spoken to him since the Fourth. They were ready to get back to work at the main refinery. They needed to be producing barrels of oil each day, not sitting idle.
He picked up the phone and dialed Darius’s number.
“This is Darius.”
“Darius, my man, what news do you have from the refinery?”
“Not much. The arson investigator is still tracking the accelerant to try to find the source.”
“Do you trust the man?” Lance asked. “Is he competent?”
“Yes, I think he is. I’m going to call his office later. I’ll follow up with you when I have news.”
“Thanks, Darius. I appreciate you taking this case.”
“That’s what friends are for, right?”
“Indeed.”
“Speaking of friends… what’s this I hear about your engagement?”
Lance looked at the open door leading to Kate’s desk. He could hear her hands moving over the keyboard of her computer.
“It’s complicated.”
“With women, that’s the only way a situation can be.”
Lance laughed. “More so than usual. I can’t say any more until I talk to the lady involved.”
“Gotcha. I can appreciate that.”
“Thanks, Darius.”
He hung up the phone as Kate entered his office. “Marcus needs five minutes to talk to you later.”
“Anything else?” Lance asked. Marcus was hanging around the office too much lately and Lance knew it was because of Kate.
“This came for you via courier. Said it was urgent,” she said, handing him a letter-sized envelope.
He stopped her with a hand on her wrist. He suspected the envelope held the bracelet he’d ordered for her last night. He wanted Kate to have something, and until he could talk to Lexi, a ring was out of the question.
Was he really thinking of marrying Kate Thornton?
“Close the door for me.”
“No. People will talk if we close the door. It’s never closed when I’m in here.”
“Katie-girl… what are you thinking?”
She blushed and gave him a hard stare. “Nothing.”
She turned on her heel to leave. He stopped her, reaching over her head to close the door, trapping her.
“Turn around.”
She did, slowly.
“Was that so hard?”
She shook her head. “You are way too bossy for your own good.”
“You like it,” he said, thinking of last night when he’d ordered her to come while they were making love, and she had.
She blushed.
“What did you want from me?”
Everything, he thought. He wanted every secret in her dark brown stare to be revealed to him.
“I think this package is actually for you. Have a seat in my chair.”
“Lance…”
He gestured to his chair and then followed her back across his office. She wore a short skirt and a sleeveless sweater today. Her hair had been left loose and hung down her back in silky waves.
Each day, instead of growing used to her look he found something new about her that attracted him.
He wondered if that would stop or go away with familiarity. But somehow he doubted that it would. There was something about Kate that just kept deepening for him each day.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Just thinking about how pretty you are.”
“I’m not,” she said.
“That’s not the way to take a compliment.”
She swallowed. “But I look in the mirror every day, Lance.”
He walked over to her, leaning one hip on the side of the desk. He turned her toward him and looked down into her face.
“You are beautiful, Kate. I’m not sure why I never noticed it before but you get prettier each and every day.”
“Thank you, Lance. When I’m with you I feel… like the woman I always dreamed of being.”
“I’m glad,” he said. He reached for the envelope and checked the return address. It was the bracelet he’d ordered. He opened the envelope and a small black jewelry bag fell out.
“I’m not much of a gift wrapper, but I wanted you to have this,” Lance said.
Kate reached for it and he opened the bag. He took her hand in his and turned it palm up.
He shook the jewelry bag until the bracelet dropped out into her hand. The jewel-encrusted charms glittered. She bit her lower lip and closed her fist over the bracelet.
“Thank you. It’s so beautiful. But why are you giving me this?.”
“I wanted you to have a piece of jewelry that you didn’t buy for yourself, something that would remind you of me each time you put it on.”
The look on her face told him everything he needed to know.
Kate spent the rest of the day admiring her bracelet and romanticizing her relationship with Lance. It had developed into something altogether different than she’d expected, something more than she’d ever expected from any relationship.
She found herself cautioning her heart not to believe that Lance was the man of her dreams. She felt like there was still something that had to be worked out between them. She hadn’t asked about his engagement to Lexi and if he’d broken it off. But Lance had said he would do it and she trusted him.
And the bracelet. She stopped working at her computer and touched it. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry. The only other man to ever give her any jewelry had been her dad, who had gifted her with one-karat diamond stud earrings when she’d graduated from high school.
This was different. Although her head was telling her to be cautious, her heart was going full throttle, and she couldn’t seem to stop it. Everything was out of control—and she liked it.
“Kate, can I see you in my office?”
She picked up her notepad and stepped into Lance’s office. It was after hours and much of the staff had gone home.
“Yes, Lance?” she asked. She stopped when she noticed that there was a picnic basket on his desk and a bottle of wine opened and chilling in a wine bucket.
“Join me for dinner?” he asked.
“I guess the boss won’t notice if I’m away from desk for a few minutes.”
“I already cleared this with the boss.”
She closed the door behind her. She didn’t want any of their co-workers to see this. Her re-lationship with Lance was too personal to let the world know about it.
“Then I’d love to join you,” she said. “How did you plan all this without me?”
Lance poured her a glass of white wine and handed it to her. “I am capable of doing things on my own.”
“I know that. It’s just…”
“What?”