“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?”
“It must have taken some effort for you to surprise me like this… and I didn’t think you would do that.”
“Why not? I like surprising you,” he said.
She wasn’t used to this, to this being in a re-lationship, and she hardly knew what to expect. She’d gone from invisible to this… and it was overwhelming.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “I want this to be a special night for you.”
Lance was everything she wanted in a man, she thought. She couldn’t deny that, no matter how cautious she was trying to be.
Spontaneously, she went up on tiptoe and kissed him. She’d been wanting to all day long.
He caught her close and kissed her back. “Working together is a kind of torture.”
“How?” she asked. One hand was roaming up and down her back, the other at the hem of her skirt.
“Seeing you all day, wanting to lift this little skirt of yours and bend you over my desk…” He trailed off as he dropped kisses all along her neck and throat.
“What else do you want to do?” she asked, turned on by the image he’d put in her mind.
“Lots of things, Katie-girl. But I really want to know what you want to do. What is your fantasy?”
“In the office?” she asked.
“We can start there,” he said.
“Take your shirt off,” she said. Since they’d started sleeping together, she fantasized many times about coming into his office and seeing him sitting there with his shirt off.
“Take my shirt off?”
She nodded.
He reached between them, the backs of his fingers brushing her breasts as he unbuttoned his shirt. She shook from the brief contact and bit her lip to keep from asking for more.
“Now you take yours off,” he said.
“Um… I thought I was in charge.”
“You are, but I need some incentive to keep on going.”
“And if I take my blouse off…”
“I’ll be like putty in your hands.”
She reached between the two of them and took the hem of her sleeveless sweater in her hands and drew it up over her body. She was wearing a very sexy bra that she’d bought at Becca’s store. The cups were all lace and it fastened in the front.
“Very nice,” Lance said, running his finger down the center of her body, over her sternum and between her ribs, lingering on her belly button and then stopping at the waistband of her skirt.
He took the front clasp of her bra between his fingers and snapped it open. She stood there on the precipice of something that she couldn’t explain. He rubbed his finger over the spot where the clasp had been. The cups were still covering her breasts but she felt… wanton and wicked.
He slowly traced the same path upward again. This time, his fingers feathered under her lacy bra, barely touching her nipples. Both beaded, and a shaft of desire pierced
