Katie froze at the sound of the familiar male voice. Then her head whipped around. The main door was open, but the metal security screen was closed and locked. It would be hard for people to see inside and impossible for anyone to break it down, but, oh boy, could she see out.
It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be.
She repeated the refrain as she stared at the outline on the other side of the steel screen. Dark hair, broad shoulders, and relaxed stance. She’d know that body anywhere.
That would teach her to want fresh air. If the stifling heat hadn’t bothered her, she’d be hiding in the storage closet and ignoring him right about now.
“Can you hear me?” He looked right at her as he said it. Clearly he knew she was there. Could see her, despite the promises in the sales brochure about the door providing protection and privacy. It didn’t seem to be doing either at the moment.
With wet hands dripping on the floor beside her sneakers, she stood there. “Uh…”
“Not sure if you can see me.” He waved his hand. “We met at the Armstrong-Windsor wedding.”
Met? Now there was an interesting word for what they did. “Oh, I know who you are.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Eric chuckled in a rich open tone that vibrated down to her feet.
She could hear the amusement in his voice. Figuring out how to take it was the bigger issue. She rubbed her hands on the towel hanging out of the waistband of her khaki shorts and adjusted her white tee to make sure everything that should be covered was. “What are you doing here?”
“I can explain if you’ll let me come inside.”
Talk about a stupid option. “No.”
After a beat of silence, he spoke up. “Really?”
He sounded stunned at the idea of being turned down. Apparently the big, important man didn’t like it when people disagreed with him.
That realization was enough to make her brain reboot. While running held some appeal, it wasn’t very practical. They lived on an island, after all. And she needed to know how he’d tracked her down. “I mean, why do you want to come in?”
She could see his broad shoulders through the thick safety mesh and the way he balanced his hands on his lean hips. He was a man in control of his surroundings, even though this part of town didn’t fit him at all. He wore tailored suits and walked into a fancy high-rise office every day.
Many of the folks in the Kalihi neighborhood never ventured near the expensive restaurants and exclusive communities around the island. This was a working-class area with an increasing crime rate, older and lined with warehouses, a little rough. A place where words like “redevelopment” were thrown around but never brought to fruition. In other words, not the place where one would expect to find Eric Kimura.
“I wanted to talk with you,” he explained.
She’d been afraid he would say that. “Okay.”
He pressed his face close to the screen. “And people are starting to wonder why I’m screaming into a door, so could we take this inside?”
Last thing she needed was for him to be mugged. She tried to imagine explaining that bit of news to the cops…and to Cara.
“I’m coming.” Katie rushed over, jangling the keys in her hand as she tried to find the one for the top dead bolt. “Here we go.”
Eric didn’t hesitate. The second she opened the screen, he pushed his way in and closed the solid door behind him. The controlling move should have made her nervous. Instead, she was strangely intrigued. Hunting her down took some work. Stepping into this neighborhood at five o’clock, which probably qualified as the middle of his workday, created a bit of mystery. Clearly he wanted to find her. Now he had.
He held out his hand. “Eric Kimura.”
She stared at his long fingers before sliding her palm inside his. “Oh.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up. “But you knew that, right?”
“Pretty much.” The feel of that smooth skin against hers brought a rush of heat to her cheeks. She looked down at their joined hands, wondering at what point long turned to too long and she had to let go. “I watch the news now and then.”
“Ah, yes. Not always the most flattering place to pick up information about me, but not a surprise.” He frowned as if the notoriety didn’t sit all that well with him. “So, do you have a name?”
“I figured you knew it since you tracked me here and all.”
“I have my sources but the exact name was tougher.”
Yeah, he had something all right. “Katie Long.”
“The caterer.”
Looked like he didn’t quite know everything. She dropped his hand and backed up a step. No need for them to be this close, sucking up all the air in the room, when there was a big No-Eric zone right behind her. “Her assistant and sister. I’m surprised you went to the trouble to find me.”
His head tilted to the side. The wide-eyed look made him look younger, less imposing, if only for a few seconds. “Why?”
This qualified as the strangest morning-after type conversation she’d ever had. “I guess this is the part where I say I’ve never done that at a wedding before.”
He nodded. “For the record, me either.”
“And where I insist I’m not the kind of woman who engages in thirty-minute sex romps with strangers.” She actually wasn’t, but there was no way to sell that as a convincing story after the way they’d met.
“I’m not judging.”
Of course he was. Hell, she was. When she’d vowed to turn her life around, she’d promised the days of putting herself at risk were over. She wouldn’t do dumb things or get involved with the wrong guys. Eric didn’t appear to be a loser, but he was most definitely wrong. He was her assignment. She was supposed to keep a safe distance and being under him didn’t cut it.
“Maybe just a little judging?” She held up two fingers and squeezed them together.
“Any name I call you would apply to me.”
“Very logical.”
“You weren’t alone in that room.”
She tried very hard not to conjure up a visual image of his hands up her skirt. “Oh, I know.”
“I admit, that sort of thing isn’t a weekly occurrence for me.”
She laughed. The contrast between the serious way his brows came together and the humor in his tone did her in. He might be good at sex, but he wasn’t all that comfortable with the way they’d met.
That made
