in the afternoon and stick around until closing, sucking back drinks and getting stupid. Hell, she barely drank at all—which was one of the reasons he could actually relax around her. There wasn’t any gauging reactions and weighing responses. No questioning judgment or keeping an eye on her for her own good. He didn’t have to work when they were together and he liked that.
“Won’t I get in the way?”
Maybe if he were at the start of his project, rather than the end. But the truth was, HeadRush and its staff were virtually running without him. “No. Besides, everyone needs a break once in a while, right?”
She met his eyes. “I needed a break like you. Like this.”
Yeah, so maybe he’d needed it too. His palms coasted up her legs beneath her dress to— “No panties.”
Even in the dim light, he could see the blush rise to her cheeks. “I haven’t found them yet.”
“Is that so?” A quick glance across the office and he located the scrap of silk in a little heap against the base of his desk. Urging her closer, until her shins met the front of the couch, and then further still so all she could do was let out that soft breathy laugh and crawl back onto his lap—her knees straddling his hips as they sank into the leather cushions—he shook his head. “I don’t think it would be right to let you leave until we found them.”
“Oh, really?”
Really. He settled back into the cushions, pushed the bunched fabric of her dress even higher than it had ridden on its own. Ground his molars down. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
She arched that sexy brow at him, silently telling him she couldn’t wait to hear this.
“We’ll check the couch here first. Thoroughly. Then have a look around my apartment.”
“Your apartment, hmm. What about Bruno?” she asked, that sinful smile doing things to him that suggested the trip to his loft was a ways off.
“We’ll walk him first and then resume the search. I’ve got a good feeling about the bed. But if we don’t find anything … you’ll just have to stay the night.”
LEANING against the concrete pillar just outside the studio, Levi offered another acknowledging nod to the women clearing out of Elise’s class.
Shortly Elise herself exited with another woman, presumably the owner, who hung back to lock up.
“I wasn’t expecting you guys,” she said, jogging over with a wide grin.
“Yeah, well, Bruno was getting all riled up. So I thought we’d just swing by and walk back with you. Grab some Thai from that place on the corner.”
Elise reached down to rub Bruno’s knobby head. “That would be great. I picked up a late shift at the coffee house this evening, but I’ve still got a couple hours before I need to be there and I’m starved from skipping lunch.”
Over the past week, he’d been surprised by the complexity and extent of Elise’s schedule, and that for the first time in his adult life, he was the one doing the accommodating. He’d known she taught classes throughout the day at a couple of Chicago’s upscale fitness clubs and local studios, but the peripheral jobs she held to boost her income had been a surprise. Her odd shifts at a trendy coffee place and waiting tables one night a week meant she was pulling somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty plus hours, most days starting as early as five for the before-work crowd and, on waiting-tables night, finishing after midnight. She was relentless.
But the faint shadows around her eyes suggested she wasn’t tireless. And experience told him that once the contracts got signed, she wouldn’t be slowing down any time soon. Not if she was anything like him.
He respected the hell out of the way she was going after her goals. Giving them everything she had. It was the same way he went after what he wanted. But he couldn’t help wonder if her body could take what she was demanding of it.
She’d assured him her classes were varied and broken up throughout the day, and that she spent more time correcting form and posture for her students than actually holding the poses herself, but even so— “You shouldn’t skip meals, the way you work.”
“I know. And normally I don’t, but today I had to run over to a property with Sandy and I didn’t have time.”
Sandy, the partner fronting the other half of the cash they needed for the space and equipment. “I thought you had a place?”
Elise glanced off to the side for a moment in a way that made him think the meeting hadn’t gone the way she’d hoped.
“She’s having second thoughts about the location and wanted to look at something different.”
When she told him the address, he ran a hand over the back of his neck. He knew the neighborhoods pretty well from when he’d been scouting locations for HeadRush and the one she’d mentioned landed only a few rungs above barren wasteland … and nowhere near up-and-coming. There wasn’t much in the way of pedestrian traffic. It was cheap—industrial space going for probably a quarter of what they’d have to pay for retail—but it wasn’t the kind of spot Elise had been talking about.
As if reading his mind, Elise glanced back at him. “We talked about the money up front. About what kind of place we wanted to open.” Blowing out a frustrated breath, she met his eyes. “Our business plan is based on projections from an area like this one. It’s based on that location specifically. We’d have to withdraw our loan application and resubmit with a new plan. New numbers. More waiting. But I don’t know if I’m even interested in what she’s suggesting.”
“So what did she have to say about it?” He would have liked to have been there. He could read investors like a book. Ten minutes with this Sandy and he would have known exactly what the situation was.
“She keeps coming back to the money.” After a deep breath, she shook her head and stared off into the sky. “I’m worried. We’ve been talking about this for so long and now that we’re finally moving forward, I’ve let myself—”
“What? Get your hopes up? That’s good, it’s how you should be. And maybe she’s just got cold feet. It happens, especially with first timers, and often they get past it. Give her a call tomorrow and talk to her. Tonight just try not to worry about it.”
With a tight nod, she agreed. But by the time they’d reached the restaurant, she hadn’t relaxed. “I hate to do this, but would you understand if I asked for a rain check on dinner?”
She wanted to go over the business plan. That was what he’d want to do if it were him. Hell, that was what he wanted to do right now—so the solution seemed simple enough. “How about you pick out something to eat from the menu here and then we’ll head back to your place? If you like, I’ll stick around and we can talk it through. If you’d rather be alone, at least you’ll have food.”
Soft gray eyes blinked up at him, too grateful for what he’d offered. “You really wouldn’t mind?”
Not when she looked at him like that. Hell, no, he didn’t mind.
Ninety
