by T. N. King
“Methane,” she repeated absentmindedly, still caught up in the sexy dimple.
“Yeah. Looks like there was a leak. Seems to be what caused the fire. An old building, I’m guessing. Probably hasn’t been updated in a while. Someone should probably look into that.”
He seemed so knowledgeable, and she felt so stupid all of a sudden. She put a hand up to her forehead and shook her head. “Well, that really was a bad idea.”
Still wearing that smile, he nodded. “We all have them, sometimes.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She tried to smile up at him.
After a brief pause he added, “I’m Morgan.” He offered her his hand. “Morgan Hunt.”
Ellie peered up at his smile and a perfect row of pearly whites caught her eye as she took his hand in hers. “Ellie White,” she said hesitantly.
He held her gaze, exuding a confidence that Ellie had never felt coming from a person before. It was fascinating, but she couldn’t get caught up in that right now.
After a few more seconds, he asked, “So, can I take you anywhere? Do you need to go to the hospital? You were passed out when I found you.”
“I’m fine.” She waved the suggestion off with her hand. She couldn’t afford a trip to the emergency room without insurance, but he didn’t need to know this.
She looked at him again, finding it hard to ignore those beautiful grey eyes that drew her in, but the last thing she needed was for him to think she was a dazed simpleton, so she volunteered her reason for going back into the building, “I had to get this,” she said and produced the picture of her dead father. “It’s the only picture I have of him. He’s my dad. He died last year and I—I keep it in my locker.” Realizing that now, she was possibly offering too much information, she shook her head and shrugged. “It comforts me. That’s why I went back in. I’m not an idiot or anything.”
Morgan stared at the picture and nodded. “I would never think that. I lost my dad too, a while back. I just meant that I didn’t really care why you went back in to the fire. I only cared that I got to you in time.”
His voice sounded so smooth and deep, and it actually resonated in her chest. He seemed like a really nice guy—like his concern was genuine. This was a good thing, right? Of course, it was. He had pulled her from a burning building. He offered her his award winning smile, again, and she smiled back.
Just then, a paramedic tapped her on her shoulder. “Ma’am, do you need any assistance?”
She glanced at Morgan before shaking her head. “No, I think we’re good.”
The paramedic shrugged, then moved on to other potential victims.
Morgan gave her an approving look. “Here, let me help you up.” He stood and pulled her up to her feet, then dusted off his expensive looking suit.
Once on her feet, Ellie dusted herself off too, and saw how tall he was. Her gaze started at muscular thighs encased in very well tailored material, probably Armani or something like that. Then her wide eyes rose up to a trim waist and a broad chest to wide shoulders. Finally, her startled gaze landed on his almost perfect face. “Wow.”
“Excuse me?” He stared at her with a slight smile.
Ellie knew she had to think quickly. It wouldn’t do to ogle your rescuer or tell him how hot he was. She couldn’t believe she said that aloud. Pointing to the diner she said, “It looks like they got it.”
He turned to look. “Oh, yeah. It sure does.”
Glad that her save worked, she added, “I worked there, but it looks like I’ll have some time off, now.”
Morgan chuckled. “Well, we all can use a little time off, right? I’m so busy all the time going to meetings and making deals that sometimes, I forget to relax.”
“Business deals?”
“Yeah. I’m actually the CEO of the Hunt Group. It’s a subsidiary of the illustrious Hunt Industries. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”
Ellie didn’t keep up with Wall Street or big business. She was too busy working all the time, but not wanting to sound like a moron she nodded and said, “Oh, yes, of course.”
“Oh, good. Well, I’m actually here in Philadelphia on business from Lake Placid. I could take more time off if I wanted to, but, you know how it is.”
“Yeah.” No she didn’t. For the past three years, Ellie had barely been able to squeak out a living while working at the diner that now had smoke pouring out of the gaping hole on the side. Taking a vacation at this point in her life would not be a good thing. She had bills to pay. But none of this wasn’t Morgan’s problem. He’d been kind enough—and brave enough—to save her. She didn’t need to throw a guilt trip his way. She’d figure something out. She always did.
