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extraordinarily handsome, and she’d seen enough of his work to know he was smart, but both attributes were spoiled by an ego that blotted out all else the moment he opened his mouth.
    He fell in beside Tori on the walkway, his hands swinging freely at his side. “Any idea what this meeting is about?”
    She glanced at him sideways. “I was about to ask you the same question. It must have something to do with her trip tomorrow.”
    Mitch shook his head. “She’s going to a conference, not a client meeting. This is something else.” They walked on a few steps. “Since she wants us both there, I figure it must be a new account with a tight deadline.”
    That made sense. On a few occasions, Kate had assigned Tori and Mitch to work on a rush project together. They worked well in partnership, especially when the work required long hours at the office when the rest of the staff had gone home and Mitch had no audience but her. After a few hours alone, she’d actually seen that smirky mask slip once or twice as he got into a project.
    “Great.” Tori aimed a winsome scowl at him. “And to think, I was looking forward to a week without a boss breathing down my neck.”
    “Are you kidding?” They arrived at the door, and he leaped ahead of her to open it. “You know Kate can breathe through the phone just as well as in person. Even her emails reek of Tic Tacs.”
    Tori giggled as she swept by him through the doorway.
    The hum of the elevator motor began the second Tori pushed the button. Another good thing about working on Sunday: no waiting for the world’s busiest elevator.
    Mitch followed her inside and pressed the button for the sixth floor. As the doors closed, he leaned a shoulder casually against the polished metal wall. His gaze swept her once again, and the admiring gleam returned to his eye. “So, after we’re let out for recess, you want to go out and play with me?”
    His tone held just enough insinuation to be flattering without being offensive. Tori’s stomach gave a delicious flutter in response. She never really knew how to take Mitch. Was he seriously asking her out, or just flirting like he always did? They’d grabbed the occasional lunch together, but only as co-workers. She always wondered how he’d respond if she accepted one of his playful invitations. She’d even gone so far as to check the policy manual for rules about dating, and discovered that as long as one of them didn’t report to the other, nobody cared. A relationship between the two of them would probably cause tongues to wag, but at least neither of them could lose their job.
    On the other hand, Mitch always made insinuating comments like that, and not just to her. Best not to stick her neck out and be embarrassed by him backing off.
    She turned her dimple grin toward him as the doors slid open. “Sorry, but my play date calendar is full for the rest of the day.”
    They passed the empty reception desk with the shiny metallic logo for Connolly and Farrin on the front, and wound their way around a row of cubicles. Tori slipped inside her own cube long enough to drop her purse in the bottom desk drawer and pull the Harmon report out of her briefcase. She took an extra moment to glance through the neat stack of papers, careful not to bend the edges beneath the paper clip. The colorful pie charts the client liked didn’t give enough detail to make a financial decision, in Tori’s opinion, so she’d supplemented the analysis with a couple of line graphs and summarized the supporting data in easy-to-read charts that had taken her hours in front of the computer screen. Kate would appreciate the extra effort when she discussed the results with the Harmon people.
    Kate’s office was one of the few that overlooked Triangle Park, the beautiful wedge-shaped grounds nestled in the heart of downtown Lexington. Every time she entered the room, Tori’s gaze was drawn to the stunning site of the cascading fountains that curved along Vine