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Should I claim a medical issue, perhaps an infection? Vanity put ED off the table, and it would be a lie to claim I didn’t find her attractive. It didn’t take me long to come back to Gramps’ advice. Honesty could be hard, but it was always the right thing. I merely had to explain the stakes and why I thought it was too risky for us to get involved.
With my plan firmed up, I strode to my bedroom. The door was ajar. As I stepped inside, light from the hallway let me see that the bed was empty.
Then a toilet flushed, and the sound came from the guest suite across the hall.
She’d given up. That was a good thing. I let out a breath. I just had to be strong for a few days. That was doable.
CHAPTER20
Alexa
The next morning,I woke to the sound of a slow hammer and clanking metal. Who the hell did construction at this time of the morning? And on a Saturday?
I’d moved my stuff and retreated into this guest room last night, hoping Evan wouldn’t follow me. That wasn’t true. A part of me had hoped he would. Maybe it would be like in some of the romance novels I’d read—Prince Charming comes knocking on the door and…
It didn’t matter. He hadn’t.
Anyway, I was strong enough to face whatever or whomever came at me. After using the marble-on-marble bathroom, I wrapped myself in the bathrobe I’d found last night. It was pure white and the fluffiest material known to man, a reminder that I was in Evan’s palace in the clouds, surrounded by the kind of opulence I’d thought only existed in magazines, or on movie sets.
I looked up after splashing some water on my face and confronted the ugly dark splotch on my cheek. I shook my head, running into the door in the dark had not been the worst thing to happen to me yesterday.
Back in the bedroom, I picked up my phone and ventured out into the digital wilderness to see what, if anything, had been written about me. Every day so far, I’d still been the elusivecurrent McAllister Minx.
The poll results are in.
Who should the Shark of Wall Street return to after the current McAllister Minx?
Our readers favor Natalia Pataki by a two-to-one margin. Natalia has said her breakup with the Shark last year was only temporary. This would make a three-peat for her, tying her with Aurora Hays, who has also had three turns with the Shark.
We’ll have to wait and see if history repeats itself. Stay tuned.
What drivel.To think people actually read this stuff and believe it.
More clanging came from the other room.
I wasn’t one to avoid things, so I cinched the robe up tight. It was time to search Evan out and thank him again for saving me from myself. Just thinking about what would have happened if he hadn’t pulled me back from the edge made my stomach lurch so badly I had to steady myself against the counter.
When I felt ready to open the door, I realized the noises were coming from a room farther down the hallway.
When I reached the door, I found Evan on an exercise machine, pounding out reps of some kind of press. Of course it wasn’t construction. Evan had his own home gym, outfitted with a dozen shiny, chrome machines, didn’t everyone?
With a clang, Evan let go of the handles. “Good morning, Allie.” He was breathing heavily and pulled the hem of his shirt up to wipe his forehead.
The sight of him sweaty, with bulging muscles everywhere, cut off the words trying to come up my throat. I’d only seen him in a suit, and that had merely hinted at the cut muscles on display now. He had six-pack or eight-pack abs and a happy trail leading down to…
Cut this shit out now, Alexa, and get control of yourself.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked as he stood from the machine.
“Sure,” I squeaked. That was true if you excluded all the time I’d spent lying awake and wondering if I was doing the right thing, or if I should have been more open to his advances. “How about you?”
“Could have been better.” Something clouded his eyes as he scanned my face.
It was the way he’d looked just before the almost-kiss. I couldn’t decipher it. Was that a come-on line? Did it matter? I’d just admitted to myself that he was the reason I hadn’t slept well last night. He’d had Sylvester put my bags in his room—a signal, maybe a demand…
He motioned around the room. “Do you do any working out?”
I shook my head. I’d never been inside a gym, only seen this kind of equipment through the glass. Memberships cost money, and I didn’t often have enough extra for coffee, let alone an expensive monthly membership to a place where I’d be ogled by a bunch of guys while I got sweaty.
