Love in a Nutshell - Janet Evanovich [75]
He regarded the pile suspiciously. “How did they all end up here?”
“I’ve been moving them every day.”
“From where?”
“Exactly where you take them off, it appears. It was becoming a minefield out there.”
He was still staring at the shoes. “I’d wondered where they all went.”
“What? They’re right by your door. Don’t you look at the ground?”
“No need,” he said. “I could walk this house blindfolded.”
“Then next time, I’ll trip you up and take them all the way into your bedroom.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Would you?”
Kate realized she had just committed a tactical error and morphed into his maid.
He leaned down and kissed her. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
Okay, make that two tactical errors, because she didn’t stop him. And now three, because she was kissing him back.
It had been tough work forgetting just what it felt like to be kissed by Matt Culhane. And it had been tougher yet to block the thought that she was one wall away from him every night. She knew that he sometimes talked in his sleep. She knew that he woke and showered at six. And she knew that right now she’d be beyond blissed-out should they make love.
Telling herself she was ten kinds of crazy, Kate deepened the kiss and touched the wall of muscle on his chest. And while they kissed some more, she ran her fingers down to the waistband of his shorts.
She didn’t know for sure what he’d look like totally naked, but she could give it a good guess based on the size of his shoes. He brought her tighter against his body. She drew in a surprised breath. She had underestimated.
“Aren’t you going to do that magical thing where I’m suddenly on a bed?” she asked. Because she really, really wanted him to.
He made some space between the two of them. “I don’t know. I haven’t made my mind up yet.”
“What could possibly involve our minds?”
She’d been joking, but he looked serious.
“One question,” he said. “If we do this … if I make love to you … what happens next?”
“We go unconscious?”
“No, after that. Does it mean that you’re going to move from your room and into mine?”
“Well, no. But it does mean we’ll both be less tense.”
He shook his head. “That’s not good enough for me, Kate.”
“But back at the hotel you would have…”
“You’re right. But I’ve been thinking about this since we were out of town, and it turns out that I’m not a fling sort of guy. Actually, once I considered, I realized I never have been.”
Something wasn’t computing. “What about your Keene’s Harbor’s reputation as the resident Don Juan?”
He shrugged. “I’ve dated my share of women, but none of those women have anything to do with you,” Matt said. “You and I are in a different place. We’re friends—the kind of friends I don’t want to give up unless we become something more. So if you and I go there, it has to be with the full commitment to be my lover, because no way am I going to risk our friendship for less.”
“You’re scaring me a little.”
“I probably should be scaring you a lot. Because I mean it, Kate. Once I’m in, I’m all in.”
So unless she was ready for commitment, she had struck out?
“And what about The Nutshell?” she asked.
“It has nothing to do with us. It’s all business.”
Kate crossed her arms. “You wouldn’t say that if it was your house or your brewery.”
“Kate, I paid the bank $200,000 for that mortgage. I gave you until Thanksgiving to make a go of it. But I can’t afford to wait any longer than that. I need the money, either from you or from the restaurant I plan to open next summer.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just not ready for this.”
And while it was tougher than any trek she’d ever taken, Kate retreated to reclaim her poodle. She might be ten kinds of stupid, but for now, she’d managed to avoid adding an eleventh.
* * *
THE NEXT morning, Matt walked into his office—or what had been his office before he’d made Kate his personal assistant. Now ownership was questionable.
“Ginger just called,” Kate said.
“What did she want?” Until he had a signal from Kate otherwise, he planned to keep it all business.