Sabrina wandered through the huge penthouse wondering why one person needed this much space, especially if he spent as much time gone as he’d said. The place was spotlessly clean except for a small pile of mail on the kitchen bar. She wondered if he kept it that way himself or if he had a service come in and clean for him. There didn’t appear to be even a speck of dust, yet he’d said he’d come in the night before after having been out of town for a week. He had to have someone come in and clean. Knowing what she knew about most men, she wondered if they did laundry too.

Sean had said to make herself at home, so she wandered through, opening doors and cabinets. She even looked in the refrigerator and found there wasn’t much there, but the milk was fresh, and unopened. She’d noticed a grocery store and restaurant on the ground floor as they’d come through and wondered if he’d had whoever cleaned for him pick up what was there or if he did it himself. That would be something she wouldn’t mind doing, at least until she had to haul a couple little ones with her.

Going from room to room she admired the neat, crisp look of the place when she found herself in his bedroom. She started to leave, but something stopped her. Instead she went to the unmade bed. It appeared the housekeeper either didn’t come in every day or hadn’t been here yet, and smoothed her hand over the sheet, half expecting silk. She was surprised to find they were cotton, high end, and she had no doubt expensive, but still cotton. She looked around and was surprised that his clothes from the night before had been dropped in the laundry basket, not left on the floor, then she went into the attached bathroom and was blown away at the sheer size. It was bigger than her last apartment, well, almost. With a huge tub and a shower stall, she thought she could spend a week in there, only leaving to get food.

She was still marveling over the size of the master bathroom when she finished going through the apartment and found her luggage standing in the front room. Wow. She hadn’t heard anyone come or go. Taking it, she put the bags in the guest bedroom and considered unpacking, then thought why bother? For only three days? Instead she opened the bags and hung up what needed to be hung, so any wrinkles would fall out, then left the suitcase open on the chair in the room. She thought about taking a nice hot bath, but instead took her laptop into the study next to the room she’d adopted as her own for the next few days and turned on the TV. This one and the TV in the master bedroom were the only two she’d seen in the entire place.

Finding the remote, she looked for something to watch while her computer booted. With all this space, Sean had only two TVs. Sabrina wondered if he didn’t like them? But then, why would he have one in his bedroom? She frowned realizing she hadn’t seen a computer as she wandered the place and thought perhaps he only used one at the office? Or maybe he had a briefcase or bag that he kept it in, but she hadn’t noticed him take one with him. She pulled her computer from the bag, set it on the table in front of the sofa, smoothing her hand over the closed lid before opening it. She loved her computer, it wasn’t anything fancy, but it was her connection to the world, to things more worldly than she’d ever seen from her tiny one horse town. It let her learn, let her study, let her connect to friends and read as much as she liked. It had been her savior and her life line when she was younger. Since she no longer needed the income from her blog, she could probably due without it, but it would be a rough adjustment.

With her computer on, she wished for a moment she’d gotten the wi-fi password, or even her husband to be’s phone number so she could text him and ask. Oh well. She could connect through her phone for now, then get it when he came home. When would he be home? She should probably do something about dinner, but she’d seen what was in the fridge, so she didn’t know what. With nothing else to occupy her, she found an old movie playing on the TV and opened up her email to send her mom a message. She didn’t tell her where she was, or give any details just check in and asked how things were at home. Later, after she and Sean were married, then she’d tell her mother. At least part of it. She might not ever tell her how she’d met Sean. Her mother wouldn’t approve.

“There you are.”

Sabrina jumped and turned to the door of the study, her eyes wide. She’d been so caught up in the old movie on the TV — the third that had come on since she’d sat down— that she’d hadn’t realized she was no longer alone. Sean leaned with one shoulder against the door jam, a smile curving his full lips. She glanced at the clock in the corner of her laptop screen and found she’d been sitting there for close to four hours.

“Hey, I wasn’t sure when you’d be back.” Her face heated. “And I realized after you’d gone that I don’t have your number.”

“I can fix that right now.” He stepped into the room and held out one hand. “Give me your phone.” She handed it to him and watched as he programmed his number in.

