When our kiss ended I stood and stared at Daniel in open-mouthed disbelief. "What did you just do?" I gasped. Out in the hall I could hear Maddock swear loudly and storm away, slamming his office door.
"I've been wanting to do that for a long time," Daniel said dryly. He looked stern, but there was the tiny hint of a smile playing about his lips. "I've hated that man for twenty years."
My mind couldn't seem to grasp what had just happened. It didn't seem possible that less than twelve hours had passed since I'd left Daniel's apartment that morning; the meeting at City Hall, the ensuing altercation with Lawrence Mallory, having everyone know the truth about Daniel and me, it was all too much to take in. And now Daniel had effectively slammed the door in the face of his career and unknowingly my own as well. Maddock might seem like a nice, old man, but he was as hard as nails underneath the Santa Claus exterior.
"Do you think he'll fire you?" I asked, afraid to hear the answer.
Daniel shrugged with his typical, effortless nonchalance. "Don't care really. I'm quitting."
"Quitting?" I blurted out. "Quitting? But if you go…" I stopped, unsure of what to say. Sometimes it felt as if working at Maddock Architects was the only real tie I had to Daniel apart from our chemistry in bed. If that ceased to be, where did that leave us?
"Are you doing anything this afternoon? Any client meetings?" Daniel asked in an offhanded manner which added to my confusion. I shook my head. He still held me in his arms but his voice sounded far away. I felt numb. I was still trying to imagine what the office would be like without Daniel. It was a painful thought.
"Good. I want to show you something."
I just stared at him in stunned silence. The entire day had been too much to process, making me feel slow and stupid.
Daniel released his hold on me with a gentle squeeze and a quick kiss on my forehead before he crossed to the desk and picked up the phone. It wasn't long after he dialled that he began to speak.
"Karen? Daniel. I'm going to sign. Can you meet me at four? I'd like to see it one more time before we do the paperwork. Yeah? I'll see you soon. Thanks." He hung up and began gathering papers off his desk, completely ignoring my small squeak of protest.
"What the hell is going on, Daniel?" I asked once I'd regained the ability to speak.
He scooped up my purse and jacket, thrusting them at me with a crooked grin. "You drive," he drawled, chuckling all the harder at the shocked look on my face. Mystified, I just stared at him.
"Where are we going?" I asked, frustration and confusion dripping from every syllable.
Daniel's answering smile was enigmatic. "Forward."
-------
Everybody watched the two of us make our way through the office and out the door. No one said a word. Even the phones seemed to stop ringing. I looked as many people in the eye as I could and saw a myriad of expressions reflected back. A few of the older architects looked bemused, while the younger guys seemed either in awe of Daniel or angry with him. Every one of the female staff was grinning broadly. I smiled back at them even though I was still terribly confused about what had just happened and where we were going, but my pride had kicked in and I wasn't about to show weakness in front of the others.
I knew better than to expect Daniel to open up to me, so once we were road I followed Daniel's directions without question, turning left when he said "turn left," right when he indicated right, merging in all the appropriate places, blindly trusting Daniel to direct me to the unknown. No amount of arguing in the world would get the Dragon to talk if he didn't want to talk.
We eventually ended up in a part of the city which was unfamiliar to me and the narrow streets demanded my attention as I drove. Occasionally I chanced a glance at Daniel. His handsome face was stoic in profile and he looked neither angry over the day's events nor excited to be free of Maddock.
"It's on the right-hand side, Clara. The next block up," Daniel interrupted my thoughts with a small smile that revealed nothing of what was happening in his brain.
I pulled up to the curb where Daniel specified and he was out of the Jeep before I could even put it in park. With a heavy sigh I turned the key and quieted my grumbling vehicle before I joined him on the sidewalk.
It would have been hard to miss the large "For Sale" sign in front of the red brick fire station and I was so distracted by gawking at the building's textbook classic revival detailing topped with a wonderful clock tower, that I almost missed what had caught Daniel's attention.
Tall, slender, blonde, and beautiful – and she was hugging Daniel in a way that made me grit my teeth until they hurt.
"Danny," she cooed as he embraced her and kissed her cheek. "I swear you get better-looking every time I see you."
"Karen," Daniel replied in a smooth tone of voice I'd never heard before. "Thanks for doing this last minute."
