Winner Takes All (22 page)

Brushing a hand along the side of his face, she laughed. “The offer doesn’t have an expiration date.”

This was exactly what he wanted to hear—her laughter and the promise that this thing between them had a future—but there were still misunderstandings that needed to be cleared up. Although possessing Eva was everything he’d dreamed of and more, he needed to know where he stood, and to know for a fact that she wasn’t seeing anyone else. He kissed her deeply, then pulled away before matters got out of hand. “We need to talk,” he said dampeningly.

Eva groaned and prepared for the worst. She had known there were issues still to be discussed; she just didn’t want to do it now while she was glowing from his touch. Why couldn’t they do this tomorrow when they were both running out of there to get to work on time? “All right,” she said, arranging the pillow comfortably under her head.

Cole took a deep breath. “What’s going on between you and your boss?” She opened her mouth to protest, but he forestalled her. “Look, I realize that you’re not having an affair. You’re too honest to sleep with me if you’re already sleeping with someone else, but something was going on at that table tonight. What was it?”

“I don’t know,” she stated flatly.

He raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“I really don’t,” she said. “Nothing has ever happened between me and Ethan. For god’s sake, tonight was the first time I’d ever talked with him one-on-one. Yes, he seemed interested in me tonight, but I swear I have no idea where that came from.”

Now he gave her a speaking look.

“All right,” she conceded with an ironic smile, “I have
some
idea, but he’s never expressed an interest before. I assure you I was as shocked as you by his behavior. It came completely out of left field and was thoroughly inappropriate and I told him the second you left that there wasn’t a chance in hell of anything developing between us. I made it extremely clear. You do believe me, don’t you?”

Cole kissed her brow, which was furled with concern. “Yes, of course I do. I’m sorry that I lost my temper. Just seeing you with him…. I was almost okay until he kissed you. But I didn’t mean to wait for you at the top of your stairs like some sort of stalker.”

“I was happy to see you, a little nervous, of course, since you’re so very formidable when you’re angry, but also happy and tremendously relieved. I thought it was over,” she said, surprised how easy it was to be honest with him, “when you walked away with such indifference. I have my pride. I wasn’t going to run after you with an explanation and beg you to listen, but I was so happy that you came here.” She paused for a moment. “You haven’t asked about the Hammond collection.”

He looked at her. “What about it?”

“Tonight, the way Ethan implied that I set out to seduce you to get the Hammond collection. It’s not true,” she said quietly.

Even before she made the statement, he’d known it wasn’t true. Earlier, in the car, when he had considered the possibility, his ability to think clearly had been jammed by Ethan’s possessiveness. “Of course not.”

The conviction in his voice made her smile. “I was afraid you’d believe it. You’ll recall you made a similar implication the first time we met.”

“I did, yes, and I’m sorry for it. I was trying to figure you out. And myself.”

“I appreciate your faith in me.”

Cole shrugged it off. He didn’t want her gratitude, especially because he hadn’t earned it, not really. He had eventually come to his senses, but for a few minutes this evening he had been entirely lost to reason. God, to think that he’d actually called Lucy. What a tragedy that would have been! “I think we need to strike a deal, to avoid a repeat of tonight,” he said sensibly. He needed to apply his business acumen to this problem like he did all others.

Eva couldn’t imagine what kind of deal would achieve that, but she was open to suggestions. “All right.”

“I want us to be exclusive.”

Eva sat up in the bed and looked at him. This was the last thing she expected. Since when did international playboys make requests like that? “What?”

“While we’re dating, I won’t see anyone else and you won’t see anyone else,” he explained. “How does that sound?”

Except for the implied temporaries of “while we’re dating,” it sounded wonderful. “Fair enough.”

“Now that that’s settled,” he said, pushing the blanket aside and exposing her breasts to his greedy gaze, “let’s see if I can make up for before.”

“I promise you there’s nothing to make up for,” she said with deep conviction.

Cole ran his tongue over her breast and ran his fingers down her body. “Are you sure?” he whispered, his clever fingers playing with her soft feminine folds.

She sighed. “Well, maybe a little something.”

