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Maybe he didn’t, though.
Her brow creased when he gave a tiny wince.
“Not that kind of surprise.” He glanced at the sitting room door, then in a lower voice added, “But you can thank me with that later if you’re so inclined.”
Later?
Sooner was better, but she was too curious to push. Or in this case, pull him into bed.
“Thank you for what?” she asked.
“The surprise.” Before she could press for details on just what the surprise was that had him so giddy, he asked, “What’s that?”
She followed his glance to her laptop, with the file sent message still blinking on the screen.
“That would be my final project. Done and gone this morning.” Too excited to contain it, she jumped to her feet, wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I’m done, done, done.”
“Hey, that’s great.” His smile shone with pride, sending a shaft of happiness through Lara. She’d never had anyone happy for her accomplishments before. A part of her felt self-conscious, but mostly she wanted to do a victory dance around the room. Then she wanted to strip him naked and do a victory dance on his body.
“So what happens next?” he asked.
Since she didn’t figure he meant naked dancing, Lara puffed out a breath and considered.
“The final projects are all due by the end of the week, and the course ends the next Friday. Luckily, since I’m finished with all of my work, I don’t need to attend any classes, so I won’t get dinged for that. The instructors will assess the projects, then post the winners of the internship the next Monday.”
Dominic frowned at the closed door that led to the sitting room, then dropped to the chair Lara had just vacated.
“So you get the internship, what then?”
She smiled, pleasure flooding her at his faith.
“I suppose it depends on which of the firms I win the internship with, but from what I understand, most would want me to start by the first of the month.”
She tucked her hands into the pockets of the long duster-style sweater she wore over her jeans and tee, pacing the room as she thought aloud.
“I can crash with Christi for a while, but I’ll need to get a new apartment, obviously. And a side job since none of the internships pay as much as I need if I’m going to put enough aside for later.”
“Later?”
“Yeah, after the internship is done, I’d like enough to go out on my own. That takes money.”
“You figure on taking a part-time job plus this security gig? What’re you going to do?”
“Well, I’d planned on dancing, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. Flo and Roberto will give me a good reference, but Rudy knows a lot of people, and he’s big on trash talk.” Lara shrugged, trying to shake off the little voice chiding her for once again letting a guy mess with her life. This wasn’t a mess, she mentally argued. She’d just taken a little vacation in sexual nirvana, fallen in love and had a great time. The things she’d lost were no biggie. She’d always planned on leaving that job, that apartment, eventually.
“Huh. Well, I’d planned to wait, tell you this later, but it looks like this is the time.”
“Tell me what?” Nerves jumped into Lara’s stomach so fast they sent all her happy-dancing urges flying away.
“You need a job, I’ve got you covered.”
“You got me a job?” The nerves tightened. It was one thing to chalk up losing her spot on the chorus line and her apartment as results of keeping her safe. He’d been doing that for her own good. But she had a job lined up. One she’d worked damned hard for.
“I tugged a few different lines so you could have some options.” He smiled expectantly.
Lara tried to smile back, but her lips didn’t want to move.
“I know you want to do security stuff, and I’ve talked to Lucas. He’s getting me some names of companies down here that you can apply with.” He paused as if waiting for her to gush her gratitude. Lara crossed her arms over her chest, waiting to hear the rest. Finally, he shrugged.
“There are other options, too. I figure with your skills, you could come on as civilian personnel. You know, work on the base. I’ve got the paperwork for you, everything you need.”
Blindsided—but not knowing why since this was what guys always did—Lara pressed her fingers to her temple. She tried to curb her automatic reaction, which was pure anger. He was just doing it because he wanted them to be together. It was guy sweet—a nice gesture with not a lot of clear thinking behind it.
Maybe once she reminded him that she’d already put in two years to earn a top internship and that inputting data as a Navy secretary wasn’t in her plans, they could get to the whipped cream.
