Author's Note: I had a lot of people assume that the woman Danny called was Jo. No, he didn't. Jo Masterson is as good as dead in this fic. She will NEVER make an appearance in this story. She's in enough Dacey stories already. I feel like I explain that I'm not here for Jo too much. I really hate even typing her damn name now. Danny will never, NEVER, EVER sleep with Jo in a fic I write. I wrote him pretending to be her boyfriend, and he ended up killing her in that one. So, to make my point perfectly clear, this is a Dacey fic. Jo Masterson has no business in a Dacey fic unless she's being tortured. That's just my opinion though.
Thanks for reading. Reviews are hugs! Enjoy!
Danny stood staring at Lacey and really wondered why he initially thought that a woman as beautiful as Lacey wouldn't have a man in her life. Of course she had a boyfriend. Then that made him uneasy. That meant she probably was getting laid. Danny suddenly felt sick and angry at the thought of another man being with her the way that he wanted to be with her. He felt silly for thinking that that's what she needed all that time. And then Danny's cocky side took over. He started thinking that she acted that way because she hadn't been laid by him. That made Danny poke his chest out a little further. He knew he'd win Lacey over in time. Although she did slap him, she kissed him back before she slapped him. It might have been one step forward and two steps back, but Danny considered himself in the race. He started thinking about that kiss again. Not necessarily the best kiss he ever had, but close. And when he really made her his, he knew the kisses were going to get even better. Now Danny had to pour on the charm. He could win an award for his charisma. He was irresistible to women, and Lacey was no exception. He just proved that. He knew that she didn't hate him as much as she claimed. It was all a matter of time before she felt extremely different about him.
"I'm sorry, Lacey. I didn't know you had a boyfriend." Danny lies. He didn't know she had a boyfriend, but he isn't sorry about kissing her. Not at all.
"It's fine. How could you know? It's not like we're friends." Lacey says as she starts to pick up the things she dropped when Danny kissed her.
"Here, let me help you." Danny says as he bends down to help her. They both stood up and looked at each other awkwardly. "I shouldn't be surprised that you have a boyfriend though." Danny says as he stares at her.
"What do you mean by that, Danny?" Lacey asks.
"I just mean that you're a very beautiful woman and I'm not surprised that you have someone." Danny says almost nervously.
"Thank you. But you shouldn't be single either. I thought you'd have women lined up waiting to get with you. You sure are the company hottie from what I've heard." Lacey says and slightly blushes as she puts her head down.
"No, I'm single. And you heard I'm the company hottie?" Danny asks in a teasing tone.
"Yes, that's what I've heard." Lacey says. "I don't think so though." Lacey lies.
"Then why did you kiss me back?" Danny asks as he raises his eyebrow as he looks at her.
Lacey smiles awkwardly. "I think we should get back to work." Lacey says as she changes the subject and walks back over to her seat. She gets back to work without a word. Danny just looks at her and goes back to his seat.
Danny sits quietly for several minutes before speaking. "So, you're just going to ignore my question?" Danny asks.
Lacey looks up in surprise. "What question?" Lacey asks while clearly trying to pretend she has no idea what Danny is talking about.
"That kiss. I want to know why you kissed me back." Danny says.
Lacey exhales sharply. "Danny, that kiss was a mistake. I have a boyfriend." Lacey says as she locks eyes with him.
"It didn't feel like a mistake though." Danny says as he looks at her wearily.
"What do you want from me, Danny?" Lacey asks almost harshly.
"I want you to be honest with me and yourself." Danny says.
"About what, Danny?" Lacey asks.
"Why you've been so mean and nasty to me for years? Why you treat me like I've done something to you? Why you act like you hate me? Why act like you hate me when it's obvious you don't?" Danny asks.
Lacey doesn't want to answer these questions, so she throws it back at him. "What about you? I've heard that you hate me too. So you can't put this all on me." Lacey says defensively.
"Yeah, I pretended to hate you because you hate me. And I said I thought you might need to get laid, but that's irrelevant." Danny says.
Lacey is a little shocked by his admissions. "You think I need to get laid? Are you serious?" Lacey asks incredulously.
"Yeah, I thought that. And I was willing to help you out." Danny says as he flashes her a smile.
Lacey scoffs. "I don't need your help with that, so don't flatter yourself." Lacey says.
"You might not think you need my help, but you do." Danny says as he smirks at her.
Lacey puts down her pen and looks at him with a slightly disgusted look on her face. "I think I know what you mean by that, and you are a cocky bastard. But I'll let you keep thinking you're the best thing walking. I wouldn't want to take that away from you." Lacey says as she picks her pen back up and goes back to working.
"I wouldn't say things like that if I couldn't back it up." Danny counters as he waits for her reaction.
"Maybe people have just been lying to you. You're so cocky that if somebody told you that you were bad in the sack, you probably wouldn't believe it." Lacey says as she smirks at him.
