They’d worked together closely for five years and she was a mystery to him. His own fault, he told himself. He’d been so attracted to her that he’d treated her as if she were invisible. He hadn’t taken an interest in her because he couldn’t afford to. Since she’d turned in her resignation a few hours ago, it was as if he were meeting her for the first time.
The desire was there and stronger than ever—but there was also something new. Damned if he didn’t like her.
Well he felt like an ass. It didn’t happen often, thank God, but Ethan could admit to it when it did. At least to himself. Offering her money had been a last-ditch effort for him to keep her in her job. To keep her here, where she could help him out with that baby. He hadn’t even realized how important that money could be to her. He paid his employees well and never really thought about it otherwise. He’d grown up wealthy and intended to stay that way. So when you were used to a lot of money being readily available, you didn’t often stop to think that money might be an issue for someone else.
She was still watching him. Waiting. Finally, he said, “Fine. I admit it. You’re the hero of the working class and I’m a cold money grubber.”
“That sounds about right.” She grinned and that smile punched him in the solar plexus so hard he had to fight for air. “I mean, come on. You’re paying me a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to help you out for a month. Normal people don’t do that.”
“Now I’m not normal?”
She laughed again and it irritated him just how much he enjoyed the sound.
“Of course you’re not.”
“Thanks very much,” he muttered darkly.
“I didn’t say you were abnormal,” she said. Digging into her purse, she pulled her keys out and jangled them in her palm. “For example. Most people don’t live in mansions.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?” She tipped her head to one side again and Ethan realized just how often she did that when talking to him. And he also realized how fascinated he was with those loose blond curls and how they moved. He wondered how they would feel sliding across his skin.
“You realize the bonus you offered me today is more than most people make in a year.”
He frowned and shook himself out of the distraction of her hair. Focusing, he said, “I’m not completely clueless, Sadie.” Then he noticed the car keys in her hand. “Where are you going? You just agreed to stay here.”
“Not without clothes.”
Okay, that short sentence opened up a world of images in his mind. Sadie, walking through his house naked. Sadie in the shower, water sliding down her skin. Sadie stretched out across his bed, holding her arms up to him. Sadie beneath him, crying out his name as he slammed his body into hers.
Ethan swallowed hard, took a breath and blew it out again. Man, once he’d unleashed all the sexual thoughts about her he’d been suppressing for years, they were almost too much to take. He came back to the present in time to see her headed for the door. She paused and looked back over her shoulder. “I’m going home to pack a bag. I’ll be back.”
He couldn’t stop himself from shooting a worried glance at the staircase that led to the ticking time bomb upstairs. Shifting his gaze back to Sadie’s, he said, “An extra twenty-five thousand if you make it back before she wakes up and starts screaming again.”
“Stop throwing money at me.” She laughed and the sound bubbled through his bloodstream like champagne. “You’re really off your game, aren’t you?”
“Will it get you back here fast if I say yes?”
“Relax. I’ll be back in an hour or so.” She opened the door, stepped onto the porch, then added, “Emma’s not going to kill you, Ethan.”
When she left, closing the door behind her, Ethan muttered, “Don’t bet on it.”
* * *
“I’m still not sure about this.”
Gabriel stood outside the Heart Chocolates offices and looked up at the building as if he’d never seen it before. He’d done a lot of thinking about this plan and he was still torn about what to do.