“Doubtful.” Ty snorted. “Hey, Ben. Got a minute?” He waved Ben over.
“Hey, guys. Glad you could come by. Tristan’s almost done with the group, and then he can tell you what he cooked up tonight.”
“No rush. Question for you.” Ty reached out and squeezed Carter’s shoulder. “Our friend here says he—”
“Hi, Hailey,” Lily interrupted, giving Ty an elbow to his stomach. “Alexis said you’re photographing the food pairings tonight to showcase on the website. Now I feel like I need to update my business page as well.”
“I think I should get a commission on all the business I’ve rustled up for you,” Ben said. “And commission from you too, meathead.” He directed a grin at Carter.
Like Ben would ever take money from Hailey or anyone, really. The guy was genuine gold.
“More like I should charge you extra for the abuse I have to endure working with you.” Carter tipped his empty wine glass to Ben.
“Me?” Ben laughed. “You’ve finagled your way out of working with me and teaming up with Hailey instead. Again, sounds like you owe me.”
Carter couldn’t help the sly grin that escaped his lips. “I can honestly say I’ve had worse jobs.” He slipped a ten-dollar bill from his back pocket and slapped it on the counter. “And I’ve definitely never worked with anyone as beautiful.”
“Here we go,” Ty moaned.
“He can’t help it,” Jenna defended him.
Carter stood and offered the stool to Hailey. “Have a seat. You’ve been on your feet all night.”
“You should have a glass of the rhubarb wine. It’s amazing. Not like any wine you’ve ever had before.” Jenna slid an empty wine glass in front of Hailey.
“Oh, no thank you.”
“Do you prefer red? Their Lobster Red is a classic. Traces of cinnamon and cherry,” Lily said.
“Look at you two doing my sales pitch for me,” Ben said.
“Water is fine; thank you.” Hailey toyed with the strap to her camera and squirmed in her seat.
It wasn’t the first time Carter had noticed her warding off a drink.
“First glass is on the house.” Ben poured a small glass of red and put it in front of Hailey.
Carter watched as her cheeks, previously rosy from the attention, drained of color. Picking up on her clues, he reached across her for the glass. “No drinking on the job. I won’t be able to work with her photos if they’re all fuzzy.”
He tipped his head back and drained the glass in two giant gulps. No one had ever accused him of being classy.
“Are you done photographing for tonight?” Ben, still completely oblivious, asked.
“I’m pretty sure I got everything I need.”
“Perfect.” Carter wedged himself between Hailey and Lily and slid the wine glasses aside. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” Without waiting for her permission, he picked up the camera and set it on the countertop.
Her sigh came out in a soft puff behind him, and the breath of air tickled the back of his neck. He looked over his shoulder at her and swore she blinked a thank you with her eyelashes. Carter tossed her a wink and a grin. The pink stains were back on her cheeks. Right where he liked them.
After everyone oohed and ahhed over her pictures, they sampled Tristan’s food and sipped on wine. Everyone except Carter and Hailey. When Alexis poured another round, Carter cupped Hailey’s elbow gently and nodded toward the other end of the bar. “Can we talk for a minute about the website?”
“Sure.” He’d never seen her move so quickly. She hopped off the stool and followed him to the now empty space.
Ben, Alexis, and Tristan moved about cleaning up for the night, not really paying attention to them. Carter could see Ty, Lily, and Jenna check them out from his peripheral vision. He’d lose ten bucks every night if it meant giving Hailey privacy. Granted, he’d be hitting on her regardless, so it didn’t really matter.
“I was hoping we could get together this week to start putting everything up on the Coastal Vines site, and then work on Marshall Farms.”
“We don’t have to get together for that. I can send you the files, and you can use whatever pictures work best for the layouts you’ve created.”
“Don’t you think it would be better if we did it together? I’d hate to force a picture into a pre-planned layout, and creating a layout around every single picture you took would be too much. I’ll need you to help narrow down the best ones for the site.”
