43 Dazzling

His reaction was all the warning she got before she felt something warm brush her back, a steady surface that encompassed her. She glanced over her shoulder and up, huffing in amusement. "Blake?" The man peered down at her with a wicked smile. She leaned to the side and saw behind him that Jack had been waylaid by a secretary showing him her notepad, but yes, he had also come to this 'party'. She looked back at Blake, turning so that she was politely including both Black and Marvin. "Did our merriment and jolliness attract you out of hiding?"

"This?" He raised an eyebrow. Pointedly looking around, he repeated, "This? I've gone to funeral services merrier."

"But I bet they had more than two hours to spare." Marvin crossed his arms and huffed, adding belatedly, "sir."

Blake grinned at the other man. "Point taken. Then I suppose it's you that I have to thank for the excellent service."

She raised her drink, "Cheers!"

"Ta!" Marvin returned. He huffed loudly in aggravation, nose in the air but despite his attempt at a dramatic exit, the smile belied his efforts. A few steps away, he turned back and tilted his head inquisitively at her, eyes moving from her to Blake and back. She answered the silent question with a smile and a shake of her head.

Marvin smiled again and turned to the small refreshment table.

Blake hummed, drawing her attention back to him. He raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know you were this close to dear Marvin. Should I be jealous?"

"Hardly." She gave him a strange look. "We're co-workers."

"Aren't we?"

"We're..." Nothing good came up on how to describe their particular brand of a relationship without being too honest or too discreet. Naomi shrugged instead and dipped her chin in embarrassment. "Different," she settled on. She looked up under her lashes with a smile. "Just a smidgeon."

He huffed. "That's relieving to hear. And here I thought we were..." She raised an eyebrow, and with a teasing smile, he settled on, "Unique. Just a bit."

"Now you're just being mean," she informed Blake, but that didn't stop the humor from her voice.

He waggled his eyebrows before settling in more comfortably next to her, allowing them a view of the 'party' while he started up a discussion around former parties to dubious effects. Naomi laughed and contributed where she could, but mostly she let it wash over her.

It had been a long time since anyone had done anything like this for her, without wanting anything in return. Her real work occupation hardly encouraged these get-together events. She had known this at the start of course, but sometimes she couldn't help but look across the fence and wonder if the grass really wasn't greener on that side.

It felt odd and kind of nice - and oh yes, there it was. Her mood plummeted as the memory of Ky smiled at her from the corner of her eyes. She swallowed heavily.

Blake was still talking, she noted. His joking grin fell a little when she inevitably missed her cue to react. He touched her bare arm and she shivered. His touch felt warm. Grounding. The spice of cologne and something uniquely Blake drifted into her senses as he stepped closer. He was no longer smiling. Instead, a frown was directed at her.

The smile she offered didn't reduce it in the least. Naomi had no intention of unburdening something that rightfully didn't belong to this her so he was bound for disappointment. She plucked up her drink between them and used it as a shield from his gaze.

"Just lost in thought," she murmured.

"I see."

If he did in fact see or was using it as a segway into plying out her secrets she would never know. Jack came at that moment, idly reading a notification on his phone before he glanced up at them. Blake tensed at his presence even as he smiled tightly. "Sorry, couldn't get away in time. You know how it is."

"Yeah. I reckon I've heard that one once or twice. Should probably get back to mine too, now that you mention it."

Jack watched Blake turn and walk off, and Naomi watched him in turn. His expression had closed off, something unreadable flashing in them. It was gone when Jack turned to her. He smiled and lifted his own drink. "I believe I never offered congratulations."

"You didn't." She smiled sweetly at him. "You still haven't."

He laughed. "Noticed that, did you? I suppose nothing goes unseen for you. Congratulations, then, for the best employee we've ever had. It will be hard to let you go."

"And now you flatter me profusely." She pressed her free hand against her sternum, mimicking surprise with wide eyes.

"And you act like my words don't matter."

In contrast to what she had expected, he didn't play along. His smile dimmed and his expression blanked out once more into something more eerily focused than she had ever seen him use. Her hand drifted down alongside her glass. This was serious, she realized. He wasn't joking anymore.

"Naomi. I know we might have started on the wrong foot. That's my fault, and I recognize that. I didn't think much of you at first," he admitted, his heavy tone easing somewhat by the wry upturn of his lips. Naomi silently agreed. Their first meeting had been nothing short of a disaster. "In the few weeks you have been here, you've managed to make a sizeable dent in the work clogged to infinity. I've only heard good things about you from co-workers."

He frowned, brows shadowing his searching eyes. Jack looked irritated all of a sudden. Something on her face, maybe, because he reached forward to tip her chin gently upwards.

"There's just something..." Jack took one short, aggrieved sigh before releasing her chin. His eyes lingered on her lips. When his eyes met hers again, they were unreadable. "You're selling yourself short. Can't you see that? Then again," a weak grin sliced across the heavy atmosphere, "that might just be your charm."

She looked at him blankly, not quite sure how to respond. It didn't seem like she had to anyway. He made another half-hearted smile before ducking out. He deposited his drink and took the elevator, effectively leaving her with more questions than he had brought with him.

She was, in fact, sick and tired of it.

She didn't need the amused hum of Ky to know what this brief lull meant. Even now, her temper was flaring. Her teacher would advise caution, but luckily enough, this temper had largely been inherited by that old woman anyway. She would understand better than anyone.

Depositing her own drink, Naomi slipped out of the party and casually went into the toilet. A place she knew had absolutely no cameras installed and also the perfect place to take out the USB placed inside her wristwatch. There's an empty CD back at her apartment, but she knew for a fact that Blake and Jack had modern enough computers to handle this little thing instead.

She kept an ear on the corridor outside and the party while she went inside the office. While there could be something hidden in Jack's office because of his innate paranoia, experimenting with boundaries had her learn that Blake appreciated his own privacy but gladly intruded on everyone's else. Quite a pair, those two. In practice though, this only meant that her work went that much easier when at least one of them forbade surveillance inside.

A few nerve-wrecking moments later and she had downloaded every recently used documents and then some. She wouldn't have the time to go through them until much later, but she had them now.

Going back to the party and then smoothly finishing her workday, she resisted the urge to look at her wristwatch.