Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,35
was an awfully long time.
He showed her to her room and said softly, “Make yourself at home, Mackenzie.”
He smiled charmingly at her. And she slammed the door in his face.
Mackenzie looked around the bedroom, noting the king size, four-poster bed. The door to the walk-in closet was open and her eyebrows rose as she peeked into it. Maybe she would do some shopping here after all.
She walked into a bathroom larger than the one back home, grateful that she wouldn’t have to share with Ethan. And sat down on the rim of the whirlpool tub. She longed for a good bubbly soak, but no way was she going to lay around naked and wet when Ethan was just in the other room.
Next time he left though, she was going to enjoy herself.
She quickly unpacked, her small wardrobe looking even more pathetic hanging in a small corner of the gigantic closet.
She wasn’t normally much of a shopper, had too many other plans for her money, but decided she’d have to give herself a clothing allowance. Might as well avail herself of everything New York had to offer.
She could just imagine Cassandra leering at her, and she said out loud, “And that does not include Ethan O’Connor.”
She glanced at the bedroom door guiltily, then laughed. It was going to take some getting used to living with someone.
She took a speedy shower, making sure all doors were locked between her and Ethan, then changed in to a long sleeve shirt and lounge pants for bed. She turned out the lights and opened the window shade. The city lights glittered in the night and she watched for hours, trying to get used to the thought of all those people crammed together.
Los Angeles might be a good sized city, but it didn’t compare to cramped New York at all.
A soft knock on her door made her jump.
She looked at the door, debating whether to open it or not, and finally got up, tiptoeing across the carpet. She opened the door a crack and peeked out at him.
He was dressed in a t-shirt and green plaid cotton pants. She looked down at his bare feet. He said, “I just wanted to make sure you were settled in and didn’t need anything.”
She looked back up, breathing in and out slowly. “Nope, don’t need anything.”
“I’ll be in the other room if you do.”
Oh, she knew exactly where he was. He didn’t need to paint a picture.
He smiled. “Good night, honey.”
She shut the door in his face again, making sure the lock clicked. His chuckle came through loud and clear through the flimsy door.
She crawled into bed, keeping the window open, staring out at the night, and wondering how she was ever going to fall asleep with Ethan just in the other room. With bare feet.
She fell asleep less than ten minutes later, not waking until the morning.
They quickly established a routine. Ethan went to work in the morning and Mackenzie practiced sleeping in. She wasn’t very good at it but lounging around in her pajamas until noon felt nearly as decadent.
And then Ethan would come home for lunch, change into his “tourist” clothes and drag her around New York. She’d stopped pretending to hate it after the second day. She loved it, loved it all. The sounds, the smells, the sheer humanity. The subway! Ethan had taken her on it that second day and she’d refused to get in his car ever since. She thought it might very well be the best thing about New York.
Ethan came home that day carrying a tabloid. He held it up and glared at her.
She said, “I guess this engagement isn’t keeping you out of the tabloids.”
He looked at her as if the fault lay entirely on her shoulders.
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t call Star and tell them you paid me a million dollars to be your fiancé.”
“And your friend?”
She hoped not. “She wouldn’t.”
She looked at the picture of him, serious and unsmiling, and the caption. A million dollars for a wife!
She said, “You know no one is going to believe it.”
“I want to know who told. Who knows about this?”
“Cassandra. That’s it. You think I want it to get out that I’m a sucker? That I would agree to marry you for a measly million?”
“Measly! I could get any woman to marry me for free!”
She laughed. “I know. Everybody knows you don’t have to pay a woman to do anything to you.”
She flipped through the rag. “They didn’t