. He was now exceedingly glad that Vale had been able to stop them from going much further. He had been willing to comfort her in all the ways that were possible.
“Hey Damon, Vale,” said the now familiar voice of Jonathan his second in command. He had never thought he would be jealous of Jonathan, but he was. Jonathan had found the love of his life in high school and had married her and in the past five years they’d had three beautiful children. He took a look at Vale and for a second thought of what might have happened had they gotten together in high school. Would they have been lovers? Would they have married? Would they have had children together? This last thought made him stop in his tracks. Vale as the mother of his children. He had never thought of Rebecca in that way, and she was the woman he said he would marry. He tried to shake the thoughts from his head as he realized that Jonathan was trying to tell him something.
“Sorry, Jon. My mind was elsewhere.” Jonathan looked around and saw Vale picking up the pieces of the frame from the floor and his eyebrows shot up. Jonathan had always be able to read Damon like a book and the look that crossed between them told him that Jonathan had some idea of what had just happened in this office.
She had to pull herself together. Jonathan could not see her this way because that would only lead to uncomfortable questions she did not want to answer. “Hi, Jon,” she said trying to put up a cheerful front, “Lead me to the problem.” She left Damon’s office with Jonathan’s probing gaze at her back.
Damon closed his eyes before turning to face the door that was opening to reveal Jonathan’s face the next words out of his mouth made him wonder what exactly Jonathan thought had happened. “We will have a talk once she leaves,” he stated plainly.


Chapter 9
Jonathan did not let Vale think that he hadn’t caught something between her and Damon. Jonathan had known something like this might happen between the two of them once they had given each other the chance to talk more often. It was almost like a bad joke to see that Damon was engaged to someone and Vale was the other woman, when he knew that it was Vale who Damon needed to be with.
He didn’t argue with Damon about it but he had met up with him and Rebecca a few days before the party that had rekindled the spark he had known that was between Damon and Vale in high school. Damon had seemed happy, but the looks he shot at Rebecca were nothing like the ones he shot at Vale, even as far back as high school. He had also sensed Damon’s reluctance to marry Rebecca and his disinterest in her threats to find someone else.
Jonathan hadn’t seen what had happened in the office, but he had a pretty good idea of what it could have been and Damon was in no position to offer Vale anything she should accept at this point.
“So,” Jonathan began, “Are you going to tell me what I interrupted or am I going to have to imagine it, and trust me my imagination is already working overtime.”
“Nothing happened,” Vale said attempting to hide the flush that she knew must show in her cheeks.
“Alright,” Jonathan stated, “Then explain to me why your lipstick is all over the place, including Damon’s mouth, why your ponytail is messed up, which you never allow to happen, and why it is that neither you nor Damon could look me in the eye when I walked in.”
“Easy,” she said, “You have an overactive imagination.”
“So you two weren’t making out like two horny 16 year olds in Damon’s office?”
The look on Vale’s face after Jonathan’s too close for comfort description of what had happened caused him to nod his head and declare himself and his imagination correct on all accounts.
“Jonathan,” she began, “It was all a mistake. It has never happened before and it will never happen again.” She knew of all the problems something like her attraction to Damon could cause.
“You know as well as I do that this should have happened a long time ago, so it is not a mistake it is the inevitable,” Jonathan said calmly.
“No, Jonathan,” Vale stated in a hard voice, “This is not the inevitable. Damon has a fiancée. He is not available and I knew that from the moment that I saw him again a year ago.”
“You two should have been together since high school and you know it.” Jonathan began to pace the computer mainframe room in which they had ended up after Damon’s office. “It is ridiculous that you two don’t see it.” Jonathan stopped and looked at her face. Vale looked shaken and though her voice sounded as if she meant every word she said, the fact that she couldn’t look him in the eye when saying it and that her hands were trembling over the keyboard, told him a very different story. He hadn’t wanted to make her this upset, though he believed Damon was the actual cause and not himself.
“Fine,” Jonathan finally stated, “I’ll leave you to figure out what the problem is and I will send in the new tech. Maybe you can teach him what they couldn’t teach him in whatever fancy school he came from.”
“Thank you for dropping it,” Vale stated, “I’ll do my best to put him up to speed. This time tell Jamie to take it easy if the guy has the hots for her okay. I can’t keep coming back here to fix mistakes and keep up with my teaching courses at the same time.”

Jonathan left the mainframe room thinking that for someone who had just been shaken the way Vale had, she could still joke around with the best of them. He hoped that at least Damon would be in a talking mood. He knew that one of them needed to be willing to admit to strong feelings or a very interesting beginning could very well be a crushing end.


