Elevating Eve (Fairford Affairs #4)

4. Eve

CHAPTER 4

Eve

“ A re you sure about this?” Eve hugged herself as tightly as she could. It did nothing to make the fear pulsing in time with her heartbeat go away.

Jonathan put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I’m positive. He’s not being released until noon today.”

Frowning, she started to ask how he could possibly know that. But he easily guessed her next question.

“My friend Nell knows someone at the Fairford Police Station. She had a similar sort of situation with an ex of hers about a year and a half ago, and she and the officer in charge of her case were friends by the end. Nell called her friend this morning and found out when Talley’s being released.”

Eve let out a long sigh. Come on, you can do this. It wasn’t like she’d get a better chance to get all her stuff. And starting life over with literally nothing wasn’t exactly on her to-do list. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

As they climbed out of Jonathan’s Aston Martin, she tried not to touch anything unless she had to. The car had to be ridiculously expensive, and the thought of accidentally damaging the leather interior or scratching the paint terrified her. She shut the door so carefully, she wasn’t even sure it latched .

When the trunk slammed shut behind her, she jumped at the loud bang . Jonathan clearly had no such fears about abusing his own car. “Okay, let’s get everything you care about packed up as fast as we can.” He had a stack of unassembled bankers boxes tucked under one arm, and the handles of at least a dozen large, mismatched duffel bags draped over the other. “Aiden will be here with his Land Rover in an hour, and we’ll load everything up then.”

Aiden was another of the ridiculously sexy Doms at Fairford Manor, and the only one she dealt with as much as Jonathan. He and Jonathan were overseeing the expansion project together. Apparently, the guy used to renovate houses for a living, and even did a lot of the work restoring the main Manor building himself. She had a hell of a lot of respect for his skills—especially the way he kept so much of the old mansion’s original woodwork.

“I really appreciate you both helping me,” Eve said as she led the way up the walkway to the front door. Though for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why they would. It’s not like she worked for them anymore. Frank may not have had a chance to officially fire her yet—hard to do that from a jail cell. But the Manor’s lawyer drew up the papers to terminate the contract with DHFT first thing that morning.

Jonathan followed her up onto the large farmer’s porch. “I wish you’d take us up on our other offer,” he said for the third time since they left Fairford an hour and a half ago.

Repressing the urge to snap at him, she unlocked the front door, stepping into the house she’d shared with Frank for the last eleven years. She didn’t say a word as she started up the staircase—what was the point? She’d already told him twice that, while she appreciated the offer, she didn’t feel comfortable staying at the Manor while she figured out her next move. Badgering her about it wouldn’t change anything.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he followed her upstairs. “I know I shouldn’t pressure you. I won’t bring it up again.”

“I, um...thank you.” It came out almost like a question. Why had her heart just skipped a beat?

They made it halfway down the second-floor hallway before it finally dawned on her. Jonathan apologized . He admitted he’d done something wrong and pledged not to do it again .

Fury ran through her body hot and fast. How fucked up was it that a simple apology could affect her like that? Her relationship with Frank was even shittier than she thought.

“Most of my stuff is in here,” she said, leading him into her office. Frank had very particular taste and didn’t want her things cluttering up his overall design for the house. He didn’t even like sharing the master bedroom’s walk-in closet with her.

Can I have Red Flags for two hundred, Alex?

“You pack up the desk,” she said, trying to focus on the task at hand. There would be plenty of time later to unpack the nearly two decades of bad choices she’d made. “I’ll work on the closet.”

With a nod, Jonathan settled into her desk chair, assembling the whole stack of white and blue boxes. She stared at his hands for way too long, entranced by the confidence and efficiency of his long fingers. Afraid he might think she was a giant weirdo, she forced herself to turn away, grabbing a couple of the duffels and heading into the small walk-in closet.

Get a fucking grip, Eve. Was she seriously getting turned on by the way he put cardboard boxes together? Was she that starved for a real connection with another person?

Besides, she literally just got out of the relationship from hell. Yesterday. Maybe she could wait at least forty-eight hours before she started lusting after someone else.

She stopped herself from snorting at the last second, not wanting to have to explain the sound to Jonathan. But seriously, who was she kidding? She started lusting after Jonathan the second she laid eyes on him last October.

Focus, damnit. Unzipping the first duffel bag, she began yanking shirts off their hangers and shoving them inside. She had one hour to pack up sixteen years of her life. She’d worry about the wrinkles later.

The Fairford Inn was an old, three-story brick building in the heart of downtown Fairford.

Technically, all of downtown Fairford was in “the heart.” The whole thing was comprised of a single long street, lined on both sides with shops, restaurants, and small businesses.

Eve had fallen in love with the tiny town the first time she and Frank drove through it on their way to the initial consultation with Jonathan and his partners. It felt surreal to be living here a mere six months later.

“Here’s the last of it,” Jonathan said, carrying the final two bags of clothes into her room on the inn’s second floor. They’d propped the door open with a box full of random knick-knacks while they moved everything inside from the Land Rover. Since Eve was currently the only guest, she wasn’t super worried about someone stealing her stuff.

She peered over his head as he bent to put the bags in the closet, stacking them on top of those already covering the floor. “Where’s Aiden?”

“He had to head out. He has a guest arriving at the Manor in a couple hours.” Jonathan straightened back to his full height as he spoke, and she tried not to drool as she watched. The man had to be six-one or six-two, every inch of his tailored suit perfectly filled out by his lean muscle. Why he would choose a suit to help her move was beyond her, but in six months, she’d never seen him wear anything else.

Focus , she admonished again. But it was a lost cause. Watching Jonathan carry boxes all afternoon had her pussy aching.

What would it be like to sleep with a man like Jonathan? Would it feel as good as that woman by the pool made it look?

Hell, if it felt even half that good, it would be the best sex of her life.

It was way too soon to be thinking about jumping into bed with another man. She still had a fucking gash on her face from the last one, for fuck’s sake.

But it had also been way too long since she felt good.

“All right, that should do it,” Jonathan said, moving back through the doorway. He turned to face her just past the threshold, his gaze scanning the room. “I’m glad we managed to cram everything in here.”

Eve’s laugh came out a little too fast—a smidge too high. Fuck, she sounded like an idiot. Someone like Jonathan Hale only slept with poised, confident women. Of that she had no doubt. “It’s not ideal,” she said, fidgeting with her ring, then making herself stop a few seconds later. She hated that she did that every time she got nervous, but after so long, the habit would be impossible to break. “But it’ll do until I can figure out where to go from here.”

She’d be staying in Fairford for at least another couple of weeks until the partners figured out who to hire to finish the new building. On the drive back from Frank’s house, Jonathan asked her to help the new team get up to speed on the project, since she knew all the details better than anybody.

Given the amount of money he offered for her assistance, she couldn’t have refused even if she wanted to. She’d need that money while she searched for a new job.

After those few weeks were up, though, she had zero idea what came next—something she very much didn’t want to think about right now. Not when her world had literally just been turned upside down and inside out.

God, she longed for anything to distract her from her churning thoughts.

“You have my number, and you know where to find me,” Jonathan said, looking down at her with a little smile. “Take a few days to get settled in, and when you’re ready, we can talk about next steps for the?—”

Eve rocked up onto her toes and pressed her lips against his.