The Tycoon Takes a Wife / His Royal Prize: The Tycoon Takes a Wife / His Royal Prize. Katherine Garbera
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on to the counter with one hand. Her other held a coffeepot dangling uselessly from between her fingers.
“Sorry, uh, Jonah,” she babbled, startling into action and shoving the coffeepot under the faucet as he sauntered inside.”I didn’t mean to interrupt your call.”
“It’s okay. We’d already wrapped up business.” He tucked the phone half into his pocket, studying her as intently as she’d studied him.”Are you making coffee or tea?”
The intensity of his gaze made her edgy. Was her robe gaping? Her hair a mess?
She glanced at the pot … Damn. She’d forgotten to turn on the faucet.
“Coffee.” Eloisa turned her back to him and focused on making extra-strong java. Hopefully by the time the last drop dripped she would have scavenged some self-control and dignity.”Were you talking to your lawyer about moving forward on the divorce?”
“That was a work call.” The heat of his voice and breath caressed her shoulder and she hadn’t even heard him approach. He moved quietly for such a big man.
“You have a job?” she asked absently, setting the glass pot on the counter rather than risk dropping it. When had her fingers gone numb?
He flicked her ponytail forward over her shoulder.”I think I’m insulted you have to ask.”
Ducking away, she opened the cabinet and foraged for her favorite hazelnut-cream-flavored beans.”Weren’t you working on your grad studies like the others when we met?” She glanced back at him.”I assumed …”
He cocked an eyebrow.”You assumed that I was a perpetual student content to live off Mom and Pop’s nickel? You sure painted quite a picture of me with very little info.”
She finished pouring coffee beans into the coffeemaker, closed the lid and hit Start. The sound of the grinder grated along her already ragged nerves.”You made assumptions about me, too.”
“Such as?” He leaned against the counter, dipping his head into her line of sight.
“I gave off the appearance of being someone different during those weeks in Madrid.” She crossed her arms over her chest, keeping her robe closed and her hands off his chest.”That time of my life was very out of character for me.”
“How so?”
“I’m a homebody, not a world traveler. I like my books and my Adirondack chair with a mug of coffee. That sort of exotic adventure was a onetime good deal. I lucked into a scholarship program that granted me the extra credits I needed. Bottom line, I’m a bookish librarian, not a party girl who gets drunk and impulsively marries some hot guy.”
“You think I’m hot, huh?” His blue eyes twinkled as brightly as the rising sun glimmering through the sliding patio doors.
“You already know I find you physically attractive.” She conjured her best”librarian” voice that put even the rowdiest of hoodlums in place.”But there are more important issues to address here.”
“Of course.” He selected an apple from her wicker fruit bowl on the counter.”I have a theory.”
“What would that be?” They were nearly naked. He had an apple.
Where was the snake? Because she certainly was tempted.
He gestured with the fruit in his hand.”I think you are the sort of woman who travels the world and impulsively takes risks, even knowing sometimes those risks may not work out. Deep down you want to take more of those risks because you also know that sometimes things do work out.”
“You seem to have decided a lot about me.”
Without answering he crunched a big bite off the side. Why couldn’t he have chosen one of the more innocent oranges or plums?
She watched his mouth work. She’d done that before, in Spain during a late-day picnic with the whole crew. Back then she’d only indulged in what-if fantasies about Jonah, never for a second thinking she would one day act on them.
And here she was daydreaming about the feel of his mouth moving along her skin …
Except his mouth was moving because he was talking and she didn’t have a clue what he’d said.
“Pardon me?” She rearranged the plums until the fruit was balanced again.
He set aside his half-eaten apple.”Our time together was intense. You can learn a lot about a person in time-compressed moments.”
What was he driving at?”But you agreed with me the morning after that we’d made a mistake.”
“Did I?”
She stared back into his serious blue eyes and tried to understand him, understand this whole bizarre reunion. But he wasn’t giving away anything in his expression. She wasn’t so sure she could say the same for herself.
Eloisa touched his hand lightly.”Don’t play mind games with me. I know what I heard. And it’s not like you came after me.”
“I’m here now.”
What if he’d come after her right away? She would have told him about the baby. She wouldn’t have been able to stay silent if face-to-face with him. How much different things might have been.
Or maybe not. Her mother certainly hadn’t experienced a fairy-tale ending when she’d gotten pregnant.
Eloisa shook off the haze of what-ifs.”You’ve shown up for your one night of sex. Followed by a divorce.”
“Who says we can’t change our minds?” Before she could answer, he pitched his apple into the corner trash can.”I have to check on that fax.”
Blinking fast, she watched him walk out the door shirtless, her head still spinning from his abrupt departure. The front door closed, but she could still see him through the skinny windows on either side of the door. The limo loomed conspicuously in the parking lot, idling alongside the curb. Jonah ducked his head and climbed inside and she remembered that mobile office/command center.
And she realized he’d never answered her question about his phone call or what he did with his life now. While Jonah seemed to have figured out so much about her, she had precious little other than Wikipedia information on him.
If she really wanted to move forward with her life, the time had come to quit drooling over the guy’s body and start seriously looking at the man underneath.
He’d seen the desire in her eyes underneath her veneer of calm.
Jonah tugged on a black polo shirt while he waited for Eloisa to finish her shower upstairs. No amount of work in his fax machine could distract him from thoughts of her under the spray. In some ways he thought he remembered every nuance of her body. That night was burned in his memory.
Would his fascination with her ease if he had more time with her? He certainly hoped so because he didn’t want another year like the one he’d just endured.
The sound of water faded, then ended. Silence echoed for what felt like forever before he heard the rustle of her upstairs in her bedroom. Getting dressed.
He’d never considered himself a masochist, but listening to her was serious torture. Jonah pivoted away from her door and opened cabinet after cabinet in search of a coffee mug. As he started drinking his second cup, he heard her door click and swing open.
Jonah poured some java for her, spooning two sugars in the way he remembered she preferred. And why he recalled that detail, he didn’t know. He turned to face her.
He stopped short. Reality definitely beat the hell out of memories—and she wasn’t even naked.
Eloisa stepped into the kitchen barefoot, wearing a simple blue sundress. The flowing lines clung subtly to her curves, and her skin glowed warm and pink from the shower. Her black hair was wet and pulled back in her signature ponytail, exposing her neck. He’d seen her arousal earlier