Determination and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 4) Page 3

  Harlow sat up straight and started to pick up the receiver of her desk phone to call Alfonso, but then she thought better of it and set the receiver down. It was almost five p.m., and people were already starting to leave for the day. She could stay late, and burn the midnight oil working on this problem. Maybe, if she was lucky, she would find something more on the dragon amethyst with the new information she had gleaned from the recording. She was starting to think that she could find some more information on the amethyst if she just tried a few different searches from a few new angles. If she was right, then in the morning, she might have a lot of useful information to show to Alfonso.

  Harlow smiled at this thought. If she could get Alfonso a real win, not just a false hope that petered out into nothing, Alfonso would be greatly indebted to her. He would probably promote her again, and she would get to work on even more interesting cases. Visions of Advocate awards and accolades filled Harlow’s imagination. She had poured her heart into her career, and she had been successful to a certain degree. But this was her chance to truly move up the ladder. If she had found a way to track down the dragon amethyst, no one could deny that she deserved every award she got.

  In a sudden frenzy of excitement, Harlow started pushing aside the piles of paper on her desk to make room for a new, blank notebook. She turned to her computer, ready to do some serious research and, hopefully, find some new, groundbreaking information on the dragon amethyst. Another two hours passed by in a blink as she lost herself in her work, and she barely noticed when Myles rose to leave for the day. She might not have seen him leaving at all, if he hadn’t paused at the door to turn and say goodnight.

  “Working late, huh Harlow?” he asked.

  Harlow looked up in surprise. He usually left with a simple but pleasant “Good Evening,” so the fact that he had stopped to say anything else at all caught her off guard. And once she was looking at him, she couldn’t help but notice for the thousandth time how gorgeous he was. His green eyes were watching her intently right now, full of curiosity. She realized with a certain sense of satisfaction that he was actually interested in knowing what she was working on. And, suddenly, she was overwhelmed with a desire to tell him about the recording and the possibility that she might have found a new, more effective way to search for records on the dragon amethyst. She’d been keeping all of this inside for the last two hours, and she was beginning to feel like she might burst with excitement.

  “It’s definitely Saul’s people in Montana,” she blurted out. “I’m sure of it now.”

  In response, Myles raised an eyebrow, then walked back into the room, sitting in the rickety guest chair that stood in front of Harlow’s desk.

  “Oh?” he asked. The curiosity in his eyes was growing, and Harlow found herself even more excited now that she had someone to share her excitement with. Over the next few minutes, she told him about the recording, explaining in detail everything that had been said. She explained that she thought some of the information had given her a better idea of how to effectively search for the records of the dragon amethyst. When she was done, she held her breath, waiting for him to respond. He furrowed his brow and bit his lip in that adorable way he did, and Harlow found herself doing her best to ignore the little flip-flop of excitement in her stomach when he looked up at her with his expressive eyes.

  “Can I hear it? The recording I mean,” he said. “I’d like to listen to it for myself, too, if you don’t mind.”

  “Sure,” Harlow said, grabbing her headphones and handing them over to him. She pulled up the audio file while he was putting the headphones on, then pressed play as soon as he was ready. For the next several minutes, she sat there in silence as he listened, still furrowing his brow and biting his lip. When the recording was done, he pulled the headphones off and sat in silence, thinking. Harlow was dying to know what he thought, but she forced herself to be patient and wait while the eternal seconds ticked by. Finally, he looked up at her and grinned. It was perhaps the first time he had given her a genuine smile, and she thought her heart was going to stop in her chest from the thrill of it. She was quickly realizing that it was a lot easier to ignore how intoxicating Myles was when he was sitting on the other side of the room and not talking to her. Now, she couldn’t ignore the way her heart was racing right out of her chest as he sat here in front of her and looked directly into her eyes.

  “This is huge, Harlow,” he said, looking pleased. “I think you’re right. I think if you search using some of the location names they’ve mentioned, and perhaps even phrases from the riddle one of them discussed at the end, you might be able to make headway on our search. I’m assuming you’ve told Alfonso about this?”

  Harlow hesitated, which was enough of an answer for Myles.

  “You haven’t?” he asked, incredulous. “Alfonso would be furious if he knew you didn’t come to him with this recording the moment you discovered it.”

  “I know,” Harlow said, admitting to herself for the first time that perhaps waiting until tomorrow to tell Alfonso about the recording hadn’t been the best idea. “But it was pretty late when I discovered it, and I thought it might be better to spend the evening testing out my theories on how to better search for the dragon amethyst. That way I could give him a more complete analysis of the situation tomorrow.”

  Myles just laughed. “He’s going to be mad when he realized you knew this today and didn’t tell him, regardless of your reasons. You know that, right?”

  Harlow shrugged weakly. “Too late to change my mind now.”

  Myles face turned serious again. “I can stay late and help you, if you want. We could probably make great headway if we both work on this tonight.”

