by Lee, Lynette
The delivery men stood confused with the heavy headboard between them, too afraid of Christina to move.
Lily stepped in front of Noah. There was no way she was going to let him run interference for her. This was her job and she was going to make it work. She didn’t need any help.
“Mrs. Upton, I’m so sorry for the mistake.” She clenched her fist so hard that her nails dug into the skin. Part of her wanted to defend herself, but she knew better. Right now she needed this job more than she needed her pride. Despite what Noah thought, she knew how to suck up to a client, even if she didn’t like it. Clearly that’s what was required of her now.
Noah began to step forward again but she glared at him and gave him a quick shake of the head. He shrugged and leaned back against the wall, obviously not willing to leave in the midst of this juicy battle.
Lily took a step toward the woman, who had stopped pacing and now stared out the French doors.
“I truly apologize. I’ll take the headboard back right now,” Lily turned back to look at the room. “I see it now. You are exactly right. I don’t know how I could have been so careless.”
Christina turned to watch Lily pacing the room out of the corner of her eye. Lily thought a minute, looking from the wood to the fireplace, and glancing quickly at Christina. What could this horrible woman possibly want from her?
She hadn’t gone with a wood bed frame because she had thought there was already too much of the stuff between the cabin walls and refinished floors. She jogged her memory for other options, ones that were neither wood nor fabric. Antiques certainly weren’t appropriate, not for Mrs. Uptight.
Grasping at tiny threads for anything that might satisfy her ridiculous client, Lily finally remembered an artist she’d seen at a craft fair a few months before. He’d made massive stone wall hangings out of every kind of rock imaginable. Maybe the answer was not to use a headboard at all.
“I know of an artist who makes some pretty incredible hangings out of stone. Why not skip the bed frame completely? Use a piece of art instead.”
Christina stared at Lily a moment, and then turned her eyes to where the bed would sit.
She sighed, clearly exasperated by the whole ordeal. “Fine, fine.” She flicked her hand as if shooing her away. “Leave us now.”
Lily looked quickly to Noah. She thought she saw sympathy in his eyes. She hesitated, just a second, but it was enough to catch Upton’s attention.
“I said leave us!” she nearly screamed. Lily felt her heart race. She’d never been treated so poorly by a client, not even when she’d worked for Blackwood. She bit her tongue and left the room.
She kept it together long enough to tell the furniture guys to take the bed back to the truck and wait until she gave them the okay to bring the rest of the furniture in. She would make sure Mrs. Uptight was well on her way before bringing another thing into the house. With any luck she could avoid her for the rest of the job. Surely Lydia could run interference for her.
Lily followed a pine needle path back behind the house as she tried to calm down. A bluebird flitted through the trees and landed in a birdbath at the end of the trail. She followed it, hugging herself lightly, trying to push the anger down. She had never felt so humiliated, being yelled at as if she were a child. She’d only been doing her job. And all of it while Noah just stood there watching the whole thing.
She was angry at him for trying to interfere and angry at him for not doing enough. It was irrational, sure, but she’d expected more from him and he’d let her down. Again. Not to mention catching him with Upton’s claws around his neck. Who knows what they’d been about to do. Tears sprung into her eyes and she stamped her foot. There was no way she was going to act like a baby about this. She told herself she wasn’t going to cry, she couldn’t. She kicked at a rock and scuffed her shoe. Despite her attempts at control the tears started to fall as she replayed the embarrassing scene feeling the fresh burn of being scolded and not just in front of Noah but in front of the furniture crew too. And probably others - who knew who else was within earshot of the screeching?
She wondered if she should just leave or if she should wait until Upton left and get the furniture placed. She could always have the furniture guys come back tomorrow. Sighing, she leaned against a tree, wishing not for the first time since this job had begun that she could just quit and go work retail.
After Lily left the room, Noah struggled not to say anything to Christina about the headboard debacle. He knew if he interfered he would probably just make the situation worse. But he was steaming inside. He’d hated to see Lily so cruelly mistreated and it had taken all his strength to keep his mouth shut and his hands to himself while she was being attacked. It made him want to fight and to protect her all at once. In that moment, when all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and protect her from every unkind word and painful feeling forever, he knew he wanted her back. And that he’d do anything to make it happen.
When Upton finally walked out the door after what felt like hours of him coddling her, he let out a quick sigh and immediately looked out the front window to see that Lily’s car was still there. He saw it parked behind his own truck and waited at the window until Christina pulled out of the parking area and down the main drive.
The construction crew had stopped to watch him and the silence finally caught his attention.
“What are you looking at?” he asked. “Get back to work,” he said in mock anger then gave them all a smile before heading to the back door. If he knew Lily, she would be outside trying to work through her feelings.
He found her a few minutes later, kicking at the gravel along the path in the back.
“Sorry about that,” Noah said as he stopped near the head of the path. He could tell from her tensed back and shoulders that she needed space even though all he wanted to do was wrap her small body up in his and never let anyone hurt her again. He thought he saw her sniffle and he clinched his fists.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”
“I should have helped you out more with Christina.”
