by Aliyah Burke
Shit. I have got to stop thinking about all those times. Each and every one. The multiple and numerous orgasms he’s given me.
“You going to the gala?”
“Me?” She took deep breaths, desperate to lower her core temperature. “Not sure why I’d go. Unless it was something I really wanted to see but then I’d have to be able to afford the tickets even.”
He grunted and she gestured with her chin.
“You?”
“No clue. Opening day is a long way off.”
“True. It is a bit out there.”
He rose and walked around the table to take the seat beside her. Swallowing, she focused on the image instead of him.
“Why do things have to be difficult between us?”
“They don’t. Let me alone and we’ll be fine.”
“You still going on about that ashamed bullshit?” he snapped.
“I don’t judge you and how you react in the flings you partake in, Tuck. Why do you think you have the right to nose into how I handle it?”
He whipped her chair towards him. “Because your fling had to do with me. You don’t get to treat me like a leper and avoid your own apartment.”
Anger spiked along her spine and she matched him glare for glare. “Wow, I’m pretty sure you’re not my parent and therefore have no right to tell me anything about how I act.”
“Like a scared wuss. I thought you said you were a Marine.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Watch the words that come out of your mouth next. I don’t take kindly to slander against the Corps.”
“I thought they were supposed to be some of the bravest.”
“We are,” she replied instantly. “One has nothing to do with the other.”
“Bullshit.” He jerked on the chair. “You’re running.”
“From what?” Her fingers dug into the sides of the armrests. “I have nothing to run from.”
“Don’t lie to either of us, Ariel Greene. I bet you’re wet right now and if I shoved my fingers into you, they’d come out covered in your cream.”
“Sex is sex, Tuck. I can get it anywhere and so long as the man is talented, I’ll be wet. I never said I wasn’t attracted to you, so that’s a pointless argument.” Her heart pounded so hard she wondered if it would punch through her ribs and fall out onto her pants.
“You’re still running.”
Now she was getting pissed. Does he have to keep pushing this issue? Can we not feel the need to address the fact that’s exactly what I’m doing? “From what?” Cripes, when did her voice escalate so? “You’ve made it perfectly clear how you treat women. You go through them like you’re eating a bag of chips. One right after another. Who’s the one running?”
“So this is on me because I didn’t have a steady girlfriend when we fucked?” His tone dropped dangerously low.
“Had there been a girlfriend in your life, that wouldn’t have happened,” she snarled.
“How many batteries do you go through calling my name again?”
Ice coated her heart and she drew on the strength that had got her through Boot. With a barely there blink she stared at him, shoving the humiliation she had into a small dark corner where it wouldn’t see the light of day.
“More than I should be. If that’s all, Mr Carter, I have work to continue.”
He shoved back with a sharp, “Whatever.”
It wasn’t hard to see his anger and frustration but right now, she didn’t care. Her own were surging with the force of a powerful rip tide and she was having a hard time keeping herself from being pulled under.
Ariel moved around and pressed a button. Within seconds, two men dressed in suits stepped into the room. “Yes, Ms Greene?”
She looked them over. The twins on staff—Brandon and Landon Towers.
Landon had spoken. She’d learned to tell them apart over the time she’d worked here. It hadn’t been easy for they had taken great pleasure in trying to fool her.
“Mr Carter was just leaving. Escort him out, please.”
Tuck glared at her but she didn’t care. This was her place—she didn’t have to face a damn thing if she didn’t want to.
“Yes, ma’am.” Landon again. “Sir, if you will come with us.”
The words, while spoken respectfully, truly offered no option. Tuck seemed to realise that and shook his head in her direction as he went with them. She made a big production of shutting off the display as he left the room, so she wouldn’t watch. Then she returned to her office and after a long drink of cold water, got back to work. Doing her damnedest to ignore the desire coursing through her body courtesy of one Tuck Carter.
* * * *
“She tossed me out. Had two men there who escorted me to the door like I would cause a problem.”
Steve sat across from him at the table they’d claimed the moment they had entered the sports bar. A bottle of beer dangled from his fingertips as he stared at Tuck.
“I’m confused, Tuck. What did you think was going to happen?”
“Why is it so hard for her to think of us as being together?”
Steve blinked a few times. “Is that what this is about? You want to date her?”
He leant back and crossed his arms. “Is that such a ridiculous notion to you?”
“Given your track record? Yes.”
“I want more, Steve.”
“Obviously.” His retort was dry.
Tuck flipped him off and drank some of his beer. “I didn’t want anything more with the others. It’s her I want it with. Why is that so hard for her to understand?”
“Have you told her this? Or was it more of an ‘I fucked you numerous times, I bet you’re wet now’ kind of thing?”
Tuck shrugged.
Steve laughed even as he shook his head. “There’s your problem. You want her, you should tell her. Better yet, ask her out on a date.”
“And how do you propose I do that when she’s avoiding me like the plague. Hell, like I’m the one who gave it to her.”
