Her eyes widened when Linus sat up in the plush seat so that he was visible. “Sorry, if I’m intruding?—”
“You aren’t,” Knox informed her firmly
“Definitely not,” Linus confirmed as he rose slowly from the seat. “Eleanor Hall, if I’m not mistaken,” he stated rather than asked.
“Yes, but I prefer to be called Ellie,” she confirmed as she continued to eye him warily.
“Linus Wynter,” he provided.
Ellie’s gaze moved quickly to Knox, her eyes asking him a dozen questions at once.
None of which Knox could answer until he had actually spoken to Linus. Besides which… “Why don’t you go upstairs and put on a robe or some clothes, and I’ll go to the kitchen and make us all a pot of coffee?”
She nodded. “I’ll leave you down here to chat with one of your bosses.” She turned quickly on her heel and almost ran out of the room and down the hallway.
“One of your bosses, hm?” Linus teased.
Knox snorted. “You might be one of the owners of the company, but the New York CEO still ranks high enough not to consider you my boss.”
“That’s good.” Linus didn’t attempt to hide the mockery in his hazel-green eyes. “Because if I were your boss, I would probably use this moment of privacy to remind you that company rules prevent you from becoming personally involved with a client.”
Knox chuckled. “Ellie isn’t strictly a client.”
“That’s what my cousin Rufus, my two brothers, and Declan claimed too, and now they are all engaged or married to women who, although technically not clients, still should have been off-limits.”
“So, sue us.”
Linus grinned. “I am really pleased for you.” He gave Knox a hearty slap on the back. “I never thought I’d see this day.”
Knox scowled. “What day?”
“The day you allowed yourself to forgive the past and fall in love again.”
Strictly speaking, neither Knox nor Ellie had actually used the L word. They had made love all night, indulged in any and every pleasure they wanted to, but it had all been done silently except for their cries of pleasure. Some of which Linus had heard.
“Ah.” Linus eyed him teasingly. “Did you forget to mention that word to Ellie?”
“No, I… This is all new, okay?” he snapped.
Linus gave a pained grimace. “A lady with Ellie’s personal history might still need to know how you feel about her.”
“I have every intention of telling her,” Knox assured. “But at this moment, I’m more interested in knowing what you’re doing here.”
Ellie went into the en-suite bathroom to Knox’s bedroom, washing quickly before going back into the bedroom to get together some clean clothes to wear, all the time thinking of Linus Wynter’s sudden appearance.
Not just in New York, but in Knox’s apartment.
One thing Ellie was sure of, Knox hadn’t known the other man was going to be here. If he had, he would have made sure to be dressed before Linus arrived, and he would definitely have advised her to do the same. From the little Knox had said about the other man, she knew Linus usually lived and worked in London.
Linus looked as if he’d slept in his clothes for the past few hours. Which, if he’d flown to the US overnight, he probably had.
Why had he, was the question. She?—
Oh my God!
Ellie had just caught sight of her own reflection in the ceiling-to-floor mirrored doors that opened up into Knox’s dressing room.
She had love bites on her neck and shoulders. And bruises on both her hips that appeared to be the same shape and distance apart as Knox’s fingertips.