She’d died and gone to foodie heaven. “I would love to cook in here,” she whispered.
Josh opened the large Sub-Zero wine storage unit and set two bottles on the granite countertop. “You cook?”
“I love to cook. You?”
“Nah, I don’t cook much. Mostly take-out.”
“How can you have a kitchen like this and not cook? That’s just wrong.”
“I guess, but I don’t know how to cook. I never had to.”
That made sense. He did, after all, grow up in a house with servants. There wouldn’t be any reason for him to know his way around the kitchen. Caroline, on the other hand, looked at food like an adventure. Playing with flavors and textures was like painting on a canvas. It was fun, and she’d love to have a place like this to experiment.
Josh had grabbed the electric corkscrew and opened a bottle of red wine. He took two oversized wine glasses from a cabinet and before Caroline knew it Josh was passing her a perfectly aerated glass of merlot.
“You are old enough to drink, right, Rossi?” He held the glass back for a second.
“Yes, I’m old enough.” Taking the glass, Caroline took a long sip. “I’m twenty-seven—well, almost twenty-eight.”
“A baby.” Josh pulled out plates and utensils, and the two of them carried everything to the den, where the pizza was already on the table in front of the couch.
“Baby? Yeah, I love that.” Caroline grumbled, sitting when he motioned to the leather sofa.
“Compared to me you are.” Josh was thirty-four. He was born on November 14. Caroline knew the details. Hell, she thought she knew everything about him, but this evening was turning out to be an eye-opener.
“You’re not old, Josh.”
He stopped for a moment and glanced at her. “I feel it. Dealing with all my family drama and all the work crap, I feel a hundred.”
Maybe it was the familiarity, or the fact that he was joking around with her. But Caroline was seeing that his life wasn’t big and bold like Jason and Meg’s. In fact, it seemed he was facing down the Campbell family demons all on his own. He was a big, back-slapping alpha who was gorgeous to look at. But he was also down-to-earth and grounded. Caroline loved the dichotomy—loved that he wasn’t what he seemed any more than she was what she seemed.
She’d always had this vision of Josh, first as the athletic Ivy Leaguer and lately as the efficient, cold CEO. In both roles she imagined he was tough, unforgiving. And the thing was, he might be that way at work. But it appeared that Josh at home was a different guy altogether. He didn’t say much at family dinners, choosing instead to hang out with his and Jason’s niece, Molly, or make small talk with Caroline’s mother. Josh had been close to his parents until recently, but the relationship had begun to change daily. And since Josh still ran their company, the relationship was complicated. It had to be exhausting for him.
He opened the pizza box and Caroline enjoyed the sight of his hands placing slices of the pie on the plates. Even his hands were gorgeous. “It’s perfect because it’s not too hot,” he said. “I hate it when the cheese slides off.”
Caroline leaned over her plate and took a bite. Immediately, the flavor rushed over her tongue. “Oh, my God.” Words didn’t come easily with a mouthful of pizza, but she couldn’t stay quiet. “This is . . .”
“It’s good, right?”
“Mmm hmm.”
Taking a healthy swallow of wine, Josh took another bite and flipped on the TV. He pressed a few buttons and the On-Demand channel flashed on the screen. “Movie?”
Shocked, Caroline swallowed her pizza and contemplated what he had said. He wanted to watch a movie with her? Like spend real time together? “Uh, sure?”
“Any preference?”
“I don’t like horror and I hate zombies.”
“No zombies? Damn.” He grinned at her. “Superheroes?”
“I’m a geek; I
love
superheroes.”
Josh made a selection, then settled back into the couch and finished off the first slice of pie. He inhaled it. No polish and sophistication there; he was just a guy.
Taking generous sips of her wine, Caroline pondered the situation. It was Friday night, and she was sitting in a multimillion-dollar loft, having pizza and watching a movie with the most gorgeous man in the western hemisphere.
She felt the corner of her mouth twitch as her thoughts shifted to Mel and Mark and the dinner that almost happened.
This was so much better.
There were a few minutes of silence while he consumed his second piece of pizza and she nibbled on hers. He started going for a third piece and stopped, glancing in her direction, his look conveying complete mischief. He must have been an adorable kid.
