But he gave Erin the time when she showed up even as annoyed as he’d been.
He had more patience with his mother than his father.
They obviously had a closer relationship, but nothing like she had with her parents.
“The other thought that crossed my mind was someone from the kitchen. I’ll meet with Grace and go from there.”
“Don’t stress yourself out over it. I don’t care.”
“We care. Hunter wants to comp you some of your stay for the inconvenience.”
“Natalie, I’m going to get pissed in a second. You’ll ruin my good mood.” He put his hand up when she went to speak. “I get it. It’s your job. You take extreme pride in it. It’s admirable and Idid the same when I worked for someone else. It’s what burned me out and got me sick.”
“Sick?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
But it did in her mind because it was the first she’d heard of it.
“What matters is that someone broke a rule and there are consequences for that.”
“Don’t get me involved. My mother pulls shit like that all the time. It’s not as if I were in hiding. If I were, she wouldn’t find me.”
“Well, we know you couldn’t hide here,” she said drily. It pained her to say that.
“You’re not comping me anything. End of story. Go put your sleuthing hat on and focus on that.”
She laughed. “I’m going to. While you play with making puzzles.”
“That’s right. We each have something we excel at. I would like you to come back when you’re out of work. Maybe we can both relax some after a frustrating day. Looks to me like you’re going to need it.”
“I’m not the one that looks as if a cyclone styled my hair,” she said, laughing. “You should check in the mirror.”
“You’re going to look like that when I’m done with you later.”
He yanked her to his chest again, his mouth covering hers, the tension leaving her body as she melted against him and clung on for support.
Yeah, she was in trouble.
29
JUST WATCHING YOU
Three hours later, Arik answered the door to Natalie’s knock.
“Just come in,” he said. “You’ve got one of those master keycards.”
She gave him a kiss on the lips the minute the door was shut behind her. “I’d never do that. This is your room and your sanctuary. We always knock before we enter.”
He sighed. “That is why it took me so long to answer. I just figured you’d enter. Do you ever have any housekeeping fantasies? Are you into them?”
Her eyes were wide enough to let him know it never crossed her mind. “You sleep with housekeepers? They’d be fired here.”
He laughed so hard he actually grabbed his side. “No. I don’t. Never have. Never will. Don’t even look at them and that is horrible because it feels dismissive, but I normally leave the room when they come in. I don’t want either of us to feel uncomfortable. It had more to do with you. You can knock on my door and come in to seduce me any time you want.”
“I don’t think it would take much to seduce you.”
“Not from you,” he said.
