Maddock leaned back in his chair, tipping it off the floor. “Whoa! Nothing. Whoever said there was anything going on between me and White? I don’t date women who hate me.” He wiped his fingers on a paper napkin and looked really guilty.
Derek grinned. “Nobody said anything about you two dating, you ass. I just meant you’re always at each other’s throats and I was wondering what gave. But now I’ve got it. You have the hots for White.”
“Shit.” Maddock took a swill of Coke and looked annoyed. “I don’t have the hots for her. I can’t stand her. She’s one of those man-haters.”
Laughing, Derek threw his own balled up napkin in Maddock’s direction. “Yeah, right. You can’t stand that she thinks you’re an idiot.”
Maddock didn’t laugh with him. “Yeah, you wait. You’ll get your turn with some woman who annoys the hell out of you.”
“I already have. I’m divorced, remember?”
Then his laughter cut off as he heard a really familiar voice sail across the computer that was playing, clear as a bell and full of sass.
“…else need anything while I’m gone? Tell me now before I go.”
Jesus H Christ. “Play that again!” He swallowed the wad of pizza clumping in his mouth and prayed he was hearing things.
“What?” Maddock reached for the mouse and moved the cursor back. “What’s the matter?”
Only everything. Heart thumping, hands squeezing the end of the table, stomach in throat, Derek waited for the voice again.
“Does anyone else need anything while I’m gone? Tell me now before I go.”
That voice belonged to Reese Hampton. The woman he was going to throttle, slowly and with total enjoyment. Just what in the hell was she doing in the room with Delco executives?
“Like the new assistant, Ashton.”
“Reese is a family friend who needed a job. We take care of our own here at Delco, don’t we?”
“Oh, my God!” he exploded, jumping out of his chair and jamming his hands into his pockets.
“What’s the matter?” Maddock asked. “Who is that woman?”
“That,” Derek pressed a hand to his chest, wondering if he was having a heart attack.“Thatis my girlfriend.”
“Oh, shit,” was Maddock’s stunned reply.
Which about summed it up.
THIRTY-NINE
Reese checked the clock impatiently,glaring when she read eight o’clock. If she had known Knight was going to be so late, she would have run to the store and bought some clothes. Instead, she’d showered and washed her thong in the sink. Now she was starting to get annoyed. And hungry.
The phone rang. “Hello?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Where are you? It’s eight o’clock. I’m dying of hunger, my stomach is digesting the lining of its walls.”
“I thought we said I’d pick you up at eight.”
“I don’t remember eight. We never said eight.”
“Reese, we have more important things to talk about than what time it is. I’ll be over in half an hour.” His voice was tight.
Whatever he wanted to talk about couldn’t be as important as her suffering through another day of wearing the same pajama pants. “Swing by your apartment and get me some clothes, will you?”
“What?”