I was surprised she was willing to do that in front of her staff, but I damn sure wasn’t going to turn it down. I bent kissed her quickly and innocently on the lips. “Want to go to your office?” I whispered as our lips parted.
She grinned as she bumped her safety glasses up on her nose with a knuckle. “Maybe later,” she whispered in return.
I kissed her again, just as quickly and innocently, before I again turned for the door. The thought of fucking her in the office, trying to make her scream as she attempted to remain quiet so nobody would hear, was causing me to harden. Shoving the thoughts away, I opened the door and glanced back at her. She was watching me, along with the brunette chick with the rack, whose name I couldn’t remember.
Thankfully the lab was close to the dock, so I didn’t get lost, but I didn’t know how to get to the front of the building, where my Uber was waiting, from the lab. I went out the way Willow and I came in and quickly walked out of the parking lot while sending another text to the Uber, letting the driver know where to pick me up.
The drive to Willow’s house was quick and uneventful, the older woman engaging me conversation like I was some long lost relative. By the time she pulled into Willow’s driveway, I knew her son lived in California and worked for a company that built movies sets, one daughter lived in Houston and was a stay-at-home mom and wife of someone that owned a business she seemed to think I’d recognize, and her youngest was working for a law firm in Dallas whose name I’d long since forgotten.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said I stepped out of her Tacoma, glad I could stop pretending that I was interested in the lives of her children.
I pulled the slip of paper out of my pocket where I’d written the codes to the garage door and gate, and typed it in. I went into the house, retrieved my helmet, along with the extra one I’d packed for her. Her helmet had been in the truck with her, so was dry. I couldn’t say the same about mine. I put it on anyway. It wouldn’t take long in the sun and heat for the helmet’s liner to dry.
I rode back into Houston using my phone to find my way back to Larke Oil via a nearby sandwich shop she recommended called Ikes’ Love and Sandwiches. I’d never heard of the place, but she said it was close, good, and her go to place when she wanted a sandwich for lunch.
I ordered her the Menage a Trois as she asked, and I decided on the Matt Cain for myself. I assumed the name of her sandwich came from the three types of cheese, but I had no idea who Matt Cain was. I carefully tucked the two sandwiches into the bag on my bike while hoping they didn’t leak. She’d given me her badge, so I swiped myself into the employee parking lot and parked my bike in front of the truck. It was minutes before noon when I pulled my phone from its holder on the handlebar and extracted the sandwiches from the bike’s bag. I felt around in the bottom of bag for dampness and was relieved I wouldn’t have to clean it.
“Lunch is here,” I said as I opened the door to the lab.
“Good. I’m starving,” Willow said as she began pulling off her safety glasses and gloves. “Let me wash my hands, then we can go eat. Did you have any trouble finding the place?”
I shook my head. “Google know all.” She glanced at me. “I have a mount on the handlebar so I can use my phone as a GPS.”
“Ah,” she grunted as she dried her hands. I turned for the door but she took my arm and turned me to face her. “Everyone’s gone to lunch, so a kiss first… a proper one this time.”
“Want to go to your office?” I rumbled as my lips closed over hers.
“Not today,” she purred as our lips parted.
“But sometime?” I murmured.
“Count on it.”
I pulled back from the kiss as motion in hall caught my attention. I had the distinct impression that someone had paused at the door and then moved on before they were seen watching. The cafeteria was filled almost to capacity. Apparently word had gone around after I left that I was bringing lunch back and we were going to eat in the cafeteria.
Between bites, Willow recounting, again, her exploits to assembled group. When she finished, it was clear from the questions that the rumors were already spreading and her exploits were becoming larger than life. Depending on which rumor you believed, she’d either driven the RV out herself as Fish, Goose, Big Dick, and I engaged the cartel in a running gun battle with machine guns… she’d removed a bullet from Big Dick’s leg while under fire… or she’d engaged in the gun battle herself, picking off bad guys using Juice’s rifle after Big Dick, Goose, and Fish were out of the fight.
I could tell she was embarrassed, her face flushed for almost our entire lunch, but I simply sat back, played the strong silent type as she answered questions, and enjoyed the show. She kept trying to downplay her role while building up her protectors, and to drag me into it, but I stuck to my strong silent persona, grunted out one- or two-word answers, and left her to deal with the hero worship on her own.
“Don’t fight it,” I whispered as I escorted her back to the lab. “Just go with it.”
“Me sniping bad guys from the RV, or performing surgery on Big Dick’s leg? Really? Who’d believe shit like that?” she growled.
I couldn’t stop my snicker. “Probably nobody, but don’t minimize what you did. You very well may have saved Big Dick’s life, and you did help me get the RV moving since I obviously didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Yes, well, they make it sound like I saved everyone there single-handedly,” she grumbled as we turned into her lab.
I was enjoying the hell out of her discomfort. “It’s because you’re one of them. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
“I guess. It just feels so weird having people stare at me all the time.”
I gently turned her face toward me. “Don’t be too hard on them. I can’t stop staring at you either,” I murmured.
Some of the tension in her posture oozed out of her. “The difference is, I like it when you stare at me.” She softened even more. “Especially the way you’re looking at me now.”
“How’s that?” I asked as I released her chin.
She held my gaze for a moment. “I can’t describe it… but it makes me feel all gooey inside.”
She’d kissed me in front of her staff already, so what the hell. “I love making your insides gooey,” I murmured in the instant before I briefly brushed her lips with mine.
She shivered, almost as if she were cold, and then smiled as I pulled back. “Oh, God… so do I.”
-oOo-
I was sitting on the stool with my back against the wall and my arms crossed over my chest.
“Done!” she said.
I jerked slightly. I hadn’t been asleep, but the short night and boredom was taking its toll on me, and I’d been drifting in a pleasant torpor as I watched her do whatever it was she was doing. I glanced at the clock over the door. It was minutes before four.
“Already?”
“For today. I was mostly prepping the samples today, but what I saw looks good. The cores confirm what I expected to see from the soundings. Now, when we hit the oil-bearing shale, we’ll see if we actually find oil.”