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Kate glanced at the clock. “Let me just finish up here, and I’ll show you upstairs?”
The thought of being in such close proximity to this man, with his dark chocolate eyes and his bad boy smirk, was a little overwhelming, but the decision had been made now.
“Do you want some help?”
“Oh, no,” she flustered. “Your job starts tomorrow. Just enjoy your coffee for now.”
“What kind of boss are you?” He smirked as he lifted the cup to his mouth. Kate watched as he swallowed a sip, closing his eyes briefly in pleasure at the taste of it, and had to suppress a whimper.
“I’m tough but fair.”
“I can’t imagine you being tough.” The lopsided grin again. He had a lip ring, which he ran his tongue over briefly as he smiled at her. Kate’s knees almost gave out.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Was she flirting with him? She was definitely flirting with him. How could she resist when he looked like… well, likethat. It was a bad idea though, wasn’t it, given that she’d just offered him a job and a place to stay?
As she turned back to tidy up, she felt his eyes on her. She didn’t know how long he was going to stay, but she already knew it would somehow be too long and not enough.
CHAPTER7
EMILE
“Okay, ready to go?”
Emile looked up from the newspaper — he’d been engrossed in an article about a local dance marathon that had gone awry — to see Kate hanging up her apron and switching off the lights.
Somehow, the day had completely disappeared, without the use of alcohol or any other substances that he would have likely consumed at Rockapalooza under the advice of Logan, Jacques and Raphael.
He wondered whether he’d have a bunch of texts blowing up his phone when he finally got a chance to switch it back on, or whether they’d already forgotten that he was due to join them. The fact that he wasn’t sure which way it would fall didn’t exactly bode well for their friendship. He actually strongly suspected that a bevy of girls and some hard liquor would have taken precedence over concern for his welfare. He shoved the thought to the back of his mind. It was too depressing to think that nobody would care that he was, essentially, missing in the middle of nowhere. Not his parents. Not his brothers. Not his so-called friends.
“Yes. Very much so.”
All he had to do was focus on what was in front of him. And what was in front of him was a very pretty woman, who had miraculously solved all of his immediate problems, intriguing him completely in the process. What kind of person just offered a room and a job to a stranger? No one he knew would do such a thing purely out of the goodness of their heart, but he couldn’t think of what her ulterior motive might possibly be. Maybe some people were just kind and good?
Kate gestured for him to follow her through a door to the side of the cafe and up a set of stairs. He tried very hard not to stare at her ass in her tight jeans as she walked in front of him, chatting all the while about getting him a spare key cut and explaining how the lights were sometimes a little temperamental so you had to turn them onjust so. He really did try. He mostly succeeded, too.
Kate opened another door at the top of the stairwell, and stepped back to let him into the apartment. His first impression was that it was a riot of color. In the palace, only certain colors were allowed. Mostly muted, with a few jewel tones here and there. Anything else would have been deemed tacky or gauche. But Kate’s place was so bright and… happy. The walls were all white but she’d covered them with prints of all shapes and sizes, and there was a big squishy blue sofa that dominated the wall, covered in cushions. Plants in brightly colored pots decorated every surface, so different from the stiff, cut flowers that he was used to. The whole place made him want to smile.
“It’s not much…” Kate shrugged, suddenly seeming a little embarrassed by the space as she followed him in.
“It’s… perfect.” Emile was surprised to find that he actually meant it. This seemed like a home. He wasn’t sure that he’d ever been in one before. He’d certainly been in a lot of houses. His friends would tour around their various properties, throwing parties as they went, but not one of those places was occupied for more than a few weeks at a time. There were no signs of life, only signs that the owners could pay expensive interior decorators to tell them what to do.
He didn’t know Kate really at all, other than from their brief exchange at the cafe, but stepping into her apartment made him feel like they’d been friends forever. It felt like her. He wanted to go around and inspect all of her little ornaments and take a closer look at the photos on the wall, but he knew that would be an invasion of privacy, even if she had offered for him to stay here.
“Well, you can kind of see most of it from here.” Kate gestured around. The place was open plan and airy, the late evening sunshine making the room glow.
“Sofa, TV, kitchen with all the usual bits, dining table…” she listed them off as she pointed. “Laundry stuff’s in this cupboard. And then the bathroom’s through here.”
Emile dutifully followed her on the tour, which took all of three minutes, before they were standing in his room.
“This one will be yours. There’s not much in the closet, but if you need me to move anything then I’m sure we can make it work.”
The bedroom was smaller than his closet back at the palace. The walls were painted a light blue, and the bedding was bright white. There were more plants on the windowsill. Emile hoped she wasn’t expecting him to keep them alive; he’d never had to water anything in his life and he was sure he would do it wrong. There was a mirror on one wall, and a closet door and… that was it.
It was certainly humbler than he was used to, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He’d been out of the palace for less than twenty-four hours and somehow he already had a place to stay and a job. Without the help of his parents, or his usual method of just flashing some cash and watching it all land at his feet. No, this was something all his own.
He suddenly felt immense affection for this little room, and the woman who was standing there with him.
