“I don’t know where I’d fit a thing like this.” My mom eyes her KitchenAid stand mixer—red, like she wanted—and wrings her hands.

I drop my phone back into my purse. “It fits right there.”

She turns her dark eyes on me, then looks back to the mixer. “In a different apartment.”

“First of all…” Was that my phone buzzing in my purse I felt, or something else? Another phantom text? I can hardly stop checking my phone now that Jasper has made it clear that he might text me at any time. I reach back down into my purse and pull it out, setting it on the countertop. There’s no new message. “First of all, Mom, I’m taking care of it. Don’t worry about moving into another apartment. And second—”

The phone finally vibrates against the countertop, and I snatch it up.

It’s from Angelique, my executive secretary.

I should not feel this disappointed. This is getting ridiculous. 

A weekend of feeling hot and bothered, no matter how much I threw myself into drafting distribution plans for the new locations, researching new fabrics for next year’s lines, and triple-checking the details on the new locations. I dragged my best friend Charlotte—ever-patient Charlotte—out on a spa day for most of Saturday afternoon. 

None of it—none of it at all—could keep Jasper Pace out of my head. The kiss that almost was is becoming an instrument of torture, and he didn’t even seal the deal. If his uptight secretary hadn’t walked in at that moment...

I should be thanking her. I was ready to let Jasper have his way with me, right there in the office. Why does back-and-forth with a powerful man have that effect on me? 

It’s lingering as hell, too. Right now, I want to walk out the door of my mom’s building, hail a cab, and tell the driver to break every traffic law he needs to to get me back to my own place, where I could slip between the sheets with my vibrator and...

“You seem distracted, Isa.”

I put the phone back on the countertop a little harder than necessary. “It’s the office checking in.”

My mom waves her hands in the air. “You should get back there. I’ll be fine.”

“You didn’t seem fine when you called an hour ago.”

“I’m not sure where I’ll put all my things.”

I take a deep breath. It’s understandable, the way she’s reacting. My mom retired from her full-time job as a schoolteacher last summer, and she’s happily settled into a job at the local library branch around the corner. Moving was the last thing on her mind until Friday. “I swear to you, Mom, I’m handling this. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Mrs. Callahan broke her lease.”

Mrs. Callahan, the ancient woman from across the hall, who was here when she first moved in. “Mrs. Callahan is ninety years old. It makes sense for her to be moving into somewhere with people who can help her day to day. That can’t be related to the sale of the building.”

There’s a rattle of keys in the front door, and then it swings open, banging against the doorstop. “I can’t believe it.” My sister is a high-fashion tornado, all plum lips and pissed-off eyes. “Why did you wait so long to tell me?” She tosses her purse onto the table in the entryway and stalks into the kitchen on high heels. “They’re cancelling all the leases? God, Isa. You should have called me! Mom, I can’t believe—”

“I was going to.” Mom straightens her back. “I didn’t want to upset you.”

“What are we going to do about this?” Evie is tall, with my mom’s dark eyes instead of the green ones I inherited from the father who jumped ship when I was three and she was one. “There must be something we can do.”

“I’m taking care of it,” I say again.

She fixes her gaze on me, cocking her hip to the side. “Are you buying the building?”

“Not yet, but that’s in the works.”

My mom’s mouth drops open. “Oh, Isa, how are you ever going to be able to do that? There’s not enough money to outbid someone like Pace, Inc. And if the deal is already final, then that means—”

“Yeah. If the deal is already final, how are you going to step in?” Evie laughs. “Unless you have some special relationship with Pace, Inc.”

Heat rushes to my cheeks. Where the hell did that come from? Evie doesn’t know the first thing about what happened when I went to meet with Jasper. 

But she does know me.

“Oh, my god.” Her face fills with glee. “You do have something going on with that company. Only—no. I bet it’s not with the company. I bet it’s with Jasper Pace.”

I roll my eyes harder than I really need to. “I do not have a special relationship with Jasper Pace. Trust me.” I don’t. I really don’t. But his name on my tongue feels sultry in a way that has me on fire, standing here in the middle of my mother’s kitchen. 

“Tell us, Isa. Are you sleeping with him?”

Not yet. “Mom, are you okay?” I swivel my entire body toward her, avoiding Evie’s gaze. “If everything’s fine here, I should really get back to the office.”

My mom looks at Evie. “Can you stay for dinner?”

“Sure.” Evie answers, but she doesn’t look away from me.

“Isa?”

“I can’t.” I can’t because I have work to do, and also because if I can’t get off within the next hour, I’m going to spontaneously combust. I’ve tried my best all day to keep my mind off Jasper’s eyes, off Jasper’s body, off Jasper’s hands digging into my hips and...

And I can’t do it.

I don’t want this to rule me. I don’t want the cab to drive me back home before I head back to the office. 

I’m not sure I have any choice.

“All right.” My mom nods, but then her hand rises to her throat and she sniffs. Evie shoots me a glare and goes to wrap her arm around Mom’s shoulders. “I’m so nervous…”

I stifle a sigh. At least if I give in, it won’t be to Jasper. At least not today. “Listen, I’ll stay. Or better yet, let’s all go out. My treat.”

It’s the least I can do.