May Archer et al. - Heart2heart: A Charity Anthology

T o the 130+ readers who submitted character suggestions. Special mention to those whose suggestions inspired an author or two: Kaelin, Michelle, Amanda, Ashleigh, Susan, Scott, Philippa, Kyler Anne, Samantha, Khadijah, Deb, Bijou, Michele, Jennifer, Courtney, Kelsey and Emily .

T o AngstyG for donating her time and skills to creating the cover, logo and promotional materials .

T o Ann Attwood and Lori Parks for volunteering their proofreading and editing skills to help polish our stories .

T o our charities the work you do is invaluable and were proud to be supporting you with this project .

T o those two little words, what if. We wouldnt be here without you !

I t was like a scene out of a soda commercial. All of the women (and a few of the men) in the office gathered around and drooled over the sexy eye candy hanging onto the side of the damned building as if the guy was nothing but a sex object .

Fuck, hes a hot sex object, Bailey thought. Id like to sex object the hell outta that beefcake .

Bailey himself had been watching the guy for two days now. At first, he assumed the man on the scaffold was a window washer. It was the obvious explanation. Otherwise, why would a mana beefy, hot, muscled man, ahembe riding a hanging scaffold on the fifteenth floor of the office building ?

But how long, exactly, does it take to wash a few windows? Hed been right outside of Baileys cubicle window for two straight days .

Bailey shook his head and tried to focus on his job, ignoring all of the lookie-loos in the space behind his cubicle. He was finalizing the new, upgraded algorithms to be used in Heart2Hearts matchmaking software, and it was critical he got the new algorithms just right in order for the upgrade launch to be a success. He needed to pay attention to what he was doing .

A lot was riding on the Heart2Heart launch. Their big marketing campaign promised love matches just in time for Valentines Day, and in order for the actual matches to work, Bailey had to create pristine code that took all of the variables into consideration. He was almost done with the programming. Just cleaning up a few final glitches and hed be over the last of the hurdles. His plan was to stay late to double-check everything that evening before the software went live after midnight .

His eyes slid over to his cubicle window again and caught sight of thick, tanned forearms flexing above huge, strong man hands. The late afternoon Miami sun shined against the guys skin, showing a light sheen of sweat from his work doing something .

Ungh. You can do something to me. Get sweaty with me, Bailey mused, chewing on the end of his pen. He saw one of the mans large hands grab a screwdriver out of his tool belt. Maybe hes screwing something .

The window man looked like he needed to be licked. Like, a lot .

Bailey didnt realize his elbow had rested on the spacebar while he drooled out the window until he heard an angry series of beeps from his computer .

Fuck. Shit, he stammered, focusing again on his monitor and correcting his lapse .

A few minutes later, he heard a thud coming from the window. With his heart racing in fear of something happening to the poor man on the scaffold, Bailey snapped his eyes to the large pane of glass .

The sexy stack of muscles grinned at him and held up a piece of paper .

With a phone number on it .

The hot guy gestured to his cell phone and pointed at Bailey with a flirty grin .

Bailey looked behind him before turning back and pointing at his own chest. Me ?

The beefcake nodded and put his finger and thumb up to his ear in the universal gesture of call me .

With trembling hands, Bailey dialed his phone, never taking his eyes off the window man while the man answered his own phone .

How long do I have to pretend to wash this one window before you notice me? Window Man asked in a deep, sexy voice .

Who me? Bailey squeaked in response .

Yeah, you, he said pointing to Bailey through the window and winking at him. The wink tightened Baileys pants in an instant .

Um I noticed you about two days ago Bailey admitted. Can I help you with something ?

Yeah. I cant get your adorable nerdy self outta my head. Please god, tell me youre gay or bi or something .

Baileys face turned fuchsia and he squeaked again. Gay. Mm-hm. Yeah. Gay .

Whats your name, gorgeous ?

Bailey.

Well, Bailey, Id love to take you to dinner tonight. Are you free ?

Uh huh, Bailey stammered. Sure. Of course. Yes .

I get off work right now. Any chance youre ready to pack up and get outta here ?

Bailey stood up from his chair quickly enough to knock his keyboard to the floor .

The Heart2Heart matchmaking algorithms would be just fine without a final round of testing .

Probably.

* * *

(To find out what happens to Bailey, check out the rest of his story at the end of the anthology .)