Lizzy walked into the muted sophistication of Bryce's office and, as usual, she was astounded at how well her big brother had done for himself. 

"May I help you?" the professional looking lady from behind the counter asked her. She was new and Lizzy didn't recognize her.

"Yes, I am meeting Mr. Stevens for lunch." Lizzy noticed the girl give her the once over.

"You'll have to wait, he's with a client," she said, her voice icy.

"No problem," Lizzy assured her before taking a seat as directed, and pulling out her phone.  She had just started to return an email when she felt some one sit in the seat next to her. She looked up and saw Mason reading over her shoulder.

"I swear there is no privacy in our family," she muttered, turning off her phone and putting it away.

"May I help you..." the receptionist began, but when she noticed it was Mason Stevens she started to blush. "He'll be just a minute Mr. Stevens, he's still in a meeting."

Mason gave her a charming smile. "No worries Nadia. I will entertain myself with this beauty," he said putting his arm around Lizzy.

Nadia gave her a nasty look that implied she was some sort of home wrecker.

"So, have you recovered from Saturday night?" he asked, stretching out in his chair, his long lanky legs taking up most of the floor space.

"Yes, thank you, I have," she said, aware of how that comment must sound to the receptionist.

Mason grinned at her tone. "You're so uptight Lizzy."

"It is amazing to think that we're twins isn't it. I can barely sit next to you for five minutes without wanting to strangle, you, how on earth did I share a womb with you for nine months?" Lizzy eyed his stretched out form. "Really, how does Cassie put up with you?"

"Love my dear sister. A little L-O-V-E goes a long way, and the sex is great," he said with a wolfish grin.

Lizzy groaned. "Please, don't go there."

"Don't go where?" Bryce said as he exited his office.

Lizzy stared at Mason giving him her best 'don't you dare' look.  She should have learned by now that that it only encouraged him.

"Sex, dear brother, Lizzy is amazed that Cassie can put up with me, and I was simply telling her why she does." Mason rose from his seat.  "Brian, it's good to see you," he said, shaking Brian's hand.

Lizzy's gaze quickly travelled beyond Bryce's shoulder to see Brian standing behind him, and she felt the blush steal up her neck and into her face at the unexpected shock of seeing him.

He looked exceptionally well.  He was in a navy suit and a red tie, and his silver hair had been recently cut and she felt a moment of envy for the person who had cut his it.

He was simply devastating.

He eyed Lizzy over Mason's shoulder taking in her appearance.  She was glad she had spent extra time dressing this morning.  She had been tempted to put on a pair of jeans and sweater, but she had forced herself to put her hair up and wear her new red fitted suit with the pencil skirt, and the new three-inch heels added a sexy flare to the outfit.

"Elizabeth," Brian said as she rose from her seat.

"Brian." Her blush deepened.

Mason turned around and looked at Lizzy taking in her blush. "You will have to excuse my sister Brian.  She has always been a bit prudish. Anytime sex comes up in the conversation she gets all shy."

"That's enough Mason," Lizzy said sharply.  "Stop trying to be so shocking. It's in very bad taste." Lizzy wanted to fall through the floor. She did not want to be thinking of sex while Brian was in the same room. If anyone knew about her sexual hang-ups or lack of them it was Brian. Especially since she had been anything but prudish with him.

She remembered he had been shocked that a girl with her looks had made it to the ripe old age of twenty-one without having had sex. All she had to do was remind him that she had four older brothers who wouldn't let a guy get near her.

Her eyes met his and just for a moment she swore she saw a flash of knowing amusement come into his.

Had he always been this good at hiding his emotions? Had she built their summer romance into something it wasn't, at least for him? Well, he was able to leave you in the end, she silently screamed at herself, so it must not have mattered to him that much.

"Brian, will you be joining us for lunch?" Mason asked as he swung his arm around Lizzy by way of an apology.

"Yes Brian, please join us." Bryce requested as he shut the door to his office.

Brian looked at his watch.  "I have time for a quick lunch. I may have to leave early."

"Let's go then," Bryce said as he marched them out the door.

He had picked a restaurant at the hotel up the street from his office so it only took them a few minutes to walk there.  Bryce and Mason had their heads together in conversation which left Lizzy and Brian to follow behind, and she felt his presence, solid and warm, beside her.  All she wanted to do was grab his hand as they walked. The instinct was so strong she clutched the strap of her purse as if she was afraid of a mugger.

