Chapter 20

Lance

For weeks we fixed up the project together, months actually. It was solid. That was what she thought anyway. In the back of my mind, I knew it wasn't. There was still another way to get through. I'd gone back and forth with myself. I wasn't sure what to do. If she sent it to them the way it was and someone broke through, she'd be done. On the other hand, if I pointed it out, she'd think I was a dick. Why? Well, she'd either be pissed that I'd figured it out and hadn't said anything, or she'd be pissed that I'd gotten through before her. I could play it off that I didn't, but then she'd want to know how I got through while we were working together and not said anything. No matter how you looked at it, Lauren was going to be pissed. She thought it was ready to take to them, but it wasn't. It was going to take longer to fix, but if we spent all of our spare time on it, we could make it happen quick. I could even work on it while she spent time with Jackson, but I wasn't sure how she was going to feel about that. We'd already talked about her calling them, so I knew I couldn't wait another second.

Jackson had just gone to bed, and Lauren was in the office giving everything one last look. As much as I didn't want to tell her, I knew I couldn't let her turn it in to them the way it was. I walked into the office, dreading what I was about to tell her and ready for the gigantic explosion I knew was coming. I sat down at my desk with my head in my hands. She didn't say a word, which only made it harder. I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get it out there. I hadn't slept in days, and it was driving me crazy.

“Lauren,” I said.

I knew I needed to turn to her, but I couldn't do it. She was looking right at me, I could feel it.

“Yes,” she whispered.

I knew that wasn't going to last long.

“We need to talk,” I said.

“Don't bother,” she said.

“What?” I asked, as I quickly turned to face her.

“I said don't bother,” she said, as she got to her feet. “We'll be gone by the end of the week.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked, as I stood as well.

“I knew I couldn't stay here forever. I just thought you'd at least give me time to get the job. I get it. I should have been more prepared for this.”

“Stop,” I said.

“No, Lance,” she said, as she stood up. “I will be fine. Don't feel bad or try to make it sound like something it's not.”

“I said stop,” I growled out from deep in my chest.

Her eyes widened, and she froze.

“I'm not asking you to leave,” I said. “It's about the project.”

A confused look crossed her face.

“What?” she asked.

“Sit your ass down and don't say another word,” I said, as I took steps forward, while she matched them by moving back, until the backs of her knees were at her chair. She sat down and looked up at me. “There's another way through.”

“How?” she asked. “We've been working on it for over two months and we haven't found anything.”

“Well,” I said, but quickly stopped. When I turned around, she was on her feet with her hand on my arm.

“Lance,” she said. “There can't be.”

“There is,” I said.

“We've been sitting here together,” she said. “Neither of us found anything.”

“Just take my word for it. You have to fix it. Let me show you,” I said, as I pulled my arm away from her and sat down at my desk. “Pull your chair over here.”

She quietly did as I asked. I took her step by step through what I found and how to get through.

“I don't get it,” she said from behind me. “We've been working hard on this, Lance. We've been together. Neither of us found that.”

Then I heard her stand up and push her chair back.

“Hold on,” she snapped, and I knew what was coming. She was about to unleash the evil side of Lauren. “You found it and didn't tell me. Shit! You were going to go to them and make me look like an idiot. You were going to save the day and take it all away from me.”

“Lauren,” I said, as I stood and walked toward her. “It's not what you think.”

“You were going to screw me over,” she said, as she shook her head. “I thought I belonged here, but I didn't. You were going to throw me under the bus. I let you get close to Jackson. What the fuck was I thinking?”

“No,” I said, as I shook my head.

“Yes,” she said, as she nodded. “What made you change your mind, Lance? What was it? Why did you suddenly feel bad enough to tell me? I can't believe this. How could I let this happen?”

She turned around and walked to the door.

“I'll be out tomorrow,” she said.

“No,” I said. “Lauren.”

“No, Lance,” she said. “I can't believe I was this stupid.”

“It's not what you think,” I said. “I wasn't going to screw you over. I wasn't going to take the credit or save the day.”

“What was it then?” she asked, as she quickly turned and looked right into my eyes. “Tell me.”

“I got through before you,” I said, as I fell back onto my chair.

“What?” she asked. “You couldn't have. I called you the moment I got through. We talked for hours. You hadn't made any progress yet.”

“I never said that,” I said in my own defense.

“You let me rattle on for hours about how I'd just gotten through,” she said. “You even told me to call them first thing the following morning. If you would've gotten through first, you would have told me. You would have been dying to rub it in my face. Shit! You would have already called them.”

“Not true,” I said. “I wanted to fix it up before I told them.”

“No,” she said, as she shook her finger at me.

If she wasn't so cute all pissed off, I would have snatched that damn finger out of my face.

“You told me to call them,” she said. “You wouldn't have done that. You would have wanted to call them first.”

I shook my head no without a word.

“Why?” she asked. “Why did you tell me to call them? You could have jumped at the chance the second you hung up with me. Why did you leave it for me to do? You want this just as much as I do, Lance. It doesn't make sense. Why did you let me take the credit if you had already gotten through? Tell me right now.”

