that this apartment was supposed to be hers?
A rumbling stomach propelled her to the kitchen. She’d picked at snacks all day, but had not had a proper meal. On the counter lay one basket of fruit, and another of breads and bagels. The refrigerator held beer, milk, eggs and cheese.
Had this food been purchased for her arrival as a hospitality custom? Or was it Ethan’s? Or did it belong to his aunt’s husband, who Ethan had said used this apartment frequently?
The sight of the food rendered Holly too hungry to care. Being hungry was a unique ache that she had experience with. Surely Ethan wouldn’t mind if she took one shiny red apple.
She hoisted herself up to sit on the countertop. Let her legs and bare feet dangle. Smiled remembering the apple’s symbolism here in New York. Like so many others, she was here to take her bite. With one satisfying chomp after the next, her mind wandered about what might be.
“Miss Motta!” Ethan looked startled to find her sitting on the kitchen counter after he finished his call. “Must you always make yourself so...so comfortable?”
Holly shrugged her shoulders and slid off the countertop. Whatever. If her sitting on the counter was a big deal to him, she wouldn’t do it.
She jutted out her chin. “I bet you haven’t eaten.”
“Not since early this afternoon on the flight,” he confessed. “Is there food?”
“Looks like there’s eggs and some things for breakfast.”
“We will have something delivered.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“What would you like?”
“You know what? I haven’t been to New York in years. Want to get some famous New York pizza?”
“Pizza it is.” He swiped on his tablet. “Yes, Giuseppe’s. I ordered from there quite a bit when I was last in New York, working on a project. What type of pizza do you like?”
It was nice of him to let her choose. This man was a bundle of contradictions. Scolding one minute, courteous in the next.
“Everything,” she answered, without having to think twice.
“Everything?”
“You know—pepperoni, sausage, salami, mushrooms, onions, peppers, olives. The whole shebang.”
“Everything...” he repeated. “Why not?”
“I’ll pay for my half.”
His mouth twitched.
“Twenty minutes,” he read out the online confirmation.
She eyed the kitchen clock.
“I guess I’m staying tonight.” She crunched on her big apple.
A bolt of lightning struck, flashing bright light through the window.
ETHAN HAD A peculiar urge. The minute he’d said he’d sleep on the sofa tonight he’d wanted to lie down on the bed with Holly. Not to get under the covers. Just to lie on the bed with her. He wanted to relax. To hold her body against his. Caress her hair. Find out if those ebony locks were as silky as they looked.
Huh. A woman he had never met before, who had charged into his apartment and refused to leave. He had no idea who she really was or what she was doing here.
Yet he wanted to hold her.
The thought had interrupted his phone call several times.
He wasn’t going mad. He’d just been working too hard. That was it. It had already been a long evening.
From the moment his flight had landed it had been one thing or another. He’d managed to sort out some of the details for the shareholders’ gala. Many more remained. He’d heard there were construction delays on the low-income housing development in the Bronx that was so dear to his heart. He’d talked to a few people at the Boston headquarters to see how Aunt Louise was doing after the fall she’d taken. The news was not good. Then he’d worked on trying to resolve problems with a building permit in Detroit.
It had only been about an hour ago that Ethan had changed into pajama bottoms and quieted down to read the newspaper. Before Holly had arrived, with the sparkling blue eyes and the creamy skin he now couldn’t take his gaze off.
“While we’re waiting for the pizza would it be okay if I took a shower?” she asked.
It would be okay if I took it with you.
Ethan surprised himself with the thought he didn’t voice. He settled for, “Go right ahead.”
Ethan did not like the way warmth resonated from Holly’s body when she passed by him en route to the shower. Did not like it a bit because it stirred sensations low within him. Fierce sensations. Urgent.
The bathroom door shut with the quick smack that only happened when you closed it with a foot. Did she always shut doors with her feet?
His tongue flicked at his upper lip when he heard the sound of the shower. He couldn’t help but imagine which article of clothing Holly was removing first. What each long limb might look like uncovered. Her torso was straight, rather than especially curvy, and he envisioned the smooth plain of her back. When he started to imagine what her... Well, he begged his brain to move to a different topic. No easy task.
Normally Ethan maintained a controlled world, without surprises. A world that allowed him to keep the upper hand. Maneuver as he saw fit. Because he was usually right.
Mushroom pizza, for heaven’s sake.
A thirty-four-year-old man knew his own ways. Protected his orbit. Holly seemed to tip the universe off-kilter. Made the earth spin off its axis.
He preferred his pizza with only mushrooms on it!
She had to be stopped.
Yet he hadn’t the heart to force her out on the street—especially given the time of night. He didn’t doubt that she was capable of fending for herself. But he didn’t want her to.
That insane idea glimmered again. He needed to get it out of his head.
Ethan had too much to think about already. He was in a bind. Aunt Louise needed to retire. She’d had a distinguished career, and Ethan wanted her to go out on top. Concern was growing that she would sustain a fall in public. That word would spread. That people might remember her as a woman who had stayed on past her prime. That she was doddering, weak, bruised... All things that Louise Benton was most certainly not.
His aunt and his Uncle Melvin—his father’s brother—had taken Ethan in as their own when he was nine years old. Now the time had come for the roles to be reversed. Ethan needed to make sure his decisions were in his aunt’s best interests. His father would have told him to. Uncle Mel would have