Hailey cocked her head at him, reading between the thick as mud lines. “Are you really that incompetent? I’d think as a graphic designer you’d be able to come up with something aesthetically pleasing.”
Ouch. “I... I guess I...”
“Or are you making up reasons for us to be together so you can keep practicing your one-liners.”
“Sweetheart, my one-liners don’t need practice.” Hailey quirked her brow, something she did often. No woman had ever made him second guess his skills. “You think I do?”
“You don’t have me falling at your feet, do you?”
“Good point.” He chewed the inside of his cheek, pretending to be deep in thought, which wasn’t too hard to pretend. Normally he didn’t have to think about his lines; they just sort of came out. With Hailey, he found himself overthinking.
“Fine. I’ll let you have more practice time. Tomorrow morning I’m free. My weekends are pretty much booked with weddings, engagement photos, and baby shoots.”
“Practice?” He wasn’t sure if he should be offended, or if she was playing him. “If you think I need practice, I’m doing something wrong. We’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
“We’ll figure out the website tomorrow.”
“While I work on my one-liners.”
“I guess.” She rolled her eyes and brushed past him, but not before he saw the faint smile on her lips.
Carter stood back while she slipped into her coat and said a round of goodbyes. He met her at the door, holding it open for her. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
“Protecting me from the boogeyman?”
“I thought I was the boogeyman.”
“You’re too pretty. He’s got one eye bigger than the other and is taller than you.”
“Oh, you’ve seen him before?” Carter stepped in front of her when they reached her car.
“All the time when I’m trying to fall asleep.” Her tone was light and teasing, and he didn’t want it to end, but he couldn’t help himself.
Leaning forward, he whispered in her ear, “Think of me when you’re trying to fall asleep tonight. I’m much prettier.” He brushed a kiss across her cheek and stepped out of her way, so she could get in her car.
It worked like a charm. Hailey stood frozen, a deer-in-the-headlights shock in her eyes. After a few moments, she blinked life back into her face.
“I won’t get any sleep if I think about you tonight.”
Carter jerked his head in surprise. He hadn’t expected her to flirt back. “It wouldn’t be the first time a woman lost sleep over me.”
“If I think of you, I’ll be having nightmares.”
“Damn. That’s harsh.” He mimicked a knife going into his heart.
“Nightmares about the cheesy pickup lines you’re going to use tomorrow.” She blew him a kiss and slid behind the wheel of her car.
He was still laughing when the dirt from the tires had finally settled. Damn, this woman was going to be the death of him. In the meantime, he’d thoroughly enjoy the fun she’d brought into his life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“You’re trying too hard.” For the past two hours they’d gone through the photographs Hailey had taken and toyed around with website layouts. Carter had spewed out dozens and dozens of puns and innuendos. He made her laugh, and there were lots of eye rolls. They weren’t getting as much work done as she’d hoped.
An hour. Two tops and she wanted to be out of Carter’s house and back at her own, hunkered down in front of her computer edit
ing photos.
Hailey put her foot between his legs and gave his chair a push. He didn’t budge and grabbed onto her ankle. The work space he’d set up for them didn’t allow much room, and she could feel the heat radiating off his body.
“Practice makes perfect. Want me to try less?” Carter kept his hand around her ankle and gently massaged her calf.
This wasn’t good. Not good at all, and not simply because she hadn’t shaved in weeks. She prayed he couldn’t feel her leg hair through her jeans. Her legs weren’t lean like the ones he was surrounded by. The lean, long limbs of his girlfriends. Not girlfriends, she reminded herself. Friends who were girls. Girls—women—who were wives of his friends. She had no idea what the women he dated looked like. Except for Jenna.
Sweet, wholesome Jenna. Maybe Carter wasn’t after the tall, thin, bimbo type.
She’d worked her ass off, well, not as off as she’d wished it would be, to get in the shape she was in. Her calves would always be on the bulkier side, but there was muscle. Some serious muscle, if she did say so herself.
