Blake Ralston had called the firm he worked for to extend his vacation. If he was staying at any hotel or resort in the surrounding three counties, it wasn’t under his own name. He hadn’t used a credit or debit card—but he hadn’t needed to, the detective heading the hunt for him had determined. He’d taken three thousand dollars out of a savings account the day before he’d begun his “vacation.”
During one of Noah’s brief encounters with Cait, he had asked where she was staying. Still in her brother’s guest room, she’d said. Colin hadn’t been comfortable with her moving alone into the garage apartment. He’d rather have her closer.
She was fine, she said, but it didn’t take any great insight to see that she wasn’t.
Noah kept his distance anyway. If he didn’t, he’d find himself somewhere he’d never intended to go. Cait McAllister, astonishingly strong, stubborn, scared, fragile and lonely all at the same time, was even more dangerous to him than he’d understood when he’d hired her. He already felt too much.
It would go away, he told himself when he saw her down the hall or across a conference room table. It had to.
He’d been getting a hell of a lot done on his house. Visiting his restaurants, harassing managers or poring over business financials after a day spent doing the same over city income and output didn’t work as an outlet for his raging physical restlessness. Steaming wallpaper off walls worked; stripping varnish from woodwork was better. Ripping out a wall was best of all. But none of it helped him sleep.
Noah was not amused to realize he was as obsessed with Cait as that son of a bitch Blake Ralston was. So what did that make him?
He knew her brother had escorted her to the one evening meeting she hadn’t been able to skip out of that week. She had set it a while ago, calling for public input on a projected rezoning of a slice of the annexed territory. If she’d asked, Noah would have gone with her instead. His presence wouldn’t have excited comment. But even knowing she had to attend, he hadn’t offered.
Friday night, he decided to walk over to Chandler’s and grab a bite before he went home. He shared the elevator down to the lobby with half a dozen other people, all of whom seemed to be in a good mood because they’d be off until Monday. Him? His gut was balled in a knot because for the next two days he wouldn’t catch even a glimpse of his director of community development.
Except he did. He stopped dead after exiting the elevator, because there she was by the glass doors, hovering just inside, looking out.
Waiting for her brother, he realized. Either she’d been ordered not to go outside until Colin pulled up or she was afraid.
Noah’s feet were moving before his brain caught up. He stopped right beside her. “Call your brother. Tell him I’m taking you out to dinner and I’ll bring you home later.”
She stared up at him with those beautiful eyes that seemed perpetually darkened these days.
“He should be here any minute.”
“Call him anyway.”
After a moment, she gave a small nod and drew her phone from her bag. She kept looking at him as she talked to her brother.
“Colin, I’m joining Noah for dinner. He says he’ll bring me home.” She listened for a minute, then said, “That really isn’t any of your business. I’ll see you later.”
“Let’s walk,” he said. “You must be feeling housebound.”
Her laugh was shaky but real. “That’s one way of putting it.”
He pushed open the door and laid a hand on her back as he escorted her out. God, she felt good. The muscles moving beneath his fingers were lithe and supple. He kept his hand there as he turned her to head east on the sidewalk.
“How’d the community input meeting go?” he asked easily.
Talking business relaxed her. It carried them for the two-block walk to Chandler’s.
Cait glanced at him when he opened the door for her. “Do you ever eat anywhere else?”
“Sometimes.” Rarely. Mostly when he was scoping out new places. “I can trust my own employees not to gossip about me.”
“That makes sense.”
“I cook for myself most of the time.”