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Todd was looking around the kitchen as she was looking at him, examining every inch of his tall, muscular frame. She blushed as he had to repeat his question, since she was in her own little world when he spoke.
“I asked if there was a hotel nearby. I don’t want to get in your way,” Todd said.
“Todd, don’t be silly. There’s plenty of room here. Ayanna said you were welcome and you are. She thought the place would be empty because she’d been so busy with her family that she forgot that my camp was last week. We have four bedrooms and two and a half baths, so it doesn’t make sense for you to go to a hotel. Just go out to your car and get your things,” she said briskly.
“If I’d seen your car I wouldn’t have used the key to get in,” Todd said ruefully. “I probably just should have waited until I heard you come downstairs or something, instead of just coming in.”
“That’s because my car is in the barn. And if you hadn’t come in you wouldn’t have been able to see me in the bathtub, would you?”
Her tone was both casual and naturally seductive, so much so that Todd choked on his lemonade.
“Damn, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you heard me upstairs. How did you know I saw you?”
His face got red as she gave him a knowing smile and answered, “Because you just told me. Go get your stuff and I’ll take you to your room.”
Chapter 3
Alexis couldn’t take any more. “Wait a minute, wait a minute! You’re telling us that the man saw you naked? Butt naked? A strange man saw you with no clothes on, and he’s still living? Why didn’t you beat the crap out of him?”
Emily shrugged. “He’s not a strange man. He’s a good friend of my sister. He was a groomsman in her wedding. Don’t you remember me telling you about him?”
Sherri and Alexis looked at each other before looking back at her. “No,” they answered, once again speaking in unison.
“I must have said something about him,” Emily countered. “He’s a real nice guy, very handsome, a doctor. Very down-to-earth, too. Are you sure you don’t remember?”
“If he was all that, why didn’t you get with him when you were in Chicago?” Alexis asked pointedly.
“I don’t ‘get with’ guys, Alexis. That’s not my deal. Besides, he was with someone,” she answered just as pointedly.
Sherri was shaking her head. “I’m going to forget the naked part for a hot minute, but we’re going back to that. If you know the guy and you like him, why did you call the cops on him?”
“I told you, I didn’t recognize him! I knew him as having long braids, and they were gone, remember?”
Sherri got up and went to the drawer where Emily kept odds and ends and came back to the table with a notepad and a pen. “I’m going to have a lot of questions when you get through, so I’m taking notes. Alexis, try to hold it in, chick. We need to get the rest of this story before we react.”
Alexis moaned dramatically and made a horrible face. Sherri raised an eyebrow and stared her down. Alexis pouted, but the grimace melted away immediately. “That’s a good idea, Sherri. I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. Okay, what happened next, Em?”
Emily looked totally composed as she watched Todd go out to his car to get his luggage, but nothing could have been further from the truth. After the morning she’d had, her heart was still going like a jackhammer. Her whole world had been turned upside down in the past hour, and she was trying desperately to look as if it was no big deal. But that was going to be really difficult. From the moment she’d met him, Emily had a secret passion for Todd. She’d never shared this information with anyone, especially not him. And now here he was live and in person under her roof. She should have pointed him to the nearest Marriott when he said he’d stay at a hotel, but no, she had to tell him to stay with her. Clearly, she wasn’t in her right mind; she was just still rattled from the events of the day.
The moment she’d realized there was someone in the house, she’d gone into panic mode. She’d been singing loudly while she was standing in the bathtub, but she’d caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye that scared the hell out of her. It was a man, a big bald man. She tried to remember if the rifle her father had kept was upstairs where she was or downstairs in the closet. Downstairs, it’s always downstairs, she muttered. Without bothering to dry off, she got out of the deep tub and tiptoed to her bedroom, leaving the water running so she wouldn’t alert the intruder that she’d left the bathroom. Throwing on an old pair of shorts as she reached for her cell phone, she hastily called an old friend of her dad’s who happened to be a state trooper in the area. Thankfully he’d been on duty and told her he’d be right there. By the time she’d tossed on a T-shirt, she could see him pull into the driveway behind the strange vehicle that was parked there.
After she tiptoed down the stairs and listened to the man and his partner interrogate the stranger, she realized it was Todd, the man she’d met in Chicago when her sister Ayanna had gotten married. He was tall, intelligent and very funny, as well as fine as hell. When she finally came out on the porch to face him, it took her a few seconds to recognize him because he’d cut off his long braids. He looked like Shemar Moore now, or at least as close to Shemar Moore as she was gonna get. His long lean body was still as sexy as she recalled, and his voice was still as captivating. And he was right here with her on Hilton Head. For once, Emily wished that she had less intellect and more sex appeal, but there was nothing she could do about it now. When Todd returned to the back porch, she held the kitchen door open for him as he carried in a large bag and small duffel.
“I hate to keep repeating myself, but I can easily stay at a hotel,” Todd reminded her.
“And I hate to keep telling you that you’re perfectly welcome to stay here. Unless you find my company repulsive or something,” she replied. “Ayanna obviously just forgot when I would be here. Even if she’d remembered that I was going to be here, you’d still be welcome. This place is way too big for one person. Come on upstairs and pick out a room so we can get your things put away,” she said nonchalantly, as though having a super-fine man drop in on her was an everyday occurrence. Which it wasn’t, not by a long shot.
She didn’t wait for him to answer; she just started walking to the back stairs that were next to the kitchen. Sucking in air so she wouldn’t appear out of breath, which she was due to the faint masculine scent that drifted from Todd, she walked down the hall to the bedroom next to hers.
“You can have your pick of rooms. Daddy wanted this place to hold all of us, plus guests.”
The room held a king-size bed, a dresser and armoire, a wide padded window seat and a big comfortable-looking chair. Her mother had decorated it in soothing shades of green, and it looked as posh as a fancy hotel but much homier due to the oak floors and walls. Todd looked around with a satisfied smile. “This is great, Emily. I can’t believe your father built this place himself.”
“Well, I helped a little. I thought about going into architecture at one time, but science was my real calling.” She felt her cheeks grow hot as the shyness that usually overtook her when she was talking to a good-looking man arose. “Okay, I’ll let you get settled. I have to get the shampoo out of my hair,” she said as she felt the ends, which were getting crispy from the dried suds.
Todd grinned as he saw her fingering her long ringlets. “This time I promise not to spy.”
A hot flush raced over her, but this time it didn’t reach her face. Rather, it lingered in the most intimate part of her body, and for some reason the feeling wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. It was kind of exciting, which made her back out of the room with a quickness. “It wouldn’t do you any good, buddy, because I’m locking the door.”
Todd’s laughter followed her down the hall as she hurried to finish her shower properly.