Her workout videos and support group had helped her shed pounds and then figure out what programs and routines were best for her body shape. The group—men and women whom she’d never met in person—gave her the confidence to leave New York. Confidence she’d had until she met Carter.
The genuine smiles, the playful banter, the gentle touches. Guys she’d dated, asshats she’d been with, had never caressed her the way Carter was at the moment, even if it was just for fun. It confused her and made her drop her guard.
She tried to tug her foot from his grip, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Scared?”
“Me? No. You should be, though.”
“Why?” Again, the soft touches around her ankle. He wore glasses today, and damn if they didn’t age him a bit and add a layer of Clark Kent to his Superman, but not in a man of steel kind of way. Carter was more Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool without the violence. And the scarred face.
“Kickboxing is one of my favorite workouts. I could do some serious damage to those sensitive family jewels of yours.” She pointed her sneaker toward his crotch.
Carter’s grin dropped, as did his hand, and he moved his chair back. “You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t give me a reason to.” She folded her arms across her chest.
“I didn’t think I gave you one. I guess I’m losing my touch at reading women.” Carter’s eyes turned down as if sad. His shoulders hunched forward.
Crap. She didn’t mean to offend him. Hadn’t he figured out she was a flirt too and could give out as much as she could take? She was careful who she flirted with; not usually with men who took her seriously. Gay men were the best. They made her feel like the sexiest woman in the world, and she could stroke their ego without worrying about her words being taken seriously, or it leading to anything.
Since she’d had her come to Jesus moment last year, she’d clammed up a bit more around straight men. Back in the day—when she didn’t care about herself—she flirted with anyone. That lifestyle hadn’t gone so well, and so lately she kept her teasing nature to a minimum. But, for some reason, Carter brought it back out.
Maybe he was the type who loved to tease but couldn’t take it in return. If that was the case, there went the idea of a possible hook-up. She had her own baggage to carry; no workout program was going to make her strong enough to take on someone else’s.
“It’s fine, Carter. I know we’re just messing around. I mean, not messing messing. Fooling...” she stammered. As soon as the words escaped her lips, she immediately thought of an innuendo, and her cheeks warmed. “Teasing ... I mean, joking. Having fun. Kidding around. Right?”
Carter lifted his head, and his gaze locked with hers. In one swift move, he jerked his chair closer to her and looped his feet around her ankles, pulling her closer. “Messing? Fooling? Teasing?” He licked his lips and leaned across the small workspace that separated them. “I believe you’re trying to taunt me.”
The temperature in his house shot up a thousand degrees. She wanted him, and she wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it.
“About the, um, website. I like the, um, idea of having a slideshow of the pairing instead of a dropdown menu to a separate page.” Her nerves were too strong to hide.
Carter still hadn’t moved. His big work boots locked around her ankles, their knees touched, and the rise and fall of her chest was too evident in the tiny kitchen.
An hour ago, she’d thought his kitchen to be the perfect size. Light gray walls, dark cherry cabinets, pale hardwood floor. Roomy and well laid out, until he set them up at a corner table meant for two and situated their chairs across from each other.
There were minimal accessories and gadgets on the counter, but plenty of space for them if he ever decided to turn his bachelor pad into a family home. Family. Why the heck did such a sexy guy bring on thoughts of family? He should be giving off vibes of a playboy. A player. Man-whore.
Not a family guy who had a kitchen with lots of potential. If he propositioned her, groped her, or even leaned in to kiss her, she’d have her answer to the kind of guy Carter was, and then her fantasy would disintegrate into thin air.
She prayed he made an inappropriate move.
No. Wait. Didn’t she want him to make a move? A quick rumble in the sheets? She was a grown adult, one hundred percent in charge of her choices, and she’d decided minutes ago she wanted Carter.
