High Heels & Hard Drives Read online

  Cover

  Title Page

  High Heels & Hard Drives

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  Deb Rotuno & Jenny Rarden

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  RR Books

  Copyright Information

  High Heels & Hard Drives, Copyright © 2016 by Deb Rotuno & Jenny Rarden

  All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

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  Published by RR Books, February 2016

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  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

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  Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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  Cover and Interior Book Design by Coreen Montagna

  Dedication

  To our husbands, John and Scott, and to our Sarge’s Girls group, our biggest fans.

  Chapter One

  Sully

  INHALING DEEPLY the smell of the city as I came up out of the subway, I smiled a little. It was food and exhaust and concrete. It was also loud and busy. It was the perfect place to lose myself…and start fresh.

  The Turcotte building wasn’t as tall as some of those surrounding it, but it looked intimidating all the same. I checked my hair in the glass doors before walking into the lobby. The noise of the street immediately cut off as the door shut behind me.

  “Can I help you?” the redhead behind the reception desk asked me, her gaze raking from my head to my feet.

  “Um, yes, please. I’m supposed to see a Chase Castillo.”

  “What’s your name, sir?” she asked, smiling when I told her as she picked up her phone. “You must be the new tech starting today.”

  Chuckling, I nodded as she spoke to someone on the other end of the line. I noted that her nameplate said Terri.

  From down a long hallway to my left, I heard echoing footsteps and then saw a man approach. The guy was about my age; he was tall, lean, and wore a lazy smile on his face. He stretched one hand out to me, while in the other, he carried what looked to be a tablet that had seen better days.

  “Ryan Sullivan?” he asked.

  “Call me Sully. I’m supposed to report to you…”

  He grinned, jerking a thumb behind him. “Let’s get you started, then.” He led me down the same hallway he’d come from, shaking his head a little at the tablet, but he turned to me. “Eugene’s on vacation this week, so you’ll shadow me for the most part. I’ve been here a few months, but it’s a pretty easy gig. This’ll be a typical Monday.”

  I smirked and followed him down the stairs and through a door marked “IT Dept.” He dropped the tablet on a workbench, turning to face me.

  “I’m sure Gene gave you the tour when you were interviewed, so I won’t go into a big spiel.” He pointed toward a laptop on a desk. “Most requests or problems come in via e-mail, or sometimes they’ll call. We keep most of our own supplies and equipment here to repair just about anything, though occasionally we’ll have to send something off.” He rolled his eyes. “The worst thing you’ll probably encounter is a virus on a company laptop because some fool clicked the wrong link on Facebook or some shit.”

  I laughed, nodding a little as I shoved my hands into the pockets of my pants. “Fair enough.”

  He eyed me for a moment, his eyes dropping to my ink. “Nice… Army?”

  “Actually, yeah,” I said, holding out my arms. “Think it’ll be a problem?”

  “Nah, we’re invisible—that is, until we’re needed, and then we’re the hero of the fucking day.” He grinned, shrugging a shoulder. “Ranger? Tanks?”

  “No, nothing that glamorous,” I said with a laugh. “Comms Specialist. I was a computer geek when I went in. I’m just not the skinny guy I was eight years ago.”

  Chase laughed. “We all started that way.” He pointed to the chair in front of the laptop. “Have a seat, Ryan. Keep an eye on the e-mail while I deal with…this…” He sneered at the tablet, shaking his head.

  I grimaced at it. “What in the hell happened to that?”

  He snorted, pulling out a new replacement screen. “Bratty Patty—Sorry… Patricia happened to it. She’s an ice queen, not to mention the daughter of Albert Turcotte…and utterly bad luck when it comes to electronics. She oversees the journalism department on the fourth floor. I won’t even tell you what she’s done to her laptop.”

  Grinning, I shook my head at the sound of shattered glass as he removed the old screen, and I pulled my phone out. I smiled at an e-mail from my mother, wishing me luck on my first day, and a text message from my father, doing the same. They’d worried about my move to New York, even though I hadn’t called Boston home in several years.

