Gone - Part One by Deborah Bladon

keep it that way.               He said he'd call and I have to trust in that even though I called Bruce yesterday and found out Clive was in his office all day with the door shut. I sent him a few text messages asking how his nephew was doing. I finally called him last night and left a voicemail but the only response has been empty silence.
    I need to focus on my work and on picking up a bouquet of flowers to take over to Jordan's house for dinner tonight. Judging by the fact that Clive is intentionally avoiding me, meeting a new man might be the best thing for my bruised ego. I've been dumped enough times to know when it's within distance, staring at me like a neon light on the horizon.
    "Lilly?" Dan's voice shakes me from my thoughts as he rounds the corner and suddenly appears in front of my desk. "I'm here to give you a heads-up."
    "A heads-up?" I parrot back. "About what?"
    "Mr. Parker." He doesn't continue beyond that even though I'm staring at him with my mouth hanging open.
    "What about him?" I push back.
    "Lilly." I hear Clive's voice before I see his tall frame. He walks with the confidence of a man on a mission. Apparently, right now, that mission involves me. "We need to talk."
    "I'm listening." I don't look up from my computer's screen to acknowledge his presence. "What is it, Mr. Parker?"
    He rests his hand on the edge of my monitor and I'm fearful for just a moment that the weight of his body will cause it to snap in half. "I'd like you to come with me to my office."
    "Right now?" I adjust my hands slightly, pulling them into my lap.
    "Right now, Lilly." He turns quickly on his heel as he heads back down the corridor towards the bank of elevators.
    "What the hell is going on?" Dan can't hide his curiosity. It's literally seeping out from each of the words. "Do you have any idea what that's about?"
    "I don't," I lie. "I have no idea at all."
     

Chapter 18
     
    "I expected you to be right behind me, Lilly." He reaches past me to push his office door closed with a loud thud. "I held the elevator for more than four minutes waiting for you."
    I've held my breath for the past four days waiting for him so I'd say we're even.
    "I had to save what I've been working on." That's the second lie I've told in the last ten minutes although this time there's a ribbon of truth in it. I'd been working on something all morning and the idea of walking away from my desk without backing it up was terrifying to me.
    He studies my face briefly as if he's weighing the merit of my words. "You're a conscientious worker. I'll give you that."
    It's exactly the words any woman wants to hear when she's blindly attracted to a man. How utterly unromantic of you, Mr. Parker.
    "I think I know why you've called me here," I say it calmly. We moved beyond the expected protocol of me playing the naïve, new employee when I came in a heated rush while pressed up against the window. It's the same window that I can't bring myself to look at right now.
    "Really?" He slides his suit jacket off before he removes one silver cuff link, followed by the other.
              If we're getting comfortable, I might as well join in. I pull off the black blazer I've been wearing all day over my yellow sundress. "Yes."
    I watch in silence as he pushes the sleeves of his dress shirt over his elbows, revealing his muscular forearms. "I doubt that you know why I called you into my office, Lilly."
    A fleeting image of him pulling me over his knee and giving my ass a quick spank floats through my mind. I shake my head to chase it away. "You're having second thoughts about us, aren’t you?"
    "Us?" he asks with enough sincerity in his tone that I can sense it's genuine.
    "Yes." I cross my arms over my chest. "You called me in here to talk about that."
    He cocks a brow before he walks over to a cabinet near his desk. I don’t move as I watch him pour himself a half glass of bourbon. He downs it quickly and effortlessly in one gulp. Considering