Naughty by Nature

by Judy Angelo

  It sounded terrible. But, of course, Tessa didn’t say that. If she was going to get out of this mess she was going to have to tread very carefully. As much as she loved her parents she’d been the first to wish them God speed when they’d announced they’d be moving to warmer climes. The Canadian winters were just too much and although they were both only in their fifties they’d had enough. They’d invested wisely so they opted for early retirement and made a home for themselves in the beautiful River Oaks community in Fort Lauderdale.

  And for the past three years Tessa would visit them for each of the holidays or they would visit her and, of course, they’d speak every few days on the phone but, praises be, the rest of the time Tessa was on her own and out of earshot of the nagging.

  Now she had to rectify a situation that was rapidly going from bad to worse. She had a very important date this weekend…sorry, appointment…and there was no way she was going to let her mother come and throw her plans upside down. Not over a petty quarrel with Dad.

  “Mom, is Dad nearby? May I speak to him, please?"

  “Why? Don’t tell me you’re going to take his side?”

  “Not at all, Mom. I just want to say something to him really quickly. It won’t take long.”

  “Well, all right.” Eleanor still sounded doubtful. “I’ll get him but if he tells you he's right it’s not true.”

  “No, of course not, Mom. You’re right,” Tessa said with a sigh. Eleanor put the phone down and Tessa heard her yelling in the distance. “Ruben, your daughter wants to speak to you.”

  A few seconds later Ruben was on the line. “How are you, Tessa?”

  “Fine, Dad. But what’s going on with you and Mom now?”

  “The usual. She thinks I should hide my bald top by shaving my entire head. Says it will make me look macho or something like that.” He grunted. “I told her I didn’t care a darn about looking macho. Told her I like my bald pate just the way it is, thank you very much. And then she got started. You know how she is.”

  Shave his head? Okay, that one was a surprise. Tessa had thought she’d have a ready solution for whatever the problem was but she hadn’t expected this.

  “Says she wants to make me look sexy, like the old days,” Ruben continued, his voice deteriorating more and more into a grumble. “Wants me to turn her on-”

  “Uh, Dad? A bit too much information, please. I get the picture.” And she did. Her mother had a point. Ever since he began to lose his hair her father had been in denial, almost as if he expected to one day wake up and find himself with a full head of hair. And then when the bald spot widened he continued to trim and groom the hair around it. Now he sported a hairstyle that made him look like Friar Tuck in the Robin Hood movie. Her mom was probably good and sick of that look now. And who could blame her?

  “Dad, you know I love you, don’t you?” Tessa used her little girl voice, the one that could get her just about anything from her father – a trick she’d learned when she was two.

  “Yes, dear, I’m sure you do.” Ruben’s voice was resigned. He knew what was coming.

  “Just for me, would you try Mom’s suggestion? Just one trip to the barber is all I ask. You never know, you might like it.”

  “I doubt it,” he said drily. “And anyway, why do I have to look sexy? We’ve been married twenty-eight years and now I have to look sexy?”

  “All right, Dad, I know it’s scary to change-”

  “I’m not scared.”

  “I meant ‘annoying’ to change. It’s annoying to have to change your look but just this once, okay? And if you hate it I’ll never bother you about this again.”

  Silence. Then an expulsion of air. “All right. One time and that’s it.”

  Tessa grinned as she listened to her dad give in. “Thanks, Dad. You’re the greatest. May I speak to Mom?”

  When Eleanor came back to the phone Tessa gave her the good news. “So you know what that means, Mom. You have to be there with him to hold his hand when he makes this big step. There’s no way he’s going to do this without you there with him.”

  “You know what? You’re right,” her mother said emphatically. “He’s finally made the decision so now I have to meet him halfway. This weekend I’m taking him to the barber. But that means I’ll have to cancel my visit. You don’t mind too much, do you, honey?”

