tub tucked into its own windowed alcove. The tub windows had center-mounted cellular shades that could be raised to the top to block glare, or lowered to the bottom for privacy. She could stretch out in bubbly splendor and stare at the sky.
“Well?” Jed demanded.
She turned and met his eyes. “When do you want me to start?”
Elise Bravo was a find.
Jed knew she was going to last.
He’d known it the minute he’d let her in his house. She wasn’t like the never-ending string of hopeless cases he’d hired and fired in the past year. She could type like nobody’s business while keeping her mouth shut and not getting frazzled or riled. There was something downright soothing about her, something receptive. She was exactly what he’d been afraid he would never find again. At last.
And he liked looking at her. He could go for her, definitely. She was so soft and pretty, round-faced and bright-eyed, with just enough junk in the trunk. She smelled good, as well. Fresh. Like clean sheets.
She also had attitude. Jed liked a woman with attitude. He liked a woman who could hold her own.
Not that he’d ever make a move on her. Any woman could provide sex. But a skilled assistant was a pearl beyond price. He’d learned that the hard way during the past god-awful year after Anna deserted him.
So yeah, he’d resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to be seeing Elise naked. It was going to be all about the work. He’d taken his last extension on this book. With Elise at the keyboard, he would knock the damn thing out.
“I need to get to work immediately,” he said.
“I understand. But first I have to get my cat, move my things and settle in a little.”
The cat. For a moment, he’d almost succeeded in forgetting the cat. “We’ll start tomorrow morning, then,” he said grudgingly.
“Yes. All right, tomorrow.” She cast a glance over her shoulder at the bathroom behind her, as if to reassure herself that it was actually there. She really seemed to like the bathroom. Whatever floats your boat, Elise. She could spend every free moment in there for all he cared. Just as long as she performed during the long working hours. “What about meals?” she asked. “I’ll need to have the use of the kitchen while I’m staying here.”
“No problem. I have a cook-housekeeper, Deirdre, who comes in five days a week. She’ll make plenty for both of us. But if you want to cook, knock yourself out. You can consider the kitchen and any food and drinks you find in it yours.”
“Works for me.” She looked up at him expectantly. Probably because he was blocking her path. “I should get going...”
He felt a definite reluctance to let her out of his sight. Anything could happen. What if she changed her mind about working for him? Got hit by lightning? Got in an accident bringing over her stuff and her damn cat? He warned, “We start work at zero-eight-three-zero hours sharp.”
“That’s eight thirty, right?”
“Correct.”
“No problem. I’ll be here and I’ll be ready.”
He reconciled himself to letting her go. Turning for the outer door, he doled out necessary info as he led her along the hall to the front of the house. “It’s a four-car garage. You can have the bay on the far left. Before you go, I’ll get you a garage-door remote, a house key and the code for the alarm system...”
* * *
At her apartment, Elise parked in her space by the Dumpster and entered the building through the back door. The hallway and the stairwell smelled of donuts from the donut shop in front. She’d grown to hate that smell, mostly because it tempted her constantly. There was something so perfect about a donut, after all. Flour and fat and sugar, deep-fried and glazed or frosted. The purest sort of comfort to a desperate woman’s soul.
Well, bye bye, temptation and hello, jetted tub. So what if she had to type Jed Marsh’s book for a living? She’d have a bath every night and make buckets of money. Life was looking up.
Mr. Wiggles was waiting when she opened the door. “Mrow?” he asked.
“Wigs!” She scooped him up, all twenty-plus superfluffy pounds of him. He was orange, with a huge, thick tail and a deep, loud purr. She buried her face against his lionlike ruff. “We are moving today,” she told him. “We’ll keep this dump for now, I think. And reevaluate our crappy living situation once the job is over.”
“Mrow, mrow,” Wigs replied, as though he understood every word she said. He butted his big head against her cheek to let her know how much he loved her. She gave him one more kiss for good measure and then set him down to start packing.
Her cell rang as she was piling clothes into three suitcases spread open on the lumpy bed.
It was Nellie. “Well?”
“Nailed it.”
“You got the job! I knew you would.”
“I have to live there, in his house.”
“I built that house and Chloe designed the interiors.” Chloe was their brother Quinn’s wife. “You’re gonna love it.”
She thought of the bathtub, of the king-size bed. “Oh, yes, I will. And the money is good. Really good.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. What about Jed? Seriously, you think you can put up with him?”
“He’s not so bad. A little weird. A lot intense.”
“Sexy, though, right? In a club-you-senseless-and-drag-you-to-his-cave sort of way.”
For some unknown reason, Elise felt a hot flush rush upward over her cheeks. “Don’t even go there. He’s my boss now and we’re keeping it strictly professional.”
Nell’s naughty laugh echoed in her ear. “You have way more scruples than can possibly be necessary—and we have to celebrate. I’m buying the drinks.”
“Rain check. I need to get moved in over there tonight. The job starts early tomorrow morning.”
“He gives you crap you can’t handle, you call me.”
Elise’s cheeks were still burning. She could almost smell cinnamon. And what about that crazy thing he’d said? Unfortunately, I find you sexually attractive. “Oh, I think I can handle him.”
Nell laughed. “There. That’s what I’ve been missing. You’ve got your attitude back.”
She felt all misty-eyed suddenly. “Thank you, Nellie.”
“Hey. What’s a sister for?”
“We, um...we’re all right now, you and me. Aren’t we? I mean, I know I was a total bitch