“I’ll give you both my cell and the office. Just give Harriet your name, and if possible, she’ll put you right through.”

“All right.” Sabrina looked down at her computer, wondering if she should ask, then decided why not? “Does she know about me? About us?” She looked up to watch his face, she wanted to see if she could read his reactions.

“She knows you’re here and that we’re getting married. As to how we met, she believes we met in Florida. With about half of our ongoing projects in different parts of the state I spend quite a bit of time in Tampa. Given that the agency requires secrecy, I thought it was best.”

Sabrina nodded. She appreciated that he’d told his secretary about her, even if it wasn’t the entire truth. She couldn’t blame him for not disclosing the agency. She’d signed a secrecy agreement when she’d signed on with them and she had no doubt he’d done something similar. But it did make her wonder where they found new clients.

Shaking her head, she turned her thoughts back to the man in front of her. “Florida seems reasonable.” She looked down at the computer on the table in front of her a moment then back at him. “No one really knows where I’ve been the last few weeks, we can even tell my mom we met in Florida. It will make things easy with only one story to remember. I just have to come up with an excuse for having been there.”

“I’m sure we can come up with something.” He took a few steps into the room, looked down at where she sat on the floor then at the sofa behind her. “Something wrong with the couch?”

“No, I just wanted to use the table, and this put it at the right height.”

“You know there are tables in other rooms, right?” He lifted one hand and motioned toward the rest of the penthouse.

“Yeah, but the only other tv is in your bedroom. I didn’t want to intrude there.”

“But you did enough to know it’s the only other tv…” a ghost of a smile curved his lips.

“You said make yourself at home, I looked around.” She shrugged. “That’s not the same as going in and setting myself up in your private space.”

“I’m hoping it will be your private space too in the next couple days.”

“It will be, but until then, I can’t just invade it. It feels weird.”

Sean gave her a look that said he thought she was being a little strange, but she could live with that. She was used to being odd. She was okay with it. He blinked, watched her for a few seconds more, and then shrugged and shook his head.

“I thought you might like something to eat. It’s been hours and it’s dinner time.” He glanced at the tv screen. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“I would.” Sabrina pushed the coffee table away and got to her feet. “I thought about cooking something but I’d need to do some shopping first and I didn’t have a key to get back in.”

“Oh.” Sean shook his head. “Sorry, I forgot about that.” He turned and walked away.

Curious, she followed.

He went to a table near the door, opened a drawer and handed her a key. “This will get you in the door here.” He motioned to the front door with one hand. “Come in here and I’ll write down the elevator code for you.” He led her into the living area where he pulled a small pad of paper from a drawer near the phone. He scrawled a few numbers on it and handed it to her. “It’ll be better if you memorize it.” He gave her a hopeful look. “Does this mean you’ve decided to stay here? Or do you want me to get you a hotel room after dinner?”

“I’ll stay.” She let her gaze scan the room. “I’m blown away by how much space you have for just one person.”

“It is more space than I needed, but it was convenient. I like that I don’t have to mess with a car or traffic. I can leave here, walk a block and be to the office in ten minutes, even in heavy traffic.” He glanced around. “Yes. It’s more space than I need, especially by myself. But I was hoping to have someone to share it with. Up until now that hadn’t worked as well as I’d planned, but it’s looking up.”

“Maybe it is.” She propped one hand on her hip. “Now, you said something about food.”

“I did.”

“What do you want to do?” It was almost six, she knew from checking her computer a few minutes earlier. “It’s a little late, but we can get some groceries and I can throw together something simple.”

“No. Let’s go out. We can stop and get some groceries on our way back in if you want.”

“Okay.” She looked down at the loose jeans and comfortable blouse she had on. “Let me change. Where do you want to go?”

Sean frowned and looked at her. “I don’t care. The place downstairs is easiest, unless you don’t care for French?”

“That’s fine. I just wanted to know what to wear.” Sabrina headed for the room she’d taken as hers, trying to decide what would be most fitting for dinner with her fiancé.