“Hi.”
“Hi, sweet thing.”
There’s a little bit of a wild look in her eyes. Lust or nervousness? It’s hard to pin down.
Then Angelica does something she’s never done with me in the car.
“Stuart,” she says, her voice strong and clear. “There’s somewhere I need you to take us.” She rattles off an address in Chinatown. When she turns back to me, her eyes are sparkling but her smile isn’t all there.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I tease, and she gives a little shrug.
Stuart pulls away from the curb. I can see his half-smile in the rearview mirror.
Angelica digs into her purse and pulls out a length of deep purple fabric. “Avert your eyes.”
“Not a chance.”
While Stuart navigates the traffic she strips off her skirt and blouse and tugs the dress, which turns out to be skintight and gorgeous, over her head.
“Let me help.”
She gets a wicked look in her eyes and throws one knee across my lap, straddling me while I struggle to focus on tugging the fabric over her perfect hips. “Damn,” I say softly when I’ve finished. Angelica stops kissing the side of my neck and rolls back to her side of the car.
“Come back here.” I try to tug her back onto my lap, but she resists playfully.
“Not before our date.”
“Our date?”
“I planned a date for us.” Her eyes are wide and hopeful. “I wanted to give you a nice time.”
I can’t wipe the silly grin off my face. I can’t tell you the last time a woman took me out and did all the planning and didn’t rest on my damn laurels to do it. “You don’t owe me a nice time.”
“Yeah, I totally do,” she says, and kisses me on the lips for so long that the next thing I’m aware of is the car pulling up and stopping next to the curb. She breaks away, and for an instant I see an expression halfway between disappointment and fear flicker across her face.
Then her smile is back. She steps out onto the sidewalk, taking my hand as soon as I’m next to her, and tugs on it a little.
“Dinner first,” she says, and we climb down the stairs and into a basement Italian restaurant that I’ve heard about but never visited. It’s a tiny hole in the wall, but every table is jammed with people. There’s one remaining. The hostess takes us to it without delay.
“Wow,” I say, and Angelica beams. “Are you sure this isn’t some kind of sorry dinner?”
It’s a joke, but the dark look that crosses Angelica’s face just before she laughs starts a drumbeat in my head.
Something’s up.
Chapter Thirty-One
Angelica
I can’t take Adam’s call when it comes in. Hadley is literally standing over my shoulder when my phone starts buzzing inside my purse in the desk drawer. She steps away, head cocked, listening.
“Is that yours?”
“I think so, Hadley.”
“Well, turn it off,” she says, tapping her foot against the carpet. While I open the desk drawer and fumble in my purse for the phone, she grumbles under her breath, “Common courtesy in the workplace. It’s not much to ask.”
The second she retreats back into her office to ruin more lives—or whatever it is she does in there when she’s not making sure that all of my work is in tip-top shape—I reach back into the drawer to check my messages.
Sure enough, there’s a text from Adam, as well as a missed call.
Call me.
I shake my head, the tension rising in my shoulders. He could leave a voicemail for once in his life.
Then a lump comes to my throat. I haven’t talked to him since that hasty conversation we had when I was in the Hamptons. He’s probably on edge as much as I am.
I wait until it’s just late enough to justify a lunch break, then take the elevator down to the lobby. After the frigid cool of the air conditioning, the summer heat is almost painfully pleasant on my skin. There’s no sign of anyone shady lurking outside, so I start walking down the block and call Adam.
“Hey. Sorry I couldn’t call back sooner.”
“It’s okay, Angie.”
“Did something happen?” My heart pounds in the moment of silence before he answers.
“No...but I’m worried about my place.”
I try a joke. “What, you didn’t lock up when you left?”
His laugh is dry, bitter. “I locked up. But it’s no guarantee that....” His voice trails off, and then he tries again. “Could you just check on it, make sure nothing’s happened? The rent is paid, but it’s going to be a real pain in the ass if somebody breaks in and takes all my stuff.”