Chapter 10
Nothing is as it seems was the thought that most often ran through Damon’s mind after Jonathan and Vale had left his office. He was behaving the way some lovesick idiot would behave over his first crush. Making out with Vale in his office where just about anyone could see. He was playing with a friend’s emotions and quite possibly hurting someone he loved. He was just not so sure of which of the people he was hurting was the one he actually loved.
Jonathan walked back into his office without even bothering to knock; at least he thought that he hadn’t knocked. His mind did not seem to be forming thoughts properly at the moment. All it wanted to do was think back to the way Vale’s mouth had felt under his own.
“Damon, spill,” Jonathan stated sitting in one of the comfortable leather chairs in front of Damon’s desk. Damon hadn’t expected for Jonathan to get to the point that quickly, but Jonathan tended to surprise him.
“There isn’t much to talk about,” Damon stated trying to make himself believe it at the same time as he said it.
“Like hell there isn’t,” Jonathan argued, “You and Vale were in here and there was more going on than friendly conversation. I’m going to ask you what I just asked her, what exactly happened?”
Damon didn’t know what to say. He knew what had happened but couldn’t explain it to Jonathan. How could you explain something that you couldn’t completely understand yourself? Vale was his friend. The person he had grown closest to in the past few years, not even Rebecca had gotten under his skin as much as she had. Even Jonathan, who was his best friend, could not compare to what seemed to be developing with Vale.
“Well are you going to answer me, or are you waiting for me to come to a conclusion?” Jonathan continued, “Because what I think is that you finally realized that you and Vale should be together.”
“That’s not true!” Damon countered. “Rebecca and I are together and we are getting ready to set a date.” Even as the words flew out of his mouth he knew they were a lie.
“Please you don’t even believe that yourself. I think the only ones that even try to believe that are you and Vale,” Jonathan said running a hand through his brown hair. “You don’t care that Rebecca has already threatened to find someone else to replace you, but you do care when Vale needs her car fixed. You don’t care that Rebecca hates seeing you with Vale, but it bothers you that Vale thinks you don’t spend enough time with your fiancée. You spend an awful lot more energy trying to live up to Vale’s expectations than to Rebecca’s, doesn’t that tell you something?”
Damon never realized that he did any of these things but thinking back on it, Jonathan was completely right. Vale’s opinion mattered more to him than Rebecca’s and that had never bothered him.
“And now, “Jonathan continued, “You are practically caught making out in your office.”
“It was just one kiss,” Damon stated trying to block out the images that thought brought back. God, what a kiss!
“That was not just a kiss. That was a year of pent up frustration, Damon. One kiss does not cause you to knock over things. It does not make you pull a woman’s hair. And it definitely doesn’t make her start to take off your shirt. Only sex does that.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you think we were about to have sex in my office?” Damon asked scared of his own reaction to the scene painted out by Jonathan.
“To be honest,” he began, “the only thing that I am positive of is the fact that you might have Rebecca. You might even go as far as to marry Rebecca, but who you want right now, if you are completely honest with yourself is Vale.” And with this Jonathan left Damon alone.


