Page 65 of Trouble Walked In

“I’m not discussing this with you.” He dipped his head into the water to rinse the shampoo out of his hair. For a minute or two, he couldn’t hear her over the rush of the water and the sound of his own thoughts as he relived last night in his head. He still couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that the woman he’d fantasized about for years had been in the backseat of his car.

What really blew his mind was last night. She’d been in his arms, naked, in full view of the stars and anybody who cared to watch. It had been hotter than any of his fantasies combined, and it was still hard to believe that it had really happened. But it had. He knew it had because he was still sore in places. He wanted her again, right now, in the shower with water streaming over her—

“Renic!”

Morgan’s shout broke through his fantasy.

He rubbed his face to clear his mind and moved the curtain aside so he could hear her better. “What? Say that again?”

“I said have you talked about it with her at all?”

He frowned. He’d obviously missed part of the conversation. “Talked about what?”

The tapping sound started back up, this time with metallic,rather than wooden, notes. She must have moved on to a pen as her implement of choice. “You never listen to me, you know that?”

“I was rinsing. Hang on a second.” He quickly washed the rest of his body, then turned off the water. “You were saying?”

“You two have been dancing around each other for years. Where’s this going, Renic? How many times have you done it? If it’s more than two she’s probably picturing your future together. How’s that going to work?”

He picked up the towel. “It’s none of your business how many times.”

He busied himself with drying off. Her tone echoed reminded him of how that little shit Carter had called him Mr. Temporary, which was unfair in the extreme. He had no intention of beingthatguy. Lizzie was the queen of handling logistics, and he ran his own company. They could make it work. “I’ll figure it out.”

The tapping stopped. “Oh, really? How? She owns an inn. Her life is there. Yours is everywhere else. You think she’ll just toss her life aside for you?”

“Of course not.” He hung up the towel, picked up the phone, and headed back into the bedroom to get dressed. “I can work from anywhere, including an inn in upstate New York. I could set up an office here, or I could commute by helicopter. Something like that.”

“That sounds exhausting. Have you askedherabout this?”

The sound of papers moving around made him pause. “What are you doing? Are you messing around on my desk?”

“I’m cleaning your office while I’m in here.” She pounded what sounded like a ream of paper on the desk. “How you find anything I’ll never know. There’s a contract sitting here from two years ago with coffee stains on it. And a petrifiedpack of peanuts. Stop deflecting. Have you talked to Lizzie about this?”

He glared at the phone. “I have a system. Stop messing with it. As for Lizzie, no. I’ve only been here a few days. We haven’t exactly had time to dive into that kind of topic.”

“But you’ve had time for a few romps in the sack.” Morgan clicked her tongue. “She’s not the type to take that lightly, you know. Plus, she’s been burned before.”

“What are you trying to say? I’m not anything like that asshole.” He pulled on his jeans with a little more force than necessary.

“No, you’re not,” Morgan said in her patient voice that she usually used for wayward talents. “But you will be if you don’t talk to her. Tell her how you feel. I realize that’s a tough concept for a man to grasp but trust me on this. Start working on what the future meanswithher, instead of doing it all by yourself.”

“You want me to have a deep life discussion with her now? We’re in the middle of trying to fix the Della situation. That’s the first priority.”

“Oh, Renic.” Morgan’s voice sounded patronizing. “No woman wants to hear she’s playing second fiddle to her little sister.”

He pictured Morgan shaking her head sadly at him and rolled his eyes. “She’s not a fiddle, second or otherwise. She’s more than that. Much more.”

“Oh yeah? Prove it,” Morgan said. “How are you going to show her she’s important?”

“This whole conversation is obnoxious. You’re heaping on pressure for no reason at all.”

“It’s for an excellent reason. I care about you, and your well-being. Your happiness translates into company stability.A man scrambled by hormones and lust doesn’t necessarily make wise business decisions.”

“I’m not in any way scrambled.”

“Look, all I’m saying is you’re only there a few more days at most. Less if you get Della back on board. Have you even thought about what happens between the two of you after that?”

He made a grumbling huffing sound at her.

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