Emma’s cup froze halfway to her mouth and she blinked, not sure what to do. The doorbell rang again. Answer the door? For some reason, she didn’t want to.
“Answer it,” Amanda urged, still typing, but now she was staring at the monitor. “You and I both know it’s him.”
Still, Emma hesitated. “No, I actually have no idea who is on the other side of that door,” Emma replied, then shifted on the sofa to start typing on her own laptop. She didn’t have anything to write, but this was a game of chicken that Emma and Amanda played often. Neither of them wanted to answer the door, so both of them pretended to be too busy.
Unfortunately, in this instance, Amanda won. Mostly because Emma was too curious. It wasn’t him, she told herself as she closed her laptop with a glare that Amanda ignored. Rayed wasn’t behind the door. Why would he be here? He was probably at some important meeting, discussing some crazy, billion-dollar investment. An investment that would earn him several more billions of dollars while Emma and Amanda rationed out the coffee grounds at the end of the month, unable to afford more until their next paycheck arrived.
Now, why did that sound as if she resented the man for making money? Maybe because she didn’t have any at the moment. Grumbling, she yanked open the door, hoping to find a salesperson.
Instead, Rayed stood in the doorway, hands in his pockets, his jacket undone, and no tie. However, his suit was…gorgeous! The man must have a personal tailor because there just wasn’t any way that a man could achieve that sophisticated a look with off the shelf clothing. Even the material looked too expensive for her to breathe on!
Emma stood there, clutching the door, feeling like all of the air had just left her body. He was just so…amazing! And tall! Had he been this tall last night? Yeah, probably. Men didn’t grow several inches overnight.
Duh! She’d been wearing heels last night. While today…she glanced down at her bare feet. He did the same and her toes curled slightly as embarrassment washed over her. She hated standing in front of him, looking so dowdy when he was the epitome of sophistication.
“I’m outta here,” Amanda grumbled, interrupting the tense moment. “One of you should speak though. Just a tip.” Rayed stepped to the side so Amanda could leave.
Emma felt like calling out to her friend, demanding that she come back, to be here to protect her from the insane sensations that were already muddling her mind! But Amanda was gone. Goodness, her friend could move swiftly when she wanted to!
Finally, she turned back to Rayed. The man’s dark eyebrow lifted and she felt her body heat up all over again.
Belatedly remembering her manners, she stepped aside, gesturing for him to enter.. “Would you like to come in?” she asked.
The corners of his lips quirked up slightly, but he bowed his head. “Yes. I would very much like to speak with you in private.”
Did he have to duck to get through the doorway? Surely, that was just her imagination. He was tall, but he wasn’t that tall, was he?
“How tall are you?” she blurted out, suddenly intensely curious.
He paused his perusal of her apartment, turning around to look down at her. “I’m six feet, four inches,” he replied. “How tall are you? You seem shorter than you were last night.” His eyes darted to her bare toes again. “I suppose you were wearing heels last night.”
“Five feet, six,” she answered. “And I was just thinking you seem taller this morning, so it must have been the shoes.”
He nodded, not looking away from her. Were they really going to stand here, talking about shoes?
“Would you care to give me more details about what you were doing at the party last night?”
Ah! He was going to just dive right into it!
“No,” she replied, enjoying the surprise in his eyes.
“No? You aren’t going to tell me?”
She laughed, feeling slightly more relaxed now that she felt in control of the conversation. “Nope. It isn’t any of your business why I was there.”
He moved closer, the look in his eyes warning her that she wasn’t in control. Not by a long shot! “Would you tell me if I guessed correctly?”
Emma doubted that the man could figure out her motives for being at such a dull event, but she shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. “Sure. Why not? I’ve already told you some of it.”
His smile widened. “If I guess correctly, do I get a kiss as a reward?”
Emma laughed again. “Sure. If you can figure out my reason for being at the charity ball last night, I’ll give you a kiss.” She felt fairly safe with that bet. How could he possibly know why she’d been at the event?
He pulled a hand out of his pocket and tapped a long, sexy forefinger against his nose as if considering the options. Finally, he said, “You’ve already told me that you were there trying to figure out if something illegal is going on. However, you didn’t explain why you were playing the ditz. I suspect,” he paused, examining her features, “that you were at the charity event last night so that you could find a man who could give you entrée into the exclusive parties, determined to play a ditz in order to put others off their guard so that you might hear things that they don’t want you to hear. And,” he continued, chuckling at her stunned expression, “you think that Governor Mitchell is the person doing the illegal activities because of the crazy headline about sterilization. You think that the headline was a way to pull attention away from whatever his real goal is.”
Emma’s mouth fell open! “How could you…?”
He threw back his head, laughing at her stunned expression. He lowered his head, kissing her softly, but with a sensuality that was shocking. He pulled back, leaving her lips tingling.
“I cheated,” he admitted.
She blinked, not sure what he meant. “Cheated…how?” She looked around warily, wondering if he’d somehow installed listening devices in her apartment.
He shrugged, his hand sliding into his pants pockets again as he wandered around the family room. “I own a large share of stocks in your newspaper. I went to your editor and asked what you were working on. She gave me the details.”
Emma’s arms dropped to her sides and she glared at him. “That is cheating!”
He grinned. “Yes, I’d already admitted to that.”
Her eyes narrowed again. “You don’t look very repentant.”
He chuckled. “Perhaps because I’m completely unrepentant.” He moved over to her again. “Would it make things better if I told you that I could help?”
Help? How could he…? The devilish look in his dark eyes gave her the answer. “No!”
