Always the Quiet Ones

By Cassandra Carr

King of the geeks Marty Johnston has a serious crush on his co-worker Elizabeth. The principal IT consultant wants more than just a flirtation, but guilt over a one-night-stand-but-maybe-more Marty had on his last business trip before meeting Elizabeth could cost him his big chance with the girl of his dreams. He’s comfortable dealing with computers, not people. Can he step way outside his comfort zone to sort things out, or will he lose the one he’s falling for?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C-Squared Publishing LLC
• Release date: Mar 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781502210357

Book preview

Chapter One

Marty Johnston’s flight departed in two hours, and he hadn’t even left for the airport. At the moment, a frantic search of his office had not produced the folder he needed but had forgotten to pack into his laptop case last night.

Curse all you people who insist on printing everything!

Got something against killing trees?

His head snapped up. One of the marketing managers leaned in his doorway, his arms folded and a smile spread across his face. Marty’s attention quickly focused on the woman standing a little behind him.

Wow. Give the HR dude points for her. Though Marty could be relatively sure his company didn’t hire based on looks, if she could do the job and be that beautiful, he considered it a bonus.

The man indicated the woman. This is Elizabeth. She started a while ago, but we’re only just now tracking all you guys down to meet her. He turned to Elizabeth. Marty is another one of our principal consultants. Then his attention returned to Marty. You guys are hard to track down with all the traveling you do.

Yeah... Marty murmured as he continued picking up various items on his desk. Speaking of that, I have a plane to catch and I can’t find the notes from the development meeting.

For the Chicago project?

Uh-huh.

Elizabeth stepped forward, pulling a manila file folder out from beneath several others. Is this what you were looking for?

Yes, thank you. I don’t know how I missed it there.

When you’re in a hurry sometimes you overlook things.

True. Anyway, thank you again, but I really need to get to the airport.

Nice to meet you, Marty. She smiled and gave the duo a little wave as he booked out of his office. Much as he’d like to stay and flirt, he didn’t seem to have talent in that area, and even if he did, Elizabeth and him were not in the same league. Girls like her weren’t interested in guys like him. Who would want a total geek like him? Sure, he had a fancy title, but that just made him a supreme geek rather than a lowly geek. The ruler of the geeks.

Yep, the girls flock for a piece of that action.

Several hours later, he wheeled his baggage into his hotel room and looked around. Yep, a carbon copy of the last two rooms he’d had in the same hotel, and he imagined the others he’d be staying in for the future would also look the same. There were worse things. The company put him up in a nice hotel every month, at least. He plopped on the bed and debated between ordering room service before settling in to watch a movie or going down to the bar in the lobby in hopes Shelby would be working at the concierge desk. Even exhausted from a hellish day of travel, there was no contest. He’d take Shelby’s perky tits and tight ass over porn on television any day.

Dragging himself up, he changed his shirt and combed his hair, feeling stupid for doing so but knowing he probably looked like ass after sitting around the airport all fucking afternoon waiting for them to fix some part. Why couldn’t they ever fix it on the first try? And if they had that much trouble, why did they let them fly the damn plane right afterward? Shouldn’t they run some tests first or something?

Normally he would’ve arrived nearly three hours ago and had time to chat Shelby up as she went through her nightly routine of giving directions and making dinner reservations, but the concierge desk would be closing in a little over an hour and he needed to skedaddle. He didn’t want her to think he’d blown her off—if she even remembered he was coming back into town today. He snorted. Most likely she’d completely forgotten, even though he’d mentioned the date a couple of times when he’d been in town last and had managed to finally talk to the woman beyond asking her to point out a restaurant that served decent food later at night.

Marty left his room and whistled as