Steve rolled his eyes and waved for another drink. “Poor, poor Tuck. Not used to having to put out energy to get a woman. Wonder what that says about the women you’re usually with.”
“You know, you truly can be an asshole.”
“More than you know, man. More than you know. Look, Ariel’s not been talking to me either so I don’t know what to tell you. But I suggest you ask, and I do mean ask her out on a real date. Treat her like a woman and not like an item you’d just like to fuck.”
Tuck rested his elbows on the table and rolled his bottle on the bottom as he thought about the past week. He’d not once seen Ariel. Occasionally he saw her vehicle in their parking garage, but never her. Woman had gone dark. He didn’t like it at all. He reached for his burger and bit in. This would take a good deal of planning but Steve was right. He wanted something more than that bedroom fling and he had to stop looking at her like sex was all he wished for.
He wanted more sex, definitely. But it was more than that. She’d got under his skin—had since he first saw her and had that thought of lilacs surround him with its gentle and refreshing scent.
They’d played this cat and mouse game for over a year and a half, the teasing becoming more and more sexual between them. Yet at the same time they could just hang at sporting events together and have a great time. She understood the rules and didn’t ask annoying questions through the whole thing. Another bonus was that she’d never asked him to go shopping with her.
Their actual sleeping together had flipped a switch in his mind and all he could focus on was her. He wanted to be able to call her his. Go to sleep with her in his arms. Shit, it’s like I’m thinking forever.
With a mental reprimand, he focused back on the game on one of the many flat screens around the establishment. He and Steve hung out until late before making their way back to the apartment. Her car was gone—that was the first thing he noticed. The second was that someone was waiting for him.
Daisy. Ah, sh
it.
She pushed away from the wall and sashayed over to place her hands on his chest. “Hello, Tuck,” she purred.
“What are you doing here, Daisy?”
Steve waved and gave him a wicked grin as he slipped inside the building. Bastard. Tuck stared at the woman whom he had made the mistake of sleeping with. She was dressed in the same way she had been the first time they’d met—incredibly short shorts, a belly-exposing cut-off shirt and stilettos. This time, however, it did nothing for him.
She tucked a curl of her hair—now dark red—behind her ear and stepped closer. “You didn’t answer any of my calls.”
“Nope, I didn’t. Thought you would have gotten the hint from that.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “I thought we had something.”
“It was a one-night stand. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.” Yes, he was being an ass but he didn’t need her hanging around thinking there was more to what they’d shared.
She faltered but regained her composure quickly. Dragging her tongue along her lips—an act he realised was supposed to be sexy—she stepped closer to him and reinitiated physical contact. The tips of her nails began to dig into his skin and he frowned, removing her touch.
“We were good together,” she said.
He exhaled noisily. “I said before, one-night stand. There’s nothing more there. Get it through your head. Goodnight, Daisy.” He walked around her then entered the building. Shaking his head, he made his way to the elevator. More proof that Steve and Ariel were right. He had way too many confrontations like this. And it had to stop.
I don’t want anyone but Ariel now, so it will.
On their floor, he cast a glance to her door and continued to his. Had her vehicle been there, he would have pounded until she answered. But it wasn’t, so he didn’t.
“Yes, sure. We can do that for you. Don’t worry, it’ll be taken care of,” Steve assured.
“Who was that?” Tuck asked when Steve hung up.
“Ariel. She asked me to look after her plants for her.”
His eyebrows converged and he closed the door behind him. “Why? Where is she?”
“She’s gone for two weeks.”
“To where?”
The security had been added to the museum and the men doing the installation were, as she’d said, good at what they did. But why would she leave before everything had been finalised?
“This is her two weeks of service. She’s in the Marine Reserve. This is her full-drill status.”
He calmed down a bit, remembering she had somewhere to be one weekend a month. “How are you going to do that if we don’t have the key to her place anymore?”
“Oh, I have a key.”
“You? You have a key to her place?”
“Yes, she put it in the mailbox, I picked it up earlier today when I got the mail.”
Tuck held out his hand. “I’ll take care of her plants.”
“Nope, sorry man. She asked me to do it. I don’t need you over there sleeping in her bed because it smells like her.”
Tuck muttered some expletives and went to his room. This day hadn’t gone at all as planned. Seated before his computer, he pulled up the plans for his house and spent the next few hours working on them. He was close to having them just right, but it wasn’t quite there yet.
* * * *
At the construction site the next day, he stood with several of the men as they took their break. He stared at the building—it had come along beautifully. From where they were on the roof, he watched the landscaping guys smoothing out some parts that hadn’t been able to be done while they were trucking in and out materials.
His cell rang and he answered it. “Hello?”
“Pierce. Can you come meet me?”
“Sure, Richard. What’s up?”
“I’ll shoot you the address. Come as soon as you can.”
“Okay, I’ll leave right away.” He ended the call and looked at Stan. “Richard called me away. You guys are on your own.”
The men whooped and hollered. “Party time!”
