Elevating Eve (Fairford Affairs #4)

7. Jonathan

CHAPTER 7

Jonathan

T hank fuck for Eve.

It wasn’t the first time the thought crossed Jonathan’s mind. Hell, it probably wasn’t even the hundredth. Everything on the expansion project had turned around, all thanks to her.

True to her word, Eve emailed him with two potential construction companies the morning after the failed consultations with LGF Construction and Faber his fiancé, Remy, gave it to him for Christmas, and Zach had always been a hopeless romantic.

“I hear you’ve been rummaging around in the application room,” Zach said, smirking as Jonathan crossed the lobby’s gleaming marble tiles. “You ready to dive back into the fray?”

Jonathan pursed his lips, trying not to smile. “It hasn’t been that long since I had a guest, has it?”

Eyes twinkling with amusement, Zach began clicking away at his laptop. “I’d have to check the reservation calendar for that. My memory doesn’t go back that far. ”

Unable to stop it this time, Jonathan smiled. “Okay, okay. You’ve made your point. Consider my break officially over.”

“Glad to hear it, boss.” Zach’s grin was more than a little smug. “Let me know when you pick one, and I’ll send the letter right out.” The man handwrote each and every acceptance letter on ridiculously expensive, custom-made stationary, using an antique fountain pen for his perfect calligraphy. It all seemed a bit over the top when Zach first started working at the Manor, but the guests seemed to love it.

Over the years, he’d learned to trust Zach’s judgement and just roll with it.

“Will do.” Maybe he’d be able to focus on the applications after he cleared the air with Eve. He’d spent a solid hour going through them early this afternoon, without retaining a single word. “Do you know if Eve left yet?”

Zach chuckled. “You’re the second person to ask me that tonight. Pretty sure she’s still out back.”

Brows pulling together, Jonanthan asked, “Who else was looking for her?” Aiden was on vacation in Bali with his wife, Olivia, for the next two weeks. No one else in the Manor had any regular involvement with Eve or the project.

“Camden.”

And least of all Camden. The man almost never took any time off, moving from guest to guest with a carefree, fuckboy glee Jonathan had never experienced, even in his long-ago frat days. He’d agreed to fund his share of the expansion so long as it didn’t interrupt his schedule or disturb his guests, and he hadn’t shown the remotest interest since.

“Hey, you okay?” Zach asked, his usual smirk replaced by a worried little frown.

No, he most certainly was not okay. Whatever Camden was up to, it couldn’t be good. The guy was basically a walking hard-on.

“I’m fine,” he said, stalking back across the lobby.

“So I can see,” Zach muttered, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Jonathan ignored him, looping around the staircase and into the back hallway. Cutting through the currently empty dining room, he pushed through the two-way swinging door into the kitchen.

“Dinner won’t be ready for another hour at least.” Gabriel, the Manor’s head chef, didn’t even look up from the pot he stirred. His sous chef was equally indifferent—Sienna only glanced up for a second before turning her attention back to her stand mixer.

The third chef straightened so dramatically she looked like a soldier coming to attention. Kendra had recently moved to dinner from the earlier shift, and even after five years at Fairford Manor, she got nervous when the partners entered the kitchen.

He ignored all three of them. Crossing the room without a word, he went through the back door, hurrying across the deserted patio to the garden beyond.

The new building stood along the left edge of the garden, situated midway between the main house and the pool. Lainey’s crew had finished the outside fa?ade in the last month, taking the building from an eyesore to something truly magnificent. The flawless white marble shone in the early evening sunlight.

Jonathan could see two people through one of the high, arched windows, but he was too far away to tell if it was Eve and Camden. Frustration had his hands fisting at his sides as he picked his way along the stone pathways, winding between the low hedges.

He nearly made it to the building when he heard voices he recognized coming out of one of the garden’s many little alcoves.

“Are you sure?” Eve said.

“Trust me,” Camden answered, and Jonathan had no trouble picturing the man’s ridiculously handsome, dimpled face. Why did women always go nuts for the stupid fucking dimple? Of course Eve wouldn’t be any different. “By the time I’m done working my magic, you’ll never doubt me again.”

Her laugh drifted out of the alcove, high and clear. No sign of the nerves she sometimes showed around him. “You’re awfully cocky.”

“Oh, baby, you have no idea,” Camden said, oozing so much charm Jonathan knew Eve would never be able to resist. “If you don’t have at least three orgasms by the time the night is up, I’ll take a vow of chastity.”

Every single muscle in his body tensed as Eve’s laughter filled his ears again.

He’d never wanted to beat the ever-loving shit out of one of his friends before.

But there was a first time for everything.

With cold fury flowing through him like literal ice in his veins, he stormed into the alcove.