He put his hand in the small of her back when they crossed the street, but just as quickly as he had touched her he dropped his hand. Had it been instinctual for him too or had he decided better of it because he didn't want her to get the wrong idea.

"Really Brian, we should be able to have a conversation," she muttered softly so Mason and Bryce couldn't hear.

"That didn't go so well the last time we tried, but we can try again. Where do we start Elizabeth, with the past, the present, or the future?"

The future, her heart leaped at the thought, but of course he meant her working for him nothing else. "Well the past is past so there would be little reason to visit there, so how about the present?"

"I'm having dinner with Heather and our client this evening to discuss the project we're working on, I would like you to meet with us and see if you're interested." He came directly to the point much to Lizzy's astonishment. She had not been expecting it.

"I'm not sure that Heather wants me included on your project," Lizzy said as she followed Bryce and Mason into the hotel lobby.

"I want you on this project. I want someone I can trust. We're building a house for someone very important to me, and I want it to be everything she wants it to be."

Lizzy stumbled. So there was someone in his life. Brian's arm shot out to catch her as she righted herself. "I don't think so Brian. I can suggest someone else who you can trust."

Brian's hand tightened on her arm. "I'm not going to take no for an answer Lizzy, at least not until you meet my client, I think you and she will get on well together." They had stopped and he was looking down at her.

"Brian, Lizzy, hurry or we will miss the elevator," Bryce commanded from a few feet away.

They all squeezed into the elevator with Lizzy and Brian standing next to each other. She could feel the tension radiating off of him.

"Lover's spat?" Mason asked, feeling the tension as well. He meant it as a joke, but he had no idea how it cut Lizzy to the quick. She kept her eyes glued to the doors of the elevator, and it took everything she had to keep her face as expressionless as possible.

"I'm simply inviting Lizzy to meet with my client this evening to see if she is interested in doing a little design work, and she is trying to turn me down," Brian explained, his eyes meeting Bryce's over the top of Lizzy's head.

"Hey, what's going on here, what am I missing?" Mason's confused look would have been comical if Lizzy hadn't been so upset.

The doors opened to the restaurant and the hostess, but Mason grabbed Lizzy's arm and held her back. "Lizzy?" he asked.  He always put on a show of not noticing things until she really didn't want him to notice them.

Lizzy gave him her 'everything's fine I am just ticked' smile. "Really Mason, it's just Brian being bossy, and you know how I hate bossy," she whispered in an aside."  She must have gotten some of the same acting gene as Mason because he believed her and even laughed.

Brian turned around and looked at them with their heads together, his eyes narrowing, and Lizzy just gave him her sweetest smile.

The hostess looked giddy as she led them to their table.  She shot Lizzy a look of pure envy, but Lizzy, oblivious to it all, just kept her eyes straight ahead.  She didn't even enjoy the stares her brothers and Brian were getting, and generally she was proud to enter a room with any of her brothers.

Brian held out her chair for her as she took her seat.  Her skirt rode up her thigh as she pushed back into her seat, and she could have sworn that Brian's hand tightened on the back of the chair for just an instant, but she was sure it was just wishful thinking on her part.

"Really Elizabeth, I don't see why you won't come and meet my client this evening. I thought you were eager to work for BAES?"

"Brian, I don't think Heather and I would be a good team." Lizzy truly believed I what she said, but she couldn't add that there was no way she and her broken heart could stand watching Brian build a house for his current lover.  She would have to design it for her knowing that she and Brian would enjoy every room together.

The conversation came to a stop as they all looked at menus and ordered drinks.

"I knew I only had to follow the looks of all the ladies in the room to find your table," Grace Stevens said as she approached them.

"Lizzy!" She passed right by her waiting husband and gave Lizzy a warm hug in greeting, and Lizzy felt much better having received it.

Having had the last word on working for Brian she relaxed as Grace took her seat and they began to order. Grace was a natural hostess, and she had the table relaxed and laughing before lunch was even served.

Lizzy was tempted to move her chair away from Brian and closer to Mason, but she knew to do so would be obvious. At one point Brian leaned back in his chair and his leg brushed hers, and she jerked in response.

He turned and looked at her over his glass, completely aware of her reaction, and she remembered a time when she would have pressed her leg back against his. They would have spent the whole meal touching in some way, pretending it was an accident.

