A Winter Wedding

Or was it the fact that they’d stripped off all their clothes and nearly made love a couple of hours ago?

Briefly, the vision of Lourdes’s breasts flashed in Kyle’s mind—along with the memory of their taste and feel. He wanted to tell Brandon and Olivia to go home so he could drag her back into his room, wanted to forget everything that had just happened by losing himself in her. Only then did he think he might be able to sleep.

But he pushed that thought aside. What he’d been feeling when they were together before the fire had nothing to do with friendship. He wanted a real relationship, which meant that making love to her now was the last thing he should do. His plant had been severely damaged; he didn’t need to give himself any more reason to be angry or disappointed.

“What do you have to drink?” Brandon asked. “I hope it’s stronger than wine.”

“I’ve got some whiskey somewhere.” Kyle focused on Olivia and Lourdes. “You two planning to join us?”

“I can’t,” Olivia said.

“No, thanks.” Lourdes shook her head. “After breathing in all those nasty fumes, my stomach’s upset.”

Kyle handed a shot to Brandon. Then he gave Lourdes and Olivia each a glass of water and dropped onto the sofa. “What a night,” he murmured, and that started them talking about the fire again—how he’d found out about it, whether there’d been any chemicals left too close to other chemicals or Warren had been lying about where he’d been standing with his cigarettes, who’d locked up earlier and what Kyle’s next steps would be. He paid a lot for hazard insurance, but he’d never expected to need it. He supposed he’d call his agent in the morning, and his agent would explain what to do next.

“This won’t hurt you too much financially, will it?” Olivia asked. “I mean...you know Riley will drop everything to help you rebuild as soon as possible.”

“Riley has a wedding coming up,” Kyle pointed out.

She took a sip of her water. “I’m handling most of that, and it’s the slow season for construction. I bet he’ll jump right in. And if he can’t, I’m sure your clients will understand. It’s not as if you had any control over this. It was just an unfortunate occurrence. Could’ve happened to anyone.”

Kyle wasn’t feeling nearly as optimistic that he’d be able to throw himself on the mercy of his clients and expect any special consideration. There’d probably be a few who could wait, but... “I sell primarily to large commercial users, Olivia,” he said. “They don’t give a shit whether I’ve had some bad luck. They want their solar system to go in when it’s scheduled to go in. And if they can’t get the panels from me, they’ll get them from someone else. I’ll try to counteract that with some discounting to get them to hold out, but it’ll hurt my bottom line, even if the insurance covers the other losses.”

She grimaced. “But you’ve worked so hard. How long will it take to get the plant up and running again?”

“I have no idea.” He stared at the liquid in his glass. “They wouldn’t let me go in, even after the fire was out. Everything was too hot. And they were afraid more of the roof would collapse.” He wasn’t sure he could’ve tolerated the fumes, anyway. The firemen claimed they were toxic and, judging by the terrible stench, it was easy to believe. “It’ll take time just to determine the extent of the damage—let alone go through the process of getting everything fixed or replaced.”

“Could it have been faulty wiring?” Brandon asked.

Kyle’s curiosity about what they might be able to tell him suddenly overcame his desire to keep his suspicions to himself. “You don’t happen to know where Noelle was tonight, do you?”

The room stilled. Even Lourdes’s eyes flew to his face. But if Noelle had a believable alibi, he’d rather learn about it now. The thought that she might have sabotaged his success out of petty jealousy, resentment or revenge infuriated him.

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