Tamed by Texans (Doms of Destiny, Colorado 5)

Jena tensed. Does he know everything about me?

“Dylan, that’s enough.” Erica stood in front of the man who was a foot and a half taller than her.

She saw a smile cross the man’s face. Clearly, only one person could get Dylan to chill out and that was his wife.

“Forgive my husband,” Erica said to her.

Cameron put his arm around the woman. “My brother can be a little too intense at times, Miss Taylor.”

The three of them made a nice-looking…triple? Threesome? What was the right word for it? Destiny sure was different from anywhere she’d ever been before.

“What do you think of our workspace?” Matt asked her.

“This is all yours?”

“Ours and our team. We have about twenty-five techs who work for us.”

This floor was a wide-open space filled with computer stations. On the walls were flat screens and smart boards.

“It’s very impressive.” She saw the top-of-the-line table computers, strictly hands on. No mouse. The latest in multi-touch technology. Secretly, she couldn’t wait to get on those. “Very nice.”

The setups of Mitrofanov and Lunceford had been good, but nothing like this. She felt like a kid in a candy store.

Kid? Kimmie? She felt her gut tighten. Her daughter would be turning five in six days. She had to leave here by Monday morning to make it the day before Kimmie’s birthday. She looked at Matt and Sean. Leaving them was going to be hard. Really hard. But she must.

“Jena, now that you’ve seen the place, how about joining me and my guys for dinner at Blue’s?” Erica asked.

“Thanks, I really appreciate the offer, but can we make it for another time?”

“I totally understand. You’re anxious to get Kip Lunceford and Niklaus Mitrofanov. You don’t know how much we appreciate you doing this.” Erica hugged her again. “I am so glad you’re here, Jena. All the ladies are already talking about the next shopping trip to Denver. You will come with us, won’t you?”

“I think that would be wonderful,” she said, but deep down she knew it would never be.

The Stranges went to the elevator, leaving her with Matt and Sean.

She turned to the two wonderful men and felt her heart begin to break. “Let’s get started pulling Lunceford’s weeds out of your system. Where do I sit?”

* * * *

With blurry eyes from all the decoding they’d done back at TBK for the past three hours, Matt finished off the sesame chicken. They’d bought take out from Phong’s Wok, and Hiro and Melissa, the owners, had given them double portions of everything they ordered. He knew it was more for Jena, since she was the newest visitor to Destiny, but he got to enjoy most of the bounty since she’d only eaten half of her sweet and sour chicken.

He, Sean, and Jena sat on a blanket in the southwest part of the park at the foot of the Green Dragon statue.

“What time is it?” Jena asked.

He looked at his cell. “Eleven thirty.”

“We should be getting back to TBK.”

“No more work tonight,” he stated firmly. “We can get started fresh tomorrow. Our team will be in, and we can give them some of the solutions you have designed.”

“You’ve got to be the best coder I’ve ever seen,” Sean said. “We’ve been on this for months, Jena. You’ve done ten times more on this tonight than we have in all that time.”

Matt nodded, realizing how brilliant the sweet woman was. “I bet we can have Lunceford’s crap gone in less than a month with your help.”

“Okay, the compliments are nice, but I’ve seen your work, Tall Texan and Country Boy. Your IQs have to be in the stratosphere.”

Matt smiled. “If ours are in the stratosphere, then yours must be way past the moon.”