One Week (HaleStorm) Read Online Free PDF

don’t have to do this. I’ll be fine getting home.”
    “I know.”
    “You’re right, it would be nice to have someplace close by to sleep.”
    He tried to control his smile. “Yes. It would.”
    Triumph drummed inside him when her fingers closed around his and came away with the key.
    ***
    “M r. Hale I can carry my own—” Elise made a grab for her bag but he’d beat her to it.
    “Come on. You’ve been in those shoes all day, except for the time I saw you slip them off in the conference room. You don’t want to have to lug everything up by yourself. We can get everything in one trip.” He handed over her purse and slammed the trunk closed.
    She caught a grin from the light of one of the lamps that illuminated the trendy little condo complex’s parking lot.
    “So what’s with the sudden formality? First I’m Michael, now I’m Mr. Hale?” He pointed up a set of stairs to indicate the direction they should go, and she followed.
    She rubbed at a growing sore spot on the back of her neck. “Well.” She paused for a moment to weigh her words, and then decided maybe they should just go ahead and address the big, ugly, gorilla standing there between them. “I’m a little confused myself. First you’re acting like you barely know me, questioning my ability to deliver on the job for which you contracted my firm. Then you’re acting a little like you want me to crawl in your lap and read you my Christmas list.” When he pointed to a door, she used the key he’d given her to unlock it, opening it just far enough to set down her laptop and handbag. “I figure, just so there’s no misunderstanding, I’ll go ahead and call you Mr. Hale like everyone else.”
    He nodded, gazing for a moment up at the dark sky like he was considering what she’d said. When he swallowed, she couldn’t manage to ignore slow bob of his Adam’s apple, the way his tongue came out to moisten his full, dark lips.
    She still remembered the taste of those lips.
    “You’re right.” He stepped back, leaning against one of the painted apartment doorframes. His face and body shrouded in shadow, his formal winter coat framed his tall body, making him look powerful and refined. All those years ago, he’d hardly seemed much older than her, in spite of the decade between them. He looked so different now. Powerful. “Not that it serves as an excuse but it’s been one hell of a week. My father’s ashes are still in a box in my office.”
    Oh God, they are?
    He took a deep breath then let it out. “I’ve had to fire a half dozen employees in the past week. I sent senior management out the door. Thank fuck Tom came in to help me pick up the slack.”
    Someone came jogging up the stairs then, and passed them on their way to the next level. Michael waited for them to move on before he finished. “My father wasn’t himself at the end. These people took advantage. Betrayed him, me, the entire company. It had to be done. Doesn’t mean I enjoyed being the asshole.” He shrugged his shoulders as if the entire thing rolled off his back, but the light coming from the little torch on the landing showed pain in his eyes. “It’s all so unfamiliar. Then you showed up, and you reminded me of a time when I knew myself. When life was good. We spent the evening in the conference room together and it was like going back in time.”
    A deep ache of sympathy bloomed in Elise’s chest. Concern, guilt that she’d been overly harsh toward him worked its way in alongside. “Michael—”
    “You’re right though,” he said as he slid her overnight bag from his shoulder and handed it over. “I pressed inappropriately. I apologize.”
    Oh. Well. The ache in her chest intensified, and even though she stubbornly tried to keep a firm grip on the hurt and anger she’d held toward Michael all this time, a measure of it slipped through her fingers. This all had to be so hard on him.
    She lifted her hand to offer a comforting touch, but stopped. Doing