I’ll pick you up at six Monday evening — for work. Sweet dreams.
She wanted to toss her phone across the room and shatter it. She hated him, yes — for sure it was hate. She wanted to go and yell at Piper for letting the man in. But she decided against that.
She would prove Tyler wrong and sleep like a baby, she told herself.
No such luck.
Chapter Twenty-One
By Monday morning, Elena was feeling grouchy, to say the least, from lack of sleep. She hadn’t heard another word from Tyler, but that didn’t mean the man hadn’t been on her mind constantly from the time he’d walked out of her bedroom a day and a half earlier.
She’d even gone running on Sunday, jogging through a nearby park until her legs were weak and she barely had the energy to step into the shower and wash the sweat off. And she still hadn’t managed to nod off for very long.
Yes, she wanted him, and she was sure that much was obvious. But a long line of women had to be lusting after Tyler Knight. Or at least interested enough in his money to try to lure him into the sack. Why couldn’t he just run off and play with one of those little bimbos?
That thought sent a pang right through her, though she fought to convince herself that she really did want that easy way out of this mess. She just didn’t want to hear about it or see it.
Amid all her work on legal briefs and on contracts — she was going at it all double-time — she wondered what they were meeting about tonight. If he planned to monopolize all her evenings through the course of this project, she was going to be very, very cranky by the time it ended. She had to struggle through a boatload of paperwork during the day, and everyone deserved private time. Yes, her company got to bill him for every hour he was with her, but that didn’t change how much she actually made, and it wasn’t much, not when she was paying off her student loans.
When Elena dashed home, she changed into something a little more comfortable — this time it was slacks, because there was no way she’d wear another skirt around that guy, and she put on a thick sweater, which was making her too warm already. By the time she did that her doorbell was already ringing. Would the pressure never let up?
She answered it reluctantly, expecting to find Tyler standing there. She was faced instead with a stranger wearing a suit.
“May I help you?”
“I’m here to give you a ride, Ms. Truman,” the man answered.
“I’m not sure I need a ride,” she said slowly.
“Mr. Knight sent me.”
The guy didn’t look like a serial killer, but how was she to know what a serial killer actually looked like? Even people with law degrees weren’t always that clued in. And she rarely touched criminal law.
“Can you wait out there for a moment?” she asked. He nodded and she shut her door before moving over to her cell phone and sending out a quick text.
Tyler immediately responded that, yes, it was his driver, and that he, Tyler, looked forward to seeing her. Well, she wasn’t looking forward to seeing him.
Gritting her teeth, Elena grabbed her purse, went back to her front door, and followed the driver to the black SUV waiting at the curb.
When the driver pulled up to the gate to Tyler’s house, she was instantly tense all over again. He’d neglected to tell her the meeting was at his place. How convenient for him!
It wouldn’t do her any good to yell at his driver. The man was just doing his job. But she’d give Tyler an earful when she got inside.
But as the driver let her in through the front door, she rethought that. What good would it do? Tyler was her client, and no matter where he wanted the meetings, she had to deal with it — and they both knew it. Why waste her breath?
“Mr. Knight can be found this way,” the driver said before leading her back into the kitchen.
The freaking kitchen? Who in this world held business meetings in the kitchen? She really didn’t want to go in there.
Of course her eyes were immediately drawn to the damn kitchen island the second they stepped into the room. When she met Tyler’s gaze after a moment of staring at that miserable spot, she couldn’t miss the victory in his eyes. He knew exactly what she was thinking about.
Despite her outrage at what the guy was pulling, she felt her body respond, her nipples instantly hardening — thank goodness for the thick sweater — and her core heating. On top of that, her stomach was performing somersaults. And Tyler was wearing an apron and standing at the stove! Billionaires did that kind of thing?
“I wasn’t under the impression that we’d be meeting at your place, Mr. Knight,” she said grimly.
“This worked out easier for me. I’ve been running and gunning all day and the paperwork was here at my place. I’m sorry I had to send my driver over. I’d planned to pick you up myself.”
He didn’t look at all apologetic.
“You’re a very busy man,” she told him. “Your driver was very polite, at least.”
“That’s good to hear. Tony has worked with my family for a lot of years.”
Idle chitchat. That’s what this was. The thing about it, though, was that she could feel her nerves lessening as she spoke with Tyler. Besides, it was hard to feel nerves when the man was standing there in a silly apron with the motto Builders Only Use Hard Wood.
“Do you always wear aprons?” she asked with a semblance of a smile.
“Only when I want to get a real smile.”
She tried to wipe the smile away but it grew instead. Damn him!
“It does smell delicious in here. I’m sure you have something planned for later, so we ought to get business out of the way quickly.”