“Nothing.”
“Am I in the way?” he asked, taking a step toward her. She glanced up to his face incredulously.
“Of course not. I’m just . . . I wasn’t expecting you.”
He nodded. His new haircut made his face looked more angular and hard and his eyes even more striking.
He suddenly shook his head slightly, his eyelids narrowing. “How is that I can feel like we’ve known each other forever one second, and the next second, be questioning whether or not you even recognize me . . . or worse, wondering whether or not you’re wishing that I was long gone?”
His deep voice echoed in her head for several seconds after his lips had closed into a hard line.
“Is that what you think? That I wish you were long gone?” Her high-pitched squeak made him blink his eyes in surprise. His subdued reaction amplified her desperation. “I don’t wish you were gone. I’m just embarrassed to have you see me like this.” She glanced down and waved at her frumpy form in a “hello” gesture. “Plus, I told you I was an executive in the membership department,” she mumbled, her voice shaking slightly. “And I’m obviously not, working down here in the collection archives.”
He rolled
his eyes slightly. “Yeah, but you also told me you read erotica exclusively. I’ve kind of learned to take some of what you say with a grain of salt.”
She vibrated like a gong that had just been rung. Was he serious?
“I figured you’d been dodging the truth about what you did here at the museum the other night when Jimmy told us how you negotiated for the Mary Todd Lincoln wardrobe from the Smithsonian. That doesn’t really sound like something a sales executive would do. Besides, maybe a sales executive in a museum would have a degree in art history, but also one in textile preservation? It seemed a little unlikely.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked, her voice ringing with shock.
He shrugged those wide shoulders she loved.
“I figured that, for some reason, you didn’t want me to know the specifics of what you really did here. I’ve been known to tell people, for different reasons, that I’m anything from a programmer to a manager to a gofer at TalentNet. In a way, all of them are true,” he added with a small smile. “What you said made sense to me, while we were at Gold Coast. Every job in this museum is associated with interacting with the public. Educating them. Entertaining them.” He leaned forward. “Getting their money to keep this place solvent and the doors open. I don’t have a problem with you not giving me your specific job description.” He seemed to register her amazement. “I’m interested in you. Not your job title, Eleanor.”
“Oh,” she said, her voice hollow with shock. She’d imagined he’d be furious when he found out she’d misled him. The amazing realization that he wasn’t going to dump her any second because of her white lie made her feel light-headed with relief. Would he ever cease to surprise her?
He glanced at all the closed doors surrounding them. “Okay, I’m lying. I’m actually really curious. This place looks amazing. So what do you do down here, anyway?” he asked, stepping closer to her, blue eyes zeroing in on her like a target. “And why did you want to keep it from me?”
—
He saw her elegant throat convulse as she swallowed. If he had to guess, he’d say that she was stunned. She set him off balance so frequently. Maybe it was selfish, but it gratified him to know that he had the ability to do the same to her.
Glossy tendrils of her brown hair were falling around her cheeks and down her shoulders, the mass of it heavier on the right side than the left. When she’d walked out of the room a moment ago, she wore that sweet, curious, intent expression that reminded him, strangely enough, of the first time he’d ever seen her at the reading event when she’d pulled out Born to Submit to read. He recalled how he’d had the seemingly random thought that she wore that expression a lot. And here was proof. He’d caught her unawares while she’d been totally absorbed in her work.
He couldn’t understand why she was embarrassed about that.
“Eleanor?” he prodded when she pursed and opened her pretty mouth, but no words came out. “Jimmy told me on the way down here that you were the conservation and preservation librarian. Why wouldn’t you want me to know that?”
“I . . . uh . . . I didn’t think you’d find it very interesting. It’s kind of a hard job to explain to people,” she finally said.
“So you thought I was too stupid to understand? Or was it too shallow?”
“No, of course not,” she said, her eyes lighting up with indignation for a second before she ducked her head. “I just thought you wouldn’t find it very exciting.”
“Well, you were wrong,” he stated matter-of-factly. He glanced down the long hallway. “I think your job sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than pushing memberships and schmoozing companies for donations. Will you show me around a little?”
Her mouth fell open. “You want me to show you around?” she repeated.
“Is it okay? All these closed doors are making me curious. It’s like some kind of treasure hallway. I’m thinking anything could be behind them.”
He blinked at the sound of her nervous laughter. Her curving lips warmed him.
“That’s pretty much true. Well . . . what would you like to see?”
“Anything.”