Page 18 of Past and Present

Kimberly still stood with her purse on her shoulder when he stepped back out.

“Ready?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Yep. Are you sure? I don’t live on the way to your house.”

He smiled. “I’m sure. Riss is out shopping anyway. I can take the long way home.”

Downstairs he opened the passenger door to the SUV that was waiting for them before he rounded the car and climbed into the front passenger seat.

He fired a text to Marissa as the driver pulled out of the garage.

Taking Kimberly home and then I’m on my way home.

Marissa’s response was just a thumbs up and he tucked his phone in the center console and closed his eyes for the ride to Kimberly’s house.

Thirty minutes later she was stepping out in her driveway, promising to see him in the morning.

He stepped out of the SUV to open her door. As she climbed out of the passenger seat, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I’m happy for you and Marissa. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

He smiled and gave her a wave as she walked up the driveway. He extended the wave to two of her children who stepped out on the porch to greet their mother. He’d watched them grow up over the last decade that Kimberly had worked with him and he usually got them Christmas presents though he’d never been a huge fan of kids.

With a nod to his driver, they backed out of the driveway and headed for his Lincoln Park condo.

9

Monday, December 17th

Marissa

Marissa paced Lance’s office while he read a magazine she’d brought him.

“So let me get this straight, I’m stepping out with my hot older assistant, Kimberly, and you’re banging the drivers while I’m away?” He said when he finally looked up with a smirk.

“Something like that,” Marissa said dryly. “Can it be our vacation already?”

He laughed. “Just a few more days, Kitten. Thanks for showing me this. Dana Gray in PR has some people monitoring this for us. It’s all going to be fine.”

Marissa sighed. “I know. I’m just stressed about my launch and the dinner with Nathan Griffin and his company, and the wedding, and…” Lance stopped her pacing with a squeeze of her shoulder. She hadn’t even noticed he’d gotten up from his desk.

“And a million other things, Riss. I know. But you don’t need to stress about any of it. You hired a great staff, so your launch is going to be great. Nathan Griffin will not make or break our success, and we’re working on the wedding.”

“I just want to disappear for a few weeks. Just you and me on an island somewhere.”

His smile was slow and sensual. “I can arrange that. We can fly out from the Christmas party in Colorado and not come back until after the new year.”

She knew he was serious, but there was no way she could abandon a fledgling software company so soon after its launch.

“I’m a fan of going somewhere, just the two of us for Christmas.”

He kissed her cheek. “I’ve already got plans.”

“I had a feeling,” she said with a laugh.

“Speaking of the wedding. Would you be open to something small with just your family and then a bigger deal in the new year? We can keep the legal ceremony quiet and do a big society wedding in February or March like you suggested.”

She perched on the corner of his desk when he dropped into a chair in front of it.

“I could get behind something like that. What did you have in mind?”

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