Marcus and Lily reluctantly pulled apart.
‘Elan’s just cranky Hunter had to break their date tonight,’ Lily murmured to Marcus.
I huffed on the couch but didn’t argue. ‘He might stop by for a late dinner.’
Given it was 11.26 p.m. I wasn’t holding out much hope.
Marcus pulled his blackberry from the back pocket of his jeans. ‘Hmm, I doubt it. Ben only went home about fifteen minutes ago and his last report said Hunter was still at his desk.’
It took me a moment to process that sentence.
‘Wait – what!’ I sat up on the couch to stare incredulously at Marcus. ‘You have the intern with the crush on you spying on my boyfriend?’
‘In a nutshell,’ said Marcus, pocketing his phone, teeth flashing blindingly white against his dark-chocolate skin.
‘Wow,’ I said. ‘Just, wow. Can I ask why?’
‘Hunter’s been working a lot of Saturday nights recently,’ Marcus replied, ‘and Ben was going to be there anyway.’
‘It would’ve been a waste of resources,’ Lily agreed, running a lingering hand down Marcus’s white-cotton clad chest before heading back to the kitchen. ‘Pizza?’
I contemplated explaining the nature of boundaries and how my love-life was none of their business, but my stomach grumbled and I opted to save my breath. This is what happens when you encourage a corporate lawyer and a public relations executive to date each other. I really had no one to blame but myself. ‘Sure, pizza sounds good.’
Marcus hefted the boxes back into his arms and headed to the lone overflowing bookcase.
‘You need more bookshelves,’ I said, reluctantly getting up to help him.
‘No,’ Marcus replied, unloading the books into every spare nook and cranny he could find. ‘Lily needs to get better at throwing out books and you, Elan, need to stop enabling her.’
‘Sacrilege,’ I said, rearranging the shelves to fit in Lily’s dog-eared copy of the Left Hand of Darkness in between Marcus’s well-worn copy of The Consolations of Philosophy and his Tolkien omnibus. And reclaimed my own beautifully embellished edition of Les Misérables.
‘Or,’ continued Marcus as if I had not spoken, ‘I need to buy Lily a Kindle.’
‘Double sacrilege,’ I said, widening my eyes at him in mock horror.
Marcus rolled his eyes. ‘You are ridiculous.’
‘You’re too kind,’ I said, slipping the Janet Evanovichs next to the Matthew Reillys.
‘Who’s Julia Quinn?’ asked Marcus, eyeing the dreamy blue cover.
‘Ah,’ I said, feeling my cheeks heat up a little, ‘that’s mine.’
Marcus looked up from the back cover and his left eyebrow made a judgemental rise.
I raised mine right back, fighting down my blush. ‘It’s funny and judge not, lest thy own literary tastes be judged.’
Pointedly, I brushed my toes against the discreet brown box lodged in the bookcase’s bottom left corner. There were a few issues of Road & Track and a pile of National Geographics peaking over the sides. Camouflage if I’d ever seen it.
Marcus’s blush was a tangible, satisfying thing. He handed over the book sans comment.
In addition to Les Mis and the Julia Quinn, Lily had also appropriated The Elegance of the Hedgehog and my Fitzgerald omnibus, and I saw Marcus’s eyes skating covetously over The Wise Man’s Fear. I bundled all of Lily’s ill-gotten gains back into an empty box and set it by the door.
‘J’accuse,’ I said to Lily when she came out of the kitchen with tea. ‘You’re a shameless book thief.’
Lily glared at Marcus. ‘I told you to keep her out of those boxes.’
‘I’d have told her not to but she scares me,’ said Marcus, unperturbed, taking his tea and frowning down into the mug. ‘Are we out of coffee?’
‘No,’ said Lily, handing me my tea.
I inhaled the mingled scents of orange and bergamot with my usual reverence. ‘Bless you.’
‘I like tea,’ Lily continued, sliding onto the couch and tucking herself against Marcus’s side. ‘Elan likes tea. And that instant coffee you keep tastes like paving tar flavoured with asbestos.’
‘Can the man of the house not get his beverage of choice around here?’ Marcus tried to complain, looping an arm around Lily’s shoulders and smiling wide and pleased.
Lily folded her legs under herself and grinned up at him. ‘The man of the house can walk himself into the kitchen and make his own coffee.’
Marcus sighed, running fingers through Lily’s long black hair. ‘Already this apartment feels less like a castle and more like a democracy.’
‘If it was still a castle,’ I asked him, genuinely curious, ‘what makes you think you’d still be in charge?’
Lily smiled sweetly at him over the rim of her mug. Marcus pulled her even closer and kissed her, lingeringly and sweetly.