The blonde shrugged. "For you, Honey, anything." She clutched familiarly at his arm. "Have you been working out?"
He chuckled and made no move to shake off her grip. "Karen," Daniel said, turning his gaze from her perfectly made-up face to my own. "I'd like you to meet Clara."
I took a few steps closer to the pair and tried to smile bravely.
"Clara, this is Karen." Daniel's smile was bright and had the crooked, sexy edge he typically reserved for me. "She's my…" he trailed off, sounding unsure.
"Wife," Karen supplied with an equally bright smile. "Ex-wife," she amended with a giggle which didn't quite fit her highly-polished image. "Danny was my first husband. You know what they say," she leaned conspiratorially towards me. "The first time for love, the second time for money! And the third time… well!"
I was speechless. Up close Karen was even more perfect; there wasn't a flaw on her face or a hair out of place. I figured if she was Daniel's first wife she had to be at least 40, but she certainly didn't look it.
"You know, Danny," Karen laughed, studying me as carefully as I was studying her. "I swear your girlfriends get younger every year. You must be old enough to be her father!"
Daniel actually had the audacity to laugh, but secretly I was happy to note he didn't dignify Karen's flirtatious teasing with an answer. Typical Dragon: never feeling he needed to explain himself to anyone.
Karen brushed off Daniel's non-response with a casual wave and produced a set of keys from the pocket of her fitted designer blazer. "I know it's been a while, care to have another look, Danny love?"
Daniel's large hand swallowed the keys and his face broke into a boyish grin. He looked like a kid who'd just been given the key to a candy store.
"You two go ahead," Karen prompted, suddenly sounding professional. I realized with a jolt that it was her name on the 'For Sale' sign; not only was she Daniel's ex-wife, she was apparently his real estate agent too.
"Come on," Daniel said in a warm, low voice. He took my hand. "You're going to love this."
I only half-heard Daniel's dissertation on the classic revival architecture of the fire hall's exterior; my usual enthusiasm for dormer windows and original decorative dentils was dimmed by the sight of Karen's mini-skirt-clad ass as she dug about in the back of her car for paperwork. To his credit, Daniel didn't appear to notice.
It wasn't difficult to picture the two of them as a couple. Both were tall, fit, and ridiculously good looking; they looked like a married couple in a television commercial. It was obvious as well that they had a comfortable rapport with one another that could easily bloom into some serious chemistry. I wondered how long they had stayed married. I wondered who had left whom.
The three bay doors across the front of the fire station were painted bright red, as was the person-sized door to the left of them that Daniel unlocked with a grin. He held it open for me and I stepped into the gloomy, unlit interior.
The late afternoon sunshine that filtered through the grimy, uncovered windows sparkled over the dust motes raised by each footstep. The sound of my high-heeled shoes against the cement floor echoed loudly in the large, empty space.
It looked so big without any fire engines parked in the bays. The ceilings were a good twenty feet over my head and in one corner an iron staircase spiralled to the second floor. What the hell was Daniel going to do with so much room?
Daniel followed me into the fire hall but remained a few steps behind, giving me time to take in the space and get a feel for the building – it's the first thing architects do every time they enter a space, whether they're conscious of it or not, and this time was no different. Even in my confused state I could almost hear myself cataloguing the building's faults and strengths. As empty and cold and hollow as the station was, I liked it immediately. There was so much potential there.
"What is this place?" I asked finally. My voice sounded unnaturally loud as it echoed in the vastness.
"It's mine," Daniel said with straight-forward simplicity.
"It is now," Karen added as she entered behind us. In her hand was a sheaf of papers that she waved at Daniel. "Your apartment went on the market an hour ago. I'll more than likely have an offer for you before the weekend."
"All this space just for you?" I stuttered. "What for?"
"It's not just for me," Daniel smiled a slow smile that made my heart beat a little faster.
I glanced over his shoulder to where Karen stood, smiling knowingly at the two of us. "It's not?" I parroted.
Daniel shook his dark head and his smile melted away to reveal the strong expression he usually reserved for his most intense moments. "It's for us."
My ears rang.
Us
: the word echoed around the empty room. "Pardon?" I asked weakly.
"For our firm," Daniel prompted.