He laughed as he made his way down off the roof. His phone vibrated with the announcement of a text but he didn’t look at it until he made it to his truck. Tossing his hard hat into the back seat, he climbed in then unclipped his phone to see where he was to go.
It took him nearly an hour to get to where Richard wanted to meet him. After parking beside the man’s Escalade, he hopped out. Richard waited there in a suit and, shoving his hands in his pockets, Tuck joined him on the side of the hill.
“What’s up?”
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
He took in the scenery—rolling hills and grass with some trees dotting the landscape. “Yes. What’s this for? Are we building here?”
“Maybe.” Richard sighed heavily and Tuck glanced at him.
“So I drove out here to what?”
Richard gave a small bark of laughter. “Always so straightforward, Pierce. I’ve admired that about you. How are your plans coming along for your own house?”
He smiled. “Nearly there. Final tweaking right now, so to speak.”
“Looking forward to seeing them. You have an amazing eye for this stuff and I told you this before when you first came to me with wanting to be an architect—I want to help you accomplish your dream.”
“And you have been. I get to do more than just follow the plans and build. I have a say in things and get to go to meetings you’ve had with clients. It’s all been wonderful. Thank you.”
“Have you given any thought to where you want to build your home?”
Tuck rocked back on his heels. “Nope. Can’t say that I have. I do enjoy it here in San Antonio.”
“Amount of land you want?”
“A few acres perhaps. Haven’t given that much thought either. What’s with the questions, Richard?”
“Indulge an old man.”
“Old? You do more than I do daily. Old is the last thing I would call you.”
“Trust me, I feel my age some days.”
Tuck glanced at his friend and mentor. Nothing was given away on that face, so he stared out across the land. It was beautiful.
What plans the man had wouldn’t be revealed until he was ready. Tuck wasn’t usually the most patient of people but he had enough respect for this man to wait.
“I think you’re ready for your own company,” Richard said eventually. “And I want to help you get it going.”
Nope, he’d not been expecting that at all.
Chapter Five
Crack!
The ball flew off the end of her bat. Ariel dropped it and hauled ass to first then rounding the base, she continued towards second as she saw the ball drop past the centre fielder’s head and subsequently his glove. She’d underestimated his throwing arm, however, and she slid head first into a safe—thankfully—call from the second base umpire.
“Way to go, Ariel!” the cries came from the bench.
She held out an arm, hand up until the ump gave her the nod and she finally got to her feet, stepping off the base she’d just slid over. Shaking the dirt from her uniform, she winced at the pain in her side. She removed her batting gloves and shin guard then met the first base coach who took them from her.
With a fist bump her commanding officer smiled at her. “Great job, Greene,” he said.
“Thanks.” Another twinge of pain she ignored as she jogged back to the base.
“Lucky hit, Greene.” The words came from behind her.
“Don’t be jealous just because you’re zero for two today, Haskell.”
Jared Haskell stepped into her periphery and sent her a grin. “We’ll see about that next time I’m up. How’ve you been?”
They hadn’t seen each other in a while—being sent to other places during these two weeks, this was the first time she’d run into him.
“Good, good. You? How’s the wife and kids?”
“Getting bigger all the time. All of them. Sh
aron is pregnant again.”
She laughed. “Congratulations, man. Why do you sound surprised by that? Surely by now you get the concept of the birds and the bees, and what happens when you do that dirty nasty thing in bed.”
He flashed a grin and began backing up. “See, that’s where my problem comes in. We rarely use the bed.”
“I didn’t need to know that,” she cried as more laughter bubbled from her throat.
She loved the two weeks she got to spend with her fellow Marines. Some days she wondered why she’d got out in the first place. Maybe she should get back in—something to think about, for sure.
Ariel put her attention back on the game as First Lieutenant Gainesly got up in the batter’s box. This woman had played softball in high school and her school had never lost their division while she’d been there. She was wicked good with a bat, so Ariel was expecting a hit.
Gainesly didn’t disappoint. The ball launched off the end of her bat and Ariel watched it sail towards right field. When the man there caught it, she tagged up and hauled ass to third, sliding into this one as well.
This time tears sprang to her eyes as she waited for the okay to step from the base. A bit slower to her feet this time, she still managed a fist bump with the third base coach.
“You okay there, Greene?” Sergeant Mallory asked.
“Yes, ma’am. Think I slid into second a bit hard. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. If it still hurts tonight, get it checked out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
* * * *
The rest of the afternoon flew by with speedy fashion. Ariel’s team won by one, which gave them bragging rights until the next unit game. The cookout was just what she needed, loud, brash and totally how Marines did it. Music blared and as she went in for another hamburger, her phone rang.
“Greene.”
“Ariel, it’s me, Tuck. Don’t hang up.”
Tuck. That name. That voice. The naughty places they took her imagination.
“What can I do for you?” She winked at the grill master who put a burger on the bun she’d opened on her plate.
“I know you’re due to be home in a few days. I want to take you out on a date. A real date.”
