The Hunter(22)
“Interior design? You wanted my input? I just wondered how you wanted to proceed. Or have you changed your mind?”
He exhaled and visibly relaxed. “I will get my assistant to contact you and find a mutually agreeable time that we can meet up. I am meeting with my architect again first thing tomorrow morning which will give us some more information on what we can and can’t do.”
“Sounds good,” I said, trying to suppress a smile at his obvious relief that I was only talking business. “Well, I should be going. I will await to hear from your assistant, Mr Hunter.”
“Very well, Miss Price,”
“Please, call me Issy,” I said with a friendly smile.
“Only if you call me Lucas,” he said returning my smile.
“Goodnight Lucas,” I said with a giggle.
“Goodnight Issy,” he said in that voice as those midnight blue eyes lingered on my eyes for just a moment. Then, he turned and walked back the way we had come, leaving me standing there feeling oddly bereft once more.
As I approached my apartment, James hurried over to me. “Oh, Miss Price, Miss Roberts has been looking everywhere for you. She appears to be in quite a flap.”
“Thank you, James,” I smiled and hurried up to our apartment, wondering why Angel was looking for me.
No sooner had I opened the door, than something flew at me. Angel! She hugged me so tightly that I could hardly breathe and I realized that she was crying. “Oh Angel, what on earth’s the matter?” I asked. “What’s happened?”
She pulled away from me and I could see her bright blue eyes were red ringed from crying. “Where in hell’s name have you been?” she demanded, harshly.
“Work?”
“You liar,” she hissed viciously and I recoiled from her, instinctively.
“Come here, Angel,” said Chad softly, appearing in the doorway. He pulled her to his side and wrapped his arms around her. “I think that we should all calm down and discuss this rationally.”
“I think I should open a bottle of wine or three first!” I muttered.
Wine glasses in hand, we settled down on the sofa. Angel’s slowly subsiding sobs punctuated the silence.
“Well?” I demanded when no explanation was forthcoming.
Angel took a deep breath. “I tried to call you at the office towards the end of the afternoon to ask if you wanted to eat out tonight. There was no reply on either your office phone or your cell. I tried several times, leaving messages on your cell for you each time. You need to get an answer phone sorted for the office, by the way.”
“Oh, yeah .. thanks,” I muttered as I fished around in my purse for my cell.
“When it got really late and your cell started going straight to voicemail, I called directory assistance and found the number for the guard’s station at your building,” she continued. “I spoke with Mr Clark and he informed me that you had left the building, some considerable time ago with Lucas Hunter.”
“Yeah … so what?” I could not understand why that would create the scene that I had just witnessed.
“So what?” she echoed my words incredulously, her eyes huge in her petite face. “So you admit to leaving with him? The Phantom?”
“Yes,” I shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”
She looked desperately at Chad for assistance. He held up his hands muttering “You can leave me out of this” which earned him a withering look from Angel.
“Issy, you don’t know anything about that creep! Anything could have happened to you!” she said quietly.
“Lucas isn’t a creep and there is no need to be so melodramatic!”
Her eyes narrowed at my use of his first name. “You have said yourself how weird he is. Remember how freaked out you were when you found that bouquet on your desk. And when he stalked you in the elevator! How many handsome, loaded, twenty-somethings do you know who are totally reclusive? How can he be one of the richest men in New York and yet be an unknown? Why couldn’t you find out anything about him on Google? Not one image! Something is just not right about him.”
“You haven’t even met him! How can you judge him?” ” I hit back, defensively.
“I don’t think that your brief encounters qualify you to be an expert on him either,” she sneered.
“I didn’t say that I was an expert; I just said that he wasn’t a creep,” I retorted before draining my wine glass. I closed my eyes. She is only overreacting because she cares. She must have been out of her mind with worry to get so mad. I could feel my irritation with Angel fading, replaced instead with affection. I opened my eyes and held out my arms to her. “I’m sorry you were worried; I didn’t think. I know that you are only looking out for me. And look - I am fine really.”