Chapter 11
Vale couldn’t believe what had almost happened with Damon in his office. She had been such an idiot and she had been the one to ask for it. She knew it. Damon would never have touched her if he had known that she wanted him to kiss her and touch her the way he had today. In her mind, it had not been an accident. It had been something she had wanted from the first minute she had seen him again. She could barely concentrate on the work in front of her and she needed to leave quickly before Jonathan could come back and wreak even more havoc with her composure.
A tall man with shaggy brown hair walked into the room and introduced himself as, Henry Morgan, the new tech hired by Jonathan to keep the computers and such running. Henry saw the look on her face and tried to make her smile throughout the short training session. He was able to grasp everything she told him quickly and she told him so.
“This computer system is more than a little temperamental,” she stated, “so you will have to be very careful when dealing with it.”
“What I wonder is why they hired me when they seem to have a perfectly good tech right here,” Henry stated motioning in her direction. He smiled and showed his white even teeth and a slight dimple on his left cheek. Vale smiled in return liking him for his compliment and wondering if he were perhaps flirting with her just a bit, or at the very least fishing for information.
“Well I don’t work here,” she replied, “Damon and Jonathan are old friends of mine and I have often come through with some help for them when they have needed it.”
“Oh, I see,” he said looking at her, “Which unlucky guy did you break up with?”
“Cute,” Vale stated, “I did not date either one of them. They are honestly friends that I made while in high school. We’ve kept in touch and when Damon came here to take over the business for his parents and added Jonathan as a partner they remembered how great I was with computers and have asked for my help, with compensation of course.”
“Of course.” His smile becoming a little more like a smirk and he looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.
“I don’t understand why it is that you seem ready to burst into laughter at what I just said?” Vale said in confused tones. “The story I just told was not in the least bit funny.”
“I am not laughing at your story,” he stated, “I am just thinking that the better question to ask would be which of these unlucky guys seems to want to keep you around, since their techs do not seem to last long.”
“Neither one,” she replied, “both Jonathan and Damon are involved in serious relationships. We really are just friends. There are many other extenuating circumstances as to why their techs don’t last.”
“I have to admit that I like your answer to that question,” he countered.
“Why is that?” Vale asked.
“Because that makes it easier to ask you out,” Henry replied smiling and taking her hand.
“Why would you want to ask me out, you barely know me?” Vale asked taking her hand away from his grasp.
“I like what I know about you so far,” Henry said looking as if he wanted take her hand back.
“Which is?” Vale stated with a raised eyebrow, or at least what she hoped was a raised eyebrow. She really did not want any of her inner turmoil to show in front of this man. She barely knew him but she had to admit that he was making her feel amazingly well after what had happened.
“You seem intelligent. You are beautiful. And seem to be a good friend. You also have the most amazing smile I think I have ever seen on any woman’s face,” Henry stated plainly.
Vale smiled at him. Henry was a sweetheart. He was not a bad looking guy and he was fun to talk to. She looked at the clock and realized that they had been in the room talking for the past two hours. She needed to get her mind away from Damon and Henry might prove to be a great distraction. She hoped that if he did ask her out she would be able to say yes. She needed to go out with someone.
“So how about it?” Henry asked. “Would you be interested in going out with me? Maybe for a cup of coffee after we fix up this mainframe?”
“Sounds like a good idea to me, “ Vale answered, surprising herself with how quickly she replied.


Chapter 12

Damon knew that he needed to talk to Vale about what had happened. He waited in his office for about an hour or so after his conversation with Jonathan and he decided that he should call Rebecca to tell her that he would be late for their “appointment” that night. He was not looking forward to the conversation. He knew Rebecca would not be happy with the news, but at least he knew that he wouldn’t have to make love to her that night.
He knew that Rebecca was gorgeous and desirable but lately he hadn’t wanted to spend any of their time in bed together doing any of the fun activities that they used to do a few months back. It would be even harder now that he realized that a part of him wanted Vale to be in his bed and not Rebecca. He was an idiot on many levels and he knew it. He should never have done anything with Vale. He should never have even thought of doing anything with her, especially since he claimed to be in love with Rebecca. Correction, he was in love with Rebecca. He knew that if Jonathan heard what he was thinking he would tell him, that if he loved Rebecca so much that he would not want to be with Vale as much as he did. And he wouldn’t want to know how her skin tasted or get excited when her hands touched him in any way.
He picked up the phone and dialed his home number, hoping for the best. Rebecca picked up after two rings.
“Hello, handsome,” said into the receiver, “are you on your way home?”
“Becca, I hate to disappoint you, but the situation here is a little more dire than I had originally thought,” Damon explained.
Rebecca was on the other end thinking that Vale was more likely than not at RI&E helping with this problem. She heard the uneasiness in Damon’s tone of voice and wondered if he was making excuses to stay at work to be around Vale. Should she say that she had seen them kiss in the parking lot? Should she cut her losses and ask him point blank if they would remain together or if she should pack her bags? God, so many unanswered questions.
“How late do you think you’ll be?” she asked hesitantly, “Maybe I’ll wait up for you.”
“I really don’t know Becca. With computers it’s hard to say,” was all he replied.
“Fine, Damon,” Rebecca answered in churlish tones, “but we need to talk. And soon.” She hung up the phone feeling angry and confused all at the same time. She realized that Damon had never really been in love with her, though he had said the words “I love you” on a number of occasions. She had been in love and knew what it looked like. What they had was friendship and lust, which they had decided would make a good basis for a long lasting relationship. If she was completely honest with herself, she had liked Damon better than most of the other men she’d met in Texas and she had picked him out as the likeliest candidate as a husband but had not been in love with him. Now it was coming back to bite her that he had never really been in love with her. She had taken in it for granted that her looks and her bedroom skills would make him fall completely in love with her.