"Well, Lacey. There's only one way to find that out." Danny replies.
Lacey gets a little flustered. But she decides to play along. "If you weren't so arrogant, I just might. But I'm not giving you the satisfaction." Lacey says.
"You would be satisfied though." Danny says as he flashes her another smile.
"Whatever Danny. And to think, I was going to apologize for slapping you." Lacey says as she gives him a defiant and slack-jawed expression.
"You don't have to apologize because I liked it. I like that I brought out your wild side." Danny says.
"Next time I'll just knee you in the balls. I'll bet you won't like that, now will you?" Lacey asks with a huge smile on her face.
"Lacey, if you want to grab my crotch, all you have to do is ask. I'd let you." Danny says.
Lacey is once again shocked by what he has to say. "I do not want to grab your crotch." Lacey lies.
"That's what your mouth says. We both know better." Danny says. "And now I'm going to stop bothering you, so we can get our work done." Danny says as he and Lacey get engrossed in their work. They work for about another hour in the sexually tense filled silence they have both become accustomed to. Until Lacey finds something in the paperwork she's going over.
"These reports seem a little off to me. Take a look at this. There seems to be a huge profit drop at exactly the same time each quarter. Does that make sense to you?" Lacey asks.
"No, it doesn't. How many times have you noticed that?" Danny asks.
"Three times. I thought it was strange with the first two, but now this third one really raises a red flag. Let me find the other two." Lacey says as she goes back through the papers she went through previously. Since she highlighted them, they were easy to find. "I found them. Here, take a look." Lacey says as she gets up to take the papers around to him. Once Lacey got really close to him, she realized that that probably wasn't a good idea for her to be that close to him. She should have just stayed in her seat. She noticed how good he smelled. She already knew that he wore cologne, but it wasn't strong. It smelled good and smelled even better up close. Whatever cologne it was, it really matched his body chemistry because Lacey knew for certain that whatever it was, it would stink on another man. She was too into the kiss to notice anything else. It was one hell of a kiss. She wanted to kick herself for reciprocating. She had a boyfriend. But Archie's kisses weren't like Danny's kisses. She got a little distracted and came back to reality. Then she got distracted again when she got a better view and smell of his hair. She wondered just what he used on it. She then wondered if he wore it out during sex. Lacey wanted to kick herself again for thinking that. And then as she was standing practically on top of him, she noticed that he was aroused. And he didn't have an incredibly tiny penis like she almost hoped that morning.
Lacey's breasts were practically in Danny's face as he looked at the financial reports. He instantly got aroused. And then he again noticed how wonderful she smelled and it made it worse. He then thought about that kiss. The kiss he was glad he was bold enough to go for. The way her full lips felt pressed against his almost drove him crazy. He knew that he was just about addicted to this woman, and it would only take getting her to get her out of his system. That little game he played with Deirdre did nothing for him. Having her in his bed and pretending she was Lacey did nothing. His desire for Lacey was still strong. He wanted Lacey Porter. And her boyfriend wasn't going to stop him. He didn't get as far as he was in life by being timid and not going after what he wants. He was a go getter. Kind of like a lion. King of the jungle. If he wanted something he worked for it and got it. Danny didn't like not getting what he wanted. He of course knew when no meant no, but he knew that he wasn't accepting no from Lacey. If she really didn't want anything to do with him, she wouldn't entertain the cocky trash talking that he's doing now. Danny almost always got what he wanted. Lacey was no exception.
They both stared at the reports but weren't even reading the information that was on those papers. They were too enveloped into each other. Something that could become a problem if they let it. They had a job to do. This was not the time to be so enamored with each other. They would never finish and they had a lot to do before they went out of town. Really, they had only three whole days to compile all of their data unless they worked together on the weekend. Danny shook his head and let his senses return to him. "What am I supposed to be looking at?" Danny asks as he stops and looks up at Lacey.
Lacey seemed to be lost in thought too. "I'm sorry, what?" Lacey asked.
"I forgot what I'm supposed to be looking for. I'm not trying to sound like a dick, but could you go back over there? You're distracting me." Danny says honestly.
Lacey wasn't fazed by what he said because he was distracting her too."Sure. No problem." Lacey says as she walks back to her seat. "You're supposed to look at the dip in the profits. I highlighted them." Lacey says as she smiles weakly.
"Oh. Right." Danny says as he looks them over. "I see exactly what you're talking about and that was a good catch. Now we just have to figure out what that means. We really have to study the other reports and compare. There has to be a reason why their profit margin pretty much vanished at the same time. Hopefully, nobody is ripping the company off." Danny says.
"That would totally suck if that were true. I don't want to uncover a conspiracy." Lacey says.
"I know, me neither. But you did a really good job catching that. I'm impressed." Danny says truthfully.
