all glitz and somber glamour, a symbol of smug wealth and exclusivity. Eric didn’t have a clue that Sarah didn’t entirely belong in that world. He only knew the straitlaced, stylishly suited corporate creature she played by day, but Lane had caught a glimpse of a rodeo natural who dressed, walked, and talked back like a no-nonsense cowgirl.
He liked the cowgirl best, but that buttoned-up suit was a challenge as tempting as a bull that had never been ridden. Maybe if he dressed up and stopped by the Petro Club, she’d see he was more than a cowboy.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll come.”
“Good.” Eric’s sharp, fox-like grin set off a warning bell in Lane’s head, telling him he was being manipulated.
“You think she’s going to change my mind about the drilling.”
“I think she gets whatever she goes after,” Eric said.
“Yeah, but so do I.” Lane gave his brother a wolfish grin of his own.
“Well, I guess that’s one strategy for getting a high-class woman to date you. Although deep down, I think she’s really your kind of girl.”
“Oh.” Maybe Eric wasn’t as clueless as he seemed. “So you know where she’s from, then?”
“No.” Eric looked past him. “Hey, Sarah, where are you from?”
Lane spun to see Sarah, decked out in a prim navy suit and heels, standing in the doorway. She was looking at Lane with murder in her eyes. She probably thought he was telling Eric all her secrets.
“I went to Vassar.” She turned and walked out, leaving the door wide open.
Eric shrugged and looked back at the computer screen. “That’s all she’ll ever tell me. Sometimes I think that girl’s got secrets.”
“Would that matter?”
“No.” Eric clicked the mouse a few times and leaned sideways, his eyes on the doorway. “Sarah, come here,” he said loudly. “This spreadsheet’s acting weird.”
She reappeared and walked over to the desk, edging around the side to join Eric without so much as looking at Lane.
“Here.” She clicked the mouse a few times, biting her lower lip. She’d done that the other night and Lane had bitten it back, nipped her, and she’d kissed him, and then…
“Hit this, and then this. See?” Sarah bent over the desk to demonstrate, revealing a scrap of lace in the V of her lapels. He shifted forward for a better look and she straightened and shot him a look that reminded him of a bucking bull’s killer glare.
***
Sarah struggled to keep the mouse from shaking in her hand. It was obvious she’d interrupted Lane in the midst of spilling her secrets to his brother. Why else would Eric suddenly be asking about her past?
The whispers had been all over the office five minutes after Lane had arrived. The cowboy brother’s back. That’s twice in two days. She’d taken yoga breaths to hold back the blush heating her face and still she’d had to turn away from the whispering interns as they speculated on his reason for being there. She wondered if he’d come to see her, and dread of what he might say or do warred with vivid memories of the night before.
Seeing Lane again could only lead to trouble. What was done was done. She was moving on.
She’d resolved to stay holed up in her office until he left, but she needed to make a copy and the machine was down the hall, past Eric’s office. She’d zipped past the open door as fast as she could, but she’d stopped short when she heard Lane talking to Eric.
You know where she’s from?
The air had whooshed from her lungs as fast as the pleasant short-term memories fled her thoughts. It was really her own fault. What kind of a professional slept with her boss’s brother?
Then again, what kind of a man kissed and told without even waiting a day?
She’d asked him to keep her secrets, and he hadn’t answered—but he was answering now. Worse yet, he was doing his best to peek down her cleavage. And while any reasonable woman would be contemplating a sexual harassment suit, she could feel her skin heating and her nipples tightening. She had to concentrate so hard on suppressing her body’s instinctive response that she didn’t hear what he said next—something about rodeo and her bust.
“What?”
Eric cast her a curious look and she realized she’d dropped her mask and was getting red in the face.
“He said your rodeo expedition was a bust.”
“Oh.” She let out the breath she’d been holding and her heartbeat slowed a little. “Yes, it was.”
“I think he wants