and imagining what they would feel like if he kissed her. She’d also heard women’s reactions to him as a man. She wasn’t the only one who wanted to run her fingers through that thick mass of blond hair.
"But my loyal Lori never gossips about me, does she?" he asked.
"No," she answered. She doesn’t gossip, but she dreams, and daydreams, and fantasizes. "Have you always worked at Consolidated Electronics?"
"No, I’ve worked for several other companies." He told her about his previous jobs, starting out after college as a sales trainee at a restaurant supply company. He had worked his way up the ladder at two other businesses before coming to Consolidated Electronics as a salesman four years ago. He’d been named sales manager only a year later.
"You’ve done a lot since you’ve been sales manager. You have the respect of the clients and the staff," Lori told him. "I’m proud to work for you."
"Thank you, Lori. I’m proud of what I’ve done," Derek said. "But I haven’t succeeded as much as you have because I didn’t have as many obstacles to overcome to get where I am. I’m so proud of you for getting your GED and learning a skill after what you went through."
She’d spent so many years feeling ashamed of her lack of education she didn’t know how to respond to praise for what she’d done. She would never have told Derek any of this if she hadn’t been trying to keep from thinking about being alone with him, trapped in the elevator.
Now that she let herself think about it again, she started to panic. "What time is it now?" she asked.
Derek looked at his watch. "It’s nine-fifteen. The cleaning crew should be here by now."
Lori found it hard to breathe again. She didn’t know whether it was Derek’s closeness or her rising panic. "They should have done something by now. What if they don’t realize we’re here?"
Derek placed his hands on her shoulders and eased her down to the floor again. He sat with his back against the adjacent wall. "I’m sure someone will discover the elevator’s stuck when they’re ready to go to another floor."
"But what if they don’t?" She couldn’t control her rising voice.
"Is this my always-efficient Lori-who-never-panics?"
She breathed deeply. "I’m not going to panic. I just want someone to find us and get us out of here."
"What about your fiancé?" Derek asked. "Won’t he figure out something’s wrong when you don’t get home soon?"
Her mouth opened in shock. "What fiancé?"
"How many fiancés do you have?" Derek asked with a frown.
"None. Whatever gave you the idea I had a fiancé?" Why were they having this ridiculous conversation when they should be trying to get out of a stuck elevator?
Derek arched his right eyebrow. "He told me when he came to pick you up for lunch the first day you started at the company."
Lori frowned in confusion as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. She thought back to her first day on the job. Her neighbor had asked her out several times. The only invitation she’d ever accepted was the one lunch date, and she’d come to regret that.
"Rob’s my next door neighbor. He took me to lunch to celebrate my new job. But I’ve never even dated him, much less been engaged to him."
Derek stood and stared down at her. "If you’re not engaged to him, why did he tell me you were?"
"I have no idea. He’d asked me out several times, but I’d never gone. Maybe . . . well, he apparently had ideas that had no basis in reality." Could he have fantasized about her the way she fantasized about Derek? "I didn’t know he told you we were engaged. But I guarantee you it’s not true."
"I even asked him why you weren’t wearing a ring."
"What did he say?"
Derek rolled his shoulders as if to release tension. "He said he was having his late mother’s ring redesigned for you and would give it to you at Christmas."
"Good grief. That’s really carrying the lie to the limit." Lori felt at a disadvantage sitting on the floor with Derek standing over her. "I wonder what his very much alive mother would think of being called his ‘late mother.’"
"He even told me you got engaged this past Valentine’s Day and were getting married next Valentine’s Day." On Derek’s face, Lori saw confusion, frustration, and some other emotion she couldn’t identify.
"I can’t believe he said all that." She rose. "Why would he make up a story like that?"
"He told me so many details I had to believe him."
"When did you have this conversation? I don’t even remember seeing you that day."
"You might not have seen me," Derek said. "But I certainly saw you. I talked to this Romeo while you went to wash your hands."
"Well, regardless of what he said, we are not engaged. We are not dating. We are not even friends anymore."
Derek frowned. "Did something happen?"
