‘So, what made you change your mind?’ she asked.
‘There’s a priceless painting at the Met I’ve had my eye on—’
‘And you’re putting together a team?’ she smirked. ‘Is that your way of saying you realised what a valuable asset I am?’
‘A man can only deny the truth before him for so long.’ I allowed my eyes to flick from her face to the tips of her bare toes and back up again. ‘Are your assets still for hire?’
She blushed but her grey eyes turned hard. ‘They never were, as far as you’re concerned.’
‘You’renotoffering to help me find the man in my mother’s will, then?’
She raised one eyebrow. ‘Help is not hire. And I have a couple of ground rules.’
Stephen’s dark eyes narrowed on me and it was an entirely different look to the one he’d just traced down my body, but no less stirring. I hadn’t counted on him turning up this morning after he’d sounded so adamant yesterday about not needing help. I could’ve done without the meet and greet in my jammies, but I was determined not to let him know that it made me self-conscious. Or that his lingering gazes were calling to my baser urges.
‘First and foremost,nothingis going to happen between you and I, so you can cut the flirting out.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Yes, you do. Now I’m willing to let it go for now, ’cause I’m not sure guys like you know what to dootherthan flirt with women, but you can use our time together as a learning experience. No sex is happening between us, so don’t waste your energy. I am not a challenge to you because I stood you up before. I am not a convenient set of lady-bits for you to make the most of while you’re in the vicinity. There will be no shenanigans. Understood?’ I paused and waited for a response.
‘Understood…’ he said slowly, his jaw set as though he wanted to say something, but he was restraining himself.
I sighed. ‘But?’
‘But…if I wanted to have sex with you, Noelle, it wouldn’t be because you’re the closest available female. I have a little more discernment than that.’
‘Do you?’ I made no effort to hide the scepticism in my tone.
‘Yes. What makes you think otherwise?’
I didn’t want to drop Beth in it by relaying the stories she’d told me about the alternating women at his apartment when she stayed over with Nick at the beginning of the year. Or the one who showed up drunk and crying because he’d dropped her without so much as a phone call. I knew the three of them had made peace now and I didn’t want to wreck that, so I could only back up my statement with personal evidence which, luckily, I had too. ‘Err…Christmas.’
‘What about it?’
‘You weren’t interested in me until you’d already tried your luck with Beth. It was like I didn’t exist in that lobby when you arrived at the hotel. You only gave me your number when you realised you weren’t going to get anywhere with her. Since there were no other single women my age at the hotel, you gave it a shot with me.’ I shrugged, as though it didn’t bother me even slightly. It was an indisputable fact. He was just one of those men who needed to have the prospect of a female to get physical with, all the time.
He laughed. ‘You’re wrong. You are so wrong. There is no way that I wasn’t aware of you when I arrived at the hotel. I recall speaking to you, directly, but maybe you were too busy laughing at me from behind a leaflet to notice? I wasn’t getting any signals that you were interested, so my first impression of you was not as favourable as my second, when you actually bothered to talk to me – that’s all. It wasn’t because you were a last resort for my insatiable sexual appetite.’
The fine hairs on the back of my neck lifted but I wasn’t going to let him start working on my ego. ‘First impressions are based on instinct and usually correct. Seems like you shoulda stuck to yours ’cause I wasn’t interested in the end, was I?’ When he didn’t respond, I carried on: ‘So, now we understand that, we can move on to my second rule. If you genuinely want my help, I expect you to hear me out, not dismiss every suggestion I make – no matter how unpalatable they might sound.’
His lips pressed together in a little pucker that told me he was suspicious of what I was saying. Either that or he was flirting again, because it was an undeniably attractive little pout.
‘That stands to reason.’
‘You would think, wouldn’t ya?’ I tipped the rest of my coffee back. ‘I’m guessing you’ve done an internet search?’
‘Yes. He’s not on Facebook.’
‘So, how d’you know he lives here?’
‘There was an envelope with his name and address on in my mum’s wardrobe.’
‘An old flame maybe?’ I moved away from the counter and grabbed the nearest pad and pen from the sofa, perching on it near him, but not next to him. I flipped to a new page, scribbling down a few notes. I looked up when Stephen hadn’t answered and raised my eyebrows.
‘You know, if you want me to stop flirting, perhaps you should put some clothes on,’ he said.
‘Are you breaking my ground rules already?’
