You’re gonna feel like a prize idiot if he has someone over. Or if he isn’t there at all. Or—
“Stark!”
His precious, handsome face said it all: eyes twinkling, grin broadening. God, how I’d missed that face.
“Malone.”
“I see you have a pizza box.”
“I do. Inside there is, believe it or not, a pizza.”
“Interesting. Would you like to come in?”
“That I would.”
His apartment was stunning, mid-century modern, tidy but not fussily so. The Dodgers game was on the television in the living room, but he turned that off before joining me at his dining room table.
“What brings you all the way to California?” he asked carefully.
“I’ve given the past few weeks a great deal of thought,” I said, “and I was wondering if you would be interested in renegotiating our benefits package.”
He frowned. “Just benefits?”
“Well, I would like to add an exclusivity clause to it, which is sorta backward, and this analogy is going sideways. Dammit, Malone, I miss you.”
He crossed the distance between us in seconds, his arms around me and his lips on mine. We kissed as if we hadn’t seen each other in a lifetime, and truly, that’s the way it felt. He shoved the pizza box to the side and sat me on the table. My whole body shuddered in pleasure at the memory of tables past.
Ken’s memory tried to intrude, but I shoved him away.
Malone had his hands on the hem of my shirt.
“Anchovies.”
“Stark,” he said in a warning voice.
“No, there’s something I need to say to you first.”
“Okay,” he said cautiously.
“Something I’ve never said first to anyone ever.”
His eyes widened ever so slightly, and while looking down to gather my courage, I caught a glimpse of his friendship bracelet. He still wore it, just as the ladybug bracelet had joined mine.
I looked up into his beautifully arresting eyes and said, “I have fallen in love with you.”
His whole body relaxed. It was as though I could see all his anxieties and apprehensions melt away. “Stella Stark, I fell in love with you the minute we bumped into each other in the breezeway.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say so!”
He shrugged. “You were looking for a man in finance.”
“No, I was looking for a forensic accountant who has aStar Trektattoo. I just didn’t know that yet.”
“Hold on, let me see if I can find one.” He turned to go, and I grabbed his arm.
“Malone?”
“Yes?”