  “Of course not,” Tessa said, a broad smile of relief on her face. Of course, her mother didn’t know that. “All I want to know is that the two of you are happy.”

  When she hung up she flopped into the pillows with a groan. Now she could drift off to sleep in peace.

  She really could not understand her parents. They were such a whirlpool of conflicting emotions that they made her constantly tired. Her mother had tried to explain, telling her that before they got married Ruben had been a fun-loving guy, with a great sense of humor. Then once they got married and worse, once the baby came, everything changed. The playful jokes and the laughter were thrown out the window and in its place was a seriousness that Eleanor could not comprehend. Ruben was like a different man, focusing on work, putting everything else aside to build his career. There were no more impromptu road trips, no more lazy days by the lake, no more just having fun. It was all business. It was like his personality had done a one-eighty.

  Eleanor could not stand it and so the conflicts began. And Tessa was caught in the middle of it.

  Still, she knew that deep down her parents loved each other and that was why, despite the bickering, neither one of them could find it in them to walk away for good. Although, as a teenager in the volatile house, Tessa sometimes wished one of them would.

  And from that early age she told herself that she’d love a man with all her heart but if that was what marriage did to you, she would have none of it. There were others who had ‘normal’ marriages she knew, but with a gene pool like hers, she doubted that she’d be so blessed.

  And it would take a heck of a lot to convince her otherwise.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Twenty minutes before one. Almost time for Tessa to arrive. Like a school kid awaiting recess Wolf had been watching the clock, counting down the hours before he’d see Tessa again. Smiling to himself, he shook his head. You’re soon going to have to give up your position as cynic, Wolf. Tessa Tyndale has turned you into a certified wimp, pining after a woman like this.

  He went to the conference room and stacked the DVD’s on the glass top boardroom table. He’d popped one out of its case and was heading toward the DVD player when he felt the familiar buzzing of his cell phone. He slipped it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. Shoot. It was his mother. How could he have forgotten? He’d promised to give her a call this morning to get her grocery list. Had thoughts of Tessa knocked all sense out of him?

  “Sorry, Mom,” he said as soon as he clicked on the answer button. “I messed up.”

  “Oh, come on. It’s only a grocery list.” His mother’s voice was bright and cheerful. “No rush. I was just calling to check up on you, make sure you’re all right.”

  “I’m good, Mom. How was physiotherapy yesterday?” Wolf shook his head. Trust his mom to be checking up on him when she was the one with an ailment.

  “Pretty good. Nikolai said I’m making progress. I moved my right thumb yesterday, and my big toe. I’m a happy camper.”

  Such small steps but such a positive spirit. Wolf never ceased to admire his mother’s attitude. He was opening his mouth to congratulate her achievement when she stopped him with a question.

  “So when’s Tessa coming back to see me? Have you heard from her lately?”

  “Ah, yes. As a matter of fact, I’ll be seeing her in a few minutes.”

  “Good. Tell her that she owes me another visit,” Lydia said, clucking her tongue. “And ask her what kind of thing was that she did, coming over here and making me like her and then disappearing like that? That wasn’t very nice.”

  Wolf smiled to himself. His mother was falling in love wit
h her, too. Now if his dad hopped into the ‘loving Tessa’ boat with them, they’d be in trouble. It wouldn’t do for one person to be showered with that much love.

  “I’ll be sure to pass on your message, Mom,” he said, “and I know you’ll be hearing from her soon.”

  It was when he’d hung up that he realized the direction his thoughts had taken. He’d asked himself if his mother was falling in love with her…too. So did that mean he was falling in love with Tessa? He wasn’t sure he wanted to go down that road, not just yet.

  But then, why did his world seem so different these days? He wasn’t half as grumpy as he used to be. In fact, his employees hadn’t called him Mr. Crab in weeks. And he was smiling a whole lot more. Christ!

