When evening rolled around, we were all exhausted. We’d even fanned out and searched the grounds beyond the house but still turned up nothing.
I had been doing my best to avoid Sebastian while we searched, but the two of us ended up scanning the same section of his back lawn at the same time. He had stripped off his suit jacket and only had on the white undershirt that made no secret of the powerful body beneath.
“I really am sorry,” I said after a few moments of awkward silence. Sebastian was pulling bushes apart and peering inside.
“If Mr. Meatball really is gone, I guess this will be the end of your brief stint as my employee.”
He said it offhandedly, but the words made my throat catch. I’d just barely had enough time to start feeling incredibly lucky for this situation. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to focus on my writing. Now it sounded like it was going to be gone within twenty-four hours because I couldn’t keep track of a cat.
“Where was the last place you saw him?”
“My brother’s lap,” I said.
“Your brother? What was your brother doing in my house? And why didn’t you tell me you had a brother?”
I had Sebastian’s full attention now. He’d stood up from the bushes and was staring down at me, arms crossed.
“I did. I mentioned I called him, and he didn’t answer, but—” I trailed off as the obvious struck me so powerfully it nearly made me fall to my knees. “Oh no,” I said. “I think I know where Mr. Meatball is.”
18
Sebastian
I drove Kenzie to her brother’s place in the city. From the brief description she’d given me of the guy, I was expecting some scruffy hippie living in a hollowed-out shipping container. Instead, she told me we’d arrived when we pulled up to a swanky apartment building in the heart of the city. I raised an eyebrow at Kenzie as we got out.
She’d been wearing a bathrobe when I got home and had been in a medical gown before that. I’d insisted she take a minute to change before we left and seeing her in normal clothes was a pleasant surprise. I kept finding my eyes drawn to her exposed thighs. She had on a deep green dress with a little golden cord cinched around her waist. It was modest, but in that sexy way that only seemed to make her figure more alluring. I could easily see the swell of her ass and the shape of her chest through the material, and my hands practically itched to be on her.
She’d dyed her blue-tipped hair brown since the conference and had it pulled up in a messy ponytail. She ran her fingers through it as we got out of the car, eyes trailing up to the top of the building.
“Nervous?” I asked.
Her gaze shifted to me. “I’m kind of scared he didn’t do it, because that’ll mean Mr. Meatball is still out there somewhere waiting for us to find him. But I’m also afraid my brother actually catnapped Mr. Meatball.”
“Does he do this sort of thing often?” I asked.
We headed in the main entrance of the building and went for the elevators. Kenzie followed oddly close by my side. She also stood unusually close when we spoke. She was just one of those people, I realized. Her personal space boundary was abnormally small. Having the scent of her vanilla scented shampoo in my nose wasn’t doing me any favors.
I was determined to keep our relationship purely professional. I didn’t plan to fuck her again. I didn’t want things to get complicated, and that meant the constant thrum of desire I felt around her needed to stay strictly in the realm of fantasy. I didn’t fully understand the way she made me feel. I definitely didn’t understand why I could feel my creativity stirring after four months of dormancy around her.
But the last thing I needed was to jump into something we couldn’t easily back out of. For now, I just wanted her close so I could figure out what the hell she was doing to me. From a safe distance.
“What?” Kenzie asked.
I stirred when I saw she was looking up at me. The damn woman was mere inches away from my side in the elevator. I could’ve counted the little flecks of gold in her brown eyes. I could see the faded spatter of freckles across her upturned nose. “I’m just wondering if your first day as my cat sitter could’ve possibly gone worse.”
She lowered her eyes.
I usually had no problem being an asshole. I’d perfected the art, even. It was the simplest way to avoid complications. But Kenzie had an irritating habit of making me feel like an asshole when I tried it on her.
“A catnapping,” I mused. With effort, I lightened my tone. “As long as Mr. Meatball doesn’t wind up dead, I have to at least give you credit for an interesting evening.”