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Entering the elevator, I glimpsed my reflection in the shiny chrome doors. My blond hair, which this morning had been in a sleek, straight, shoulder-length style, was now a stringy, limp mess. I glanced at my button nose, but quickly moved on to notice how red my cheeks were from the oppressive heat. It turns out my mascara had smudged from the sweat, giving me a raccoon likeness, which was just awesome. I slumped against the corner of the elevator, the chrome wall cool on my back, just in time for it to ding as I reached the fifteenth floor. The doors slid open, signaling it was time to get my body moving again. The promise of that cold shower, after which I would promptly shock my system by drinking a glass of red wine in a hot bath, got me out of the elevator. It seemed like I could sleep right there, but hopefully, I’d be asleep by eight and could forget this day ever happened.
I dragged myself down the hall and opened the door to unit 1514. The natural light from the late-summer sun poured into the living room from generous windows, even if they looked out onto one of the highways cutting through the district. As I crossed the common space toward the hallway containing the bedrooms, I dug in my bag to find the case for my wireless earbuds. With the way my day was going, I was sure I would drop them in the bath if I tried to continue listening to my audiobook. I’d change to a physical book and hope one of the few paperbacks that had made the journey from New England didn’t end up waterlogged by the conclusion of my soak.
Walking down the hallway, I removed my earbuds and dropped the case in my bag. I was wondering if I should have stopped at the fridge for a glass of wine first when a sudden wall of muscle jerked me back to the present. This same hallway was certainly muscle-wall-free this morning when I left. The muscles in question belonged to a man who just so happened to be shirtless, his body wrapped in a low-slung towel around his hips. His skin was still damp from his very recent shower, and his body wash contained notes of something woodsy and alluring. Why was I noticing his scent? Surely my mind should be on stranger danger instead of trying to dissect shower products.
Shit! Did I enter the wrong condo? I thought to myself while the stranger in my hallway grabbed me to stop me from bouncing backward onto my ass. No, that doesn’t make sense. My key unlocked this one. I wrenched myself out of his strong grip and wielded my bag as a weapon, ready to rain hellfire down on this intruder.
“Who the hell are you?! What are you doing here?!” I yelled at the top of my voice. My eyes traveled up the naked, well-sculpted chest. Were those muscles or bones on his shoulders? My brain ground to a halt as I took in quite possibly the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. A chiseled jaw, symmetrical features, and brilliant green eyes set off chocolate brown hair, curling gently as it started to air dry. I took in the fact that the plump lips above a jaw line plastic surgeons should have in their look-books were moving and the eyebrows of this stranger in my hallway were angry.
“Hello?” the mouth seemed to say. “Who the hell am I? I should ask who the hell you are? Why are you in my brother’s place? That doesn’t seem like the type of outfit you would wear to clean it. Though the state of the clothes sure matches.”
Wow. Someone so pretty could become so ugly just by opening his mouth. At least being Duncan’s brother gave him a plausible reason for being in the apartment, so I didn’t feel like I was in immediate danger. Still, I wasn’t sure why he was in the condo, or even more confusingly, almost naked and wet.
“I’m Charlotte.”
“Okay, Charlotte, that’s one question answered. How about the other one? Why are you here?”
Wow, doesn’t give time to breathe, does this one? I let out a frustrated breath, feeling my relaxing evening getting further and further away.
“I’m Charlotte. I know your brother from—well, I’ve never actually met Duncan, but his stepmom arranged for me to stay here while I’m interning in the city this fall. We’re from the same small town in?—”
“Wait, you’re from Holly Ridge?”
He stepped back as he processed that I had a plausible reason for being where I was. I realized we remained standing in the hallway, with me still holding my bag raised in the air, poised to pummel if necessary, and he was still in only that towel with his arms crossed. I needed wine.
“I’m going to get something to drink. Can I get you something while you get changed?”
I turned to walk back out to the kitchen, setting my bag on top of one of the bar-height chairs at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. Moving to the fridge to take out the bottle of white I had opened the night before. I hoped to quench my thirst and take the edge off at the same time. Suddenly, a very masculine hand reached past me to grab a can of beer off the middle shelf that hadn’t been there when I left this morning. I turned around to find myself between a very shirtless Brandt brother and the fridge. He kept intense eye contact with me as he cracked the tab and swallowed half the can in one go. His drinking seemed to draw my eyes like a magnet to the way his throat looked as he took down the cold liquid.
“So, as we’ve established, I’m Charlotte. And you are…”
“I’m Hayden. I’m staying here.”
Chapter
Three
Hayden
“Look, Hayden, it has been a day. You can’t be staying here. I worked it out with your brother—well, your brother’s assistant, really—weeks ago that I would have the place until mid- December when my internship was up. She said nothing about me sharing it with you, and I’m really not comfortable sharing with?—”
“What was the assistant’s name?”
“I think it was Bethany? She hasn’t responded to a few questions I asked over the past few days, but?—”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. My brother can’t keep an assistant to save his life. Bethany is long gone, but it seems like she might have earned her departure if she didn’t keep records that showed arrangements had already been made to lend the condo to someone else. Bradley is his assistant now. He’s the one who had a messenger bring over the keys for me this afternoon after… after it became clear I was going to need some new accommodations. I’m just about to start as the CIO of the US branch of Duncan’s company, so he needs me well-rested. I think that means you’ll have to go.”
Either the wine, the summer sun, or Charlotte’s indignation had given her cheeks an alluring reddish hue, but when her blue eyes met mine, I felt ice in my veins. Indignation it was, then.
“Well, Mr. CIO, I’m pretty sure it’s in the company’s best interests, and considering the paycheck they surely pay you, for you to find another place to live. Meanwhile, my intern pay won’t cover anything within a forty-minute Metro ride of my office and all intern housing will be full for the semester. Don’t make me call Margaret, Hayden.”
Hit a man where it hurts, why don’t you? My stepmom would deliver a smack upside my head the next time she saw me if I pushed this woman out onto the street when she was obviously trying to make a go of something in her life. She had changed the Brandt family for the better when she met and married my dad thirteen years ago. I’d have to come up with another solution.
“Okay, fine. It’s too late today anyway to do something about it. I’ll email Duncan and have him call me at the ass-crack of dawn, or whenever, since he’s hours ahead of us on European time. But where’s all your stuff? I didn’t see it in the master bedroom?”
Charlotte picked up the wine bottle and her glass, starting to walk backward toward the hallway, apparently content she had won this round. “I’m a guest in this house. I’m in the guest room, of course. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s been a clusterfuck of a day, and the tub in the guest bath is calling my name.”
At this, she swiveled around and stomped off to the guest room, slamming the door shut with what I considered a bit more force than necessary, and locked her door with an audible click. Only at this point did it sink in I just had a stand-off with a complete stranger in my brother’s kitchen, in a city I didn’t really want to be in, hours after a psychic decided the fate of my relationship, all while wearing a bath towel around my waist.