“You probably think I’m the biggest pig on the planet.”
“I think you’re hungry. Did you eat today?”
“I had a sandwich at my desk around noon. I’ve been working on this project with my father and it’s a train wreck waiting to happen.”
“What kind of project?”
“It’s a development project. We’re new in real estate and I’m not feeling right about this. I understand there’s always risk when you develop a site, but this one is one problem after another.”
Caroline didn’t hesitate. This was totally her thing, and buzzed or not, she could make sure he wasn’t getting bad advice from anyone. “Anything I can help you with?”
“Do you know anything about site assessments?”
She grinned and nodded. “I write them all the time. Need help with one?”
His eyes opened wide and relief washed over his face. “It was done recently, but I’d relax a little if someone I trusted went over it.”
He trusted her? That was something. She didn’t think he knew anything about her.
“What does your father think?” Will Campbell was a horse’s ass, and completely amoral, but Josh was part of the family firm, so his father’s opinion mattered. Quite frankly, Caroline couldn’t understand why Josh was still associating with him, but if she’d learned anything about Josh over the past hour, it was that he was full of surprises and he probably had his reasons.
“My father thinks this project is all sunshine and rainbows. Which is why I’m worried. I don’t trust him. At all.”
He poured himself another glass of wine and topped hers off. She reminded herself not to drink too much because she was so tired she’d probably fall asleep.
“I’ll look at it for you.” She’d know in the first two minutes if the site was fit for development, and she couldn’t understand why his consultant hadn’t discussed this with him. The technical part of the report should come with some kind of narrative explaining the findings.
“I appreciate it.” He finally took a bite of his third slice. “So you like your job?”
“Nope.” She took a healthy swallow of her wine. “I hate it. Well, I hate the firm I’m with, but I’m good at it, and it pays the bills.”
He sat back, resting his ankle on his knee. “If you hate it, why are you doing it?”
Such an easy question for a person who’d always had choices.
“Money. It’s a stable profession, and I’m well paid. I was a math and science whiz; the courses were hard, but I didn’t have any trouble maintaining a 4.0.” She refilled her glass. “I had a big job offer before graduation and my mother was thrilled. I got a master’s and passed my licensing exam last year, so I’m in a really good place.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Don’t get me wrong; I respect the work. It’s important, but it’s hard to work up any enthusiasm for it. Especially now. Like I said, I don’t love my firm.”
Josh polished off his last slice and broke into the garlic knots. She watched, amazed at the amount of food he could pack away. He ate like a seventeen-year-old boy, but damn he was so cute. Caroline fell for Josh when he was a teenager, and seeing this glimpse of him made her yearn for the perfect, tragic angst she felt then.
He was her everything. The last thing she thought of before she went to sleep and the first thing she thought of when she woke up. She felt like she dreamed about him every night.
Sometimes she still did.
“So what do you want to do?”
Caroline stared into her now-empty wine glass. She had to stop drinking so fast. Her mind was a little floaty because two drinks was her strict limit, and she’d finished her fourth since she’d left work. Did she want to tell him about her true love? The thing that kept her up late at night, that made her wish she could just up and quit her job?
“I want to write.” Well, there it was.
“Write? Write what?”
“Novels. Romances, in particular.”
He sat back and considered her and when his mouth turned up at the corners, she expected the jab. There was always a jab.
You write porn? Oh, you write that? You don’t want to write a real book?
Caroline had heard them all, and it was because of reactions like those that she rarely told anyone what she did. She was a member of her local romance writers group, went to conferences and took classes, but the only person who knew she was seriously trying to get published was her roommate. Her family had put the idea down so many times she’d stopped talking about it. Now she’d told Josh, and she waited for his first dig.
“That’s awesome,” he said.
Wait. What?
“Excuse me?”
“I said it’s awesome. I can’t even imagine writing a book.” He stood suddenly and left the room. When he came back a few minutes later he was carrying the second bottle of wine. Caroline was still stunned at his reaction and didn’t say anything when he filled her wine glass. “That’s amazing. Why are you an engineer? Shouldn’t you have gone to journalism school or become a college professor or something, so you could write?”