“I don't know,” I said, as I stood up and got nose to nose with her. “I really don't know. When you called, you were so excited. You were talking a million words a minute. It was the middle of the night, and you were up working. What was I supposed to do? How could I take that moment away from you? I couldn't do it, okay. I just couldn't fucking do it. I'm taking the couch tonight.”

With that, I was gone. I walked right by her. She called out to me twice, but I kept going. I didn't even grab blankets or a pillow. Instead, I turned out the lights, let my body fall onto the couch, and closed my eyes. There was no way sleep was coming to me, but I wasn't about to talk to her. There were so many thoughts swirling around in my head, and I wasn't ready to confront any of them.

I woke up when I felt Jackson crawl up onto my back, but I didn't move. There was a pillow under my head and a blanket covering me. When had she done that, I wondered? I heard his little giggle as he settled in. His head was on my shoulder, and his body went all the way to the back of my knees. The television was on quietly with morning cartoons. Before I knew it, I heard tiny snores coming from behind me. He'd fallen back to sleep. There was no way I was moving a muscle. Instead, I thought about how amazing he was. My parents loved him, and so did Jillian. Whenever she was over, she followed him around from room to room. He'd roll his eyes and look up at me. It was the cutest sight. Little did he know, the girls would always be a pain-in-the-ass. I wasn't going to break it to him yet. He still had the fun years ahead of him.

“Shit,” I heard her whisper from above us.

When she leaned down to grab him, I reached out and grabbed her arm.

“Don't,” I said. “Leave him there. It was so damn cute. He was laughing when he crawled up there. I tried not to let him know I was awake. How did you get so lucky?”

“Me,” she said. “You're the lucky one, Lance. You have more family than I could imagine, and they truly love you. I would have given anything to have that growing up.”

She looked at Jackson and smiled.

“Maybe you're right,” she said. “He's worth more than all of that.”

“You're right,” I said. “I am the lucky one. I have all of them and him.”

She stood up quickly. There was a huge shift in the air.

“Let me put him in his bed,” she said. “That way you can get up.”

I knew something was up with her, but I wasn't about to ask. It had something to do with my comment about Jackson.

“Okay,” I said.

By the time she got him back into bed, I'd made two cups of coffee.

“Did you sleep?” I asked her, as I handed her a cup.

“No,” she said. “I was working.”

“What did you come up with?” I asked.

“I can't believe I missed it,” she said. “I would have looked like a total ass.”

“I missed what you'd found too,” I said with a shrug. “That doesn't matter. You'll get it fixed. Then you'll look like a total rock star.”

I grabbed my cup from the counter and walked by her and into the office. She walked in behind me, but she didn't say a word. I sat down at my desk and got to work. After a minute or so of her standing behind me, I knew shit was stirring in her head, and I wasn't ready for it.

“Lance,” she whispered.

“You feel like going over it, or you want some sleep?” I asked, cutting her off.

“Can I show you what I've got?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said, and that was it.

We dove right back in as if the night before hadn't happened. By the time Jackson came into the room, we'd made huge progress and were going back and forth with smiles on our faces. She pulled Jackson onto her lap and hugged him tight. I could see her eyes barely staying open and felt bad that she'd stayed up all night. I closed my laptop, stood up, picked Jackson up, and looked down at her.

“I'll get some breakfast for my man here,” I said. “Why don't you go take a nap?”

“I really need to get this done,” she said, and I narrowed my eyes at her. “You can be such a pain, do you know that? I'll take a damn nap.”

I let out a laugh and turned to walk out of the room.

“Lance,” she called out.

I stopped and looked back at her from over my shoulder.

“Thank you for telling me,” she said.

I gave her a small nod and walked away.

After about four hours, I walked into the bedroom and stopped dead in my tracks. Lauren was on my side of the bed with her arms wrapped around my pillow. Her hair fanned out behind her. The sheet was around her waist and there was no missing her nipples pointing out from my t-shirt. Her eyes opened and I was busted. Then a smile covered her face. She was so damn beautiful. If only I could keep her cocky mouth shut. I did have a few good ways of keeping it closed or full I mean. Either way, it kept her quiet for the most part. I didn't mind the moans she let out from around my cock at those times or any other. When her eyes went wide, I knew my damn shorts were tenting out. I couldn't help it. That woman drove my dick crazy.

“I came to tell you lunch is ready,” I said, as I made sure to stretch the word came out a little longer than the rest.

My hand went down and wrapped around my cock through my shorts.

“If you don't stop staring at it, it won't stop trying to get to you,” I said.

“I wasn't staring at it,” she said with an innocent look on her face.

She's wasn't fooling me. The woman was anything but innocent.

“Are you going to try and tell me that you were over there having pure thoughts?” I asked, and she nodded. “If that's true, explain those hard, little nipples poking out of my t-shirt. That shit was going on before I even walked into the room.”

She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, and her cheeks turned pink. Damn! I wanted so badly to flip her ass over and make her other cheeks just as pink, but I didn't. Instead, I took a step back.

