The Boss Project(75)

Was that…?

I walked over for a closer look. Sure enough, two orange goldfish were swimming around in a bowl. And it was not the same bowl that had been on the nightstand in his bedroom.

He got more fish? Or…

I dropped my purse on the couch and headed to the bedroom to investigate. As I opened the door, the jitters I’d had since Joan were finally pushed out by the warm feeling in my chest.

The fishbowl on the nightstand was gone. Merrick had moved it to a new home, in a new room. It was so minor and silly, but he’d taken the time to think about the comment I’d made last night, and he’d done something to alleviate my unvoiced concern.

Maybe I didn’t have to worry about fighting the shadow of another woman after all. It seemed Merrick wanted to let the sun in himself.

? ? ?

“Oh my gosh. That sounds like a huge undertaking.”

“Nah,” Kitty said. “It’ll give me something to do while I’m stuck here in the house. It’s only been two weeks. Eight more with this cast is going to make me go cuckoo if I don’t have something to occupy my time.”

“When would this reunion be happening?” I asked.

“I was thinking spring next year or the year after that, depending on the availability of the dude ranch.”

The front door opened, and Merrick walked in. I pointed to the phone and held up a finger. “Did you say dude ranch?”

“What better place than that? A lot of open land, night fires, horseback riding, and cowboys. Who doesn’t love a cowboy?”

“Well, I can’t argue with you there. What’s not to like about a cowboy?”

Merrick’s face scrunched up.

“But do you feel up to that already, Kitty?”

Merrick slapped his hand to his forehead and shook his head as he walked toward me.

“I’m fine—was fine last week when my jackass grandson thought I needed a nurse, too.”

I was pretty sure Merrick heard that last part. When I looked up, he held his palm out for the phone, but I shook my head. He took it from my hand and brought it to his ear anyway.

“Hey, Grams.” Merrick looked at me as he spoke. “No, I’m not working. And neither is Evie. We’re about to have dinner…alone in my apartment.”

I heard Kitty saying something else.

Merrick nodded. “Yep. You were right. So do you mind if she gives you a call tomorrow? Because while Evie is too polite to rush you off the phone, I’m not.” His eyes swept over me, lingering on my lips. “Thank you, I will. Goodnight, Grams.”

Looking pretty proud of himself, he tossed the phone to the couch and hooked an arm around my waist. “Now kiss me.”

“What if I don’t want to? That was kind of rud—” My words were swallowed in a kiss. And not just any kiss, but one where I had to cling to his shirt to make sure I stayed upright because the man could seriously make my knees weak with his mouth. For lack of a better description, he kissed the shit out of me. I was breathless when we broke.

Merrick pulled back to gaze into my eyes. His were hooded and filled with enough heat to make between my legs start to throb. “Sorry I made you wait.”

I smiled. “I like your apologies.”

His eyes sparkled. “Yeah? I’ll have to piss you off more.”

“Did you just out us to your grandmother?”

He nodded. “Should I apologize again?”

I laughed. “I think you should.”

Merrick resumed kissing me, this time slow and sweet. He pulled back and rubbed his nose with mine.

“You just angel kissed me!”

“I don’t think that’s what you call it.”

“It’s what my grandmother used to call it. Whenever we would leave my dad and go stay with her, I had trouble sleeping when we first arrived. So when she put me to bed, she would give me an angel kiss, which meant the angels would watch over me while I slept. No one else has ever done that to me.”

Merrick kissed my forehead. “Maybe it means I’m supposed to take the job from the angels now.”

I blinked. “That’s so incredibly sweet.”

He looked around the room. “Did you eat yet?”

“No, I waited for you. I ordered Chinese. It’s in the kitchen.”

“Come on, let’s eat so I can get you naked. We’re saving some sweet and sour sauce so I can lick it off your tits later.”

“Aaaaannnnd we go from sweet to dirty in three sentences.”

He winked. “It’s a talent.”

We sat at the island eating Kung Pao chicken and Szechwan shrimp while Merrick filled me in about the problem that had kept him and his team late tonight.

I shook my head. “You basically gamble for a living. Does that mean you like casinos, too?”

“Depends on the game. I only like to gamble when there’s more to it than playing the odds. If you sit at a table playing blackjack, the dealer is just putting cards on the table and turning them over, and you’re guessing based on statistics. If you’re playing poker against others, it involves reading people and studying their habits. That’s basically what I do at work, except with companies.”

I held out a shrimp with my chopsticks, and he took it in his mouth. “I never actually thought about it, but our jobs are similar in some ways,” I said. “We both study people to learn more about them. We look for the things they don’t tell us to put the pieces of a puzzle together.”