by Jill Shalvis
“Want her with the usual prerequisites? Old and grumpy?”
“Funny.”
“Oh, come on, admit it,” Eddie said. “You like old and grumpy.”
“I like experienced.”
“Well, so do I, son. So do I. I’ll see you.” He started to walk away. “Oh, and live a little today, why don’t you. Just for fun.”
When Eddie drove off, Reilly locked his front door and headed down his steps. He’d like to say he forgot all about his father and the women in the BMW, specifically the one woman in the front seat. After all, he was good about forgetting things that got to him.
And there was no doubt, Tessa Delacantro had gotten to him.
The last time he’d let a woman do that, he’d ended up on the wrong side of a beating he’d like to forget, both physically and mentally.
He sure was melancholy today. Flipping on his sunglasses, he slid behind the wheel of his car, cranked up the Metallica CD and drove.
By the time he got to work, he felt better. The food had helped, so had Metallica. Nothing like heavy metal to clear one’s head. His building was in San Marino, a small, exclusive suburb of Los Angeles, where he took up the fifth floor of a small glass-and-brick building overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains to the north and the San Gabriel Valley to the south. To the west lay downtown Los Angeles and its famous skyline, highlighted nicely today by a ring of smog. He didn’t mind the smog because he loved it here. He loved the weather, which came in two choices: hot or hotter. He loved the back-off, laid-back, live-and-let-live attitude.
After his long stint back east on assignments, including even longer stints across the world in uncomfortable time zones and climates, he thought he just might never leave Southern California again.
He rode the elevator up, unlocked the double glass doors that led into his business and stepped inside to utter and complete quiet.
His favorite state of being, utter and complete quiet. Given that it was ten minutes to eight, that left him ten precious minutes to enjoy the solitude before his office manager and temp showed up. He hoped the temp worker was Marge, his favorite of Eddie’s employees. She did her job without flapping her mouth, she was knowledgeable when it came to accounting, and because she was old enough to be his mother, he didn’t have to worry about Eddie’s motives for sending her. She had five kids and two grandchildren and never showed him her family pictures. He loved that about her, and he always asked for her. Eddie usually complied.
Unless he was in a mood to prove to his son that he needed some excitement. Then he’d send a cute young blonde with far more physical assets than mental capabilities. Maybe even a redhead or a brunette, but Reilly always knew when Eddie was messing with him because the temp would bat her eyes and giggle a lot and not know the difference between a debit and a credit, much less what a general ledger was.
If Eddie pulled that today, he’d just send her away. He was headed down the brick hallway toward his private office when the elevator doors dinged and opened.
Expecting Marge, he turned, but the greeting died on his tongue when one Tessa Delacantro stepped through the double glass doors.
7
TESSA’S STOMACH LODGED firmly in her throat, she stepped into the office she’d been assigned to for the next four days. The place was quiet and understated, with wood and glass accents and gorgeous views of the San Gabriel Mountains through the north windows, but that wasn’t what made her freeze.
It was the man standing there staring at her as if she were a ghost.
It was the last person on earth she’d expected and the one most on her mind.
Reilly Ledger, looking pretty much exactly as she remembered him—long, lean and attitude-ridden.
He wasn’t half-naked today. He wore black trousers, a black, soft-looking shirt and, big surprise, black athletic shoes. Black from head to toe. His short midnight hair still stood straight up and his eyes still reminded her of glittering blue diamonds. Trouble personified. She had no idea why he was here at her job, but a little part of her sparked to life. Had he somehow come for her? “What are you doing here?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing.” His voice was not necessarily soft or kind, but rough and serrated, and absolutely demanded an answer.
He hadn’t come for her. Of course he hadn’t. Clearly, he’d hoped to never see her again.
As for what she had hoped…she had no idea.
Eddie had been surprised she’d wanted to work today, but she’d needed to. There was no reason to sit in her apartment and feel sorry for herself. Sure, she’d had a bit of a trauma, but she wasn’t a wilting flower. She could dive right back into her life.
Needed to dive right back.
Eddie had promised her in his gentle, warm, reassuring voice that this job would be good for her, it would be a challenge, yes, but the boss was someone special, who would take good care of her.
She certainly didn’t need taking care of, but she could appreciate a soft-spoken boss, a kind soul, someone who’d just let her be and do what she did best—work with numbers. “I’m here to work,” she said.
He stared at her bleakly. “You’re the temp.”
“Yes. I’m supposed to be at an accounting business for the next four days—” Oh God. She looked into his taut, unhappy face. “Yours,” she whispered. “I’m supposed to temp…for you? I never imagined he’d—”
“Neither did I.” He shook his head. “And I ate his gift of breakfast this morning. I should have known the no-good, meddling bastard was up to something when he brought me McDonald’s. He’s such a health nut. It was a damn bribe.”