“I didn’t ask for your help.” She brought her hands to her face and he knew she was crying.
“I know. I’m sorry,” he replied.
“What a bitch,” Lily said quietly, anger and hurt so clear in her voice.
“The way she treated you was terrible,” he agreed. “I shouldn’t have let it happen.”
He hesitated a moment, unsure if he should touch her. But he wanted so badly to hold her, to make her feel better, he couldn’t resist. He reached out and brushed her arm gently.
She shook him off. “Don’t act all sweet and innocent with me,” she told him, turning to face him. Fresh tears fell from her eyes and broke his heart. “I saw the way you two were together. She’s obviously got you wrapped around her little finger. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were screwing her.” She spat the last words out and all the soft feelings he’d had just seconds before started boiling into anger at the accusation.
“That’s ridiculous,” he replied.
“Ha. I know how you are.”
He stepped quickly closer and grabbed her arms in his tight grip. She tried to shrug him off but he was much too strong for her. He kept her arms pinned to her sides and pulled her even closer. She flinched from the look in his eyes and he eased up his grip although he kept his eyes intensely on her.
“You obviously don’t know a thing about how I am. I’ve never slept with a client. I’ve never even thought about it. It would be insanely unprofessional. Not only that, but I never slept with anyone else when we were together. I don’t know where you get these ridiculous ideas.” He punctuated the words by tightening his grip on her again, slowly inching her closer so that when he finished speaking her chest pressed into his. His blood was pumping hard in his ears, whether from anger or excitement he wasn’t sure.
She began to shake her head at him but he cut her off by pulling her in closer and pressing his lips to
hers.
She pushed at his chest, trying to break away from his grip but he held her firm against his chest. His body tightened with need as he gently pried her lips apart, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. She fought him another instant but he could tell she’d lost the desire to deny him as she finally quit struggling and closed her eyes.
The passion was there still, hotter and more demanding than ever.
Her tongue met his, eagerly exploring his mouth as if it were the first time she’d ever tasted it. A moan escaped her lips and she grasped his shirt.
He felt the desire radiating from her and it was all he could do to keep his hands from exploring her the way he really wanted. She tasted like sugar and he couldn’t keep his lips away from hers. But he knew it wasn’t the right time for this, certainly not the right place. He wanted to know that she was kissing him because she wanted to, not because she was hurt and needy and he was there.
He let his arms fall from her hips, giving her one final long kiss on the lips before easing his body away. Her eyes flew open and she stared up at him, her face flushed, her heavy breathing moving those pert little breasts up and down in the most seductive way.
A bird chirped in the trees above them and to Noah it felt like time was standing still. If he could just hold onto her a few minutes more. Instead he shoved his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t be tempted to grab her again.
Her hand came up to her mouth and her eyes grew wide. She took a step back and tripped over the path. He moved quickly to catch her but she shook him off.
She had that innocent deer-in-the-headlights look again. He was tempted to grab her and kiss her once more, just to see the panic in her eyes, but instead he took a step back and gave her a lazy smile.
“God, you’re adorable,” he told her. Her eyes grew even wider and with her hand still covering those oh-so-kissable lips, she took off past him down the path.
The smile was still plastered to his face when she turned the corner of the house and disappeared. He leaned against the trunk of a big pine and crossed his arms, feeling like he’d managed to accomplish something after all on this otherwise wasted day.
What the hell had gotten into her? She sat in the driver’s seat of her car, staring out at nothing. She looked down to find her hands gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were turning white. Why had she let him kiss her? What had she been thinking?
But, oh, what a kiss. Her body hummed with desire for him. She felt his moist lips back on her, that rigid body of his pressed tight against her own, and she let out a sigh. She had missed him, if only physically. She could admit that much. She felt too hot all of a sudden and peeled the blazer she’d been wearing off her shoulders. It still wasn’t enough and she rolled down the windows, letting the cool afternoon breeze blow into the car and over her bare shoulders. Despite the heat of her body, she shivered. Fall was coming, she realized, hard as it was to believe with the sun shining so warmly on her. The skirt of her sundress billowed around her as she sat trying to sort through what had just happened.
She looked at herself in the rearview mirror, surprised that she was so flushed. She straightened her hair and shakily pulled out the lip gloss from her purse, reapplying it to her bare lips, thinking all the time about Noah’s tongue in her mouth.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” a deep voice said from behind her, startling her. She let out a gasp.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” She turned quickly to see one of the furniture men standing on the side of her car.
“Oh, Fred! I’m so sorry.” She jumped out of the car and thought about grabbing her blazer as the man’s eyes drifted over her trim body in the bright red sleeveless sundress she’d worn that day, but decided against it.
“Did you want us to stick around? Or should we take all this stuff back to the shop?” he motioned to the big moving van behind her in the drive.
She’d been so upset by the encounter with Upton and so flustered by Noah’s kiss that she’d completely forgotten about the furniture. She gave a quick look around and saw that her client’s car was finally gone.
“Let’s unload it all. Except the headboard, that needs to go back to the store. You can take everything else into the master bedroom. It should be safe there until they’re finished remodeling the other rooms.”
