He kissed her lingeringly. “I’m pretty mad at you, actually,” he murmured when he raised his head.
If this was mad, she wasn’t complaining, just a bit curious. “Why?”
“I had no intention of following you here. I was going to be perfectly content to go back to the way things were before you showed up on my doorstep.”
She nibbled at his lower lip. “I messed things up, hmm?”
“You could say that. You made me want…more.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant by “more”—or if he even knew at this point. As he covered her mouth with his, she decided to just be glad that he was here now.
It was hunger that finally drove them out of the bed. Dressed in a short, red satin robe, Adrienne made chicken salad sandwiches, which she served with baked chips and some leftover fruit salad.
“How long can you stay?” she asked as they ate at the chrome-and-glass table in her airy, modern kitchen.
He swallowed a sip of
iced Chai tea. “I’m not on any particular schedule. Thought I might stay through the weekend if that’s not inconvenient for you.”
“Not at all. You’ll stay here, of course.”
“I was hoping you would ask.”
She nodded, mentally rearranging schedules and making lists of nonessential appointments she could cancel during his stay. “How’s Isabelle?”
She watched as his face softened a bit. “She’s fine. I spent an hour at the park with her yesterday afternoon. She wanted me to tell you hello. She said she’d have sent you a drawing if I’d given her more notice that I was coming.”
Pleased that he was still making an effort to stay in contact with his little sister, she smiled. “I have her other drawing hanging in my office.”
“I know. I saw it. She’ll be tickled when I tell her.”
“Have you ever been to New York before?”
“Other than to change planes on my way to London a few years ago, I haven’t.”
“Is there anything in particular you would like to see or do while you’re here?”
He shrugged. “I’m not here as a tourist. I came to see you.”
She laughed. “Do you suppose other people actually plan visits with each other—with advance notice and reservations and other minor details like that?”
His eyes gleamed with shared amusement. “No one I know.”
“I’ll have to go to the office for a few hours in the morning, and I have a meeting Saturday afternoon I can’t really get out of, but I should be free most of the weekend.”
“Take care of your business. I’m perfectly capable of entertaining myself while you’re occupied.”
And then what? Did he see this only as a brief visit—a reward to himself for finishing the book? A little rest, a little sex, a little fun before diving into the next project?
Was he envisioning more encounters like this in their future? Brief visits a couple of times a year, perhaps, until one or the other tired of them and moved on?
A no-strings, nonexclusive, long-distance affair. Was that what he had in mind? She found the prospect depressing, but she wasn’t quite ready to explore his thoughts just yet. “Would you like some more tea?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Thanks.”
Live in the moment, she reminded herself. It wouldn’t serve any purpose to fret about a future she had no way of predicting.
Late Saturday afternoon Gideon let himself into Adrienne’s apartment with the key she had left him. He paused for a moment to study her trendy decor, trying to decide if he liked it. It wasn’t bad, he concluded finally. Just not…homey. It reminded him more of the Manhattan art galleries he had visited than of someone’s living room. He had a hard time imagining himself propping his feet on her chrome-and-glass coffee table and watching football on her TV—even if she had one in here.