***

Eva woke to a ringing she’d never heard before. For a moment she thought the sound was the much-vaunted bells and whistles that people in love talk about but then she realized it was Cole’s cell phone.

She looked at the clock: 6:26. Who in their right mind called before 7
A.M.?

Feeling Cole stir, she lifted her head from where it lay in the hollow of his shoulder and looked at him. His eyes were closed as if still asleep, but his lips were turned up in the pleased smile of an awake man. “I believe that’s for you,” she said softly.

“It’s not important,” he said while his other hand, the one not imprisoned by her head, roamed her body freely. He caressed her stomach and thighs and delighted in the beautiful, soft feel of her.

“How do you know?” she asked, her senses awaking slowly to the sensuous tug of him. It was amazing how well he knew which buttons to press. If he hands kept roaming, she would be purring in a matter of seconds.

“It’s Mrs. Hemingway. She calls me every morning at 6:30 to go over my schedule for the day.”

“It’s not yet six-thirty.”

“Obviously your clock is slow. I assure you, Mrs. Hemingway is never wrong.”

Eva thought of the tight-lipped secretary and laughed. “What would she say if I answered the phone?”

“Feel free to find out,” he offered, not the least bit concerned by the prospect.

But his hand had reached her breast now, all but guaranteeing that she would do nothing of the kind. There were more interesting things happening this morning than the sound of shocked disapproval emanating from one gatekeeper–old family retainer. Besides, she wasn’t brave enough. Eva muttered something about forgoing the pleasure just as Cole captured her lips in a consuming kiss. In no time, Eva forgot all about Mrs. Hemingway.

The next time an electronic device started beeping, it was Eva’s alarm. “Now,
that
is important,” she said, wondering if she would have the strength to pull herself free from the warmth of his embrace. Why couldn’t he have gotten all jealous over Ethan on a Friday night? Then they could have spent the whole day in her apartment discovering things about each other.

Cole tightened his hold on her while conceding that it was indeed time they got up. “I have a long boring day of meetings from breakfast to dinner. Not one devastatingly beautiful redhead who makes my knees go weak on the entire schedule.”

“Not that Mrs. Hemingway would have a record of it if she were,” she pointed out.

Cole laughed and insisted that things had worked out for the best. “No doubt I would have been interested in you any way we met, but you wouldn’t have charmed me so thoroughly under any other circumstance.”

“Yes, me holding on to my temper while insisting she make the note in ink—very charming indeed.”

Cole wasn’t put off by the self-deprecating sarcasm in her voice and captured her lips to demonstrate once again how charmed he was. The alarm continued to sound, and as much as they both didn’t want to admit it, they conceded it was time for showers and coffee and rides uptown.

“Although I suppose you have to go home and change first,” Eva said as she climbed out of bed. Suddenly her head was filled with visions of his stuff lying around: his shaving cream in her bathroom, his dress shirts in her closet.

“Not at all. I keep some clothes on hand at the office,” he said. “I’ll change there.”

“Of course you do,” she muttered as she walked to the bathroom. She realized she was being irrational—there were reasons to keep a change of clothes at the office other than the obvious one—but she couldn’t help it. Despite her best intentions, Cole’s reputation was always foremost in her mind. Now she determinedly pushed it back yet again. There was no point in ruining a perfectly wonderful morning after with doubts.

Eva was drying off after a lovely shower with Cole when someone knocked on her door. She paused for a moment to consider the unexpected arrival. The only early-morning visitor she ever got was the guy from Con Ed, and he had dropped by last week. She wrapped a robe around her shoulders and went to look through the peephole. It was Ruth. Ruth?

She opened the door with a baffled look on her face. Ruth was awake and alert and bright-eyed. This was strange. Her friend never looked awake until after ten o’clock and her second soy latte.

“Don’t look so surprised,
guapa,
” Ruth said, brushing by her friend, who stood in the doorway with her mouth open. “I had an early shoot in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by. Your neighbor—scruffy guy with long blond hair and a surfboard tattoo—was kind enough to let me in.” She was holding a brown paper bag filled with bagels. “It was for a pricey suntan lotion that blocks UVA, UVB and UVC rays. I’m still not sure they didn’t make up UVC for the ad campaign, but I must admit it sounds good. I’d buy it.”