“Okay, well, I’ve got this meeting to get to. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked giving her a last look over.
“Yeah. Great,” Ellie replied. “I’m gonna start enjoying my time off, right now.” She forced a fake smile and hoped it convinced him to believe she wasn’t going to spend these next few days or however long it took to fix the diner, worried about her financial situation.
Morgan smiled and flashed a perfect set of white teeth. “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”
If only that were true, but unless he planned on eating at a diner anytime soon, she doubted she’d ever see him again. A guy like him probably only ever ate meals prepared by a private chef. She smiled again though, and played along, “Yeah. Absolutely.”
After a lingering gaze, he finally waved goodbye and walked back to his amazing sports car. Of course, it was like the latest model, and the brightest grey, just like his eyes.
Ellie stood there waving goodbye with a bright smile on her probably soot covered face thinking how she would love to be in his arms again. It’d been the safest she’d felt in a long time. She watched him get in and drive off, until his car was just a little dot on the horizon.
Finally, after watching her good looking angel disappear, Ellie turned back towards the now burnt and soggy diner. “Now what?” She sighed. Taking a step forward, her shoe kicked something. Bending down to pick it up, she saw that it was a fancy black cell phone. It wasn’t hers. All she could afford was an old, outdated, slide phone. She picked it up and turned it on. It was one of those smart phones that required unlocking with some swipe pattern.
Oh, my god, I bet this is his phone.
After trying several intricate swipe patterns, she simply slid her thumb to the side thinking the easiest pattern of all would never work, but it did. A Hunt Group logo was the background. She really didn’t have to pry too much more, she knew it was Morgan’s phone. She smiled. Now she had a reason to see hot and very fine Morgan again. It might even take her mind off of her worries, who knows?
Morgan
Morgan arrived at his business meeting a few minutes late, but no worries. He had enough charisma and charm to smooth things over with his clients. He calmly entered the Lacroix Restaurant and had the maître d’ show him to the table where the Yamato group sat looking over the menu.
“Yamato-san,” he said and bowed upon reaching the table where his Japanese clients patiently waited.
The two serious looking men in black suits immediately stood and bowed as well.
“Ah, Hunt-san,” said Mr. Yamato. “I was just telling Hitori-san about American issue with time. You do not seem to have regard for it.” He forced a laugh.
Ouch. Morgan winced, but replied, “Yes, we can lose track of time sometimes. However, it is American protocol to stop and help when we see a burning building. My apologies for being late, gentlemen, but I had to go into a burning building to save a young lady.”
A beautiful young lady who’s phone number I should have gotten.
He dusted off some left-over soot from his suit jacket to prove that his excuse was legitimate to the Japanese businessmen and to remind himself of what an idiot he could be sometimes. Great looking girl, grateful for the rescue? He didn’t even think to cash in on it. He’d get back to that later.
Mr. Yamato’s
and his partner’s eyes rounded.
“Ah. Well, perhaps we should start the meeting,” Mr. Hitori said and gestured to the chairs.
“Of course.” Morgan offered one of his brilliant smiles to show that there were no hard feelings and this was just business.
Morgan was great at closing a deal. He smiled as he thought of the girl at the diner. Yes, that would be a very lucrative deal. Her eyes and that smile? He felt like he’d been hit in the chest by both. Yet he’d had more pressing things to get to. Another deal to close. He would too. He once convinced a subsection of Homeland Security that they would be toast without his cyber-security. They signed up with a ten year contract. He could sell ice to Eskimos, given the chance. He hadn’t gotten to where he was by being wishy-washy, that was for sure.
