The Expectant Executive

“Since your other dinner partner won’t be joining you, would you care to order now?” Henri asked, suddenly appearing at Travis’s elbow. The man had obviously been eavesdropping on their conversation.

Tired of the waiter’s obtrusive presence, Travis gave him a look that had the little man quickly fading into the background without another word. “What do you say we go somewhere we can talk without old Ornery over there hanging on our every word?”

Fin looked puzzled. “Ornery?”

“Henri. Ornery.” Travis grinned. “Same difference.”

She gave him a smile that did strange things to his insides. “I think I know of a place where we can talk uninterrupted.”

“Sounds good to me.” Raising his hand, he motioned to Henri.

The little waiter was at Travis’s side almost immediately. “Would the lady and gentleman like to order now?”

Fin spoke up before Travis had a chance. “No, we’ve changed our minds and won’t be dining with you this evening.”

Leaving Henri to hover over someone else, when they stepped out onto the street, Travis put his arm around Fin to shelter her from the chilly November wind. Her slender body pressed to his side sent his blood pressure up a good fifty points and brought back memories of the last time he’d held her close. His body tightened predictably and he felt as if his jeans had shrunk a size or two in the stride.

“What’s the name of this restaurant where the waiters leave the customers alone?” he asked when he finally got his voice to work.

“Chez Fin Elliott.”

His heart stuttered and he had to remind himself to breathe. “We’re going to your place?”

Nodding, she smiled. “If you don’t mind missing out on your steak, I thought we could go back to my apartment, order in some Chinese and talk without having someone else hanging on our every word.”

He wasn’t wild about egg rolls and chop suey, but he’d have to be a damned fool to pass up spending the evening alone with one of the most beautiful women he’d ever had the privilege to lay eyes on.

Before she had a chance to change her mind, Travis raised his arm and waved at an approaching yellow car. “Taxi!”

Chapter 2

As Fin phoned in a delivery order to her favorite Chinese restaurant, she watched Travis glance around her cavernous Upper East Side apartment and couldn’t help but wonder what he thought of her personal space. Obscenely spacious for one person, it was a study in chrome and glass, black and white, and light-years away from his warmly decorated home in Colorado.

When she’d visited the Silver Moon Ranch, she’d found the house to be roomy and pleasantly cluttered, but it was also welcoming, cozy and everything her apartment wasn’t. While Travis’s rustic home had the unmistakable look and feel of being lived in and enjoyed—of love and family—her apartment appeared to be stark, cold and uninhabited in comparison.

Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that she was never there for more than a few hours at a time, nor had she made the effort to add anything to reflect her own personality after the interior designer had finished decorating the place. The really sad thing was, that had been several years ago and she still had no more interest in personalizing the place than she had the day she’d moved in.

“Mr. Chang assured me the food will be here in less than fifteen minutes,” she said as she ended the phone call. “Would you like something to drink while we wait? I think I have a bottle of wine in the refrigerator or I could make a pot of coffee or tea.”

“A cup of coffee would be nice.”

When he turned to face her, Travis’s smile sent a wave of goose bumps shimmering over her skin and a delicious little shiver straight up her spine. He was, without a doubt, one of the sexiest men she’d ever met. And she seriously doubted that he had the slightest clue of how handsome he was or the tantalizing effect he had on women.

Suddenly needing to put a little space between them before she made a complete fool of herself, Fin started toward the kitchen. He was her daughter’s adoptive father, the man who had, along with his late wife, raised the little girl Fin had been forced to give up for adoption all those years ago. The last thing she needed to do was complicate the fledgling relationship she had with Jessica by lusting after Travis. Come to think of it, it was totally out of character for her to be lusting after anyone.

“I’ll start the coffeemaker.”

“Need help?”

She stopped in her tracks, then slowly turned to face him. Even as he stood all the way across the living room, his presence made the space feel decidedly smaller than it had when they’d first walked through the door. She could only imagine how minuscule the kitchen would seem with him in much closer proximity.