  Harlow hesitated again. Part of her wanted Myles to stay. She would never have thought she’d feel that way, but the way he had taken a sudden interest in her work, combined with the way he looked at her with deep concern, made her feel warm and cared for. It had been too damn long since she felt warm and cared for, and she never wanted the feeling to go away. But another part of her worried that if he stayed here tonight, she wouldn’t be able to get any real work done. How was she supposed to focus with a man as handsome as Myles looking over her shoulder?

  Of course, she couldn’t explain all of that to him. Thinking quickly, she came up with another excuse.

  “I think it’s probably better if you go home and rest,” she said. “Alfonso might have some followup research he wants one of us to do tomorrow after I tell him about the recording and about whatever information on the dragon amethyst that I might find. It’s probably better if one of us is fresh, you know?”

  Myles gave her a long, hard look, and she suspected that he saw straight through her excuses. She braced herself, expecting him to argue with her, but in the end he did not. He just smiled at her, and nodded.

  “Alright,” he said. “If that’s what you think is best. But let me give you my cell number, just in case.”

  He leaned forward and tore a small scrap off one of the papers on Harlow’s desk. Then he grabbed one of her pens and started writing something down. He stood as he set down the pen and handed her the paper.

  “Here. This is my cell number,” he said. “If you decide you do want any help tonight, or if you just want to run something by me, then give me a call. Don’t worry about what time it is. I’m happy to come in at any time of the day or night. And make sure you get at least a little bit of sleep yourself, alright? You know Alfonso is probably going to make you recount your research in painstaking detail. You don’t want to be a total zombie.”

  “Alright,” Harlow said, reaching to take the paper from his hands. His fingers brushed against hers, and lingered there just a moment longer than necessary. Harlow was startled by the heat and electricity that shot from his hand to hers, and she looked up at his face, searching his eyes for some sort of acknowledgement that he had felt it, too. But his expression gave nothing away as he backed away from her toward the door. He gave a small wave and
a smile, then turned to leave.

  “Goodnight, Harlow,” he called over his shoulder, his voice much warmer than it had been any time before. He disappeared down the hallway in a matter of seconds.

  “Goodnight, Myles,” Harlow whispered, even though there was no way he would hear her.

  She looked down at the paper in her hand, with his number written in messy scrawl. She felt a little shudder of excitement go through her body as she recalled his fingers touching hers, and she thought, with a happy smile, that perhaps sharing an office was going to turn out alright for both of them in the end.

  Chapter Three

  Harlow woke with a start as a strong hand firmly shook her shoulder. She sat up quickly, looking around at the office she shared with Myles and wondering why she had been asleep at her desk. She never took naps at work. There was always too much to do, and not enough hours in the work day.

  “Morning,” an amused voice said.

  “Morning?” Harlow asked, looking up for the first time to see that both the hand and the voice that had woken her belonged to Myles. She also realized that bright sunlight was shining in through the eastern-facing window in the office. That’s when she realized with horror that she had fallen asleep at the office last night. It was indeed morning, and she had never made it home last night. She’d been so caught up in her research that she’d pushed herself to the point of literal exhaustion and passed out at her desk.

  “Oh, shit,” she said as she looked down at her wrinkled clothes. “What time is it? I have a meeting with Alfonso at nine.”

  “It’s eight,” Myles said, then held out a cup of coffee to her. Harlow realized for the first time that the room had filled with the smell of breakfast sandwiches and coffee. Gratefully, she took the coffee and then the breakfast sandwich that Myles offered to her.

  “Cream or sugar?” he asked holding out a handful of coffee condiments that had been in his takeout bag.

  Harlow grabbed one of the creamer packets, quickly added it to her coffee, and then took a long, greedy sip of the hot liquid. She began to revive a bit, and her face turned red as she realized that her makeup and hair must be a complete disaster right now. But if Myles thought she looked terrible, he did not comment on it.

  Instead, he sat down once again in the guest chair in front of her desk. He pulled out a breakfast sandwich of his own to munch on, taking a gigantic bite as soon as he had peeled the paper back.

  “I’m starving,” he said in a voice muffled by food.

  “Me too,” Harlow said as she began to unwrap her sandwich. “How’d you know I’d been here all night?”

  Myles swallowed his bite of food and smiled. “I didn’t,” he said. “I figured you’d be here already, since you always get to work so early, but I had no idea you’d been here all night. Find anything good in your research?”

  Harlow groaned. “I found a lot of good stuff, actually. I was planning to present it to Alfonso at our meeting today, but I don’t know how I’m going to get it all together in time for the meeting. I had intended to go home and come back in really early this morning to finish preparing for the meeting. Falling asleep at my desk and waking up an hour before the meeting looking like a hot mess was never part of the program.”

  Myles laughed. “Oh, come on. You don’t look that bad. Just wash your face and put your hair up in a bun or something. That’ll only take a few minutes and then you’ll have at least half an hour to get yourself organized for the meeting. Alfonso isn’t going to notice what you look like.”

  “That’s what you think,” Harlow said, her feelings of panic starting to grow. “He’s yelled at me before for coming to a meeting with a wrinkled shirt, and the shirt wasn’t even all that wrinkled. Look at me right now! My shirt has more wrinkles than a baby elephant. And there’s also no way I’m going around without makeup. I’ll scare everyone senseless looking like that.”