Suddenly, all of those questions she had never had answered were popping into her brain as she tried to focus on her meal. Why had he left without a word? What had she done wrong? She had arrived at the office after a night spent in his bed to find out, via a written message, that he had had to fly to New York for an emergency meeting, and he was going to stay over and take care of business for the next few weeks.  He knew she had only had one week left until she had to return to school.  All she had received was that note and a bouquet of flowers later that day with another note that wished her luck at school and said he would think of her often and fondly.

She looked at her plate she had made a fine mess of her food but hadn't eaten a bit.

"Are you not hungry Lizzy?" Mason asked, eyeing her.  Mason and her family worried about her eating habits ever since she had lost a lot weight when Brian had left.

"I had a large breakfast. Janie and I celebrated over fattening pastries and hot chocolate," she lied. She glanced down at her watch. "Speaking of Janie, I have to get back to the office." She rose placing her napkin on the table next to her.

"I have to be leaving as well," Brian said joining her. "Elizabeth, we can discuss our meeting this evening on our way out." He pulled back her chair for her, and she shot him her most professional smile. He waited for her to gather up her purse and then followed her out of the restaurant.

*******

"They really do make a striking couple," Grace said with a sigh.  "Have you ever thought about fixing them up?"

Mason threw back his head and laughed.  "Lizzy and Brian? Bryce would have a fit, he's much too old for her."

Grace looked at her husband. "How much older is he?"

Bryce finished his drink and motioned for the bill. "He is only twelve years older, but if you count experience its decades."

"Surely that's a good thing?" Grace was eyeing her husband carefully. He couldn't have been blind to the tension between the two of them. She had one ago figured out that Brian and Lizzy loved each other, and she was certain that Bryce knew about it as well, but he had never openly admitted it.

"I used to think it was a bad thing."

"And now?" Mason asked, not as unaware as people thought he was.

"And now I am keeping my nose out of it," he said, signing the bill. "Shall we go?" He held his wife's chair as she rose. She and Mason knew better than to push him. 

*******

"Shall I pick you up this evening, or would you like to meet us at the restaurant?" Brian asked as he held the elevator door for her.

"I'm serious about not wanting the job Brian." She moved past him, brushing his arm as she entered the small space.

"Lizzy, I took a chance and gave you your first job eight years ago. I didn't want to, but I did it anyway.  You owe me one." He backed her into the corner of the elevator as the door closed, putting his arms to either side of her, locking her in place.

"Yes, and you made it perfectly clear from the first day that you didn't want me working for you."

"Yes, but I got over it, and in the end and we worked well together." He reached up and unclipped her hair watching it fall around her shoulders.

He knew what he was doing.  He felt her jump earlier when his leg pressed against hers at lunch. He knew that the last thing she wanted was to be touched by him because it scared her to death. So if he forced her in to an uncomfortable situation she would cave just to get him to relent.

She knew she couldn't win, so why was she fighting it?

She was older and wiser, and she could try to play his game. Maybe she could get him to back down. She looked at his lips while her hand slowly moved up his chest.  She moved her gaze up to his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes; she automatically and completely lost the fact that she was trying to gain the upper hand as she licked her lips and subconsciously and leaned into him.

His hands quickly left the elevator wall as he buried them in her hair pulling her head back. She gave a little sigh and closed her eyes. He was going to kiss her. She had forgotten that she was trying to win a battle, all she cared about was the feel of his lips touching hers.

He made a guttural sound as one of his hands traced her face stopping at her lips. His thumb pulled at her bottom lip mimicking her actions from the previous time they were alone.

"Do you really want to play this game Elizabeth?" He ground out in a hoarse voice. "I remember winning eight years ago."

Lizzy's head snapped back as if she had been slapped.

He had hit her deepest fear with that one.  The confident part of her told her that the reason he had left was because of Bryce; but the part of her that she had to fight was the one that said that he had left because he had grown bored and had decided to move on after having gotten what he wanted.

She couldn't even begin to hide the hurt in her eyes. Brian had never been mean before, had he changed that much?

"Oh no Brian, you didn't win you lost and in a big way," she said after focusing on the confident part of herself.

She pushed him away and turned, closing her eyes, trying to collect herself. Maybe if she met with them and proved to him that she and Heather would not work well together then he would leave her alone.

He filled the entire space of the elevator overwhelming her.

"If I say yes, will you go back to your corner?" She motioned to the other side of the small space.

He gave a small nod in acknowledgement.

"Fine, I'll agree to meet with you and your client this evening, but that does not mean that I'll agree to take the job." She grabbed the clip out of his hand as she pushed him away. "Now, where are we meeting this evening?"