Page 339 of Surrendering Series Box Set

My phone rang just before lunch and I grinned when I saw who it was.

“Well hell, Mr. Ginger. You almost made me late this morning.” It hadn’t been completely his fault. It had been mutual. Mutually satisfying as well.

“Yeah, well, I’d get in more trouble than you would. You’re the boss’ daughter.” I sipped at my third cup of coffee from my WORLD’S GREATEST BOSS mug that Lucah had gotten me.

“And you’re banging and marrying the boss’ daughter, so you have pull too.”

“I suppose so. The reason or this call is that I’m asking if you can get away from your desk for a quick lunch with me.” Most of the time it didn’t work out that our lunch hours happened at the same time, but today was relatively open, for once.

“I think I can swing it. Meet you downstairs?” His cubicle was on the lower level.

“No, I’ll come and get you.” How very chivalrous.

“Okay, see you in an hour?”

“Deal.”

I hung up and smiled to myself. Lilia knocked on my door, bringing me back to the reality that I was at work, not daydreaming about being on the beach with my fiancé.

“Sorry, I just wanted to ask if you’d thought about my vacation?” When she’d first started working here, she’d been like a brown haired, brown-eyed deer. Everything I said seemed to terrify her into silence. That was until I’d found out she was amazing at computer coding. Since then I’d had her working on a few secret projects and I knew that before too long, she was going to leave me for the Tech Support department. Or the Development department and then she’d be working with Lucah.

I couldn’t keep her as an assistant. She had too much to offer the company. But I didn’t want to shove it on her if she wasn’t ready, so I was waiting for her to make the first move. It was a delicate dance and sooner or later, I was going to get impatient and blurt something out.

“Yes, that looks fine. Spencer will be filling in for you, so just make sure you train her well.” Spencer was one of the sharpest interns. I knew she’d have no trouble maintaining my status quo.

She nodded and I got a chance to look at her shoes. Lilia and Sloane could definitely battle it out for the best-dressed spot in my life. Today her shoes were similar to wingtips, only with monster heels. She’d added a simple grey pinstriped skirt with a little flare in the back and a white silk top that I could never pull off with my chest. She’d been wearing her hair curly lately and it looked good on her.

I wanted to set her up with someone, but I didn’t know who. I wasn’t sure who her type was, and I knew she’d been through a nasty breakup not that long ago, so she was still raw and probably didn’t even want to date. Oh well. Being in love made you want everyone else around you to be in love too.

“I will,” she said, making a note of it on the pad that she always carried around with her. “Don’t worry. I’ll threaten her with death or dismemberment if she messes anything up.” I laughed.

“You don’t have to go that far. I’m sure she’ll be fine. I know she’s a quick learner.” I’d already gotten the scoop on her from Betty, who managed all the interns.

“Well. I’ll make sure. Oh, I’m going to take my lunch now, if that’s okay?” I looked at the clock. That would give her enough time to get back before I was meeting Lucah.

“Sounds good. Oh, and Lucah is coming up to get me to go to lunch, so if you see him when you come back, send him on up.”

“Will do.” She turned and her skirt flipped out. If we were the same size, I’d totally force her to let me raid her closet.

~*~*~

“Hello, Miss Clarke,” Lucah said as he knocked on my door about an hour later. I’d gotten buried in paperwork and numbers and math, so I’d lost track of time.

“Hello, Mr. Blythe,” I said. While we were “out” as a couple now, we didn’t like to flaunt our relationship too much. At least in public. We still banged each other in the supply closet every now and then. For old time’s sake. And I definitely wanted him to take me on my desk.

“You ready to go?” I nodded and grabbed my coat. I wished it would warm up, but spring was being stubborn.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked as he held the door for me and then closed it behind us.

“I was thinking that place down the street that makes the amazing paninis? So you don’t have to walk too far in those.” He pointed down at my nude heels. He was right, they weren’t exactly good slush shoes. In the winter I wore boots to work and changed once I got there, but I felt okay today when I broke out the heels again. Summer was coming and I was ready for it.

Lucah took my arm and we waved to Mrs. Andrews, my father’s assistant, as we got on the elevator. She’d been a big fan of our relationship from day one and now she smiled so much her eyes crinkled whenever she saw us together.

“So, can you give me a hint?” he said when we got down to the ground floor and stepped outside. I huddled closer to him to avoid the winds that howled down the streets of Boston. There was something about the way the city was laid out that caused this phenomenon. It wreaked havoc on carefully-styled hair.

“A hint about what?” I asked, knowing exactly what he was asking about. He didn’t let a day go by without asking about my wedding dress. It would have been annoying if it wasn’t so damn adorable.

“You know what.”

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