Proposal To Love Page 0,3

with the solution they would buy it after the fact.

The up side would be, if they won the work, they would be perfectly positioned for millions of dollars in contracts that would feed off the work.

She finally finished her briefing and sat there, waiting in the silence as Michael considered various aspects of her idea.

The silence was broken a moment later as Jim’s cell phone went off. He looked at the number on the screen and sighed. “I’m sorry, I need to take this. It’s a client,” he said and walked out of the office. She could hear him talking in the lobby, and then his voice trailed off as he moved down the hallway.

Chapter 2

The silence lasted so long, she started to fidget. He was going through the pages of her briefing again, making notes in the margins.

Darcy was a lot of things, but patient wasn’t one of them. She liked computers because she understood them. In fact, she worked long hours because human relations were just too irritating in general. She had several friends that she did things with occasionally, but not on a regular basis. Her time was mostly spent at work, tweaking lines of code and reviewing data. Those people she socialized with were also in the industry and they talked shop most of the time.

Darcy crossed and uncrossed her legs, wishing she could get some sort of feedback from this man. She still couldn’t get over the fact that this virile, sexy man was the one and only Michael Attracelli. She remembered reading about him in the technology magazines when she was in college. Granted, only six years had passed since she graduated but she’d always thought of him as being somewhere in his sixties or seventies, considering the amount of work he’d done and the influence he had in ATI.

“Hiccup”

Darcy looked around, shocked that the sound had come from her. Had she really done that?

“Hiccup”

“Excuse me,” she said, her face turning red when Michael looked up from reading the briefing, eyebrows raised.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said, desperately trying to smother her hiccups. But they were coming fast and furious. “I guess I’m just hungry,” she said as an explanation for her hiccups.

Michael was instantly contrite, looking at his watch. “I’m sorry; I’ve kept you too late. We can go over this another time,” he said.

“No, no! Please, I have plenty of time.” This might be her only chance to convince him of her idea and she didn’t want to lose the opportunity because she’d skipped lunch again.

Michael sat back and watched her. “You don’t have a husband and kids waiting for you at home?”

Darcy shook her head. “No, but I guess you do,” she said, gathering up her papers.

“Nope,” he said and stood up, reading the briefing as he walked over to his desk. He pressed a button which was obviously a speed dial to a Chinese restaurant. “Hello Chiang! How are you?” Michael asked when the phone call was answered.

“Fine, fine,” the voice said over the speaker phone. “Working late again tonight?” the voice asked.

“Yes. Can you send over my usual?” Michael asked.

“Of course,”

“And what would you like?” Michael asked, looking over towards Darcy.

Darcy blushed but spoke up. “Hello Chiang. This is Darcy. And you know what I like,” she said.

She watched as Michael smiled.

The voice over the phone chuckled. “You want two broccoli and chicken meals or you both want to share?”

Michael laughed. “I guess we can share if you toss in some extra egg rolls,” he said.

“You got it,” Chiang said. he said.

“I charge you, Mr. Attracelli. You pay for the lady,”

Michael chuckled. “Deal. gentlemanly behavior, Chiang.” Charge it to my account. Thanks for the tip on the

“I could give you lots of tips. Number one, take her out instead of working so late,” he said. “But you won’t listen to me, will you? That’s why I have six kids and you have none.”

Darcy smothered a laugh, watching Michael shake his head. “You have a good point. I’ll talk to you soon,” he said.

There was silence in the office when Chiang hung up. “You have good taste,” Darcy said.

Michael laughed and came back over to his chair. “I guess you work late a lot too, huh?” he said, sitting down opposite her.

Darcy relaxed slightly, or at least tried to appear relaxed. She didn’t think she could relax when he was looking directly at her with those sexy blue eyes of his. “Enough to have a standing order at Chiang’s,” she said.

“I guess