He pointed. “Through there, but—”
Too late, she was already gone, her boot heels clacking merrily against the wood floor. Forced to follow her, Tanner did just that, managing to tear his gaze away from the curve of her butt only through sheer determination.
“Oh my God,” she whispered as if she’d stepped into a cathedral.
The kitchen was huge, too. Bright, with its cream-colored walls and golden oak cabinets. Miles of granite countertop the color of honey topped dozens of cupboards and the big farmhouse sink overlooked a wide window with a view of the backyard. Even in twilight the yard was impressive, with sculpted trees and bushes and late summer flowers splashing the place with color.
“Cooking in here will feel like a vacation,” she murmured, tossing him a quick smile. “You should see my kitchen. No counter space and a refrigerator that’s older than I am.”
She walked to the Subzero fridge and opened the door, cooing a little at all the space she found inside. Then she frowned and looked at him again. “Beer and salami? That’s all you have in here?”
“There’s some ham, too,” he said a little defensively. “And eggs.”
“Two.”
“The freezer’s full,” he pointed out, though why he felt as though he had to explain himself to her was beyond him. “I’m not completely helpless.”
She gave him a look usually reserved for particularly slow children. “This amazing kitchen and all you use is the microwave for frozen dinners?”
Tanner scowled. He’d been busy. Besides, he was planning on cooking, or hiring someone to do it. Someday.
“Never mind.” Shaking her head, she shut the refrigerator and said, “Okay, I’ll pick up some groceries for you—”
“I can buy my own food.”
“Oh,” she assured him, “you’re going to. But I’ll do the ordering since that talent seems to have escaped you.”
“Ms. Holloway.” The two words sounded long-suffering, even to him.
“Oh,” she waved a hand at him. “Call me Ivy. Everyone does.”
“Ms. Holloway,” he repeated deliberately and watched that one eyebrow lift again, “I already told you, your being here is not going to work.”
“How do you know?” she asked, running the palm of one hand across the honey granite as if she were petting it. “I could be great. I might be the best housekeeper in the world. You could at least give me a try before you make up your mind.”
Oh, he’d like to give her a try, Tanner thought. But not the way she meant. Her scent drifted to him from across the cooking island. She smelled of lemons and he caught himself before he could take a much deeper breath just to taste more of it.
If he had Mitchell here in front of him, Tanner thought he might just slug his old college roommate dead in the face. For years, Mitchell and his wife Karen had been trying to get Tanner settled down with a ‘nice’ woman. They’d done the dinner party with a surprise guest thing. They’d thrown parties where they could parade a stream of women past him. All in an attempt to bring him out of his shell.
The problem was, he didn’t think of his life as a shell. He’d spent plenty of years constructing the defenses around him and he didn’t have the slightest interest in letting anyone else in. He had friends. He had his cousins and half brothers. He didn’t need anyone else. But try telling that to your married friends. It was as if as soon as a man got married, he wanted every guy he knew in that boat with him. Mitchell was doomed to disappointment in Tanner’s case. But damned if he didn’t keep trying.
And Ivy Holloway was proof of that. Mitchell had probably taken one look at her and decided that the town beauty was one sure way to get Tanner involved in what was going on around him. It wasn’t going to work.
“The thing is,” he said before his body could talk his mind out of what he knew needed to be done, “I work at home during the night. I sleep during the day—or try to—” he muttered. With all the noise erupting around his bucolic retreat, sleep was getting tougher and tougher to manage. “So I can’t have you making all kinds of noise while I’m working and—”
“What do you do?”
“What?”
“You said you work at home.” She leaned her elbows on the countertop, propped her chin in her hands and asked, “What do you do?”
Her blue eyes were sharp and focused on him. “I design computer games.”
“Really? Have you done any I would recognize?”
“I doubt it,” he said, knowing full well that King games catered to young men more than women. “I don’t design fashion or exercise games.”
“Wow,” she said softly. “That was patronizing.”
Yeah, it had been. He hadn’t expected her to call him on it, though. “It’s just—”
“Try me,” she said with a grin that had her dimple appearing again.
“Fine,” he said, challenge in his voice. “The last game I designed was ‘Dark Druids.’”
“Seriously?” Her eyes went wide. “That’s great. I love that game. And, just so you know, I’m a ninth level Master Sage,” she told him with a proud lift of her chin.
Instantly intrigued in spite of himself, Tanner gave her a considering look. He knew exactly how difficult his “Druid” game was and to reach the ninth level was impressive. “Really. How long did it take you?”
She shrugged and admitted, “Six months, but in my defense, I only played at night. So what are you working on now? Is it okay to ask, or is it a big secret?”
Six months? She’d scored that high in six months? He got e-mail letters from players complaining that he’d obviously made the game too hard as they’d only reached third level in more than a year of trying. He almost forgot that he was supposed to be getting rid of her. So she was more than beautiful. Smart, too. A deadly combination.
Still, Tanner had to stop himself from discussing his current game and the roadblock he’d hit the night before. If she was that good, maybe he could bounce a couple of ideas off her. He cut that thought off fast. He wasn’t looking for a collaborator. In fact, she was keeping him from working. He was standing here talking to her when he should be upstairs buried in medieval magic—which proved his point that she was too much of a distraction.
“Secret, I guess,” she said, clearly reading his expression. “Okay then, never mind. Why don’t you go on and get to work and I’ll take care of things around here?”