Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,54
anybody to meet us, I will hide your body where no one can find it.”
He smiled and said lightly, “You just want me all to yourself.”
Mackenzie let go of his shirt and walked out. “Whatever gets you through the day, O’Connor.”
Ethan followed her, chuckling.
And turned off his phone before they got in the elevator.
Halfway through their shopping expedition, Mackenzie left Ethan to grab two cups of coffee. Ethan had told her someone in the store would happily go get it for them, but Mackenzie needed a break. A break from shopping, a break from the over-solicitous staff, a break from Ethan. He’d been treating her with kid gloves since her father’s unexpected attempt back into her life. Soft touches, whispered words. His every attention focused on her, waiting to lift even the smallest frown into a smile.
It was grating on her.
She didn’t need to be coddled because she had a lousy father. She didn’t want it to affect her at all. And Ethan was making it clear that not only was she upset, he could see it.
She didn’t like either of those situations.
Ethan had finally waived her off to get coffee, apparently realizing she needed a moment to herself, and Mackenzie knew he would take the opportunity to buy something highly inappropriate. She decided if she didn’t know what it was, she couldn’t be embarrassed about it.
Mackenzie waited in line and didn’t notice the man a few people ahead of her until he paid for his coffee. The tattoo peeking out from the cuffs of his expensive suit was what grabbed her attention. By the time he turned around, she had hardened her heart and got a good hold of her wallet.
Her father offered her one of the two cups he’d bought and she thought about ignoring it, thought about throwing it in his face.
His eyes glittered. “That’s not how to get what you want from me.”
“I want you to go away.”
“I know it. And throwing a fit isn’t how to get it.”
She took the cup, following him to a table and sitting stiffly.
Luke looked at her, his eyes memorizing the new lines on her face, the firmness to her mouth, her blond hair. He quietly valued the new clothes she was wearing and his eyes lingered, just a touch too long, on her engagement ring.
He sat his cup down untouched and said, “You’re not a kid, anymore.”
“Ten years will do that.”
He nodded. She couldn’t help but notice the changes in him. His golden brown hair was peppered with gray, the laugh lines deep in his face.
He picked his cup back up, took a slow sip, and said, “I’m married.”
She blinked but didn’t hide her surprise fast enough. He chuckled. “You’d like her. Thought I was Satan himself when she met me; hasn’t changed her mind much in the five years we’ve been married. She wanted to meet you, damn near broke my jaw when she found out I had a grown daughter I’d never bothered to tell her about.” He looked out the window. “Told her she could meet you next time.”
Mackenzie sipped her coffee, not surprised to find it sweet and rich just like she liked it. Her father remembered the little details just fine. The little details, he always said, was what kept a con man out of jail.
Luke sighed and looked back at her, reading in her eyes that there would be no next time. “Your sister is turning three this November,” he said and her breath whooshed out as if he’d punched her.
She hid her trembling hands under the table. “Cozy. A nice wife, a new child.”
He smiled slightly. “My wife is not nice. I’d call her prickly, with a side of bulldog thrown in for good measure. She got her teeth into me and I haven’t wanted to get them out yet.”
“That’s not the type you normally go for. She must be loaded, and smart enough to keep it out of your hands.”
He chuckled, a low rumble that made the woman sitting at the table next to them spill her coffee. “Oh, I’d taken her inheritance before she ever met me. Tracked me down to get it back.” He shook his head, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “She doesn’t believe a word I say. And still just won’t let go.”
“Very different from my mother.”
He handed his napkin to the poor woman at the next table, smiling into her eyes and making her face flush red. Then turned back to Mackenzie. “Your