Katrina ignored the headache pounding at her temples and tried to concentrate on her boss’s lips. Disappointment and anger settled in her chest.
“You understand the reason behind this, Katrina?”
“I understand that I did all the work and now you’re bringing in someone else to mess with my design because of my communication difficulties.”
Emory remained silent a moment. “You’re very good at design, Katrina and with one-on-one discussion with the customer, but in the boardroom today, when several people were expressing their opinions, you lost track of the conversation and became confused.”
“I can bring in an interpreter next time who will help me keep everything together.” The company should have been open to that from the beginning. And she should have asked for someone. She was so used to making do, to not asking for special concessions, it hadn’t occurred to her.
“The customer wants music on the site to match the commercial he’s asked us to create. How do you propose to add music?”
How would she? She’d worked months on this project. The client had raved about her design. But her handicap made it impossible for her to time the music to go along with the opening of each page.
Drew came to mind. Would he help her with something like this? “I have a friend who’s a musician who might help me with the sound. I think I at least deserve a shot at it.”
Emory nodded but looked doubtful. “Let me see what you can come up with and we’ll go from there.”
“I’ll need a copy of the song used for the commercial as soon as it’s available.”
“I’ll see that you get it,” he said, turning down the hall toward his office.
She rushed to her small cubicle to recover from the nerve-racking morning. Why had she gone to her doctor’s appointment on the same day she was scheduled to attend this meeting? She’d walked in already flustered, had demonstrated the capabilities of the website, then missed two comments because the men turned their heads to talk to one another. It had gone downhill from there. She lay her head on her desk and struggled to suppress the tears burning her eyes.
She swallowed against the knot in her throat and managed to quell the emotions, but not her disappointment with her boss. Emory could have helped her by explaining what she’d missed, but instead he stood back and watched her struggle. But why? To purposely point out she should be relegated to the back room, somewhere to work alone instead of meeting clients? Had he been testing her? If so she’d failed…miserably. So there would probably be no promotion and no bonus.
She’d spent years learning to lip read successfully, and more years to make sure her vocal tone was as close to normal as she could make it. But she’d never move up into any sort of managerial position because she couldn’t stay on top of things due to her hearing. Reading body language and other signals only went so far.
She had to take people at face value, and that wasn’t always enough. There was always more to people than what was on the surface.
The cochlear implant would only help to a certain extent. She needed to resign herself to the fact that she’d always be a drone and never the boss. Unless she ran the show.
Drew pulled into the parking lot outside of Katrina’s apartment and switched off the ignition. His hair clung damply to his head from a quick shower.
It had been nearly a year since he’d spent a day in the ocean. He hadn’t realized how much he missed it until he was submerged and swimming along the bottom. He’d taken underwater recording equipment and guided it to where he heard the most sound. He recorded fish, dolphins, whales, the movement of kelp beds, as much of the wildlife as he could, but also the distant sounds traveling underwater. He’d opened himself to the ultrasonic noise he was able to pick up, and he hoped he captured some of the sea songs that fell within Katrina’s hearing range. He’d loaded it onto a flash drive for her and bought her a set of headphones, hoping she’d be able to hear some of what he’d recorded.
The project had given him even more pleasure because he was doing it for her. It had inspired a song for the band, too. Before racing over to Katrina’s, he took a few moments to write down the bare bones so he wouldn’t lose the tune.
Using the code she’d texted him earlier in the day, he entered the building, anticipation winging through him. He exited the elevator and strode down the long hall to Katrina’s apartment.
Twenty feet from her door, he experienced a tightness around his rib cage and paused. It wasn’t a muscle contraction but a sensation, as though outside emotion bombarded him with vibrations. He’d never experienced anything like it. Concern quickened his steps. He rang the buzzer and waited for Katrina to answer.
When she didn’t open the door after a few minutes, his unease ramped up. He was reaching for the button again when the door opened. Though she smiled, tension tugged at her lips and her forehead was creased with the remnants of a frown.
“Hey,” she said, her voice soft. “I didn’t see the light flashing right away.”
Her blue-green eyes were shadowed, tinted by emotion to the gray of a storm-tossed sea. Her smile was tight at the corners.
Drew took a step forward and she stepped back to allow him inside the apartment. He rested a hand on her shoulder. The words what’s wrong sprang to his lips but seemed too pushy. How could he explain that he could feel her turmoil? As freaked out as he was about this new development, how would she feel? “How was your day?”
She blinked hard and swallowed. “A little trying, but it’s over now. Or at least that part of it.”
The sensation that had followed him from the hall and into the room increased. “Tell me what happened.”
Indecision flitted across her features. “My business meeting didn’t go well. I missed some things during a conversation, and I’ve probably blown the opportunity to oversee my own projects.” Pain and disappointment shimmered around her.
“I’m sorry, Katrina.”
She raised one shoulder in a shrug that was more eloquent than tears.