  The ping of an e-mail caught my attention, and I leaned forward to read the screen.

  “What’s it say?” Chase grunted, brushing his hands off on his pants.

  “Um…printer jam…from an Andrea Sharp,” I read off, looking up at him to see his smirk.

  “Like I said, typical Monday.” He chuckled, shaking his head a little, but there was a reddening in his face. “Twenty bucks says she jammed that shit on purpose.” When I looked at him questioningly, he merely laughed. “Trust me, you could do worse for your first ticket. The fourth floor is…a beautiful paradise compared to other departments. It’s mostly women, and they’re all gorgeous, except for poor Albert, but he’s either gay or blind or too old to give a shit. I can’t tell which. Take tools just in case she really fucked it up.” He pointed toward a bag at the end of the workbench. “And tell Andrea hello and that I’m sorry I couldn’t come up myself.”

  Chapter Two

  Bailey

  “ANDI!” I LOOKED AROUND at the rest of the office, expecting our boss, Ms. Turcotte—a tiny woman with a dreadful attitude—to pop out of her office at any moment and chastise us. We were supposed to be working on our columns for this month’s issue of the magazine, but Andrea, one of my best friends in the world, was headed for the printer that was located not far from our desks.

  Andi giggled, waving the small stack of blank paper my way.

  “Chill, Bailey,” Judy, our other best friend, said with a grin my way. “Bratty Patty isn’t here right now, remember?”

  “Oh yeah… Something about lunch with Daddy?” Patricia Turcotte’s father, Albert, was head of Turcotte Industries and its magazine, me. He was an odd duck—short, squat, with this weird gaze that always put you on edge—and their relationship bordered on the creepy.

  Grinning, Andi nodded as she crammed paper into the printer, trying to create a paper jam so bad that she’d have to call tech support. “Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were finding some poor soul on the street to snack on.”

  I laughed—our “Turcotte Family are soul suckers” jokes were always funny—but looked around to make sure we weren’t overheard. I wasn’t sure if Bratty Patty had spies in the office, but I wouldn’t put it past her. Focusing back on Andi, who was still trying to create the paper jam from hell, I snorted. “Andi, when are you going to just ask him out already?”

  She shrugged, grinning. “This is more fun. Plus, I wanna see how long it takes him to ask me.” She’d been creating messes for Chase, one of the two guys in the basement IT department office—and whom she was totally crushing on—since he started at the company a few months before.

  I shook my head and turned back to my computer, chuckling as I listened to Andi’s hissed, “Yes!” and then saw from the cor
ner of my eye as she scurried back to her desk to send out an e-mail to IT.

  Involved in my article on what was hot that month in pop culture—everything from the latest box-office release to the upcoming concerts in the area—I didn’t realize we had a visitor in the office until Andi whined, “No way… Who the heck is that?”

  Glancing up to her, I then followed her gaze as someone new stepped out of the elevator, wearing the uniform of khaki pants and a maroon polo shirt with the magazine’s name and logo stitched on the upper left chest. I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. At least six feet tall, the man was gorgeous. He had sandy-blond hair, and when he reached up to rake one hand through it, it sent his hair into a casual disarray. From across the room, I couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but I could see his strong jaw with a hint of scruff, kissable lips, and eyebrows that were just thick enough to be manly without making him look like a gorilla. But what I found sexiest was the ink I could see—a tattoo on his right bicep. I loved it when guys had ink.

  Andi waved her hand—still frowning—to show that we were the ones with the problem.

  When he got up close, he was even sexier. His eyes were brown—a lighter brown with hints of gold—and his eyelashes were so long that I was envious. There was a bump on his nose, but it only added to the perfection. And his ink… His right arm had a black curl of ink with a hint of red peeking out just beyond the sleeve of his shirt. It wasn’t enough to make out what the whole image was, but it was enough to make me check my chin for drool.