“Like I said, I was good at math and science. My mother wanted me to have a secure profession and I always do what I’m told.”
Good God, she was confessing to Josh. She’d had too much wine, was probably a little drunk on his presence alone, and now she was telling him her family woes. She needed to shut up.
Yet, she kept talking.
“It was hard to go against anything my mom wanted after Dad died.”
“But you can do both, right? You have been. I think it’s great.”
“They don’t understand. They call it my hobby.” She looked around and found a box of tissues on the table behind the sofa and she turned and grabbed the whole thing. She pulled one out of the leather-covered box and blew her nose. She was drunk. Her nose was running and her eyes had filled with tears. “It’s not just a hobby.”
Josh reached over and pulled her into the crook of his arm. This night was getting better and better. “Families can suck,” he said. “No matter what I do someone is pissed at me. So, I stopped worrying about what other people thought, and did what I thought was right.”
“It’s good in theory, but I don’t know . . .”
“Come on. Let’s finish the wine, and watch the movie.”
“I’ve already had too much. I can’t hold my alcohol. Two glasses is my limit.”
“How many have you had?”
“Four. And a half.”
He laughed and filled her glass. “This should be interesting.”
***
Josh pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. How much wine had he drunk? How long had he been asleep? Checking out the table, he saw the empty pizza box, the tin that held the garlic knots and a completely empty bottle of wine and a second one that was almost there. Considering he was still buzzed, the answer to the wine question was too much. The clock on the fireplace mantle told him the rest. It was almost eleven o’clock and to his right, on her side and curled up with a throw pillow, Caroline was fast asleep.
Her glasses were on the couch next to her and she made a breathy little noise every time she exhaled. Josh did not know what to make of this girl. Growing up, she was always following Meg around. Caroline might have been five when the Rossi family took up residence in the estate manager’s house, but he never really knew her. She was never on his radar.
Now she was on his couch, and when he leaned in he caught a whiff of her scent again. That vanilla and cinnamon smell that made him think of cookies. Warm cookies.
Josh crouched on the floor next to her and placed a hand on her knee. Caroline’s black tights were soft and smooth and as he moved his fingers lightly over the fabric, she stirred, her eyes fluttering open. His blood seemed to hum the minute those gorgeous chocolate-brown eyes blinked at him. Damn.
She was still sleepy, still coming out of the food coma he’d fallen into himself. But unlike him, she didn’t seem concerned about where she was or the time. Josh never expected Caroline’s hand to reach out and stroke his cheek, but when it did, when her gentle touch made his heart beat faster, Josh sensed he was in trouble.
“I like this dream,” she said.
Dream?
“Caroline . . .”
“You’re talking in this one. You’ve never talked before.” Her voice was thick and sweet and she obviously thought she was dreaming. About him.
Wow.
“I don’t talk?” He shouldn’t play with her like this, but he couldn’t resist. He kind of felt like he had to be careful. Wouldn’t it be like waking a sleepwalker?
“No, silly,” she whispered.
“What do I do?” He shouldn’t ask. He knew that, but he did anyway.
“You kiss me.”
Whoa. He didn’t expect that.
Shit
. But without much thought, there was something incredibly appealing about kissing her. Something tempting. And as he looked into her sleepy eyes and took in her full lips, Josh bent toward her and made the dream real.
The brush of her fingers on his face coaxed him into a trance. Kissing her was so easy, so natural, and his libido fired up in record time. He went deeper, letting his hand slide up her leg, under her skirt, caressing her gentle curves and pulling her close. His tongue played over her lips just a little, tasting her, and a voice in the back of his mind asked him what the hell he was doing.
Of course, he didn’t stop. He was just drunk enough that his ability to reason went out the window. Josh was about to slip his hand under her sweater when he heard Caroline gasp.
Opening his eyes, he saw she was staring at him. She was awake. For real. Their lips were touching, but nothing was happening. The tiny sips and gentle pressure had gone, and all he saw in her expression was a combination of fear and embarrassment. Not what he was going for. Not at all.