  There was only one way to deal with this turn of events – get back to being professional. There was nothing wrong with finding a woman attractive, but falling in love? Only a fool would go down that road without serious thought. So when Tessa came, as far as he was concerned, it would be all business.

  And that, he thought, was a good plan – until Tessa rang the buzzer to say she’d arrived and he went down to the lobby to let her in. The sight of the woman standing just outside the glass doors made his heart turn to jelly. Jesus Christ, what was happening to him?

  Today Tessa was dressed in low-riding blue jeans and a stark-white shirt and on her feet were high heeled boots that made her just tall enough to reach his chin. Over her blouse she wore a brown leather jacket with a furry collar, left open at the top to allow a fleeting view of the rise and fall of her breasts as she breathed in the frigid air.

  “Are you going to stare at me all day?” Tessa gave him an infectious grin and patted the glass door with her soft palm. “Let me in. It’s cold out here.”

  That dragged him out of his trance. “Hold your horses,” he said, trying to cover up the momentary loss of his faculties. “I’ll be right there.”

  He took the few steps that brought him to the door and snapped the lock open. When he opened the door a gust of chilly February air rushed into the lobby.

  “You’re right. It is cold out there. It was a lot warmer when I got here this morning.”

  Tessa slipped through the door to stand on the lobby mat. “Brrr,” she said, shaking her arms to get warm. “You know our Canadian weather. You can start the day in shorts and end it in a winter coat. The temperature’s been dropping these last few hours.”

  “Well, let’s get you warm right away. I’ve already set up everything in the conference room so I’ll take you up and then get you something warm to drink.” Wolf could think of a whole lot more pleasurable ways to get Tessa warm but he wouldn’t go there. No matter how the hormones ripped through his veins he had to remind himself – their meeting was strictly business.

  Chivalry dictated that he let her precede him toward the elevator but it was almost his undoing. Walking behind her gave him an excellent view of her bottom – small and round and mouthwatering in jeans that accentuated her curvaceous derriere. God, his hands itched to-

  “Going up.” Tessa pressed the button. “What floor?”

  He dragged his gaze up to her face as he tried to suppress a guilty flush. “Eleventh. We occupy the whole floor.”

  He hadn’t needed to tell her that but he had to come up with something to create some sort of diversion so she wouldn’t pay too much attention to his face. It was a good thing the elevator door opened within seconds. They got in.

  Once inside, he focused his attention on the buttons as they lit up, breathing deeply but surreptitiously to slow his pulse. There was just too much woman packed into that little body standing in the enclosed space with him. If he was to get any work done he would have to regain control of those damned hormones of his.

  On the eleventh floor he installed Tessa in the conference room and headed off to the pantry to make the cup of herbal tea she’d requested. He got himself a bottle of water.

  When he got back Tessa was stooping in front of the DVD player, fiddling around with the buttons. The position she was in made her jacket ride a little higher, exposing more of her jeans-covered posterior to his gaze. Damn. Not what he needed to see right now. Not when he was desperately trying to bring his blood pressure back to normal.

  He slammed the tray down on the table, making her jump.

  “Oh, you’re back.” She got up slowly then did a little stretch that raised her jacket again, this time giving him a tiny peek of the creamy skin of her waist.

  Now it was either that he was so aroused that he was noticing everything or this woman was deliberately trying to turn him on.

  And he wouldn’t put it past Tessa. She was a known madcap and he was sure that if she wanted to, she could be a pretty good teaser as well. He decided to call for back-up. He would bring up the one topic of conversation guaranteed to throw cold water on his sizzling emotions. “My mom asked for you.”

  “Oh, she did?" Tessa looked surprised and pleased. “How is she doing?”

  “Not where we want her to be, which is one hundred percent healed, but making progress. She was able to move a finger and a toe this week.”

  “That’s great news.” Tessa walked back toward him, a smile on her face, looking like she genuinely cared. “I’d love to see Lydia again. Do you think she’d mind if I paid her another visit?”

