Mac was Dane’s polar opposite. He walked around with a perpetual grin and everyone was a friend. In fact, she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen the man grumpy. With his sandy blond hair and pale blue eyes, he looked more like a laidback surfer than a lawyer. His easy charm was merely a veneer though. He was every bit as sharp as Dane and just as cunning in the courtroom.
“This subject has been beaten into the ground,” she replied as she pretended an interest in the e-mail she’d been going through. “You both might as well get used to the fact that I’m never going to call you by your first names. It’s not professional and that’s the end of it.”
“Mouthy, isn’t she?” Mac noted.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Dane frown, again. “Someone needs to teach Ms. Burke a lesson, if you ask me.”
“Someone has a meeting in half an hour and shouldn’t be wasting time chatting.”
“She has a point,” another voice chimed in. They all three looked at the door to the office just as Trent Dailey marched through it, his movements precise, his expression serious. Lydia straightened in her chair. Trent had a way of making people check themselves. He wasn’t exactly a drill sergeant, but she secretly thought he would have made an exemplary one if he ever chose to change professions. Ever the serious one, with his amber eyes, neatly trimmed black hair and powerful build, Trent rarely cracked a smile, and he always did everything with efficiency. She often felt like a slacker around him, and for a workaholic like her, that was saying something.
“If you two can find it in you to break away from the charming Ms. Burke, I have something I need to discuss with you.”
Mac looked back at her and winked. “He’s at it already. Look out, sugar, you could be next.”
Dane didn’t say another word, just growled something about coffee and stomped into his office, Trent and Mac hot on his heels.
The phone rang and she had the feeling her day was about to turn chaotic. “I just love Mondays,” she mumbled, before picking it up.
Lydia had started the day with a smile, but that was well before Dane turned her world upside down. There wasn’t a moment’s peace. The minute she finished one task, she’d end up having fifty more dumped on her desk. And it was only noon!
“Lydia, I need you to get Gordon Michelson on the phone,” Dane said. “I want to set up a meeting right away concerning his personal injury case.”
“Yes, Mr. Gentry,” she replied, barely containing a groan. As she closed the document she’d been working on for Mac and searched through her list of contacts for Michelson’s phone number, Dane popped his head out of his office once more. “Lydia, did you do that research for the Wilson case?”
“It’s not quite finished. I’ll have it to you by the end of the day, sir.”
“That’s fine. By the way, don’t forget to interview that potential client, Sam MacKenzie.”
Lydia had finally reached the end of her rope. “Okay, you know what? This is too much for one person. I get a few things done and you drop a hundred more on me. I’m not a robot!”
She grabbed her purse and started for the door, aware she’d attracted the attention of her fellow coworkers. Dane was quick to intercept her. She tried to move around him, but he only grabbed her arm, halting her forward progress.
“Where are you going?”
“I need a break,” she gritted out.
“I’m sorry. Don’t quit, please.”
She put her hand on her hip and glared up at him. “Well, of course I’m not quitting! But I am taking the rest of the afternoon off. You can get along without me that long, can’t you?”
Dane leaned down and whispered into her ear, “If you don’t come back tomorrow I’ll come looking for you, sweetheart. I won’t let you get away from me so easily.”
Lydia shuddered at the sensual tone. All the time she’d worked for Dane, he’d never used that dark, mysterious tone on her. Or endearments for that matter. He wasn’t like Mac, where every woman he met was either sugar or darlin’, an influence of his Texas upbringing. Dane had just crossed a line, and despite warning bells going off inside her head, his wicked threat tantalized her.
As he released her arm and stepped to the side to let her pass, Lydia watched his lips tilt to one side. He was flirting with her and she was woefully unequipped to handle a man like Dane Gentry.
Lydia forced her feet to move, her entire body suddenly too warm for comfort. As she left the office building, she could swear all three men stared at her, and she had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t professional concern they had on their minds.
As soon as the office door closed, Dane let out a breath. Jesus, that was close. He’d been a heartbeat away from kissing her. That would be the wrong thing to do. Way wrong. But if that was the case, then why did he feel as if he’d lost a golden opportunity? What would she have done if he’d closed that little distance? Damn, Lydia Burke had been a fire in his blood for too long already. If he didn’t do something about his fascination with her, he was going to lose it.
As he’d watched her get all authoritative and demanding, he’d been tempted to push her to her knees and force her to submit. There was a chemistry between them. Hell, there’d always been a spark. Though he had a feeling she liked to pretend it wasn’t there, Dane knew the truth. Lust, craving, obsession; whatever the label it didn’t matter. It wasn’t going away, not until they did something about it.
“Shit, that was close,” Mac groaned. “I thought she was leaving you for good this time.”
“She won’t leave,” Dane stated. “She knows I’d find her and bring her back.”
“We’ve got another problem,” Trent grumbled as he motioned them into his office. After he closed the door, he said, “Clyde just put in his two weeks’ notice and we need to replace him.”