"He came on pretty strong over lunch. I thought we were just going for a casual, friendly meal. But he tried to pressure me into spending time with him, and he walked out on me when I told him I only wanted to be friends."
"That jerk! No wonder you looked unhappy when you got back to the office."
Unhappy was too mild a word to describe her emotions after resisting Rob’s crude advances and having to spend two weeks of bus fare on a lunch that gave her indigestion. However, she thought she’d hid her anger and frustration from her co-workers. Learning that her boss had noticed shocked her.
"Well, at least Rob never asked me out again. In fact, I haven’t even run into him in the hallway anymore."
"Okay, then, Rob’s out of the picture. Are you involved with anyone else?" he asked.
"How could I be involved with anyone? I just spent an hour telling you my life story. When have I had time for romance–hurrying from the hospital to the restaurant? Or maybe between waiting tables and GED classes?"
"Lori, you’re a beautiful woman — inside and out. You’ve worked for Consolidated Electronics for months, plenty of time for romance then," Derek said.
"Well, I haven’t been interested in anyone but . . ." Lori caught herself before she said ‘anyone but you.’ "I haven’t been interested in anyone."
"You mean I’ve wasted all this time?" Derek stepped closer and pulled her into a standing position. "All these months I’ve wanted to do this . . . "
Lori forgot elevators and neighbors and everything else as Derek wrapped her in his arms and drew her close. She reached up to meet his kiss. She didn’t have to wonder how his lips would feel any more. They felt warm, and moist, and soft, and loving. Did they really feel loving?
She didn’t have much experience with men, but she’d listened to other women and she’d read books. She knew a man could feel passion without feeling love. Derek had never noticed her before. He probably had a hot date planned tonight and getting stuck in the elevator with her ruined his plans. He’d said she was beautiful. Maybe he was attracted to her because he liked the way she looked and because they were stuck here in this tiny space. How would he feel when, if, they were finally released?
He deepened the kiss and pulled her closer. Her breasts were crushed against his chest and their bodies touched from head to toe. Heat seemed to be radiating from his body. Her insides melted. Could he be feeling anything like she was?
Slowly he ended the kiss, but his lips returned to her again and again for tiny nips and butterfly kisses. He put his hand on the back of her head and drew it down to his chest. He had held her in this position earlier to comfort her. This felt the same, but different — comforting but exciting, secure but dangerous.
Still holding her to him, he stepped back and leaned against the wall. He slid down to the floor and pulled her onto his lap. He kissed her neck and nibbled her earlobe.
"Wow," he said.
"Wow is right."
"Do you know I’ve been crazy about you since the day you first walked into the office?" he asked. "I was ready to throw that Rob guy out my window when he told me you were engaged."
Lori laughe
d at the image of Derek throwing Rob out the window. "I’ve never seen you resort to physical violence. Well, nothing more violent than slamming down the receiver on the phone."
"But you’ve never seen me stake my claim on the woman I love," he said.
"No, I haven’t. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall any broken windows or injured neighbors," she teased. "So I guess there’s been no claim staked."
"The claim is being staked right now." He shifted her position on his outstretched legs and hugged her even tighter. "I controlled myself and didn’t toss that idiot out the window only because I love you so much."
"You love me so much you didn’t stake your claim?" Lori asked in confusion.
"That’s right," he answered. "I knew you wouldn’t be engaged to him unless you really loved him." His eyes seemed to blaze with the intensity of his feelings. "And as much as I want to be with you, I want more for you to be happy."
"You’d have given me up?" she asked.
"I told myself I could, but I don’t think I believed it." He moved her off his lap to the floor beside him and drew her to his side. "I’ve been planning the most important sales campaign of my career. Haven’t you noticed how often we’ve been working late?"
She snuggled against him and answered, "Of course, I’ve noticed. I notice every minute I’m with you. But we’ve been working on the Lawton contract."
"That was a convenient excuse. If it hadn’t been the Lawton contract, I’d have found some other reason to spend time with you." His smile warmed her heart. "I’ve been practicing my ’smooth talking.’ How