  Wolf almost laughed. “Mind? She expected you back already. She practically demanded to know where the hell you'd disappeared to.”

  “Really?” Tessa looked pleased. “That means she likes me.”

  This time Wolf did laugh. “That goes without saying.” Who the heck could meet easy-spirited, outgoing Tessa and not like her? “And you’d better plan another visit soon or else she’ll think I didn’t pass on the message and then she’ll flay me alive.”

  “Of course. If you don’t mind giving me her number I’ll call her tonight and set up another date.” She shook her head. “Your Mom is such a joy to be around, so upbeat, so happy, never complaining. Not like my-” She stopped mid-sentence, seeming to catch herself just before making a faux-pas. Then she smiled, obviously trying to divert his attention from the sudden halt in her speech. “Anyway,” she continued, “it’s a joy to be around your mom. And your dad, too. They’re so…calm and loving. Now that’s what marriage should be like.”

  What was that all about? Wolf cocked his head as he watched her face, which was now soft-pink in a blush. That was some speech she’d just delivered and it seemed she was a bit uncomfortable about bringing it up.

  But then she shook her head, throwing the waves of her blonde hair away from her face, and plopped down in the chair in front of her cup of tea. She picked up the cup with both hands and buried her face in it.

  Wolf sat in the chair across from her and reached for his bottle of water, his eyes fixed on her. She kept her gaze down, as if avoiding him.

  He took a sip as he watched her. Tessa was a convoluted ball of mystery if there ever was one, but one he was determined to unravel one thread at a time.

  ******

  Why was he watching her like that? Good heavens. His eyes were burning like laser beams, boring holes into her, and she dared not glance up from behind her cup and meet his gaze.

  He must know that she’d almost said something very stupid. She’d almost blurted out something that would have made her ashamed and more than a little embarrassed. Thank goodness she’d caught herself in time.

  But she could see that it had thrown Wolf off. He sensed that something was wrong and his watchful stare told her that he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

  But she wouldn’t let him. There were certain aspects of her life that were her little secret and this was one of them. “I’m ready to start if you are,” she said, lowering her cup. Anything to get his attention on something else.

  He shrugged. “No problem.” He got up and went to kneel in front of the DVD player. “My team has put together a sampling of the shows we’ve produced so far this year, just so you can get a fe
el for what we’re about.” He stuck a DVD in and pressed play. “This first series was produced in Calgary in collaboration with a video production company there. Have a look and tell me what you think.”

  Relieved that their focus was now on the business, she rested her cup in its saucer and settled back in her chair to watch.

  She would pay attention, she promised herself, and not get distracted by the fact that they were together alone in this office, probably alone in the entire building, and she wanted him so badly she could taste it.

  And that was why she had purposely dressed to impress – not in business wear or elegant attire, but in casual wear designed to catch the eye. She’d read somewhere that men found a woman wearing jeans even sexier than one in an evening dress. And so she’d gone shopping.

  And from the look on Wolf’s face when he’d come to open the door for her, she knew she’d done a great job. He had noticed her, and in a big way. Two thumbs up for those Parasuco jeans. And then she’d made sure to give him a great view of said jeans when she stooped low in front of the DVD player. His sharp intake of breath when he came into the room was all the thanks she needed.

  And now it was time for business but she could proceed, satisfied in knowing that she’d stirred something inside him. She wanted Wolf Spencer and, if she played her cards right, before long he would want her as much as she wanted him.

  They’d gone through two of the tapes, reviewing each segment by segment, discussing each and taking notes, when there was a buzzing sound. Tessa jumped.

  “Our lunch is here,” Wolf said, and got up to buzz the person in.

  Perfect timing. They’d been brainstorming almost an hour and she was just beginning to feel hungry.

  While the delivery was on its way up Tessa took a quick trip to the little girls' room and when she got back the table was laid out with soup, salad, plates of warm sandwiches, bowls of pasta, and a basket of warm bread.