41
“I had some work to do. It doesn’t take long, it’s not strenuous, and I can rest here as I do it,” he responded gesturing to his computer on the coffee table. He looked at the two women curiously. “Is this your day off?”
“Yes! It was supposed to be a salon day so we could get our hair and nails done but somebody got cold feet,” Dayshia said giving Sandy a stern look.
“A woman is entitled to change her mind,” Sandy said with a small smile on her lips.
“We’re still getting our nails done later!” Dayshia insisted and Sandy nodded.
Marisa returned to the living room and all eyes turned to watch her approach. She was wearing an off the shoulder red knit sweater which exposed a lot of flawless skin and clung to her full breasts. Below, she wore tight white jeans which emphasized her curves. Sandals dangled from her finger as she went barefoot. They could see two silver rings on her toes.
“Damn girl!” Sandy gasped with a huge grin.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.
Marisa smiled and twirled for her.
Dayshia was struck speechless and looked at her friend in question. Sandy just blushed and squirmed as she looked away. Dayshia made a note to question her on her odd behavior later.
“Would you like to join us at the nail parlor?” Sandy asked.
“Thanks, but my slave driver boss is demanding I go to the office to prepare for the big rollout this weekend,” Marisa said with a sweet pout.
Stanley snorted and smiled at her. He really did need her to check on the workstation builds.
Sandy gave him the evil eye but she wasn’t really serious.
He shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a hard man to please.”
Sandy giggled and even Dayshia cracked a smile at the image of Stanley bossing the taller beauty around.
“Well I just wanted to check in on you since Marisa wouldn’t let me see you last night. She’s such a…” Sandy began then lost her train of thought as she looked into Marisa’s smiling eyes.
Dayshia pushed herself to her feet when Sandy seemed like she wasn’t going to finish the thought. “Well, I’m sorry you got hurt Stanley and I hope you get better soon. Are you going to be able to join us this weekend for a movie night or are you going to be working?”
He winced. “Yeah, this weekend isn’t good. Next one should be open though. That will give me time to heal as well.”
Sandy stood beside her friend and they shared a look. “That works for us,” Sandy replied. “It will be you’re turn to pick the movie,” she insisted.
He recalled Camila’s suggestion. “How about Casablanca?”
Sandy squealed happily and clapped her hands. “Yes! I love that movie!” Dayshia was nodding with a smile as well.
“Good, that’s what I’ll bring then,” he said definitively.
He struggled to his feet as they protested and he shuffled after the two women to the door. When they got there, they surprised him by taking turns kissing him on the cheek. Once more Sandy’s hair moved forward to caress his neck and face as her lips pressed against his skin. He blushed and smiled at them as they waved and headed down the hall to the elevator. He closed the door as he turned to face Marisa.
“Ok, Sandy’s still oblivious of her hair’s new mobility. Even Dayshia thinks it’s just static. We should be good. Especially if it fades,” Stanley sighed as Marisa nodded.
“You do need me to go to the office, don’t you,” she said. He nodded to her and she smiled. “Whatever you need, Stanley,” she said.
He smiled and hobbled back to the living room. He grabbed his computer and eased himself down on the sofa. He checked on the backup and it was working smoothly. The next incremental would be tonight when the office closed then the real work would begin.
“We are on track for deploying tonight so I need you to confirm the new workstations are ready and ensure the staff are logged out and their old workstations are completely shut down. Then I’ll get the last backup and get started from here,” he instructed and she nodded with a smile.
She was standing before him and a nervous look passed across her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I- I just wanted to apologize to you for how badly I screwed up last night. Mother was right. I should never have allowed Sandy into your apartment while you were in your true form. That might have been catastrophic! It was a big lapse in my judgement and I’m truly sorry,” she said anxiously and bit her lip, holding him with her nervous gaze.
He swallowed and nodded slightly. “This is all new to me. I’m starting to glimpse just how dangerous it could have gotten for both me and for Sandy. We’ll just have to try harder.”
Marisa dipped down and kissed Stanley deeply before spinning, grabbing her purse, and rushing to the door.
Stanley sat on the couch, his lips tingling madly from her kiss, and listened to his front door deadbolt engage. He saw his keys on the coffee table so he realized she must have the spare set. He… was ok with that.
Struggling to get his mind back on his task he turned back to his computer.
Out on the street eyes watched the stunning blond exit the building and slip on her large sunglasses. She strode purposefully past the white utility van as she made her way to the path train back to Manhattan.
“Subject is on the move. Follow?” the watcher asked the listener over his encrypted cell.