  When he spoke, my stomach flipped and I had to clench my thighs together to stop the tingling between my legs.

  “You called about a problem with your printer?”

  Pointing toward it without looking, Andi blurted out, “Where’s Chase?”

  “He’s working on a problem with Ms. Turcotte’s tablet at the moment. You’re Andrea?” At her nod, he said, “He said to tell you hello and he’s sorry he couldn’t come up himself.”

  I held in my grin when Andi opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again, her eyes going wide. When she continued with her deer-in-the-headlights look, I spoke for her. “Tell him Andi said she understood and she’s sorry she missed seeing him.”

  “Bailey!” she hissed, glaring my way.

  Laughing, I turned to the man, crossing my legs and showing off the new pair of four-inch red heels I’d worn for the first time today. They made my butt and legs look killer. “You’re new, aren’t you? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

  He let his gaze travel down my legs to my toes and back up before nodding once and smiling. “I am. Just started today, actually. I’m Ryan Sullivan, but everyone calls me Sully. You’re Bailey…?”

  “Beck,” I finished and then pointed to the girls across from me. “That’s Judy Heller—you probably met her husband, Miles, downstairs when you came in. He’s the big guy in security.” When recognition lit his eyes and he nodded, I continued. “And that’s Andi Sharp.”

  Ryan’s lip curled in a half smile. “It’s nice to meet you all.” He looked at his watch. “I’d better get to work. I haven’t met your boss yet, but Chase said she’s…something else, and I’d rather not get on her bad side my first time up here.”

  I nodded and smiled, motioning to the printer. When he turned around to make his way over, his shirt sleeve moved enough that I caught more ink, and I slammed my lips together to hold in my moan.

  Oh, my God! I mouthed to my girls.

  They just chuckled and turned their gazes back to their laptops.

  For the next several minutes, I kept only half my attention on my article. The other half was glued to Ryan as he opened the printer and began to try to undo the mess Andi had made with the paper. Every little bit, he’d glance up, and I’d smile before cutting my gaze back to my desk. Sometimes his cheeks would turn slightly pink when I’d catch him watching me.

  It took him nearly ten minutes to get all the paper free and get everything moving smoothly. Finally, he said, “Can one of you try to print something for me?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I answered quickly before the others could. Reaching up to hit CTRL+P, I tried to ignore Judy and Andi, who weren’t even trying to hide their grins. When Ryan turned back to the printer, I glared at them. Bitches, I mouthed.

  At the quiet whirring mechanical sound of the printer actually printing off my article, I looked back at Ryan, who pulled the freshly printed sheet from the tray. He used his free hand to close the lid to the printer, picked up his bag—which he hadn’t even needed to open—and then stepped up to me.

  “All fixed,” he said to us and then handed me the paper, smiling shyly. “Here you are, Miss Beck. In case you need this.”

  “Thanks, Ryan. Please, call me Bailey.”

  “Bailey, then,” he said softly. Looking back at Andi, he said, “Feel free to call down if it acts up again. Chase should be finished with Ms. Turcotte’s work soon.”

  “Thanks,” she muttered, her cheeks pink.

  He chuckled, shot me a grin, and then headed for the elevator.

  Once he was through the glass doors and to the alcove in front of the elevator, I stood and walked over to lean against Andi’s desk so I could watch him more easily. “Oh my damn.” I fanned myself. “How hot was he?” Grinning, I told Andi, “I may have to have problems with the printer more often.”

  She glared, but it quickly dissolved into giggles as Judy just rolled her eyes and said, “You two should really just grow a pair and ask them out. It’d be faster.”

  “Yeah,” Andi said, “but not nearly as much fun.”