He put thoughts of seducing Ellie out of his mind for the moment so he could treat his two Japanese clients to a taste of American hospitality at one of the finest five star restaurants in all of Philadelphia. His knowledge of firewalls and cyber security impressed Yamato and his partner. And when it came time to seal the deal, Morgan dazzled them with an unbeatable price. All that was left was for him to forward them the contract, so they could electronically sign it. He reached into his pocket for his phone and realized it wasn’t there.
He scowled.
“Is something wrong, Mr. Hunt?” Yamato asked.
Morgan checked his other pocket and said, “I seem to have left my phone somewhere.” He immediately retraced his steps in his mind and concluded that it must have fallen out in the burning building. It was probably toast by now, or wet and damaged beyond all repair. Aaarg! That phone had all of his most important contacts, business documents and notes. This came as a horrible realization, but he couldn’t let that botch up this major deal, so he played it off. “No worries, gentlemen. I’ll just have my secretary forward you the contract. We’ll be in business at the close of business today.” He sealed his promise with another brilliant smile and extended his hand, all the while making a mental note to get back to the scene of the fire and search for his phone.
Yamato and Hitori could do little else but smile back and shake his hand—which was huge in comparison.
Morgan saw his clients to the limousine his company had provided them, bowed deeply to them all and said goodbye. As soon as they were gone, he rushed back to the site of the fire to look for his phone and salvage what he could from it. Why didn’t he back it up? Being in the line of work he was in, this had been a huge oversight.
When he arrived at the scene, the crowd from earlier had already dispersed. Ellie was gone, too. Somehow, he wished she had still been there, but how silly was that thought? He couldn’t expect her to wait for him to realize that he should have gotten her number, or something. Idiot! At least, he knew her name. If he really wanted to see her again, he could find her. But right now, he needed to find his phone.
The diner was sealed off with yellow tape, but he went in any way to look. No luck. If he had dropped his phone there, it was long gone now.
I’ll just have to get another one.
Defeated, he slung his jacket over his shoulder and headed back to his car. The only thing he wanted to do now was to go back to his penthouse at the Hunt Hotel to shower—and think. Yes, he should have been focused on his lost phone and information, but all he could think about was seducing the sweet and luscious looking Ellie, the sexy girl he’d plucked from a fire.
CHAPTER TWO
Ellie
It sure felt like a longer than usual bus ride home from South Philadelphia up to the bad part of Philly. There’d been a man who’d sat next to her and he’d actually leered at her. She moved three seats down and the smell in that side of the bus almost made her retch. What a day. Why couldn’t the diner have caught fire after her shift was over? She might have at least been able to collect this morning’s tips and have enough to buy groceries for the week. No matter. At the end of the day, she’d still be out of a job. Her boss, Joanna, said it would be at least a week before the diner opened again, but probably longer because insurance companies liked to drag things out for some reason.
Ellie got off the bus at her normal stop in North Philly. From there, she walked half a block to her tiny, run-down, red-brick apartment complex and up three flights of stairs to her one bedroom apartment at the end of the hall. She had lived here with her dad up until last year, when he died. He didn’t leave her much, in fact, most of what he left her were all of his unpaid medical bills. She couldn’t blame him, though. It wasn’t his fault, and he tried hard right up until his final days. No, she wouldn’t think about that right now. She couldn’t. Just concentrate on one dismal disaster at a time.
Ellie unlocked the water stained door to her apartment and went inside. Morgan’s phone was in her jeans pocket. She pulled it out, still not sure how to get it back to him. After a long sobering ride on a bus full of a whole spectrum of personalities, none of which resembled Morgan in the slightest, into her poor and crime ridden urban neighborhood, reality had set in and told her to stop dreaming of any kind of possibilities with him. He was a nice guy—brave, handsome—but a well off businessman like him would never want anything to do with a poor girl from North Philly. Although, she definitely had her attributes, she was unrefined and used to noise and chaos—the complete opposite of him.