She didn’t have to wonder at his edgy, unpredictable mood. As a rule, she was open to herself and all experiences and to other people being who they were. But in this case, he’d been manipulated, and a man like Reilly would hate that. Because of what happened the other night, she felt overwhelmingly conscious of him. He wasn’t bulky and he certainly didn’t come close enough to invade her space, but she felt an almost over-the-top awareness of him anyway. As if her every nerve ending had been exposed by just looking at him. A product of what she’d let him do to her. Begged him to do to her.
She knew why she was uncomfortable looking at him. He brought it all back—her neurotic behavior, the way she’d flung herself at him, everything. Oh, yes, she knew why her face was heating up even as she stood there.
But she didn’t understand what was bothering him. He had nothing to be ashamed of; he hadn’t thrown himself at her. And if it was about the work, she was a fine worker, a hard worker and a good person to boot, damn it. “I don’t understand, Reilly, why you’re so upset.”
He just stared at her with those light eyes that so easily hid his every thought.
“I mean, yes, Eddie was a little sneaky about sending me here without telling us, but you did request a temp, right?” She purposely looked through him instead of at him because looking at him directly was like looking straight into the sun. Beautiful and dangerous all in one. “Or is it because it’s…me?”
“It’s nothing personal,” he said. “I just work best with…a grumpy, old temp.” He propped his shoulder up against the door frame and folded his arms as he eyed her. “You’re not old and I doubt you have a grumpy bone in your entire body.”
Wait— Was there a compliment in there somewhere?
“Where’s Marge?” he asked. “I like Marge.”
“Marge is maybe fifty-five and one of the nicest people I know. Hardly old and grumpy.”
“She is when she’s here. She smells like mothballs and snaps my head off when I talk to her.”
“Maybe you bring out the worst in people,” Tessa suggested, feeling a little grumpy herself now. She moved toward the reception desk and dropped her purse next to the computer, phone and adding machine. She could see down the hall where there were four doors, all closed. Glass and brick dominated the office. Not a plant or a splash of color in the place that was cool and a bit reserved.
> Apparently not unlike the man she was going to work for. She forced a smile. “In any case, it looks like you’re stuck with me. Where do I start?”
He just let out a long breath, his big body looking quite tense. Which actually made her mad. She made him tense? Ha! “Look, if it helps, I can be grumpy all day,” she offered. “Oh, and by the way, it’s really nice to see you again.”
That got him. He swore softly as he shoved his fingers through his short spiky hair, making it stick up all the more.
She had no idea how in the world she ever imagined this man had a secret beta side, but one thing she knew was that she’d let him see far too much of her when they’d been at Eddie’s house. Furthermore, she regretted finding him sexy, even for one little moment. She’d let him in, she’d shared some of herself and she regretted that, a lot. She’d…she’d let him kiss and touch her and she didn’t even really know him.
She didn’t usually do that sort of thing and knowing it had been the fright, the trauma, didn’t help. She just wanted to forget the whole thing and there was only one way to do that. Without pondering it further, she grabbed her purse. “Look, I don’t know why Eddie sent me over here without telling you, or me for that matter, but clearly, he made a mistake.” She went back through the glass doors toward the elevator, grateful that when she punched the down button, the doors opened immediately.
She stepped inside and hit the close button, which it did, also in a timely fashion. She waited until she heard the doors touch before she turned around to face them. Slowly she let out a breath, which halted in her throat when the elevator stopped on the fourth floor.
No matter what the little hitch in her heart told her, it wasn’t Reilly coming after her. Not even a superhero could have run down a flight of stairs that fast and besides, he wasn’t coming after her, he wanted her long gone.
A couple got on the elevator and it began to move again, far sooner than her heart rate returned to normal. Telling herself that she was fine, that she’d made the right decision, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Eddie’s office. She’d need a different job, pronto.
“Jeannie,” she said when Eddie’s secretary answered the phone. “Can you tell Eddie I need another assignment? This one didn’t work out after all.”
“Oh, dear,” Jeannie said. “Hold please.”
The elevator opened onto the lobby floor. The couple got off first, arm in arm, lost in each other’s eyes. Love you, the man mouthed to the woman as he drew her close and the woman let out a dreamy smile in response.
Something deep within Tessa tightened at the sight. What a lovely man, so incredibly over the moon for his lover. It touched her, watching him allow his every feeling to show.
That would be something, she thought with a little sigh, having a man let his every emotion show.
“Tessa.” Jeannie’s voice was replaced by Eddie’s in her ear. “What’s the matter with my idiot son?”
“Um…” This wasn’t a subject she wanted to touch with a ten-foot pole. “Well—”
“Because I already assigned everything else. There is no other job at the moment.”
“You don’t have anything else for me at all?” Her heart fell. She needed to work. “Are you sure?” She stepped off the elevator and ran smack into a solid brick wall of a body.
Reilly.
Mouth tight, his jaw bunching all sexylike— No, not sexy, she told herself. He was not sexy.
He gripped her shoulders in a firm grip. “Tessa.”
Had she said she wanted a man to show his every emotion for her? Because here was a man doing just that, unfortunately the emotions he felt toward her were quite different than the ones she’d envisioned.
