Chapter 8

There was a moment of silence before Harvey's laughter came through the phone, making Isabella's smile grow even wider.

“Far too many clothes for my liking,” he replied, lowering his voice slightly.

“Then perhaps I can help you with that.”

“Is that an indecent proposition, Mrs. Vaughn?”

Isabella glanced around the empty boutique and leaned one hip against a box.

“One hundred percent indecent, Mr. Sterling. I just got the keys to my new place, and I want to christen it.”

This time, Harvey didn't even need to think about it.

“Send me the address. I'm on my way.”

“Don't you even want to know what kind of place it is?”

“Right now, the only thing I need to know is where it is.”

“Now that's what I call efficiency,” Isabella replied with a laugh.

“Two weeks ago, you told me patience wasn't one of my virtues. I'm trying to be consistent.”

“I seem to recall that I was the one who said I found patience interesting.”

“And I was the one who made it quite clear that I didn't share that particular virtue.”

“True.”

“Address, Isabella.”

The way he said her name kept the smile firmly on her lips.

“I'll send it to you.”

The call ended, and Isabella slowly lowered the phone from her ear before sharing her location.

“What a wonderfully accommodating man,” she murmured to herself as she turned her attention back to the boxes.

Harvey placed his phone face down on the table and turned his attention back to the conference room, although it was already far too late to pretend he was still interested in the presentation.

Around him, twelve people were watching the screen at the far end of the room while one of the directors explained a discrepancy in the quarterly projections. Harvey probably should have been paying attention. In fact, under normal circumstances, he would have interrupted to demand an explanation for two figures that hadn't quite convinced him.

At that moment, however, all he could hear was one sentence.

«I just got the keys to my new place, and I want to christen it.»

He had to suppress a smile.

Enough days had passed since their encounter at the restaurant that he'd begun to accept a possibility he didn't particularly like: perhaps Isabella Vaughn had absolutely no intention of calling him again.

He'd done his part by telling her to contact him if she ever felt like sinning again, and then he'd waited, initially with a fairly convincing display of indifference and, as the days went by, with increasingly feigned patience.

On more than one occasion, he'd come up with perfectly valid reasons to text her. He could ask her something about the videos, update her on his attorney's progress, or confirm some detail about Thomas.

None of those excuses would have seemed particularly suspicious, but that was precisely why he'd ultimately dismissed every single one. Isabella had his number and knew exactly how to reach him if she wanted to see him again.

And she'd just made it perfectly clear that she did.

Harvey glanced at his phone again. Her location was already displayed on the screen, and after confirming that it wasn't particularly far away, he made a decision that, in truth, he'd made the instant she asked what he was wearing.

He closed the folder in front of him.

The person giving the presentation immediately stopped speaking, and several pairs of eyes turned toward Harvey.

“This meeting is over. Send me the updated reports before the end of the day.”

The silence that followed made it abundantly clear that no one was entirely certain they'd heard him correctly.

“But we still need to review next quarter's projections,” one of the directors ventured.

“Send them to me in writing. I'll review them later.”

Harvey stood, picked up his phone, and left the conference room before anyone could come up with a sufficiently compelling argument to keep him there. Behind him, he left twelve people struggling to understand why a man who could routinely turn a one-hour meeting into two had just ended one halfway through without offering the slightest explanation.

When he reached his office, he stopped in front of his assistant's desk.

“Rose, cancel my meetings for this afternoon. I'm heading out.”

Rose slowly lifted her head.

She'd worked with Harvey for so many years that she'd learned to interpret even the slightest changes in his expression, and at that moment, her adorable, round cheeks perfectly complemented the enormous eyes with which she stared at him.

“Cancel all of them?”

“All of them.”

Rose continued staring, clearly waiting for the second half of an instruction that never came. In all the years she'd worked for Harvey Sterling, she could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen him leave the office before finishing his responsibilities, and she'd probably still have fingers left over.

“Is everything all right, sir?” she finally asked cautiously.

Harvey smiled as he opened his office door.

“Everything is excellent, my dear Rose.”

The woman's expression shifted from surprise to concern.

“That doesn't reassure me in the slightest.”

Harvey burst out laughing as he stepped inside to leave a few documents on his desk and retrieve his car keys. He was about to leave when his gaze fell on the bottom drawer he kept locked, and, driven by an absurd impulse, he opened it.

Isabella's panties were still there.

Over the past several days, they'd become a rather inconvenient reminder of a woman who seemed to have decided to disappear after giving him one of the best sexual encounters he could remember.

Harvey smiled as he closed the drawer again.

This time, he didn't need a keepsake because he was going straight to the woman herself.

When he stepped out of his office, Rose was still watching him with undisguised suspicion.

“Are you sure you don't need me to reschedule anything for tomorrow or call someone?”

“No.”

“Should I prepare any documents?”

Harvey continued walking toward the elevator and pressed the button.

“Rose.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Go home early.”

Rose's mouth fell open just as the elevator doors slid apart.

“Now I'm really worried!” she managed to shout before they closed.

Harvey laughed for much of the ride down to the parking garage.

For the first time in a very long while, work could wait. Because Isabella Vaughn couldn't.