Wrapped Up in You Read online

  The three women’s necks swiveled sharply as they looked at each other and then back at Ivy.

  “Kel?” Sadie asked. “Caleb’s sexy cousin Kel?”

  “He is sexy,” Haley said. “I mean, men aren’t my thing, but if they were . . .”

  “He was walking across the courtyard yesterday,” Sadie said. “And I saw a woman walk right into one of the lampposts when he smiled at her.”

  “What is it about a cowboy, I wonder,” Tae mused.

  “Everything,” Sadie said and everyone looked at Ivy expectantly.

  “Hey, I’m off men,” she said.

  “Forever?” Haley asked. “And what about women?”

  “For the foreseeable future, and yes, women too,” Ivy said. “And anyway, you deserve someone who isn’t as colossally messed up as I am.”

  “Apparently, I’m attracted to messed up,” Haley said morosely.

  “It’s not your fault girls are crazy,” Sadie said.

  Tae laughed. “Someone once gave me some good relationship advice,” Tae said. “Make sure you’re the crazy one.”

  “Ha,” Haley said. “And done.”

  “Is that why you’re not in a relationship?” Sadie asked Tae.

  “I’m not in a relationship because both Liam and Chris Hemsworth are taken.”

  They all smiled at the truth of that, but Ivy had sat next to Tae at the pub a few times. She knew Tae had recently come out of a really bad relationship, but in what way exactly, she wasn’t sure. What she was sure of was that Tae was most definitely haunted by it.

  And skittish.

  Something Ivy understood at a core level, which made her incredibly sympathetic to what she suspected Tae was feeling about allowing anyone to get close ever again. Ivy wasn’t opposed to an actual relationship instead of a quickie. In theory anyway. But in reality, she didn’t know the first thing about what a relationship might entail or demand from her. She suspected it might be things she couldn’t provide, like pure honesty, transparency, and the like.

  “I just haven’t found what I’m looking for,” Tae told Sadie.

  “And what’s that?”

  “I don’t know.” Tae shrugged. “Maybe warm brown eyes, messy hair, cute nose, and four paws.” She smiled. “A golden retriever would be perfect.”

  They all laughed and Ivy hitched the food pack higher on her shoulder. “I’m sorry about breakfast. I’ll make it up to you guys at lunch, okay? But I’ve got to go.”

  “Don’t forget tomorrow night’s full moon midnight hike,” Sadie said. “Elle sent out a group text yesterday to everyone.”

  Elle was the building manager, and she took her duties very seriously, organizing social events for the group of them that either lived or worked in the building. Ivy had gone to a few, but usually begged off, feeling like the odd man out because everyone was so tight with one another, and she was the new kid on the block.

  Okay, not new, not exactly. She’d been there a year. And though Tae was Jake’s sister, she’d only recently come back to town, which technically made her newer than Ivy. But Tae had a natural way with people and she’d fit seamlessly in.

  Ivy had never fit seamlessly into anything, including her own skin.

  “Did you not get the text?” Haley asked Ivy.

  She’d gotten the text, but she’d ignored it, thinking Elle probably automatically included everyone to be polite.

  “Please come,” Haley said. “You’re usually too busy, but we’d so love to have you.”

  “I thought maybe the text was just for the core group of you.”

  “Of which you’re a part,” Sadie said so easily that Ivy knew she meant it. “So say you’ll be there.”

  Surprised and touched that it mattered whether she went or not, Ivy found herself nodding, even though she wasn’t 100 percent sold on it. “I’ll try.”

  It was still early by the time she got to Caleb’s newly renovated condo building in North Beach. She’d been there before, a couple of times now, walking through with Caleb, Sadie, and Keane Winters, the general contractor in charge of the project.

  Ivy’s condo wasn’t a corner unit, or on the penthouse floor, or anything that stood out at all, and that was what she loved about it.

  That, and the fact that it would be all hers.

  She walked through the underground parking garage to the security office and found Kel there with a few other people, all standing around a table with a bunch of blueprints spread out before them.

  Kel introduced her to the room; Keane, Carly, and Roberto—both supervisors on Keane’s renovation team—and then Arlo and Stretch, who worked under Kel as building security.

  Ivy smiled and made nice, but she couldn’t concentrate on anything but Kel, feeling the weight of his gaze. Unable to resist, she turned to him and felt her pulse kick.

  Ridiculous.

  He was dressed as always, in rugged and well-worn jeans, work boots, a T-shirt with an unbuttoned shirt over the top of it, and a ball cap worn backward. Casual clothes, but there was nothing casual about the lean, hard body hinted at beneath those clothes, or, for that matter, the man himself.

  And then there was how he moved with the careless grace of an athlete, his body suggesting it could handle just about anything thrown at it.

  He smiled and she felt a kick in the gut—a fact that told her two things. One, she was still stupid when it came to men. And two, he was going to be trouble for both her peace of mind and her heart.

  Big trouble.

  Chapter 6

  The range makes the change

  “Hey,” Ivy said to the room, sounding annoyingly breathless even to herself. And who was she kidding, she wasn’t talking to the room, she was talking to Kel, who couldn’t look any finer. “I don’t want to interrupt, but I . . . brought you something.”

  Kel turned to the others. “Give us a minute.”

  It wasn’t a question, and the sound of authority in his tone was unmistakable. If she’d been one of the guys, she might have given him a smartass salute, or at the very least rolled her eyes on principal, but none of these people did that. They respectfully filed out and left them alone.

  Kel was watching her with a small smile curving his mouth. That was the thing about him. He was never in a hurry. He went at his own pace, and with slow, easy purpose. In direct opposition to that, she was always in a rush to get anywhere. She wondered if he was like that in bed as well and then pictured him doing just that, moving over her with slow, purposeful intensity while she writhed in pleasure—

  “Earth to Trouble,” Kel said.

  She actually jumped. And blushed. Blushed. Unbelievable, but she definitely felt the heat of it flash across her face. And once that happened, once she was aware that her cheeks were on fire, they got even worse.

  He chuckled softly.

  “Not helping,” she said, putting her palms to her fiery cheeks.

  “I’d pay big bucks to know what you were just thinking.”

  “Nothing! I’m thinking nothing!”

  He grinned. “You’re pretty cute when you’re embarrassed.”

  No one had ever called her cute, not once in her life. Feral, yes. Untamable, also yes. Cute? No . . . She closed her eyes. “I don’t get embarrassed.”

  He leaned in and put his mouth to her ear. “Then you’re . . . aroused.”

  “Oh my God. I need you to stop talking for a minute.”

  Still smiling, he slid his hands into his front pockets and rocked back on his heels.

  “And stop smiling,” she added.

  He clearly gave it a shot, but the smile was there lurking in his dark eyes, and she sighed. “Never mind! Are you hungry?”

  “Always.”

  At the low timbre of his voice and the heat to go with it in those eyes now, parts of her quivered. Parts of her that had no business quivering. “For food,” she clarified. “Are you hungry for food?”

  “That too.”

  Oh good God. He was unrepentant, an