Page 11 of Flirting in Traffic

Finn just gave his brother a bland look. In truth, he was none too pleased that he’d resorted to his little brother’s tactics for soothing grief, not to mention a bruised ego and a boatload of self-doubt. The image of Esa scowling at him from the driver’s seat of that Ferrari flashed across his mind’s eye.

Rebound reaction or not, Finn was going to find her.

Finn glanced at the marquee in the lobby of the modern, sleek high-rise on Michigan Avenue. He sensed the security guard’s forbidding stare on him. Shit. He probably should have changed out of his dusty work clothes before coming. He’d rather catch Kitten off-guard by knocking on her front door instead of scaring her off with a doorman’s phone call. But the security guard was never going to allow him on the elevators to the exclusive residential section of the building without an okay from Kitten.

He studied the marquee while secretly scamming how to get past the guard. A mane of dark red hair caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

He nodded once at the security guard a few moments later as he headed toward the bay of elevators on the left—the ones that led to the businesses instead of the residences. He stayed at a distance and watched while Kitten got onto an elevator by herself.

The floor indicator showed that she got off on the twenty-first floor. He pushed the up button.

What a stroke of luck. Not only to have seen her, but that she’d gone to the business section of the building instead of the residences. His cousin, Illinois State Trooper Caleb Madigan, had been the one to inform him of Kitten’s address. Caleb had whistled into the phone when he’d traced the license plates.

“Pretty fancy digs, Finn. Thought you weren’t interested in the high-flying type after Julia.”

“Just give me the address, Caleb.”

“And this wipes my debts clean from the last poker game?” Caleb had asked anxiously.

“Yeah. You’re free until I take all your money again at Grandma Glory’s Halloween party.”

That had been sufficient assurance for his cousin. “All right, but you didn’t hear any of this from me.”

Within seconds Finn had had one Kitten Susan Ormand’s vital statistics at his fingertips, including her home address and telephone numbers.

Finn was familiar with the building where she lived since his firm had been located just blocks away on Pearson Street. He and Jason occasionally came here for lunch at an Italian restaurant on the third floor.

He stepped off of the elevator. There were only three large offices on the twenty-first floor—an insurance business, a real estate company and the offices of Metro Sexy magazine. The latter was the only one that showed any signs of life.

Metro Sexy—wasn’t that the name of that singles’ magazine that had organized the asinine flirting in traffic scheme that Jess was involved in? Jess…and apparently Kitten as well. Kitten’s bold license plates flashed into his mind’s eye. Could it be that Kitten worked as well as lived in this building?

The door was unlocked. Although the receptionist’s desk was empty, the person who manned it must have just stepped away for a moment, given the evidence of an opened bag of chips and soda can sitting next to the keyboard of a powered-up computer and the radio tuned to a local station.

Otherwise not a sign of life stirred in the luxurious offices.

Finn headed toward the walnut-paneled hallway behind the reception area. He hesitated only briefly when he saw the sign that read Kitten Ormand, Publisher next to a partially opened door.

She sat behind her desk. The sight of her caused a surprisingly strong feeling of grim satisfaction and possessiveness to surge through him. Her expression of stunned disbelief segued to one of rising panic when Finn shut the door behind him with a brisk bang and narrowed the distance between them.

“We have some unfinished business, Kitten,” he informed her.

Chapter Five

Esa conveniently transferred her anger at herself for sleeping with a complete stranger onto her sister. Rachel was the one who had set the stage for her impulsive, completely out of character behavior with all that insistence that Esa drive her glamorous fast car and plotting with Carla about that stupid flirting in traffic chat loop. She’d been planning for Esa to get some action.

As if Esa wasn’t capable of getting a man in bed on her own.

If she wanted to, anyway. Which she hadn’t. Not until Rachel and Carla foisted Finn Madigan on her.

What sane woman would refuse him?

Her fury had only escalated when Rachel wouldn’t answer her cell phone. Esa knew perfectly well that Rachel’s phone had practically been grafted

onto her ear since she was twenty years old. So her refusal to pick it up the morning after Esa’s ignominious night of sexual promiscuity was undoubtedly intentional. Obviously Carla had gotten to Rachel first and spilled the news about Esa leaving the bar with the drop-dead gorgeous Finn.

She and Rachel were very close but there were times when Esa was sorely tempted to wrap her hands around her sister’s swanlike throat and give a healthy squeeze.

Esa reached a sleepy-sounding Carla as she drove down Lake Shore Drive to visit her parents in Evanston. She didn’t even give her friend a chance to say anything but a groggy “hello” before she launched into her attack.

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