I look around the worktops but only see coffee and a fruit bowl.
Shrugging, I say, ‘Coffee will be fine.’
He chuckles and shuffles me so I replace him on the stool. Opening his large, American-style fridge, he asks ‘Pancakes? Bacon? Eggs? I’ll call my chef.’
‘Oh. Please don’t.’
‘I’m joking, Scarlett, I can cook… Well, a little. Amy does most of my cooking but she doesn’t work a weekend unless I ask.’
‘Amy?’
‘Cleaner. Cook. All round domestic angel. How do smoked salmon bagels sound? I can use a toaster,’ he grins.
Smiling, I pour a filter coffee and sit back on his warm stool to get a front-row view of him moving around the kitchen. ‘Have you been working out?’
‘Running, then sparring with Jackson.’
‘I wondered where that body came from. Where do you spar?’
‘In the gym.’
‘Yes, thank you, I guessed that much. Where’s the gym?’
He points to a white door at the back of the lounge.
‘Naturally, you have a gym in your apartment.’
He pops the two halves of a bagel from the toaster and turns them onto a plate. ‘Cream cheese?’
‘Please.’
‘This is good,’ I say after chomping through my first bite of bagel in seconds.
‘I can see that.’
‘So, Jackson lives here?’
‘He does.’
‘Hmm, okay.’
Gregory laughs. An unexpected sound from the usually serious CEO. ‘There’re five bedrooms and Jackson’s is furthest away from mine.’
‘Oh. I didn’t realise it was so big.’
He glances to his crotch. ‘Why thank you.’
‘The apartment, fiend.’ Images of his toned body lowering down onto me fill my mind. ‘I just don’t know where my head was last night.’
He stalks towards me and I pause midway through taking a bite of bagel. He pushes my legs apart and stands between them, then rubs his thumb across the side of my mouth and sucks cream cheese from the tip. A sight that parts my lips, upstairs and down.
‘Are you free today?’ he asks.
I swallow, giving myself a second to recover, and make him wait for my response, rotating my hand in the air.
‘Am I free? Yes and no.’
‘Ah, we’re back to cryptic Scarlett.’