“No. What is her state?” the listener replied.
The watcher rolled back the thermographic video of the blonde’s passing and eyes widened.
“Her energy levels are almost off the scale. Much higher than yesterday’s.”
“We’ve potentially found the source then. It must be the new one. He’s new to the building as well,” said the voice.
“Should we collect him?” the watcher asked, eager to act.
“No. The building is off limits. The source will have to be picked up discretely somewhere between his home and office. Keep watching.” The line went dead.
The watcher settled back to wait for his prey.
The Fae were nothing if not patient.
The weekend passed as Stanley expected it would. He ran his processes remotely from his living room and Marisa managed the physical steps from the office. By Monday morning the staff arrived to slick new machines next to their desks with larger, sharper monitors, and fresh, clean keyboards and mice. Best of all they had a much-improved working experience.
With the new servers in place, even the accounting people with their previously upgraded equipment found a difference in the speed of their access.
There were still some services that Stanley would be migrating in the coming days, a few servers to build, but the critical systems and data were now protected which meant Camila and the senior level executives could breathe a sigh of relief.
The company’s data was safe, backed up, and isolated from external intrigue by Stanley’s data security systems.
As for internal intrigue Mr. Duncan was surprised and delighted on the very first day when he received an automated report of one of the Sales Department staff attempting to move files to an unauthorized external drive. He immediately had a friendly one on one conversation with the man and discovered, using his own tried and true methods, the employee was selling the information to a competitor.
The Sales Department had an immediate opening that afternoon.
Marisa returned to Stanley’s condo each night to ensure he was eating and healing and ‘guarded’ him each night, in his bed, though they refrained from having sex as she was ‘saturated’, in her words.
As the week progressed, Stanley’s bruises faded nicely. His return to a steady and timely transition between forms seemed to be expediting his recovery and the actual switch went back to being smooth and effortless each night and morning.
As he’d become so acutely sensitive to the ring’s demand for recharging he discovered that only six and a half to seven hours was required for the ring to fully recharge. Switching back to his Satyr form during the day for an hour or so extended the time he could remain in human form at night. He thought that was pretty cool!
Thursday morning Marisa and Stanley went in to work together and she brought her suitcase with her as it was time for her to go back to her own condo. As they pushed through the front doors Stanley was surprised by a hero’s welcome from a large group of happy coworkers in the lobby.
He stood there with a stunned look on his face as Camila, Sigrid, Mr. Duncan, and the Summerly twins from Accounting smiled and clapped in front of a gathering of staff. He turned to look at Marisa’s smiling face.
“You knew they were going to do this?” he asked with a smile.
Her smile just broadened as she nodded.
He shook his head and made his way forward to shake the hands and accept the pats on the shoulder from his coworkers. Soon enough they began to head back to their desks.
Camila approached and smiled at him. “So, are you done?”
“The critical systems are done. I don’t have many more servers to replace. Maybe four, five more days? We’ll need to wipe the old machines and dispose of them then you can begin renovating the old server room into a new boardroom,” he replied with a smile.
She moved a little closer and spoke quietly. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, my bruises no longer hurt and they’re fading nicely,” he responded.
“So… you’d be up to a little feeding?” she asked casually and touched the corner of her mouth with the tip of her tongue as her eyes held his.
Stanley felt that sexy gesture right down to his balls. His face flushed and his tongue failed him. He resorted to just nodding.
She smiled happily and dazzled him with a flash of teeth. “Whenever you have a moment this morning then?”
He nodded again and did his best not to stare as she turned and prowled away, the very image of an apex predator.
Mr. Duncan brought his attention back as he shook Stanley’s hand. “You did an excellent job with the new security protocols and the reporting process for internal espionage. Good work!”
“Oh! Thank you! I thought you might find that useful!” Stanley said with a happy smile.
With a nod the Security Chief headed back to his office.
Sigrid touched his arm as she passed and he glanced at her. “Come by my office later? I need to speak to you.”
“Anything wrong?” he asked, recalling previous emergencies.
She blushed and shook her head then was quick walking back to the elevators as Stanley wondered what was up. Maybe there was another threat?
Marisa returned from talking with Siobhan who was grinning at Stanley. He smiled and waved at her.
“Shall we go up or would you like to linger in the praise?” Marisa teased.
He rolled his eyes and got into the next elevator with a group of people from the marketing department. Siobhan jumped in as the doors began to close and bumped into Stanley’s chest. The car was tightly packed so they had to remain that way much to his embarrassment.