Her Unexpected Admirer Page 0,31

response. In the end, she’d walked away from the table and gave her father an update on all that she’d been doing. And amazingly, he’d approved of her process! It was the first time ever that she’d actually heard him say, “That’s right, Kate.”

Unfortunately, his next words had been, “Don’t get any silly, romantic ideas about Davis Alfieri,” he’d grumbled. “He is out of your league. You’re not even in the game, Kate.”

Kate had gone cold with those words because that was exactly what she was doing. She remembered looking over at Davis, then quickly away when she found him staring right back at her. “That’s not happening,” she’d replied, and prayed that she could make it be true.

She’d gone to bed last night but hadn’t been able to sleep, thinking about her father’s words over and over again. He’d approved of her! But warned her not to do exactly what she’d been doing. Did that make the past two days a success or a failure?

Now, sitting in the small cubicle where all the files were stacked up around her, she was more confused than ever.

She needed her paints, she thought as she compared yet another invoice against the inventory on file. She needed to work her worries out through painting.

The big reason she hadn’t painted yet while close to Davis was her fear of being discovered. The suite that she and Davis were staying in was enormous, bigger than her apartment. In fact, the bedroom she’d tried to sleep in last night was bigger than her apartment.

But she needed to paint pretty desperately, to release this stress and work through all the issues that were filling up her mind. Davis was at the top of her list of things to work out. She could imagine what she would paint, including all the chaotic, erotic images. She just knew that, if she could get her thoughts on canvas, they would be outside of her head and she could deal with them better, follow her father’s advice and not weave silly, romantic thoughts around an impossible future with Davis.

But there was also the enormous joy she was feeling since receiving her father’s approval. Unfortunately, that joy was mixed in with a great deal of confusion as well. And she didn’t understand her confusion either. Why couldn’t she just be happy that her father approved? What was wrong with accepting that approval?

Kate looked up when she felt someone standing in the doorway to the small cubicle where she was working. “Hi Tom,” she said, feeling enormous relief that it was uncomplicated Tom. He was a sweet guy without any problems attached to her life. He was just a nice guy, a friend.

“Hi Kate,” he replied nervously. “How are things going today?”

Kate leaned back in her chair and smiled kindly up at Tom. He seemed like a really nice guy, if a bit too shy for her taste.

That thought caught her off guard a little bit. Since when did she actually have a type? In college, she hadn’t dated a whole lot, but the men that she had gone out with seemed pretty varied in type.

It wasn’t that she was attracted to tall, dark and domineering men, was it? Surely she had more common sense than to continue to yearn after a man like Davis. But as she looked at Tom, his sweet smile and kind eyes looking back at her, she knew that he definitely didn’t stir her heart or her body the way Davis did.

“What are you working on today?” he asked

Kate glanced down at the file she was currently reviewing. “I am cross-referencing the incoming invoices with the requisition documents.” She smiled in a self-deprecating manner, but not explaining why she was doing this task. Davis wanted everything to be very hush-hush about the investigation. “Not the most exciting job in the world, is it?”

Tom shrugged his shoulders, smiling back down at her. It wasn’t that he was a very tall man, in fact he was just about Kate’s height. It was more the way he was standing and she was sitting that created the disparity. “Well, anyway, I was just wondering… If you might want to come out for dinner with some of us tonight.”

Kate stared back at him for a moment, not sure if he was asking her to come out for dinner with the rest of the employees or if he was asking if she would come out for dinner specifically with him while others would also