He nodded and motioned to the truck. The other mover hopped out of the cab and they began pulling all the furniture she’d worked so hard to choose out onto the drive. Hopefully Mrs. Uptight wouldn’t have a fit about any of the other pieces.
She thought she should probably go in and make sure they put everything in the right place but it was so nice in the sun and the last thing she wanted was to see Noah again so she stayed where she was and watched as they began carrying the furniture up the steps. She was angry about the headboard. She thought it was perfect for the room and she wondered if she hadn’t surprised Mrs. Upton and Noah in the bedroom if she would have even cared about the bed. No use worrying about it now though. She supposed it was just part of doing the job. She’d dealt with problem clients when she’d worked for Blackwood but now the stakes seemed so much higher. Every insult was suddenly personal, every mistake critical. She would have to learn to grow a stiffer backbone if she was hoping to land any more upper class clients. That much was obvious.
From now on she would stay as far away from the cabin as she could. She didn’t want to chance running into Upton again. She would deal with Lydia via email and only visit the job site when she had to. And it wasn’t just to shield herself from her client. Now she realized she couldn’t trust herself to be around Noah either.
The thought of his hard body and his smooth tongue caught her off guard. She put a hand to her chest and leaned back against the car. The sun was right in her eyes and she let them drift softly closed against the brightness. What that man could do with his tongue should be illegal.
“It was that good, huh?”
Her eyes flashed open as Noah came down the steps of the cabin toward her, his keys jingling in his hand. His smile was smug and she hated that he’d caught her daydreaming. About him, no less.
“Don’t be an ass. I was just enjoying the sun.”
“Of course you were.”
She pushed herself off the car and frowned.
“Nice dress by the way,” he called as he swung his long body into his truck. “Very sexy.”
The comment caught her off guard just as she was about to yell an insult at him. He chuckled and waved at her before backing out of the driveway.
Chapter Six
Noah couldn’t believe he’d actually kissed Lily. And that she’d so willingly kissed him back.
He’d played it cool with Lily as he’d left but he was feeling anything but cool as he drove down the mountain. Now that he’d realized he wanted her back, he let himself daydream. He imagined her naked beneath him once again, that milky skin glowing with sweat like he’d seen it so many times before, and he grew hard. Down boy, he cautioned himself. No need to rush things too quickly. He didn’t want to scare her off. But, God, no one else had ever made him feel so out of control, so needy. His heart beat hard with anticipation and not only to get into her pants again. He wanted all of her. He wanted to wake up next to her in the morning, to make her dinner, to feel her cuddle up beside him on the couch.
Not for the first time he wished he would have told her about the house. If he wouldn’t have been such a chicken all those months ago he could have shown her the plans and told her he’d designed it just for the two of them, maybe even their family someday. If he hadn’t been so afraid he would have asked her to marry him back then and all of this pain never would have happened.
But there was no way to change the past.
The best he could hope for now was that she would give him a second chance. He knew all the kissing in the world wasn’t going to win back her heart. He needed to really make her listen to his apology. He needed to do a better job of explaining about the
breakup and how wrong she’d been about him. But how to get her to the point where she would listen to him? That was the real challenge.
His mind flailed for answers. He could call her, but the phone was so impersonal, and he knew he’d have more success if he could just sit down with her, look into her eyes as he told her all the things he was feeling. He could go to her. He wasn’t sure where she lived any longer but it wouldn’t be hard to find out. If he went to her place and surprised her, surely she would let him in and listen to what he had to say.
Or she would slam the door in his face. He would probably deserve it.
It wasn’t the worst idea he’d ever had. If he could convince her to talk to him he could at least explain what had really happened the night of their breakup. And if he could explain himself, she might just wind up forgiving him. He decided that it was a chance he was willing to take.
He pulled into the garage at his office complex downtown and grabbed several rolls of plans and his bag out of the truck. He checked his watch - it was already nearly closing time. Knowing Lily, she probably still went out with her friends or her sister most nights, and he wanted to make sure to catch her before she did.
He got into the elevator and tried to calm his beating heart, frustrated as he watched the numbers climb too slowly. He almost got out on the fifth floor and took the stairs but decided against it. Six floors later he finally exited into the plush reception area of Caldwell Enterprises. His executive assistant Beth greeted him with a smile as he slid the stack of plans onto her desk.
“Hi Mr. Caldwell. How’d the day go?”
“Not bad. Spent most of it up at the cabin. Anything important happen around here?”
“Nothing too important.” She swiveled around in her chair. “I do have several messages for you. Including one from GQ magazine.” The girl looked like she would nearly fall out of her chair with excitement.
He nodded his head and took the stack of messages from her.
“They wanted to talk to you about being on the cover.” Her voice squeaked and he nodded again as he sifted quickly through the papers. He felt the tug of guilt as he looked at all the things he was letting slip. With the cabin and Lily he knew he’d been neglecting his business lately and he felt like he really needed to clear his head and get back to work. But messages could wait one more day. There wasn’t time now.
