Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,34
cells when you open your mouth.”
“It’s a common affliction. I’ve really only met one woman who can keep half of them working in my vicinity.”
She blinked, her eyebrows rising up to her hairline. She said slowly, as if she hadn’t heard him correctly, “Half?”
“I’m tempted to say three-quarters but I’m also a little afraid of what you’d do if I did.”
“Good. I like you a little afraid of me.”
“Afraid is maybe too strong a word. Worried? Cautious?”
“Worried works.”
He stared at her, wondering if maybe she should stay in a hotel, after all. She did have a healthy level of rage inside her, and he did seem to provoke her a little too much for comfort.
She smiled slowly and he shook his head at her. “I’m not worried about my safety. . . nearly at all.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want you to be worried.”
He cleared his throat. “Yes. Well. Shall we? We can be in New York in time for bed. “
She sighed. “You know at least one thing about me, Ethan.”
He took her elbow, leading her out of the office and down to the waiting car. “And what is that, Mackenzie?”
“How to push my buttons.”
“It’s my favorite pastime.”
“As long as it’s not dressing up in women’s skin.”
He smiled down at her. “I think you’ll be okay. My closet’s full at the moment.”
Six hours later, Ethan took a deep breath of New York air, happy to be back home. He enjoyed traveling and that west coast culture, but New York was home. The sights, the sounds, the smells. Both cities might be on the coast but even the air was different.
And he always missed that wonderful New York stench that proclaimed people lived here. He wasn’t ever sure when he was in Los Angeles. Sometimes he thought it was a city inhabited by driverless cars.
Mackenzie strained to see the tops of the buildings through the window and he patted her knee. “We’ll do a proper tour once you’re settled in.”
Their driver pulled up to his building and he helped Mackenzie out. She looked straight up, then took a deep breath. Whether she was testing the air, like he had, or if she was fortifying herself for untold travails ahead, he wasn’t sure. Maybe it was both.
They rode the elevator to the top and Mackenzie glanced at him. “What is it about you being at the top of every building?”
“It’s the best. Once you see the view, you’ll understand.”
“I doubt it.”
He crossed his arms, turning towards her. “Are you afraid of heights?”
“I didn’t think so. But you keep testing me.”
She eyed him as they stepped out. “Your family doesn’t live on the same floor as you, right?”
He grinned. “Different building. Across town.”
She tried to hide her relief but he laughed anyway.
He unlocked the door, opening it in a grand gesture. “Welcome.”
“I really would prefer to have my own place.”
“I don’t think so. Besides, it’ll be fine. We get along great.”
She looked at him as if he didn’t know how to define great and muttered something about gaining weight.
She stepped in. “You’re a workaholic, right? Gone from dusk til dawn?”
“I am usually fairly busy.”
She looked at him hopefully and he said, “But I’ve managed to lighten the load for the next few weeks,” and her face fell.
She took a look around and he wondered if she would be impressed. Nothing much seemed to, a fact that he found refreshing. And annoying.
She glanced over the furnishings, nothing about the beige and blue room seeming to grab her attention, and then her eyes caught the window. She walked toward it slowly, looking at the skyscrapers, the lights blinking on in the setting sun.
He followed her and said, “Worth it, isn’t it?”
“Doesn’t it make you feel small? To be one of so many?”
He nodded. “And amazed that it works so well.”
She looked at him. “So says the man at the top.”
He couldn’t argue with that. “So says the man at the top.”
She turned back to look out the window and he headed for the kitchen.
“Hungry?” He opened the fridge and laughed. “It looks like the housekeeper stocked up.”
He pulled out a bottle of chilled champagne and wiggled his eyebrows at her. “There’s even some chocolate-dipped strawberries in here for us.”
Mackenzie turned away from the window and folded her arms across her chest. “I’m going to unpack.”
He laughed. “Maybe later, then.”
“Not in a million years, O’Connor.”
He put the champagne back. Maybe he could talk her into it after she’d gotten used to living with him. A million years