Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(15)

Ivy had never fit seamlessly into anything, including her own skin.

“Did you not get the text?” Haley asked Ivy.

She’d gotten the text, but she’d ignored it, thinking Elle probably automatically included everyone to be polite.

“Please come,” Haley said. “You’re usually too busy, but we’d so love to have you.”

“I thought maybe the text was just for the core group of you.”

“Of which you’re a part,” Sadie said so easily that Ivy knew she meant it. “So say you’ll be there.”

Surprised and touched that it mattered whether she went or not, Ivy found herself nodding, even though she wasn’t 100 percent sold on it. “I’ll try.”

It was still early by the time she got to Caleb’s newly renovated condo building in North Beach. She’d been there before, a couple of times now, walking through with Caleb, Sadie, and Keane Winters, the general contractor in charge of the project.

Ivy’s condo wasn’t a corner unit, or on the penthouse floor, or anything that stood out at all, and that was what she loved about it.

That, and the fact that it would be all hers.

She walked through the underground parking garage to the security office and found Kel there with a few other people, all standing around a table with a bunch of blueprints spread out before them.

Kel introduced her to the room; Keane, Carly, and Roberto—both supervisors on Keane’s renovation team—and then Arlo and Stretch, who worked under Kel as building security.

Ivy smiled and made nice, but she couldn’t concentrate on anything but Kel, feeling the weight of his gaze. Unable to resist, she turned to him and felt her pulse kick.

Ridiculous.

He was dressed as always, in rugged and well-worn jeans, work boots, a T-shirt with an unbuttoned shirt over the top of it, and a ball cap worn backward. Casual clothes, but there was nothing casual about the lean, hard body hinted at beneath those clothes, or, for that matter, the man himself.

And then there was how he moved with the careless grace of an athlete, his body suggesting it could handle just about anything thrown at it.

He smiled and she felt a kick in the gut—a fact that told her two things. One, she was still stupid when it came to men. And two, he was going to be trouble for both her peace of mind and her heart.

Big trouble.





Chapter 6




The range makes the change



“Hey,” Ivy said to the room, sounding annoyingly breathless even to herself. And who was she kidding, she wasn’t talking to the room, she was talking to Kel, who couldn’t look any finer. “I don’t want to interrupt, but I . . . brought you something.”

Kel turned to the others. “Give us a minute.”

It wasn’t a question, and the sound of authority in his tone was unmistakable. If she’d been one of the guys, she might have given him a smartass salute, or at the very least rolled her eyes on principal, but none of these people did that. They respectfully filed out and left them alone.

Kel was watching her with a small smile curving his mouth. That was the thing about him. He was never in a hurry. He went at his own pace, and with slow, easy purpose. In direct opposition to that, she was always in a rush to get anywhere. She wondered if he was like that in bed as well and then pictured him doing just that, moving over her with slow, purposeful intensity while she writhed in pleasure—

“Earth to Trouble,” Kel said.

She actually jumped. And blushed. Blushed. Unbelievable, but she definitely felt the heat of it flash across her face. And once that happened, once she was aware that her cheeks were on fire, they got even worse.

He chuckled softly.

“Not helping,” she said, putting her palms to her fiery cheeks.

“I’d pay big bucks to know what you were just thinking.”

“Nothing! I’m thinking nothing!”

He grinned. “You’re pretty cute when you’re embarrassed.”

No one had ever called her cute, not once in her life. Feral, yes. Untamable, also yes. Cute? No . . . She closed her eyes. “I don’t get embarrassed.”

He leaned in and put his mouth to her ear. “Then you’re . . . aroused.”

“Oh my God. I need you to stop talking for a minute.”

Still smiling, he slid his hands into his front pockets and rocked back on his heels.

“And stop smiling,” she added.

He clearly gave it a shot, but the smile was there lurking in his dark eyes, and she sighed. “Never mind! Are you hungry?”

“Always.”

At the low timbre of his voice and the heat to go with it in those eyes now, parts of her quivered. Parts of her that had no business quivering. “For food,” she clarified. “Are you hungry for food?”

“That too.”

Oh good God. He was unrepentant, and she couldn’t say it wasn’t one of the sexiest things about him, because it was. Ignoring the flutters in her belly, she slipped the bag off her shoulder and handed it to him.

He held her gaze for a long beat before taking the bag and unzipping it, finding the dishes she’d put together for him. “Not tacos,” he said in surprise.

“Making tacos is my job,” she said. “This was for something else.”