And yet . . . everything Bianca pointed out had a grain of truth in it. Pieced together like that, Bianca’s suggestion made sense. It was a weird situation and there was no logical explanation for it, unless it was that Magnus really was trying to get Edie’s attention.

But . . . why go for Edie when Bianca was right there? Edie knew she wasn’t the pretty sister. She wasn’t dog-ugly, of course, but she wasn’t as into hair and makeup as Bianca was. She wore jeans and T-shirts when Bianca wore skirts and blouses. Edie’s brown wavy hair was chopped at the shoulders and usually kept in two short braids tucked out of the way behind her ears. Bianca had perfect, smooth hair the color of champagne and cut in a heavy fringe across her forehead that made her big brown eyes look even bigger. They had the same heart-shaped face, but Bianca had a tiny, sweet mouth, whereas Edie just had a normal-sized one that was never sweet.

And Bianca didn’t limp. She was graceful and delicate, unlike Edie.

And Bianca wasn’t a raging bitch to everyone, unlike Edie.

“I . . . Are you sure he doesn’t like you instead of me?” Edie asked, completely puzzled. She’d called the man dickface. She’d insulted his house, his looks, and shot down every friendly word he sent in her direction.

“Please,” Bianca said daintily. “He barely spent two seconds in my presence. He was too busy focused on someone else.” Her mouth curved into another tiny, knowing smile. “And he asked you back today.”

Edie squirmed in her seat. “We should tell him we’re busy.”

“We”—Bianca emphasized the word—“should say nothing of the sort. I can drop you off at his house and—”

“Wait, what?”

“—and run a few errands in the city. Take some extra supplies to the cat shelters. Look for special-project cats you might need to save.” Bianca blinked wide, guileless eyes at her sister. “It’ll give you some time alone.”

“Bianca, no,” Edie said. “If we go over there again, I—we—he’ll—”

“He’ll what? Think you’re interested?” Again, Bianca gave her that coy smile. “Is that such a bad thing? He’s decent-looking, right?”

“Decent enough,” Edie agreed. She thought of his bright greenish-gold eyes with the thick fringe of lashes, his blunt face that seemed to transform when he smiled. His big arms that indicated strength, and his powerful build. She felt her face getting hot. Dear lord, why was she even considering his attractiveness? She was as crazy as Bianca!

“He’s got money,” Bianca pointed out. “And he likes cats enough to get one, and enough to not be scared off by the fact that you own lots of them. What other criteria do you need?”

Wordlessly, Edie sloshed her spoon through her bowl of cereal. “I just . . . I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I’ve dated anyone.”

“Six years,” Bianca pointed out. “Ever since the knee. You and Drake—”

“Yes,” Edie snapped. “Thank you for that scintillating recap.” She didn’t like to be reminded of Drake. Fuck him. Fuck him a lot. He’d hurt the crap out of her when she was at her lowest. “You can see why I’m not eager to leap back into the pool.”

“I think this guy is different,” Bianca said. “I also think you will absolutely turn into a crazy cat lady if you don’t at least try to date someone. One of your clients is an ideal candidate for a boyfriend, isn’t it? You already have a common bond.” She smiled brightly. “So should I tell his assistant you’ll go today?”

Edie’s brows furrowed. “Wait. His assistant is the one who called? Doesn’t that seem a little weird to you? That his assistant is calling mine instead of him talking to me?”

“You’re reading too much into it,” Bianca said, getting up from the breakfast table and putting her bowl in the sink. “That’s how these things work. Assistants contact assistants.”

Maybe so. She’d have felt better if he’d called her up directly and said, Wanna go out? Then again, she’d have probably laughed in his face and hung up the phone, convinced it was a prank.

Damn it, now Bianca had her talking as if this were a done deal and he was interested in Edie. “I’m still not convinced he likes me.”

“You should wear this new lipstick I got,” Bianca said. “We have similar skin tones so it’ll probably look good on you, too. And wear a dress.”

“Not wearing a dress,” Edie said.

But . . . she might wear the lipstick. Maybe. She leaned down and scooped up Sleepy so he could drink the milk left in her cereal bowl.

Chapter Four

When Edie showed up on Magnus’s doorstep that afternoon, he was surprised.

Not that she was alone; he knew Levi and Bianca had set up time to go out on a date right after Edie was dropped off. That wasn’t it. It was that she looked . . . different. Her shiny, shoulder-length brown hair was full of the same careless waves as before, her bangs swept off to one side. She was wearing a T-shirt under another blazer, jeans, and sneakers. Very casual.

But her mouth—that sensual, pouty, heavenly mouth that had been in his dreams last night—was a bright, startling red that was just begging to be kissed.

He couldn’t stop staring at it. With just that little bit of color, Edie’s features had changed from mediocre to utterly sensual. Her upper lip, god. He kept picturing it skimming along his dick, brushing against his lips. It was a mouth made for dick sucking, his buddies would say. And then Magnus would have punched them in the face for saying that about his girl.

Except Edie wasn’t his girl. She was the damn cat lady.

“Hi. Thanks for coming back,” Magnus said, opening the door to let her in.

She limped into his house. “You asked for a consultant, right? Here I am.” She spread her arms and dropped them, and her cheeks colored a bright red for no reason whatsoever. She was . . . blushing? Why?

He scratched his head. “You okay?”

“Yep! Yep. Fine. Why do you ask?” Definitely blushing.

“No reason.”

She gave him a small smile and nodded, crossing her arms over her chest and glancing around. “So . . . where’s your brother today? I didn’t get to see him last time.”

Shit. “Him? Oh. He’s out meeting with uh, consultants. For our latest project.” Yeah, right. Levi never met with consultants. They always wanted to know numbers and deadlines, and all Levi would do was give them concepts and sketch pictures of his ideas and daydream about story ideas. Magnus was the guy with the details, but Edie wouldn’t know that. Time to distract her. He gestured at the house. “You want to look around before we head up to see Cujo?”

To his surprise, she smiled, showing perfect white teeth, and that sinful mouth seemed to draw all his attention. “Sure. You have a weird house. I admit I’m curious to see the rest of it.”

He gave a joking little bow. “Then allow me to show you around.” He took a step backward and gestured at their surroundings. “This is the foyer.”

She chuckled, the sound husky. It seemed to rasp right over his dick, asking for attention. “I knew that part.” She glanced around and shoved her hands into her jeans pockets, as if a little uncomfortable. “If you don’t mind me saying, your place looks a bit like a warehouse.”

“That was actually the look we were going for.”

“Really?” Edie seemed surprised.

“Yeah, really,” he said, and was impressed she picked up on it. “This place was apparently built in the twenties, and some big, famous modern artist bought it in the nineties and completely gutted the place. I think it was originally five floors but he had the second floor removed so the ceilings could be higher.” He pointed up. “You can see a lot of the structure from the original floor is still in place, but the beams are bare now.”

“Huh,” she said, sounding impressed.