“Tessa?” Eddie said in her ear through the cell phone. “You still there?”
“Yes.” She stared at Reilly. “Just call me when you have work.” She shoved the phone in her purse, deciding to deal with one worry at a time. “How did you get down here so fast?”
“Stairs.”
She eyed him. He would have had to haul ass down those five flights of stairs and yet he wasn’t so much as breathing heavily. “You know, you really don’t seem like an accountant to me.”
“That’s what I am.”
She eyed his black clothes, his intense eyes, his incredible stillness, which alluded to an edgy but undoubtedly dangerous air. She’d kissed this man, she’d touched this man and looking at him this morning horrified her because she still didn’t know who he was. “You look like you could be a bad guy.”
“We’ve already established I’m not.”
“Not a bad guy, then. A…Bond. That’s it, you look like a secret agent or something. It would explain the gun you carry.”
“You’ve got an overactive imagination.”
“Let me go, Reilly.”
He sighed, a sound that managed to perfectly convey his wistful thinking. “I can’t.”
“Of course you can, you just…let go.”
“Yes, but Eddie doesn’t seem to have anything else for you.”
“So?”
“So I won’t be the one responsible for you being out of work. Back upstairs.” Then he motivated her to step back onto the elevator by taking a single step toward her.
When he followed her in, he hit the fifth-floor button and crossed his arms, staring at the closed door, completely ignoring the fact she was staring at him.
When the doors opened on the fifth floor at his offices, he looked at her.
She looked right back.
“Let’s go,” he said.
“I don’t think so.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose as if she was giving him a headache.
Because as he deserved it, she had no sympathy whatsoever.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because you don’t want me to work for you.”
“I do so.”
She laughed.
“Okay,” he said. “So I didn’t at first.”
“Really.” She crossed her arms, too. “What changed your mind?”
“Look, I’m a little off in the mornings.”
“You’re kidding.”
He inhaled deeply as if he needed a cleansing breath, then grabbed her arm again and propelled her off the elevator. He opened the double glass doors for her. Once again they stood in front of the large wooden reception desk.
“Why don’t we start with this?” She tossed her purse down. “Tell me what your problem is.”
“I’m not sure. Seeing you threw me off.” Closing the distance between them, he reached out and wrapped his fingers around the pom-pom dangling off the zipper of her sweater, which she’d zipped up to her neck against the morning chill.
He tugged.
“Hey!” She reached up, but it was too late, he’d unzipped her soft, cream-colored sweater all the way down and peeled it open. He stared down at the pale-peach shell she wore beneath. Not at the blouse, but at her exposed neck and throat, which was even more colorful today than it had been Saturday. Dark blue and purple mottled her skin.
Lightly, with a gentle touch, he settled his hand over her throat, his fingers wide. The slightly rough tips glided over her skin. In perfect contrast to the tender touch, his eyes were hot and hard with fury. “Did you see a doctor?”
“I’m okay.”
“Tess—”
For some reason, the way he touched her as if she were a fragile piece of china made her eyes burn when she didn’t want to feel anything for this man, especially not this crazy, inexplicable relief at being with the one person who understood what hell the weekend had held. She stepped back. “Don’t. Don’t you dare go all sweet on me now.”
He pushed the sweater off her shoulders and down her arms. When it had fallen to the floor, he lifted her wrist and looked at the bruising there as well.
From her purse on the reception desk, her cell phone rang. With her free hand she reached for it and looked at the display. “It’s Eddie.”
Reill
y grabbed it from her and clicked it on. “What do you want now?” He frowned as he listened. “Just relax, I’m giving her the job. But after this week, I’m switching to another temp agency. Someone who doesn’t interfere with his clients’ lives.” He turned off the phone and tossed it back into her bag, then brought her other wrist up.
“Don’t answer my phone again,” she said, trying to sound strong when his touch made her weak. “It’s rude.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said meekly, playing at being a beta guy for a second. As if there was anything beta about him. His thumb swiped lightly over her skin. “Can you move it without pain?”
“It’s not broken.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
“Reilly—” With him touching her, her thoughts had scattered. She couldn’t even muster up a good outrage. She liked his hands on her.
Just as she had before.
Her legs felt a little shaky and her stomach quivered. It startled her to realize she didn’t really have any control over her body’s response to him. “I really think I should go.”
“Are you good at bookkeeping?”
“I’m great at bookkeeping, but—”
“Then stay.”
“I—”
“Stay,” he repeated. He picked up her sweater and hung it on the standing coatrack by the doors. “Come on.”
“Where to?”
He let out a breath that was nearly, but not quite, a laugh. “Not to a servant’s room with nothing but a cot and not through an attic access-way either. Don’t worry, Tess, today will be a cakewalk compared to what we’ve already done together.”
What they’d already done together.
That hung in the air for a moment and, given the way he looked at her from those depthless eyes, he was thinking about it, too.
Then he turned away to show her around. She put those memories out of her mind, thinking she had four long days here to work and it would be nothing but that. Work.
Absolutely, nothing more.
