Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(27)

Make this your best one yet



Ivy stood standing hands on hips watching Kel approach, all long, loose limbed, easy stride, as if he didn’t have a care in the damn world.

Well good for him. But she had a care, a whole damn bunch of them at the moment, not the least of which was that she’d just talked herself out of him, and at just the sight of him, her resolve was melting faster than the ice caps. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I gave you my number to call if you needed me.”

“I don’t need you. I didn’t call you.”

“Caleb called me for you,” he said. He was in dark jeans, an untucked white button-down, and a sports coat, looking incredibly . . . well, incredibly incredible. Damn him.

She grappled with her reaction to him for a moment, along with the fact that Caleb had clearly interfered. “Your cousin is dead rich guy walking.”

This got her a curve of his lips, which she now knew tasted like heaven on earth. Ivy knew herself well. She was almost always in a rush to get from point A to point B. But in exact opposition to that, Kel tended to move with slow, easy purpose. He kissed like that too, and she’d spent a shocking amount of time wondering what else he could do with that slow, easy purpose.

He helped her load all the food, and when he stretched to carefully set his armful into the back, his jacket stretched taut across broad shoulders, allowing her to see the outline of a shoulder harness and a gun. “I don’t think I need an armed escort to a party.”

He shrugged. “I came straight from work.”

“Caleb needs armed guards at work?”

“On some of his projects, yes.”

“What kind of projects?”

Instead of answering, he held the door open for her, waiting until she buckled up before shutting the door. When he slid in behind the wheel, she gave him side eye.

Which he ignored. He simply steered them into traffic, remaining in his zone as he drove them across town.

She didn’t feel in her zone. She felt . . . awkward. They’d fought. They’d kissed. They’d retreated to their own corners—okay, so she’d retreated to her own corner, but she had no idea what to do with him now. The smart thing, of course, would be to stay on track and do nothing. She told herself she was going to be very, very smart.

“I take it we have another problem,” he said, voice calm. Like he hadn’t a damn care in the world.

“No, not at all,” she said in her best PMS voice.

His mouth curved.

And she couldn’t just let it go. “Okay, yes, there’s a problem. It’s you, actually.”

“Me.”

“Yes, you.”

He pulled up to a gigantic house near the top of Nob Hill, from which one could basically see the entire world in all directions. The mansion had to be fifteen thousand square feet, which was a whole lot of house to clean and keep warm, but hey, who was she to judge. She started to get out of the truck, but Kel put a hand on her arm to stop her.

“The problem,” he said. “Tell me about it.”

She blew out a sigh.

He just looked at her. “Let’s say that I don’t understand female loaded silences, so maybe you could translate for me. What exactly have I done?”

She looked at him.

He merely returned the look, his own calm but curious. Patient. And it was that, the patience, that utterly disarmed her. She opened her mouth . . . and then had to shut it. Because what had he done besides buy her food, help her clean up her truck after the break-in, drive her home, make her feel safe, and oh yeah, kiss the thoughts right out of her head . . . “Why did you really kiss me?”

“Because you wanted me to kiss you.” He gave a slow negative shake of his head. “But that’s not the only reason why I did.”

“Then why?”

He smiled the sort of smile a man gave a woman when he was thinking incredibly dirty thoughts, and certain parts of her body stood up at attention.

“Because I wanted to,” he said. “Very badly, in fact.”

Suddenly, it was hot in his truck. Way too hot. So she shoved open the truck door and got out. Before she could load up her arms with the first of many trips she’d have to make into the house, Kel had come around, and with a knowing smile took twice as much as she could have and was on the move.

“But I’ve got this,” she said to his back.

He didn’t bother to respond. Because they both knew the truth. She didn’t have this. At the moment, she didn’t have anything. He had her all discombobulated and upside down and inside out.

The event was not much different than any of the others she’d catered for Caleb and his associates. Huge, gorgeous house that had probably cost more money than most developing countries’ annual yield. Important people milling around in their couture finery; men in costly suits, women in gowns looking like they hadn’t eaten in weeks to fit into said gowns.

But as she’d learned the hard way, people at these things tended to eat like ravished vultures no matter how they looked, so she always doubled her per person portions when figuring out how much food to cook.

The following hours flew by in a whirlwind of restocking trays and keeping everything fresh and looking good. Before Ivy knew it, it was ten o’clock and the party was winding down. She was gathering her now empty trays when Kel reappeared in the kitchen.