did just that. “Come in.”
Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and found her just as he did most other evenings—buried in stacks of papers that were spread across her desk, with a pair of glasses perched on her nose and her hair spread around her shoulders. Her scent had reached out to him the moment he stepped into the room. The scent was as luscious as how her lips had tasted.
There was a wary look in her eyes as she gazed up at him. “Yes?”
“Caden and I are going to McQueen’s. I heard the food is good and the drinks are even better. Nice way to kick-start the weekend. Do you want to join us?” Damn, he’d said a mouthful.
Shana sat up straight in her chair. This was the first time she’d seen Jace since this morning after that little elevator scene. Mainly because she’d been hiding out here in her office, hoping their paths didn’t cross. Lucky for her, they hadn’t. But was it really lucky for her?
Ben Bradford was too proud a man to raise a coward, yet that’s just how Shana had been acting today. When did she ever let her interest in a man have her hiding out like an escaped convict?
Her attraction to Jace was an issue. And it was one she was working on resolving. But the more she thought about it, the more it sort of became a “dog in the gate” syndrome. As a child, Shana walked to school, and every day, she passed by a house with a fence and a dog protecting the yard. She was afraid the dog would somehow get out and attack her the same way a boy in her class had been attacked once. When her fear of the dog grew too great, she intentionally walked an extra block to avoid that house with the dog...until her father found out what she’d been doing.
He told her that sometimes you had to stand up to your fears, and she needed to prove to the dog that she was in control. The next day, with knees shaking, she had walked past the house. The dog had barked and acted like he was going to jump over the fence, but he hadn’t. She had made it through that day and the days that followed because she believed she was in control. She still had her fears, but she had managed to take charge of them. In the end, once the dog saw she would not weaken, he eventually stopped barking at her.
She would apply that same analogy to the situation with Jace. She had work to do here for at least another three to four weeks, and she couldn’t spend all that time trying to avoid Jace—being afraid of him and the way he made her feel. There would be days when they would have to meet for long periods of time, so she could not let him be her dog in the yard. He knew her position and knew she would not waver on it. The kiss was...just a kiss. Curiosity. Need. Greed. Those things had fueled it. What she needed to do was go out and have some fun this weekend. Kick back. Indulge in sex...something she hadn’t done in almost a year. Charles Kincaid, a doctor she’d met a few months ago, often called her on the weekends for a date, and she was always quick to turn him down. This weekend when he called, she would handle things differently.
“Shana?”
She held his gaze. “Thanks for the invite, and yes, I’d love to join you and Caden at McQueen’s.”
Chapter Thirteen
Shana’s exuberant laughter filled their section of the restaurant, and Jace suddenly realized it was the first time he’d heard it, and she was laughing at something Caden had said. His jaw muscles tensed as he thought that the two of them were apparently getting along great.
He hadn’t expected her to come, and she had surprised the hell out of him when she said she would. And she certainly seemed to be enjoying herself. Tonight, Caden was quite the character, and Jace realized at that moment that he hadn’t heard his brother laugh in a while. So maybe Shana’s joining them tonight was a good thing. Jace wasn’t sure what was going on with Caden but hoped if he ever needed an ear that he knew Jace was available.
Jace had a hunch that whatever was going on with Caden somehow involved Shiloh Timmons. He wasn’t sure