  Myles stopped laughing and gave Harlow a funny look. “I bet you’re beautiful without makeup on,” he said, his voice sounding strangely husky. Harlow felt her heart starting to race again, and she did her best to take a few deep breaths and calm down. The last thing she had time for right now was to get all flustered by Myles’ comments. She needed to focus on figuring out a way to postpone her meeting.

  “That’s very kind of you to say,” Harlow replied, struggling to keep a normal tone in her voice. “But I really can’t go to a meeting looking like this.”

  She wolfed down the last few bites of her sandwich, then stood to leave. “Thanks for the sandwich. I’m going to go home and think of an excuse for being late while I drive. I’ll be back once I’ve had a chance to shower and change.”

  “You’re not even going to tell me what exciting things you found in your research?” Myles asked, looking disappointed.

  “I’ll tell you later. I really have to run now,” Harlow said as she gathered up stacks of paper on her desk and started stuffing them into her purse. She was just about to grab her keys when the door of the office swung wide open and Alfonso stepped in, looking red-faced and angry.

  “Harlow, you better hope for your own sake that you have some information of use at our meeting today. If you don’t come up with some ideas for finding that damn amethyst soon, I’m going to demote you. Why did I bring you over here and give you this posh office if you’re not even going to get any work done for me? Hasn’t Myles helped you brainstorm on better ways to research? Am I the only one working around here?”

  “Sir, I—” Harlow started to say. She could feel her face turning red with embarrassment as Alfonso berated her in front of Myles. She never got a chance to finish speaking, though, because in the next instant Alfonso had interrupted her to talk to Myles.

  “You son,” Alfonso said. “Why don’t you join Harlow at the meeting today? Perhaps you can make some sense out of this mess we’re in and help us find the amethyst. Lord knows we could use more help, since the staff we have isn’t making any progress.”

  “Well, sir—” Myles began. But he was interrupted as well.

  “Just come to the meeting, Myles,” Alfonso said. “And, you, too, Harlow. Don’t you dare be late. And do something about that wrinkled shirt. I won’t have you showing up like that to my meetings. It’s unprofessional.”

  With that, Alfonso left the room, muttering as he slammed the door loudly behind him. Harlow could feel tears springing to her eyes, and she did her best to hold them back. She did not want to cry and look weak in front of Myles. But in the end, the emotions of the morning were too strong for her to push away. She hadn’t slept well and there was a crook in her neck from the odd angle it had been in when she zonked out at her desk. The physical pain from moving her neck and the emotional pain of being yelled at, combined with her overwhelming exhaustion, made the perfect storm. She burst into tears.

  Harlow felt ashamed, and immediately tried to regain control of her emotions, but she was too overwhelmed. She stammered out an apology to Myles, turning away under the guise of grabbing a tissue from the shelf behind her desk. She had been so excited for the meeting with Alfonso today, because she had so many new research findings to share. How had things spiraled downward so quickly? Harlow hiccupped out a sob despite her best efforts to hold it in, and a fresh wave of embarrassment washed over her.

  But the next thing she knew, she felt strong arms pulling her close. Myles had crossed the space between them and had pulled her against his chest, holding her tightly and telling her not to let Alfonso get to her.

  “He’s just a jerk who doesn’t know how to treat his best employees,” Myles said. “You’ve worked really hard and put a lot of effort into searching for the dragon amethyst. You deserve to be proud of yourself.”

  Harlow hiccupped again, but her sobs started to die down. She felt an incredible warmth rushing through her body as Myles patted her on the back, each pat sending fresh shocks of electric heat from his hand to her body. Her heart was racing once more, and for a moment she forgot about everythi
ng except how wonderful Myles’ body felt against hers.

  Her mind was racing as quickly as her heart now. What did he mean by this gesture? Was it just a friendly act, or was he indicating that he had deeper feelings for her as well. Harlow wanted to pull back in confusion, but she could not bring herself to move. Not when Myles’ arms felt so deliciously strong as they circled her. In the end, it was Myles who pulled back. His eyes were intense as they gazed down at her, but Harlow had troubled reading exactly what his expression meant. It probably didn’t help that her vision was still blurred by the moisture of tears.

  “You can borrow one of my shirts,” Myles said. “I always try to keep extra one on hand in case I unexpectedly need to shift and end up ruining my clothes.”

  Harlow actually laughed out loud at that. “Myles, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you’re a couple sizes bigger than me. I’d be swimming in your shirts!”

  But Myles wasn’t joking. “It will work,” he said. “You’re wearing skinny black jeans right now. Just wear one of my shirts over them, like a tunic. I’ve seen girls do it, so I know that’s a thing. You’ll look wonderful, and if Alfonso complains about your appearance he can go stick his oversized head in a pile of cow shit.”

  “Myles!” Harlow said, surprised at the way he had just insulted the head of the Advocacy Bureau. Usually Myles was careful about his manners, especially when referring to authority figures. But he just shrugged and grinned down at Harlow.