‘I’m going to drink my tea now,’ said Marcus when they eventually separated. Lily flushed, soft and girlish in a way I’d never seen before Marcus. I liked Marcus, respected his mind and found him funny, kind and honourable, but the way he made Lily look made him family.
‘You’re both sickeningly adorable,’ I told them.
The pizza arrived a half an hour later, smelling hot and sinfully good, accompanied by a tall, bespoke-suit-covered delivery man who was almost more welcome than the cheese-and-tomato-smothered goodness he carried. I told him this as I took the pizza box out of his hands.
‘Why thank you kindly,’ said Hunter, his warm caramel eyes tired but smiling.
‘What can I say?’ I said, handing the pizza off to Marcus and twining my arms around Hunter’s neck as his hands settled about my waist. ‘I’m a sucker for handsome workaholics.’
Marcus glanced at us and said, ‘Lily, why don’t help me with the plates?’
‘What? With the paper plates?’ Lily asked, and after a moment, ‘Oh, of course, the plates.’
‘That Marcus is a good man,’ I said to Hunter, as they both disappeared into the kitchen. The kiss was warm and lovely, if a little brief. ‘Now where were we? Hard day at the office?’
‘Yes.’ Hunter rested his forehead against mine. ‘The Morrow-Lake brief is giving me nightmares.’
‘When you get enough sleep to have them,’ I said, and as he lifted his head I traced a careful fingertip along the steam trunks that had formed beneath his eyes. ‘Are you using these, because I could use some extra storage space.’
Hunter laughed and ruefully shook his head. ‘On the subject of sleep. It occurred to me that your apartment is considerably closer to my work than mine.’
‘Why, yes,’ I said, fighting a smile, ‘I believe it is.’
‘It also occurs to me, since Lily has decided to make Marcus a far luckier man than he deserves to be, that there would be some extra closet space becoming available.’
I nodded slowly. ‘Less than you’d think, but I take your point. Hunter Lawrence, are you asking me for a drawer?’
‘Indeed I am, Miss Moore,’ said Hunter, and though his tone was easy, the hands at my waist gripped me tightly.
Something light and excited was fluttering in my stomach and the smile on my face felt far too large. ‘I think that could be arranged.’
I shrieked with laughter as Hunter spun me around and pulled me close. His lips brushed my ear, and, his voice low and intimate, he said ‘I was very much hoping you’d say that.’
I smiled up at him.
‘All right, love birds.’ Lily emerged from the kitchen, paper plates in hand. ‘This pizza needs to be eaten.’
Marcus followed with the pizza box and an apologetic shrug. I tried to step away, but the arms around me refused to cooperate.
‘Thank you for including me, Lily,’ said Hunter. ‘But as it happens I’m not feeling much in the mood for pizza at present.’
I looked up into his eyes and Hunter’s hands slid suggestively to my hips.
‘On second thoughts, Lily,’ I said, ‘I’m feeling a
bit tired. We might call it a night.’
‘Oh, how surprising!’ said Lily deadpan, lifting a slice of pizza onto her plate. I noticed now she’d only brought out two of them. I stuck out my tongue at her and she crossed her eyes at me.
Marcus rolled his eyes and handed my coat to Hunter. ‘You take care of yours and I’ll look after mine.’
‘What did you just say?’ I asked Marcus in mock affront, as Hunter nodded and walked us out the door.
Marcus, not even a little worried, damn him, handed me my box of reclaimed books and kissed me on the cheek. ‘Thank you for the help today, Elan. Good night.’
Then he shut the door in my face.
‘Of all the nerve,’ I continued to grumble, as Hunter fished the keys from my coat pocket and unlocked the door to my apartment.
‘After you,’ said Hunter, holding open the door.
Always the gentleman, I thought, hiding my smile as I walked past him to deposit the box of books on the coffee table. I leaned up against the couch, arms crossed, as Hunter locked the door. He quickly crossed the space between us, one hand settling onto my hip while the other stole up to let down my hair.
‘Oh, you think you’re getting lucky?’ I asked him, fighting laughter as he nodded, burying his face in my hair. ‘After that performance?’
‘I’m terribly sorry, Miss Moore,’ he murmured with utter insincerity, sliding a hand beneath the hem of my tee shirt. ‘How can I make it up to you?’
I tangled my own hands in Hunter’s thick bronze hair and let the smile break free. ‘I have a few ideas.’
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Table of Contents
Irrepressible You
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Three’s a Crowd: Sneak Peek
Three's a Crowd: Chapter One
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Irrepressible You Page 30
