Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Emma
Case isn’t nearly as stealthy as he thinks he is.
I saw him walk into the pub and sit down at the bar. It took everything inside of me not to stare at him. I caught glimpses of him out of the corner of my eye as he talked to Kendall.
Jealousy tugged at me when I saw him lean closer to her.
I should have spent my time talking to the man who bought me a drink, but I struggled to focus on him.
I could feel Case’s gaze on me when I did look at Ned, the stockbroker who thought it was impressive to tell me about the summerhouse he’s planning on buying.
Ned’s good-looking and charming. He might be fun to hang out with, but after I sipped my martini, I thanked him for the drink and pushed back from the table to leave.
That was when I noticed Case dropping a few bills on the top of the bar before he rushed out of the pub.
I’m back in his apartment now.
I can see a sliver of light creeping out from under the closed door of his bedroom.
I shouldn’t feel as disappointed as I do. I wasn’t expecting more than a few words exchanged between us before I called it a night, but that’s not going to happen.
In his eyes, I’m nothing more than Drake’s younger sister.
Letting out a heavy breath, I step out of my heels. Feeling my phone vibrate in my clutch, I fish it out.
I smile at the text message on the screen from my best friend.
Sandy: Are you living it up right now?
I click the phone icon under her name.
She answers immediately. “I take it that the answer to my question is no. Why aren’t you spending the night with some sexy Manhattan millionaire?”
I laugh. “Technically, I guess I am.”
“What?” She shrieks out the word. “Why are you talking to me? Get back to it. Make me proud.”
Shaking my head, I glance at Case’s bedroom door. “I’m staying with Drake’s best friend until I come home.”
“Why? You went to New York to see your brother. Why aren’t you staying with him?”
I’ll tell Sandy everything when I’m back in Seattle. We’ve been sharing all our ups and downs since we met in middle school. Getting into the details about my brother’s major life change isn’t something I want to do over the phone.
“He had a trip planned that I didn’t know about,” I offer to appease her curiosity.
“So, you’re staying with his friend?” She sighs. “What’s he like?”
“Case is nothing like Drake,” I say quietly.
“I want more than his name, Em. Is he hot?”
“Very,” I confess. “Tall, gorgeous, think surfer type with a corporate vibe.”
“Send me a pic,” she whines.
“I can’t take a picture of him.” I laugh softly. “Do you expect me to ask him to pose for it? How creepy would that be?”
“That’s not creepy. It would be creepy if you asked him to get naked first.”
I drop my gaze to the floor. “If I had a naked picture of Case, I sure as hell wouldn’t be sharing it with anyone.”
‘That’s reassuring.”
The sound of Case’s voice behind me almost drops the phone from my grasp.
“I need to go,” I mumble to Sandy before I end the call.
My face heats red as I turn to face him.
The clothes he was wearing at the bar are gone. He’s dressed in faded jeans and a black T-shirt.
I look down out of a desperate need to catch my breath. “It’s not how it sounded.”
He takes a step closer to where I’m standing. “Unless you know another man named Case, it sounded like you’d protect my privacy if you ever happened to get your hands on a picture of me in the raw.”
I raise my chin so I can look him in the eye, but my gaze sticks on his biceps, and the way the material of his shirt is stretched taut across his chest.
Dammit, he’s a perfect twelve on a scale of one-to-ten.
“Just so you know.” His arms cross over that muscular chest of his. “I’d do the same for you, Emma.”
A shiver runs down my spine when he rakes me from head-to-toe.
Should I thank him for that, or should I try to explain myself?
Before I have a chance to do either, his phone starts ringing. Tugging it out of the back pocket of his jeans, he silences it after glancing at the screen. “This is important. I need to go.”
“See you later,” I say as I watch him head out of the apartment before the door shuts behind him with a loud thud.