"Thank you. I appreciate that." Lacey says as she smiles and locks eyes with the man she knows might cause her to get herself into trouble.
Danny and Lacey continued to work on their reports until lunch time. They were both famished and needed to eat before they both passed out. Danny had a crazy thought.
"Well, Ms. Porter. Since you don't really hate me, how about we have lunch together?" Danny suggests.
"I never said I didn't hate you." Lacey says as she grins.
"Come on Lacey, we both know that is not the truth. You don't hate me and you know it." Danny says.
"Ok, maybe hate isn't the right word. I just strongly dislike you." Lacey says.
"I strongly dislike you too. So how about it? Lunch. My treat." Danny says as he flashes his sexy smile.
"Ok, but you do know that this isn't a date, right? In case you forgot, I have to remind you that I have a boyfriend." Lacey says.
"I'm very aware that you have a boyfriend, Lacey. This is just lunch between colleagues that strongly dislike each other." Danny replies.
"Good. I have to run to the ladies room and get my purse from my office. I'll meet you in the lobby in ten minutes." Lacey says as she prepares to leave his office.
"I can't wait." Danny says as he watches Lacey walk away and leave his office. Her in that white dress was turning him into a juvenile just going through puberty. He kept getting uncontrollable erections around her. He was able to hide them while sitting at his desk, but what about when they were outside his office? He understood it but couldn't believe she turned him on that much.
Lacey walked to her office on the other side and spotted Whitney and Phoebe walking their way towards her.
"Hey Lacey. How are you today?" Phoebe asks as she smiles at Lacey.
"I'm great. How are you?" Lacey asks.
"Great, but I'm so hungry I could eat anything." Phoebe says.
"I know. Me too." Lacey says as she giggles. The two women follow her into her office as Lacey gets hers purse and puts her other bag on her desk.
"Are you joining us for lunch?" Whitney asks.
Lacey seems a little embarrassed. "Not today. I'm having lunch with someone else." Lacey says sheepishly.
Whitney almost laughs. "Who are you having lunch with?" Whitney asks and can't wait to hear Lacey's answer.
Lacey exhales and closes her eyes. "I'm having lunch with Danny, ok?" Lacey says.
"Dammit." Phoebe says as Whitney starts to laugh.
"I knew it! I knew it!" Whitney says animatedly.
Lacey looks from Whitney to Phoebe. "What's with that response, Phoebe?" Lacey asks.
"Oh, nothing." Phoebe says quietly.
"No, what is it? Am I missing something?" Lacey asks in concern.
"Oh, I'll answer that. I bet Phoebe lunch that you two would be chummy and not pretending to hate each other in less than a week, and I was right." Whitney says as she almost cheers in delight.
"Excuse me? That's not funny you guys. You're supposed to be my friends." Lacey says.
"We are your friends. We also know that you hate Danny about as much as you hate us." Whitney says.
"That's where you're wrong, I hate both of you more than I hate him." Lacey says.
"Hey! Why do you hate me? I said that you wouldn't be chummy with him. That's why I lost." Phoebe says.
"How could you guys even do that though? This is so not funny." Lacey says.
"Oh lighten up and stop being so dramatic. It's not like we said you had to marry the man and have his babies. We just know that there's so much mutual attraction between you and your fake hatred of each other, and the sexual tension that I can cut with a knife, that it's only inevitable that you two would become closer since working together. Embrace it. Who knows what might happen? Stop being so closed-minded." Whitney says.
Lacey decides to ignore everything that Whitney has just said. "I need to go to the ladies room before I leave." Lacey says as she leaves her office without another word and heads for the ladies room. Lacey quickly finishes and heads for the elevator. She found Whitney and Phoebe standing in front of the elevators waiting for her. Lacey still doesn't have anything to say to her friends that were plotting against her behind her back. They rode the elevator in silence. When they got to the lobby, Lacey found Danny waiting for her. "I'm sorry I took longer than ten minutes." Lacey says as she apologizes.
"You're worth the wait, Lacey. Hi Whitney and Phoebe." Danny says.
They both smile profusely. "Hi Danny." They say in unison. All three women start to walk towards the eatery when Danny stops Lacey.
"Lacey, where are you going?" Danny asks.
"To lunch. Where do you think I'm going?" Lacey asks.
"We're not having lunch here. We're leaving the building." Danny says as he smiles.
Lacey had an uneasy feeling. She just thought they'd have lunch at one of the restaurants in their building. She didn't think they would leave. This might not end well. But Lacey faces the music. "Ok. I'll see you gals later." Lacey says as she turns to leave the building with Danny. He led her to the garage and walked her to his car. Lacey saw that he drove a black Porsche. It seemed to suit him. Danny was the perfect gentleman when he opened the door for Lacey. She stopped before turning around and taking Danny by surprise when she kissed him. They got so deep into the kiss they wound up leaned up against the car parked next to Danny's.
They never made it to lunch.