Drew stepped closer and slipped his arms around her. At first her spine remained stiff, then she relaxed into him and rested her head against his shoulder. Her arms looped around his waist and instantly he hardened while at the same time he longed to ease her hurt. He cupped the back of her head and stroked her hair. The emotional vibrations softened.
Was this connection forged because they came from similar species, or was it more? Had he already bonded to her in some way? The thought shook him. He’d just spent an entire afternoon doing something for a woman he’d only known twenty-four hours. Was that bonding, or a desire to do whatever it took to seduce her into his bed?
“What is it?” she asked, drawing back.
He searched her face. “Nothing. How did the doctor’s appointment go?”
Her tension returned, and he regretted mentioning it.
“They’re scheduling the surgery,” she said, “but the surgeon who’s supposed to do it—he was pushing me for more tests. It seems I have some physiological anomalies that are different than humans and he’s curious. When I turned him down he wasn’t happy.”
“What kind of surgery are you having?”
“I’m having a cochlear implant.”
A cochlear implant. Would she be able to hear him sing? And would his voice affect her the way it did human women? Damnit. Frustration stormed through him. Just when he thought he might have found what he was looking for….
But when she’d said she’d lived in silence for so long…the look on her face…
What would it be like to have to live in total silence always?
He’d go insane.
She’d done the right thing. The danger of humans finding out they had non-human species walking among them was always there. They saw difference as either a threat, something to pity, something to study, or something to destroy. He ran soothing hands up and down her back and was rewarded when she leaned closer in to him.
He raised her chin so she’d focus on his face. “What kind of differences?”
“It seems all the parts of my inner ear and my auditory nerve are all larger than is typical for humans. And I have an extra sinus in my forehead.”
“But he still thinks you’ll be able to hear if you have the surgery?”
“Yes. But it will probably damage my underwater hearing in that one ear. I can’t go back to the sea anyway, but what if the surgery doesn’t work and half of what I do have is gone forever?”
It was a tough decision. But being forced to live in a silent world while on land was no picnic. It affected every portion of her life. The flash drive he’d brought her was in his car. He’d wait to give it to her at the restaurant. Wait until she was steadier. “I can’t make the decision for you. But I can listen while you talk it out.”
“I have to go through with it. The meeting this afternoon proved it. How am I ever going to do anything more if I can’t communicate with people?”
“What is it you want to do?”
“I’d like to have my own design firm someday.”
Ambitious, but doable if she could hear. She had the talent. “This surgeon, he must have been really pushy if you got upset about it.”
“He was. He even offered to pay for part of the surgery if I’d let him do more scans.”
Not a good sign. If he discovered what she was, it could affect more than her alone. It might open the door to speculation about other species.
“Maybe you should cancel and look for someone else. If he suspects there’s more going on than a genetic aberration—”
“I thought about changing doctors, but it might take months to go through the same process and get as close to surgery as I am. And the next doctor is going to see the same things on the scans.”
A valid point. Drew’s hands moved soothingly over her back. Her level of upset was escalating again. “Why don’t I give my father a call and ask him about this? Although he’s a fertility specialist, he does know other doctors. He might have some suggestions.”
She smiled. “That’s right, he’s a fertility specialist. How appropriate.”
His own smile was wry. “Yeah, I know. If you’re going to have special skills in the art of seduction, you might as well learn about the benefits of it as well. That’s what he says.”
Katrina laughed.
Just that sound triggered an immediate hard-on. God, she had the most wonderful laugh.
She cupped his face with her palm and ran her thumb along his cheekbone. “Your father sounds like you. It would be wonderful if he could give me some insight into this.”
And he needed his father to give him some insight into what he was experiencing with her. Though her distress had abated, he was still reading her feelings as clearly as an emotional blueprint. “We could swing by the house on our way to dinner,” he suggested.
She hesitated. “They wouldn’t mind?”
“Of course not. They’d be glad to meet you.” And they’d read more into the fact that he’d brought a girl home with him than he intended. But he could deal with that part later.
“I’d like to meet them. I haven’t met many others.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear. “Get your purse and we’ll go.”
She stepped back and glanced down at her work clothes of dark slacks and a silk blouse. “I need to change.”
“You look beautiful the way you are, Katrina.”
“That was sweet. And you know it.”
At his grin, she stood on tiptoe and brushed his lips with her own.
Instant need, his and hers, rolled over him in a staggering rush. He reached for her. With lips and tongue he greeted her as he’d wanted to before running into her emotional force field. The longer he kissed her, the lower her stress level dropped. He nuzzled her neck and she shivered.
He had to remind himself to draw back to speak to her. Her sea green eyes had gone dark, and she had a dazed look of desire on her face.
He smiled. “We could stay in tonight and worry about all this other stuff tomorrow.”
“You are such a temptation,” she sighed.
“Good.”
She laughed.
To be wanted without the added boost of using his voice was amazing. “You are for me, too. But I’m trying to take things slow, as you asked me to, Katrina. Go get your purse and we’ll leave before we both give in to the temptation.”