She kept me waiting.
It didn’t surprise me. What did, however, was her response when I finally left my office and stopped by her desk, my umbrella tucked under my arm.
“Dammit, I’m not going home with you.”
My eyebrow raised. I wasn’t offended, merely curious. “That might wound me, had I any intention of inviting you to my house.” It wasn’t technically a home. I slept there sometimes, and the closet held my clothes, but it wasn’t a home in the truest sense of the word.
Despite being an architect, I had no idea what that word actually meant.
“Oh, of course not. You can fuck me here, but you wouldn’t actually deign to allow me into your rarefied air.” She jerked to her feet, her boat-sized purse in one hand and her keys in the other. No umbrella, I noticed. No rain slicker. Nothing to shield her from the elements. Any part of her.
I wasn’t thinking about her garters or her purple lace panties. I definitely wasn’t thinking about the nail-me-heels that had left an impression in my ass.
“Where’s your vehicle? You had one the night we—” I cleared my throat. “Where’s your vehicle?” I repeated.
“In the shop.”
So that was probably why she hadn’t wanted to buy lunch. If she was more strapped than usual, she’d need to cut back. Hopefully, the stipend would help.
I remembered all too well what it was like to not have more than a few pennies to my name. I didn’t want her to experience what I had. She was the granddaughter of a local scion. She shouldn’t have to struggle for even a moment.
“Is the problem serious?”
Ignoring
me, she tugged out her phone, glanced at it, then shoved it back in her bag. “Look, really, this isn’t necessary. It’s a quick walk to the train and—”
“It’s pouring out.” I inclined my chin toward the wall of windows and the rain slicking down them. “You’ll be drenched in an instant.”
“Not the first time in my life I’ve been wet.” She shot me a look under her lashes, then sighed and hoisted her bag on her shoulder. “Okay. Just a ride to the train.”
I intended to drive her all the way home, but that inevitable fight could wait a few more minutes. Why have all my fun at once?
We walked down to the parking garage in silence. The building was nearly tomb-quiet, but I knew the cameras were still going. Whatever Violet thought about us walking out together, the fact remained that we certainly didn’t appear to have engaged in intimate contact recently. Grace stayed as far away from me as she possibly could, walking stiffly in those seductive shoes that made her ass sway. I wished I could walk behind her to get the entire effect, but that probably would’ve been a bit obvious.
I led her to my Range Rover and she got inside, buckling up in silence. I’d begun to think she wouldn’t speak at all until we were miles from the home address she’d listed in Marblehead on her employment form. I knew the area well, since I owned several properties there—including my latest acquisition, which was far more important than all the rest—and the street she’d indicated didn’t ring a bell. The town proper wasn’t large, but it had a few streets that were zoned strictly for commercial properties. Here and there, there were a few residential buildings scattered among the businesses.
“Stop here,” she said.
I frowned, glancing around. We were a couple of blocks from the address I’d memorized. “We’re not on—”
“There’s a new all-night coffee shop on the corner where I spend my evenings.” She tugged a small generic-brand tablet out of her bag and waved it, along with a stylus. So the pad she’d been toting earlier must’ve been her own. “I’m into those coloring apps.”
“A coloring app? What the hell is that?”
She shook her head as if I was impossibly daft. Perhaps I was. “It’s just what it sounds like. It’s an app where you color onscreen using your stylus or your finger. It’s not quite as satisfying as holding a colored pencil, but it’s still fun.”
“Or eating a crayon,” I mused.
She laughed as I swung to the curb near the coffee place. “What? You eat crayons?”
“Ate. Turquoise tasted the best. Of course this was back in kindergarten, so they’ve most likely changed all the colors now. They’re probably all girly.”
“Because turquoise is so manly.”
“Hmph.” I hit the button to unlock the car and looked around at the hushed, water-logged streets, uncomfortable with leaving her there even if her street was close by. But the coffee shop appeared inviting, with low lights and people clustered around tables. “I can join you, wait until you’re ready to go.”
Her safety wasn’t my only consideration. Marblehead wasn’t exactly a dangerous environment. I was also curious about this app she’d mentioned, I had to admit.