The Billionaire Next Door. Jessica Bird

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      “Oh, that wasn’t why I came up. And I just got home from my shift so I missed most of the pacing.” She took a deep breath and smelled…whoa, a very nice cologne. “I’m truly sorry about your loss and I—”

      “Hey, you want some breakfast?”

      “Excuse me?”

      “Breakfast.” As he pushed a hand through his thick dark hair, his bicep flexed up and the gleaming cross shifted between his pecs. “I’m not going to sleep anytime soon and I’m hungry.”

      “Oh…well…that’s not necessary.”

      “Of course it isn’t. But you just got home from work, didn’t you?”

      “Ah, yes.”

      “So you’re probably hungry, too, right?”

      Come to think of it she was.

      “And I’ll even put my pants on for you, Elizabeth.”

      Absurdly, a rush went through her. And she had the illicit, inappropriate thought that while he was making love to a woman, his voice would sound fantastic in the ear.

      God, how could she even think like that?

      “Lizzie,” she said, walking in. “I go by Lizzie.”

      

      Sean tracked the woman as she went by him, very aware of her smooth, gliding stride. Tall and lean, she was wearing an old pair of blue jeans and a four-sizes-too-big Red Sox T-shirt he was willing to bet she’d be sleeping in later. Her shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense way and the ends were damp as if she’d just showered. She smelled of Ivory soap.

      Which he liked.

      “Lizzie it is, then,” he said as he closed the door. “And you can call me Sean, of course.”

      As he spoke, he realized his Southie accent had resurfaced and it was strange to hear the speech pattern of his childhood back in his words again. During his years at Harvard, he’d assiduously tamed the telltale rs and learned a different, less regional way of talking.

      Less regional. Ha. Try more upper-class.

      Lizzie stopped in the middle of the room, her pale green stare going over everything as if she were inspecting the place. She had smart eyes, he thought.

      “So you’re a nurse?” he said.

      “I am, but I wasn’t treating your father. I was a friend of his.”

      Had he heard that right? “A friend.”

      “Yes. I’ve lived downstairs for the past two years so we got to know each other. He was lonely.”

      “Was he.”

      “Very.” As she nodded, she ran her hand over the back of the Barcalounger. “We had dinner together a lot.”

      For some reason, the sight of her touching his father’s chair creeped him out.

      “Well, then, I guess you know the way to the kitchen.” Sean reached into his duffel for some jeans. “You mind if I don’t put on a shirt? Damn hot up here.”

      He was surprised when she blushed. “Oh…no. I mean, yes, that’s fine.”

      As she headed out of the room, he pulled on his pants and thought of his father.

      Lonely. Yeah, right. Not with this tenant around. Eddie O’Banyon had been a loner by nature, but it was funny how a pretty young woman could get a man to feeling sociable.

      And she’d obviously spent a lot of time up here. Not only did she know where the kitchen was, but along the way, she shifted the edge of a cheap picture that had tilted off center and straightened a pile of mail. He had the feeling she was the reason the place was so clean.

      While Sean worked his way up his button fly, he was willing to bet she was also the reason his father had gotten off the booze, too. Nothing like love or some serious attraction to the opposite sex to turn a guy around. At least temporarily.

      Except what had she seen in him?

      Sean cursed under his breath. Like he had to even ask that? On impulse, he removed his gold watch and tucked it into his duffel. If she’d been attracted to what little cash his father had had, there was no reason for her to know he was swimming in the stuff.

      As he went into the kitchen, he wondered if she knew who he was. He figured chances were fifty/fifty. His face had been in the newspapers often enough, but it was the kind of thing that, unless you were into the world of high finance, you’d probably overlook. Although maybe his father had mentioned something.

      Not that Eddie had known much.

      “So cop a seat and I’ll cook for you,” Sean said, nodding to the table in the center of the room. “All I got are eggs and bacon, but the good thing is that’s hard to screw up.”

      “Sounds perfect.”

      He went to where the frying pan had always been kept and what do you know, the thing was still there. “Scrambled okay?”

      “Fine.”

      As he got the bacon going and grabbed the eggs out of the fridge, he kept his tone casual. “So you knew my old man well, huh?”

      “He was very kind to me.”

      I’ll bet. “You lived here two years, you said?”

      “Since I got out of nursing school. I wasn’t around much as I work at a clinic in Roxbury and I moonlight at BMC a lot, but we spent some time together.” A sad smile lifted her mouth. “Your father always said I worked too hard.”

      Did he? What a prince. “And you took care of this place, too, didn’t you? I mean, it’s pretty obvious. He never was into housekeeping when I knew him.”

      “Well, at first he wouldn’t let me. But after a while, he needed help.” She cleared her throat. “When was the last time you saw him? If you don’t mind my asking.”

      “A while. He told you not to call me until it was over, right?”

      As she stayed quiet, he cracked eggs into a bowl and started to beat them with a fork. The choppy, liquid sound cut through her silence.

      He looked over his shoulder. “Didn’t he?”

      “Yes. It felt wrong not to, but I respected his wishes.”

      When her green eyes lifted to his, he stopped dead.

      Check out that stare, he thought. So compassionate. So…kind.

      As he looked at her face, something popped in his chest, like a lid being released. And what came out of his inner soda can was a yearning that unsettled him. He literally wanted to dive right into those warm eyes of hers.

      “I СКАЧАТЬ