Page 3 of Going Deep
“Then why do you do it?”
An easy question for a man whose clothes probably cost more than her rent. “Because I like eating and paying my bills.”
“Fair enough,” he allowed, and though his eyes had darkened at her snapping response, inclined his head in apology.
Shit. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”
His gaze remained steady, his mouth unsmiling. “Perhaps I touched a nerve?”
“Perhaps,” she admitted and, eager to change the subject, gestured with her wine. “What about you? Do you have a job besides the, um, the club?”
For a moment she wasn’t sure he would answer. Then he shrugged, and his lips curled in a slow smile. “It keeps me fairly busy, but I do have some other interests.”
“Oh?” she managed. God, that smile was lethal.
“Mmm.” His smile deepened. She looked away in self-defense—it was that or start drooling—and saw Anna waving at her from across the room.
“Oh. Um. Excuse me, but I think Anna needs me.”
Michael glanced over his shoulder. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later, then.”
“Right. Later.” Relieved, and maybe a little disappointed, Ginger hurried over to Anna. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I was going to ask,” Anna whispered, her eyes darting to Michael’s retreating figure. “Since when are you so chummy with Michael?”
“He was distracting me so Simon could talk to Lola.”
Anna’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “Grant did the same thing. He said Simon took her up to the attic. Come on.”
Ginger started up the stairs after her friend. “We’re going up there?”
“We damn well are. I want to make sure he’s not keeping her there against her will,” Anna replied, then winced. “And also that she’s not killing him.”
Ginger remembered the fury on Lola’s face. “Valid.”
Anna glanced at Ginger as they topped the stairs. “What were you and Michael talking about?”
“Just stuff,” Ginger said breathlessly and told herself it was because they’d just run up the stairs and not because of that slow, sexy smile. “Small talk, chit-chat.”
“Really?” Anna’s lips pursed, a teasing light in her pretty eyes. “Because it looked pretty flirty from where I was standing.”
“I think flirty is his default,” Ginger evaded.
“Well, that’s certainly true,” Anna muttered and hurried to the door at the end of the hall. “Okay, let’s make sure Simon’s not being eviscerated.”
Happy that the focus was no longer on her, Ginger followed. And put her decidedly flirty thoughts of the man with the green eyes and sexy smile out of her mind.
CHAPTER ONE
Lola answered Ginger’s knock on her door with a smile. “Hey, where’ve you been?”
“Uh, across the hall? Where I live?”
Lola stepped back to let Ginger in. “Yeah, but I haven’t seen you since we got back from the wedding, and that was almost a week ago.”
Ginger stepped into the apartment. “Probably because you’ve been too busy having makeup sex.”
Lola shut the door with a laugh. “It was only makeup sex the first day. After that it was ‘hey I get to bang my man whenever I want so why don’t I do it now’ sex.”
