Desire by Design - By Paula Altenburg Page 0,28

where to cut costs. She was in for a surprise. And he was prepared to be entertained by that, because it was no big secret that Eve liked to win.

He polished off the sandwich and headed into the kitchen to get a glass of water. The phone rang as he walked by, and he grabbed it, breaking the third house rule on Eve’s one-sided list. The small act of rebellion gave him a sense of satisfaction. “Hello?”

“I’m sorry. I must have the wrong number,” a woman said.

Matt wondered if he should identify himself, then decided against it. Let Eve do her own explaining.

“If you’re looking for Eve, then this is the right number. But she’s not home right now.”

“Oh.” A long silence. Then, “This is her mother. Could you tell Eve her father and I are coming up to the city for a few days at the end of the month? We thought we’d stay with her, but if there isn’t a spare room…”

In a two-bedroom house there wasn’t likely to be, but he could always move back into a hotel for a few days. He could even fly back to Toronto to do some business in his office, something he’d been putting off because he hadn’t wanted Eve to be alone in the house. This might provide the perfect opportunity.

“There’s plenty of room,” he said. “She’d love to have you stay here.” He figured the odds on that being true were fifty-fifty. Okay, maybe not that high.

“We’ll look forward to meeting you, then,” her mother said.

That sounded ominous. Maybe Eve’s rule about not answering the phone was a good one after all.

He shrugged it off, but the next time the phone rang, he waited for the answering machine to pick it up.

“Matt? Are you there?” Eve’s voice was muffled, like she was in a closet or maybe whispering.

Matt’s heart bounced like a basketball off his rib cage. Something was wrong or she wouldn’t be calling for him. He snatched up the receiver.

“Where are you?” he asked. “You sound funny.”

“At a job site, working on some renovations. I was going to walk home, but hadn’t planned to be here so late. My car keys are on a hook by the front door. I don’t suppose you could come and get me?”

That threw him. Had she been working late at construction sites for the entire past week?

He scraped his fingers through his hair. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I can always call a cab, but I’d rather not if you can come instead. Cabbies don’t really like to come down here at this time of night, and sometimes you have to wait a long time to find one who will.”

As she reeled off the address for him, Matt wrestled with an overwhelming urge to shout at her. He might not know the city well, but he read the papers, and he knew the parts to steer clear of. The fact it was hard to get a cab there at night should have told her a few things. One of them was that she shouldn’t be walking around that area in daylight, either.

He could yell at her later. The important thing now was to get her home. And when he did, her house rules were going to undergo some serious modifications.

He didn’t know how long it would take him to get to her, but he made a quick estimate, wanting to give her some sort of reassurance and a timeframe. She sounded afraid—and that terrified him.

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

…

He made it in less than ten.

He parked the car in front of a fire hydrant, ran to the building entrance, grabbed the heavy steel door, and jerked it open. Why wasn’t the door locked? And what had happened to all the lights?

A fiery pain blossomed in his leg and exploded upward into his groin, doubling him over. He heard a sharp cry and the sound of something heavy as it hit the floor, then Eve was at his side, both of her small hands scrabbling at his shirtsleeve.

“Are you okay?” she asked, anxious.

Matt clamped a hand over whatever was now embedded in the inner flesh of his right thigh. He felt cold sweat beading on his forehead and trickling down his back.

“No. I’m not. Put a light on, will you?”

As bright light flooded the room, he took quick inventory. There was surprisingly little blood, and although his leg hurt like hell, the nail didn’t seem to have hit anything vital. Just an