Only she couldn’t afford a distraction like Carter right now. He needed to prove himself an asshole, and then she could focus again. Gah! She’d never been indecisive like this before.
“You have a lot of amazing pictures. A slideshow is a great idea,” he said, keeping his feet in her space, but turning to the laptop screen between them. His fingers moved across the keyboard with grace and skill. She couldn’t help watching as they danced from letter to letter as if choreographed and well-practiced.
Taking a risk, she glanced up at his face and studied him as his gentle eyes focused on the screen. A tiny line formed between his brows, and he bit his bottom lip in concentration. It was the dark-framed glasses; they upped his lure even more. She didn’t think it was possible but, wow. Carter Marshall in his reading glasses was devastatingly handsome.
“Stop staring at me, or I’m going to do something you’re not ready for me to do.”
Hailey gasped and leaned back in her chair, then looked away, but not before noticing the smirk across his lips. Brat. He was toying with her to keep the upper hand. She’d given him plenty of reasons to think she was an insecure, shy woman. Showing him what she was really like would be one hundred percent pure entertainment.
Taking the risk, she shifted her feet outward so they intertwined with his and rubbed the toe of her sneaker up and down his calf. Carter’s hands stilled on the keyboard, and one eyebrow lifted, but he didn’t look her way.
He remained focused on the screen, licked his lips, then began typing furiously. Maybe she didn’t have as much of an effect on him as she thought. If he’d been rubbing himself against her like a dog in heat, she sure as hell wouldn’t be able to concentrate.
She needed him to pounce on her, to make a move, to say something inappropriate so she could push him away and file him with the rest of the assholes she’d wasted her time on. It was the only way to get him out of her system. That or strip him down naked and lick him from head to toe.
She stopped caressing him, and he pulled his feet away and shot up from his seat. “Want something to drink?”
“I, uh...”
“Water, coffee, or tea? I also have lemonade.”
“You have tea?” Carter didn’t look like the kind of man who had tea bags in his cabinets.
“Yeah.” He opened the fridge, took out a bottle of sweetened iced tea and set it on the table, sliding it toward her.
The sugary crap. Good. It would help her not fall for him. “I never said I wanted tea.”
“You asked—”
“I doubted.”
“And yet I followed through.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of hot tea.” She slid the cold bottle back across the table.
Carter scowled, and then his lips lifted. “Okay.” He cracked open the tea, took a sip and poured the rest in a pot on the stove.
“You’re not seriously going to heat that up.”
Carter lifted a shoulder. “You said you wanted hot tea.”
Hailey busted out a laugh and got up from her seat. “You’re disgusting.” She took the pot off the stove and poured the tea in the sink.
“That was wasteful.”
“Wasteful is buying sweet iced tea when you can make it yourself.”
“Why make it when you can buy it?”
“Typical male.” She rinsed out the pot and set it by the sink.
“Let me guess, you make freshly squeezed lemonade as well?”
“Can’t say I ever have. Lemon water is good, though.”
“I don’t have lemons.”
“Water is fine.”
They each had a hip resting on the counter, the space of the sink separating them, and then he inched closer to her until there was only a foot of space between them.
“Well then,” he said softly and leaned in closer, his gaze fixated on her mouth.
Hailey licked her lips and let her eyes droop until they closed while she waited for his kiss. A kiss she wouldn’t push away. The warmth from his body soaked into her even though he hadn’t touched her. A slight noise from behind her head had her opening her eyes and tilting her chin up to Carter.
His bicep was near her cheek, and he drew his arm back, a glass in his hand, then he turned to the faucet to fill it up. “Ice?” he asked, offering her the glass.
Blinking back her confusion, she bit back her retort. Once again, he had flirting control. “I can get it myself.” She ripped the glass from his hand and stormed over to the freezer.
“You seem upset.” Carter tucked his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “I can run to the store to get fresh lemons or tea bags if that will make you happy.”
All of You (A Well Paired Novel Book 7) Page 7
