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Margot followed him down the hallway, running her fingers along the walls and stopping to peer into rooms. “Wow, Eddie, this layout is incredible! There’s enough space here to fit three families. You really scored with this one.”
“I thought you might like it." Eddie was beside her shoulder, an over-attentive, fluffy white guardian angel. He certainly looked as if he could fly off the balcony in those sleeves. Margot turned, and was surprised when she bumped into him. His robe fell open a little, and her hands came up to brace themselves against the pie slice of chest their collision exposed. Eddie grunted with surprise, and brought his own hands up to stabilize her shoulders.
God, his pecs were out of this world. She didn’t move her hands from their fixed position, but allowed her fingers to linger along the tight swell of muscle, reveling in her memories of what they had felt like flexing as he surged atop her. Her face warmed, and she had a feeling she was blushing. Margot’s father hadn’t raised her to be a crier, and he certainly hadn’t raised her to be a blusher, but she seemed to be doing a lot of both recently in the privacy of her own apartment. She was pretty sure hormones were to blame. She certainly blamed them for her body’s response to Eddie now.
She hadn’t accepted his invitation with any expectation of becoming...intimate. Sometimes, standing back to watch Eddie schedule every appointment and take charge of their to-do lists, Margot had a sinking feeling thoughts of sex were the furthest thing from his mind. Maybe she was the dirty pervert now, always privately replaying the steamier moments of their one-night stand and aching for a repeat. She couldn’t get too near him most days without feeling flushed beneath the collar and between the legs.
Except when he insisted on taking her blood pressure.
“Sorry. I really do want to give you space if you need it. Now, and...at other times.” His hands, so warm and strong-fingered, ran up and down her shoulders. The gentle friction shouldn’t have been enough to excite her, but it was.
"I don't want space from you." Margot flushed at her own words, before recovering enough to offer him a little half-smile that was several degrees cooler than the rest of her. “But isn’t this just a tad bit more expensive than what you're used to paying?” She was only poking fun at him, of course. If she was turning into the filthy-minded one, then Eddie Jameson was at least as equally filthy rich. She was surprised he had kept the brownstone for so long already, considering he had spent the last few years traveling to the next exotic locale. She wondered if anchoring himself to a new apartment, and a new situation, scared him at all.
Eddie grinned down at her. "I think I can afford it."
She returned his smile with a teasing one of her own. “Guess you’re right. My dad is one of your clients, after all.”
She leaned in for a kiss, but pulled up short. Eddie’s expression was odd in the aftermath of her remark. It wasn’t the first time she had teased him about their families’ business connection, but he looked as stunned now as if she had slapped him. Before she could puzzle over what his look meant, and decide whether or not to apologize for crossing some unknown line, Eddie sighed and passed a hand over his face. When he returned to her, he was smiling once more.
“Come on. Come check out the private roof deck. But before you do—” Eddie crossed to the kitchen table. He pulled an identical white robe from the back of a chair and tossed it to her with a grin. Margot caught it
“Matching outfits already?” she joked. “I thought we had a decade at least before we reached that point.”
“I’m a fast mover.” Eddie’s smile broadened, and Margot’s heart sped yet again at the sight of his Adonis-like features beaming down on her. What the heck was with her recently? This was Eddie Jameson, the kid she had known since diapers, the exasperating guy she had seen stumble awkwardly through his teenage years and come out on the other side accidently looking like a yachting magazine model. He wasn't some gorgeous stranger worth getting star-struck over!
“You certainly weren’t a fast mover when it came to me,” she mused.
“Are you referring to how long I last in the bedroom?" Eddie schooled his expression, as if they were discussing something as mundane as the meeting minutes. Margot smothered an answering giggle with her hand. Get a grip, Margot. She was so not the type of girl to usually be charmed by innuendo, especially not when it was such low-hanging fruit for a clever guy like Eddie, but she couldn't help it. He had a way of making her feel like a teenager again...
So long as he didn't bring up the wedding. Or her doctor's appointments. Or her blood pressure.
“Here. Check it out.” He invited her into the kitchen, and Margot followed. “I’ve got everything set up for a relaxing night in.”
He wasn’t joking. He had already filled two steaming ceramic tea bowls with what smelled like authentic green tea. There was a beautiful crystalline pitcher of ice water sweating beside a pyramid of warm, rolled towels. “I was almost expecting a blood pressure cuff,” she joked as Eddie handed her one of the mugs of tea. “What is all this?”
“I told you already. But if you're curious about the robe, put it on, and I’ll show you.”
Margot raised an eyebrow. "Is that the gentleman's way of asking me to strip?"
Eddie's cheeks colored beneath his tan. She had always known what buttons to push to make the infamous Blush-Inducer himself heat up. "I mean...nice as that outfit is," he punctuated his compliment with an approving look, "you're going to have to get out of those clothes somehow if you want to see what I have planned. If you want me to stick around..."
Of all the nights to corner him! Margot wanted nothing more than to put on her favorite R&B mix and show him the sultry moves she had been too wasted and horny to properly execute the first time. In fact, if memory served, Eddie had been the one to tear away her clothes in an impatient whirlwind the last time they found themselves in this promising position.
But Margot couldn't bring herself to be bold now, and she hated herself for it. She fingered the soft fabric of the robe as she tried to summon from the reserve of courage she usually had in surplus. Looks like she had spent it all on wedding planning and baby logistics. No way Eddie would look at her the way he was looking at her now the moment she removed her clothes and he saw her changing body. Her boobs may look killer, but she was all too aware that she was beginning to get extra padding elsewhere. Maybe she could pull off not looking totally pregnant if she wore the right things, but for how much longer?
It was probably safer to err on the side of being a prude.
Margot offered him her best crooked smile. "Somehow I don't think Zelma would approve," she said.
Eddie chuckled. "You know I think she wanted to take a bite out of me? I can't decide if it was in a good way. Anyway, in honor of our favorite changing room chaperones, I will demur."
"As will I." She waited until Eddie's back was turned to let her disappointed look out of the cage. She reminded herself that this was the right decision. There might have been a time when she wanted Eddie Jameson to see her naked, but it wasn't now. As soon as she felt certain he wouldn't peek, Margot shimmied out of her clothes and engulfed herself in the robe. It was hard to feel too badly when you were wearing something that felt like it could have been fashioned from a cloud captured above some distant, exotic coast. She breathed in the smell of fabric softened appreciatively as Eddie led her outside.
“Oh, Eddie.”
She was surprised she could get even those two simple words out. The view from the apartment’s rooftop was the most fantastic she had ever seen – and as an architect, Margot had stood on a lot of New York rooftops. There were no neighboring complexes as tall as theirs, and she could see all the way out to the velvet blue of New York Harbor unobstructed. The Statue of Liberty arose on its island, bright green against the backdrop and in defiant miniature at a distance. Above them, the evening sky was a gorgeous cobalt gradient without a single cloud obstructing its face. At her feet, candles. Eddie had arranged twenty, thirty...maybe fifty candles, all perched on tiny white saucers, and not a single one had snuffed itself out. Margot gazed around herself at the flickering field of fire. This is so not up to code, she thought. She raised her hands to her mouth to hide her expanding, elated smile at the sight.
"I paid extra for the unit with private rooftop access," Eddie mentioned. His eyes shone as he watched her.
