Ivy looked down her nose at me. “You live here, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but I don’t clean. I have an old Polish lady who comes and does that.”
“We’re not leaving the water and glass on the floor,” Ivy said, rolling up her sleeves.
I followed her into the kitchen and watched as she poked around in the tall cupboards and pantry. “Ivy.”
“How do you not know where your broom is? You’re such a man-child.”
“Ivy.” I grabbed her, turned her around, pushed her back against the wall, and murmured, “I really want you…”
17
Ivy
“Ireally want you…” Evan said in that deep voice.
Things were jumping downstairs. Why was he this close to me?
Do not think about him naked in the shower.
Thanks, brain, now that was all I could think about.
“You want me how?”Crap.“I mean, you want me to do what?”
Evan grinned. “If you had let me finish, I would have told you, but of course your brain is jumping straight to sex on the floor of the kitchen that I never use.”
I pushed him away, but Evan caught my hand.
“I wanted you to know that I had something for you.”
“Is it a new life, one where you’re not in it?”
“Even better. I have your money.”
“You convinced Camilla to pay?”
“No. I wrote you the check.”
I was taken aback. “Why?” I looked up at him in concern. “She’s the one I signed a contract with. You were right. It was unprofessional of me to involve you.”
Evan looked up at the ceiling then back down at me. “I was getting married too. She ruined my life, but she doesn’t have to ruin yours too.”
“We’re not that bad off,” I said crossly, even though yeah, we kind of were.
“So you don’t want the check?” he asked, waving it at me.
“I can just send it to collections.” I tried not to watch the check like a sugar addict in a cake shop.
“All right then,” Evan said, slowly putting the check in his pocket, “I’ll just have this voided…”
“On second thought.” The part of me that did not want to lose my business had taken control.
“It’s already in the pocket,” Evan said. I glared at him, and he grinned. “But you are of course free to get it out.”
“You could just hire an escort or find a thirsty model if you wanted some girl to take your clothes off for money,” I snapped at him.
“Yeah, you’re right, sorry. I—”