The best thing she could do was to mail it back to the Hunt Group with an anonymous note detailing where the phone was found. He would get it back somehow, and she could go back to her unimportant, little life. It sure felt nice to dream, though. Going out with a good looking man who had charm to spare? She knew it was as far from reality as she could get.
“Well, enough of that.”
She set the phone down on the kitchen table along with the newspaper and mail, then decided to relax with a hot shower. The next fifteen minutes would probably be as close to a vacation as she would ever get before having to look for a job to tide her over until the diner was in working order again. She should take advantage of them.
She stripped out of her still sooty diner uniform and tossed it in the hamper, then traipsed into her tiny bathroom. It looked pretty small, but she had the luxury of having a full length mirror hanging on the back of the bathroom door. She stood in front of it to appraise the smoky smudges that remained on her forehead, neck, and arms. Even her dark, brown hair looked darker than usual because of the charcoal streaks. This was the first time since the fire happened that she’d actually seen herself and she felt horrified.
Oh, my god! She was rescued by a sexy billionaire and this was what she looked like? No wonder he was in such a hurry to get to his business meeting. She was only twenty-four but she may as well have been forty hiding behind all the smudges. Like a bag woman or something. She might as well have been pushing a grocery cart and making odd sounds like a dumbass.
“Get it together, Ellie,” she said as she began rubbing smudges off, only to make them bigger. He wouldn’t have been interested even if you’d been in full makeup while wearing and evening gown. She rolled her eyes. So stupid to be upset about it at all. It certainly was a little late to worry about it now.
To be fair, it wasn’t like she could do anything about her appearance after passing out in a burning building. And if she hadn’t gone in there, she might not have ever met the gorgeous Morgan Hunt. She had to take the good with the bad. This gave her even more reason to take the phone to him herself. Then he could get a good look at her true self, without the soot and smudges with her hair sticking out all over the place.
Again, with the dreaming. Who was she kidding? He could have any girl he wanted and probably already did. Why would he even look at her? Then again, why would she want to be one in a long ass line of females he probably went through every day of the week? She batted her hand at her image in the mirror and stepped into the shower. Dumb, that’s what I am. A dreamer, her dad used to say.
The water felt good as it warmed on her body and washed away the smoky smell.
She let the water hit her face so she could rub the smudges off. After lathering up, she ran her hands down her throat and over her average, but firm breasts. Closing her eyes, she pictured Morgan in the shower with her. A very sexy man and probably used to getting his way. She would in reality, be defenseless against his charm. What exactly would he do to her?
Would he kiss her? She ran her fingertips over her lips and recalled that he resuscitated her. Unfortunately, she’d been out cold and couldn’t remember, but perhaps he already had kissed her.
Mmm. Just thinking about him made her weak in the knees. He’d looked so handsome in his Italian spun suit, this morning. She wondered what he looked like underneath. Probably built like a god—probably ripped and toned all over. She reached a little lower, between her thighs. What would he feel like inside of her? She squeezed her legs tight. It had been a long time—no, Ellie, she told herself. Stop this line of thinking. You are dreaming if you think he will ever think of you again.
But dreaming didn’t hurt anyone. She put her hand back between her thighs and slipped a finger into her wet folds. Mmm. Morgan. He probably liked to have it his way. Maybe he liked to get rough, even. She liked the thought of this. Somehow, having a man who knew what he wanted and how to get it, always turned her on. Not that anyone knew about this little secret she held to herself. Yes, she could imagine his strong body on top of hers. She might try to resist, but he would overpower her. And he would be turned on, too. He might not be able to help himself. Mmm. She would have no choice but to let him have his way.
Ellie closed her eyes to better picture the well built Morgan in the shower with her—the phone rang.
Ellie stuck her head out from behind the shower curtain because it didn’t sound like her phone. After the second ring, she concluded that it was Morgan’s phone. She quickly turned the water off, wrapped a towel around herself, and rushed out to the kitchen table where she’d left it.