Eva stared at her for a moment longer before closing the door. She couldn’t remember the last time Ruth dropped by in the morning before work. In fact, she was pretty sure it was never. “Here, let me get you some coffee,” she said, reaching for the coffeepot, which had stopped percolating only a few minutes before.

Ruth pushed her away. “Let me pour the coffee. You get ready for work.”

Eva was about to thank her but didn’t get a chance. The bathroom door opened, and there stood Cole with a towel wrapped around his waist. Ruth’s eyes practically popped out of her head.

“Oh, my God,” she said, sitting down at the kitchen table.

Eva smothered a laugh, although she knew just how Ruth felt. A still-wet-from-the-shower Cole was a sight to behold. “Um, uh, Cole, this is my friend Ruth,” she said, because she didn’t know what else to do other than to make introductions. “Ruth, this is my friend—” She broke off when she realized how inadequate that description was. “This is Cole.”

Ruth still had that flabbergasted look in her eyes, but she stood up and greeted him properly with a handshake. Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it—he didn’t need both hands to keep the towel in place. “Cole Hammond, I presume?” she said, as if she hadn’t seen his picture nearly a dozen times in the newspaper.

“Yes,” he said. “And you must be the Ruth who got a hold of that beautiful red dress Eva wore to my mother’s fundraiser.”

“The dress was completely my doing,” she said slowly, her eyes slipping toward Eva, who was standing in the kitchen with a half-filled mug of coffee in her grasp. “Although this wasn’t the result I was expecting.”

Eva thought Ruth was behaving oddly and she didn’t think the cause was entirely Cole’s biceps, although they did go a long way in distracting a girl. “Perhaps you should get dressed,” she said to Cole as she put the mug down on the counter. She turned to Ruth. “We’ll be right back.”

With Ruth in the kitchen, Eva intended to be all business, but Cole had other thoughts and as soon as the door was closed, he pulled her into his arms for a long and satisfying kiss.

“What was that for?” she asked as soon as her lips were free.

“Because you looked so darn cute standing in the kitchen with that mug in your hand wondering what to do.”

He then kissed her again.

“And that?”

“That was good-bye and have a nice day kiss because I obviously won’t get to do it properly with your friend in the room,” he explained.

Eva smiled when he leaned in for another kiss. Although she didn’t doubt that he’d have another good reason for it, she stepped away. Neither one of them would get dressed at this rate.

Cole behaved himself long enough to let Eva put on her conservative navy blue business suit. While she was brushing her hair, he put on his shoes. His suit was wrinkled from being hastily discarded the night before, but he didn’t mind.

“Ah, the walk of shame,” Eva said as she gazed at him looking somewhat worse for wear. “Coming to work in the morning in the very same clothes you left in the night before. How will you hold your head up?”

“It’s something I wouldn’t mind getting used to,” he said with a laugh.

When he leaned in to give her another kiss, she darted away and opened the door. “You should probably get going. Mrs. Hemingway will start wondering where you are.”

Cole followed her out of the room and turned down her offer for a quick breakfast. “I have pulpy orange juice, a pear and one slightly overripe banana. Oh, and bagels.”

“As tempting as that offer is, I think I’ll pass,” he said before turning to Ruth. “It was a pleasure meeting you, and I look forward to doing so again under less rushed circumstances.” Then he kissed Eva quickly and sweetly on the brow, reminded her they had dinner plans and left.

Feeling thoroughly besotted, Eva sighed and pressed her back against the front door. Before she could gather her thoughts, a flying bagel hit her in the shoulder. She looked at Ruth just as she propelled another one in her direction.

“Hey, what was that for?” she asked, as she dodged the hurling breakfast staple.

“How could you do that to Mark?” Ruth said, her voice perilously near a screech.

Having no idea what her friend was talking about, she gawked at her like she was insane. “Do
what
to Mark?”

Ruth reached into the bag and pulled out a bialy. It was softer and lighter than the bagels and not as aerodynamic, but she threw it anyway. It hit Eva in the shoulder. “I’m surprised you didn’t just say, ‘Mark who?’”