“Get your ass out of that bed and come eat with us,” I said. “You will be getting none of this right now, so please try and control yourself. If you're good, I'll let you wrap those sexy lips around it later.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Really?” I asked and pointed to her ass. “Those cheeks will definitely be matching the pink on your other ones later. I'm going to spank you so hard.”

“Lance,” she snapped, as she looked around me.

“Is mommy being bad?” I heard from just behind me.

My eyes went wide, and I looked at Lauren silently begging her to help me out.

“No,” she said. “I just said something silly about Lance and he was being a big baby.”

She stood up and walked by me, brushing against my cock on the way.

“We'll be out here,” she said with a smile on her face. “Come out when you're ready.”

When she stretched the word come like I had just moments before, I made a mental note that payback would be a bitch for sure.

We worked well into the night fixing up what I'd shown her the night before. She was ready to call them. It was solid.

“It's time for you to meet with them,” I said, as I closed my laptop for the night.

“How are we going to do that?” she asked. “Jackson.”

“I'll stay here with him,” I said.

“What?” she asked.

“Do you have a problem with him staying with me?” I asked, feeling slightly offended, more than slightly actually.

“No,” she said. “You're going with me.”

“Nope,” I said. “This is all yours.”

“No, Lance,” she said. “It's not. We worked our asses off on this, together.”

“You sure?” I asked her.

“I'm positive,” she said.

Two days later, we were on a plane. Jackson was at my parents' house. Lauren was totally freaking out, but my mom assured her that she'd send her a message every hour if she wanted one. We were only going to be gone one night, so we'd be back the next afternoon.

I made sure to tell Lauren that we couldn't let them know she was staying with me. She seemed a bit offended, but she'd just have to deal with it. I didn't want anything to ruin her chances with them, and I wasn't sure what they'd think if they knew. It was none of their business what she'd been through since we'd last seen them. She was quiet the rest of the flight and car ride. I wasn't sure if she was pissed at me or just really nervous.

We walked into the building, and I looked around. I was starting to feel like it was just any other building. It didn't give me the same feeling it had the first couple of times I'd walked in. Our flight hadn't gotten in until lunch time, so we had to go straight there. When we walked through the conference room door, I saw his ass right away and my blood instantly began to boil. The fucker stood up and pulled the chair next to him out.

“I have your seat right here, Lauren,” Eric said.

I knew she heard the rumble in my chest from right behind her, and she quickly coughed. Did she seriously think that was going to cover it up, I wondered? When she walked around the table, I kept my eyes on him. She sat down, and the asshole scooted closer. It took all I had not to jump across the damn table at him.

“Lance,” the man behind me said. “You okay?”

“I'm fine,” I said, as I pulled out my own chair and sat down.

I kept my eyes glued to Eric. I'd never in my life felt so protective before. It was the craziest feeling. I seriously felt like my arms were going to explode, like I could have torn the fucker in half.

“You have news for us,” the man at the end up the table began. “I know you got through, and I'm excited to hear what you've come up with, Lauren.”

I felt her looking at me, but I didn't move my eyes away from him. Then she did it, she shocked the shit out of me.

“Lance actually got through before I did,” she said.

“Really?” the man asked.

My eyes shot over to her and I knew damn well they were filled with warning. What the fuck was she doing? She was supposed to say it was her. I'd agreed to her telling them that I'd helped find a fix, but she was the one that had gotten through. We'd had a very clear conversation about it.

“Yes,” she said before I could even speak. “I called him when I'd gotten through, and he'd gotten through as well. The awesome part was that we'd gotten through two different ways. We've been working together to fix it, and we feel it's solid.”

“You feel that way too, Lance?” he asked.

“I do,” I said, not moving my eyes from her.

We spent the next two hours going back and forth between the two of us explaining our findings. She'd insisted that I explain for myself the way I'd gotten through. I couldn't believe how well we'd worked together after everything that had transpired between us. The whole situation was messed up. We were supposed to be competing for our dream job, but things had really taken a few twists along the way.

She handed them an envelope with everything they needed to solve the problems and make their work unbreakable. When we stood up from our chairs, that Eric fucker leaned over toward Lauren.

“I'm very happy with the results. We'll go over everything and get back with you,” the man at the end of the table said as he stood and walked to the door to open it.

Eric was still leaning over. When he leaned in even closer and whispered something in her ear, I walked out the door and down the hall to the elevator. Neither of us said a word the entire way down to the lobby. She got into the car before me, and I slid in beside her. The moment the car door closed, she looked over at me.

“You okay?” she asked with concern in her tone a few moments later.

“What the fuck did he say?” I asked louder than I should have, considering the driver had already gotten in.

“Lance,” she whispered.

“Now,” I growled out.

“He said I should have called him,” she said.

“That it?” I asked.

“He asked if I wanted to get together for dinner tonight,” she said.

“Your answer?” I asked.

I was so pissed. I swear, I felt like the veins in my head were going to blow. Never in my life had I ever felt like that before.

“I told him that I had plans,” she said with a hurt look on her face. “Do you honestly think I would have said yes? I'm not the one afraid to admit to us knowing each other. You're the one that doesn't want them to know I'm staying with you. You're the one that's embarrassed.”