  I shrugged. I’d just met him. I didn’t even know anything about him. Was he single? I hadn’t seen a ring, but surely someone that gorgeous was taken…

  The ding of the elevator made my head whip around so I could catch one more glimpse of Ryan, but when Bratty Patty walked out, I quickly hurried back to my desk, burying myself back in work so she had no reason to single me out. When she barked at her secretary—a sweet girl named Violet, who I’d become friends with after learning how close to one another we lived—I cringed, glad it wasn’t my name she’d called.

  Chapter Three

  Sully

  PUNCHING THE BUTTON for the elevator, I turned to face the glass doors of the journalism department one more time. My eyes drifted past Andrea, a short, spunky thing. I could understand why Chase liked her. She was cute, in a hyper-fun sort of way. The blonde—Judy—was hot but taken…and reminded me of someone overseas I used to date occasionally.

  Finally, my eyes fell to Bailey as I heard the elevator draw closer. Now she was stunning—light-brown hair, with blue-green eyes and a wry, sarcastic smile that was more sexy than snarky. As she leaned against the side of Andi’s desk, I drank in the creamy skin of smooth legs and her short skirt as she crossed one ankle over the other, showing off sexy high-heel shoes that made her legs look a mile long. Not only was she gorgeous, but she seemed kind and sweet.

  “Paradise, indeed,” I muttered to myself with a shake of my head to clear it of thoughts I should probably control my very first day on the job.

  The elevator doors slid open, and I gave Bailey one more brief glance, simply because I felt drawn to her. Letting out a light laugh, I turned to step into the elevator, only to come face-to-face with cold, steel-blue eyes and a blonde head of hair. I smirked, excusing myself as I caught sight of the tablet Chase had been working on. Patty eyed me, her face scowling when she saw my ink, and she breezed by without a word. That look alone told me why they called her Bratty Patty.

  When I arrived back downstairs, Chase glanced up from the laptop. “How’d it go?” he asked, wearing a shit-eating grin.

  “You weren’t kidding, man.” I chuckled, shaking my head a bit as I set the tool bag on the workbench.

  He cracked up. “Which part? The girls or the printer jam?”

  “Both.”

  He grinned and nodded, clicking the mouse on the laptop. “Was Andi pissed?”

&nbs
p; “Well, she wasn’t happy, but…”

  Chase’s sharp gaze landed on me. “But what?”

  I waved him off, my brow wrinkling. “No, no… Andrea was fine.” I was just about to ask him what he knew about Bailey Beck when the e-mail pinged again and he groaned a little.

  “Aw, hell…” He closed the laptop and picked it up. “Grab the bag. We’ve got a problem in payroll. You can shadow me for this one.”

  “All right,” I told him, shouldering the bag again.

  “Oh.” He grimaced. “And payroll? Watch your ass in there. Literally. There are some shameless cougars up in that bitch. They get…touchy.” He shuddered, wearing a hilarious grimace on his face.

  Laughing, I nodded and followed him out.

  The first day wasn’t too bad. It was definitely better than deserts and Army tents. Time moved quickly, and I was pretty sure I visited every floor. Occasionally, Chase would have me follow him, unless he was needed elsewhere. Unfortunately, the fourth-floor printer behaved itself for the rest of the day.

  By the time I clocked out for the day, my head was swimming. I’d met so many people, had ridden the elevator more times than I could count, and I was oblivious by the time I stepped out onto the street to make my way home. The noise of the city hit me, but I pulled out my phone to check my messages, only to smile at a familiar voice coming from beside me—a voice I hadn’t thought I’d hear again that day.

  “Ryan, how was your first day? Did Chase run you ragged?”

  I spun my head to see the eyes I’d been fantasizing about all damn day. They were a beautiful shade of hazel. Up close, I could see green in the center of dark blue, blending to what looked like the deep waters of the ocean, and they were surrounded by long dark eyelashes. Her smile was sweet, not fake, but kind…and maybe a bit flirty as she bit her lip a little and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She was shorter than I’d thought, but a glance down showed me she’d changed shoes from the sexy-as-hell heels to sneakers.