by Jill Shalvis
Her tummy quivered just a little. “I think I hear your phone ringing.”
He cocked his head. “Chicken, Tess? Now, after all we’ve done?”
“All we’ve done is kiss,” she whispered.
“More than kissed.”
“We’ve…touched.”
“Yeah. Did it feel pathetic to you?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?” His voice was low, hypnotic and so sexy her entire body hummed. “Because maybe you need me to prove to you that I’m not a bungling idiot when it comes to physical matters with the opposite sex.” His eyes flamed. “That I do know what I’m doing.”
Oh boy. “I—” She broke off when his cell phone rang, grateful because she had no idea what she would have said anyway.
Reilly pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and frowned at the ID. “Eddie.”
“Maybe he’s going to give you back Marge.”
He looked at her, startled, as if the thought had left his mind and was back only because she’d reminded him. She found a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten you didn’t want me to work here.”
“You know, you’re just about the most upfront woman I’ve ever met.”
“It’s a curse. Are you going to answer the phone?”
He sighed and did just that. The irritation left his face after he said hello and listened. His mouth pulling into a frown, he stood up. “An hour ago? And you’re just now telling me?”
Tessa tried to look busy gathering their trash as she shamelessly eavesdropped.
“How did they get in?” He shut his eyes and shook his head as he listened. “I’ll be right there— No, I do think it’s necessary.”
“Is he okay?” Tessa asked as soon as he clicked off.
“Yeah. Apparently the man has nine lives.”
“What happened?”
He stopped at the door. “Someone went after him in the garage but they got away when Eddie managed to set off the alarm. I’m going over there now to check on him for myself.”
He was going to check on the man he didn’t want to be like. The man who he felt hadn’t been a good father. The man who annoyed him at every turn.
A little burst of warmth spread through her, because she just realized…Reilly Ledger could play bad-ass, tough guy all he wanted, but inside there was a soft spot for the people in his life, whether he liked it or not.
Now all she had to do was deal with that, deal with how she felt about him.
She had a feeling she already knew how she felt about him and it was fairly terrifying.
EDDIE HUNG UP the phone and glanced over at the woman sitting at his kitchen table.
“Well?” she asked.
“Well, he didn’t ask for Marge back.” He thought over the implications of the telling omission. “I consider that a good sign, don’t you?”
His temp for the day smiled at him and he felt his heart tip onto its side. Her smile had always done that to him.
“Maybe he’s beginning to like his current temp,” Cheri said softly and rose. She came to him and held an ice pack to his split lip. “You’re still bleeding.”
“It’s nothing.” He pulled it away so he could talk better because this subject was extremely important. “How can that be, him liking Tessa? She’s young and pretty and smart and outgoing,” he huffed and then winced because it hurt his mouth. “She’s everything he doesn’t want.”
“Only because you think she’s young and pretty and smart and outgoing,” Cheri pointed out reasonably and put the ice pack on his lip again.
“I don’t think that about her for me. I think that about her for him,” Eddie said around the ice and blinked when Cheri laughed at him.
“I know that, silly man.” She cupped his cheek and his heart tipped again.
“It’s just that I feel a spark between them.” Eddie put his hand on her hip to keep her next to him. “And it excites me because it’s the first spark I’ve seen in Reilly in a good, long time.” He knew damn well his cool, distant son went to extremes in order to not be like him.
Well, the hell with that. If he had to help things along by teaching Reilly there was fun out there to be had, then that’s what he’d do. He’d already started. He’d sent Marge out on a weeklong job in downtown Pasadena, where she was happy as could be. There were two bonuses in that. One, Eddie could stay involved in what was going on at Reilly’s, which he enjoyed. And two, with Tessa working for Reilly, it meant he just might be able to finagle getting Cheri to keep working for him.
Two birds with one stone, and everyone was happy.
Well, at least he was.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cheri asked, holding the ice pack to him with one hand and using the other to touch the bruise on his cheek. “Are you sure that you don’t want to go to the doctor—”
“It was just a scuffle. The lights were off in the garage or I’d have been able to get a better hold of him.” He grunted. “The asshole didn’t even stick around and fight like a man. Once I popped him in the eye, he was gone.”
“You were too much for him.” She kissed his bruised cheek and he resisted, barely, the urge to turn his head and line up their mouths. “We have work,” she reminded him gently.
“Work can wait.”
“You’re fretting over this.”
“I’m not fretting.”
“Yes, you are.” She ran her hand down his arm in what was supposed to be a soothing gesture, but he didn’t want her to soothe him, he wanted…so damn much more.
“You fret,” she repeated. “Because you want him to like you. Then you try too hard and you end up pushing him away. Leave it, Eddie.” Her hands were gentle on him, so gentle. “It’ll work out.”
Eddie sighed, in bliss, in frustration. “He’s on his way over here. He won’t come see me just to see me, but because some jerk is trying to get revenge, he’ll come.”
“It’s not some jerk. You know who it is.”
Eddie sighed again and said, “Yeah.”
“Oh, Eddie.” Cheri gave him a hug. “You try too hard.”
“The boy is hardheaded.”
“Really? And where do you think he got it?” She kissed him on the cheek when he just stared at her. “It’ll be all right, Eddie. It will.” Another stroke of her hand. “Look at how he’s running over here to save the day. He loves you. He’s always loved you.”
Eddie couldn’t resist another second. He pulled her in for a hug. “How the hell did I ever let you get away?” he whispered into her hair, her long, glorious, dark hair. “I was such an idiot.”
“Yes,” Cheri agreed, and stepped back. “We were both idiots. Now, let’s work. After all, that’s why you brought me here, right?”
Here’s your chance, Ace. Be smooth, be debonair, do your thing. Instead, his mouth went dry and he stood there like a fool. A tongueless fool. Eddie Ledger, legendary lady-killer, known for his charm and wit and ability to get any woman he ever wanted into his bed, and he couldn’t come up with a single intelligent thing to say.
She stroked his jaw and moved away, moved toward his home office.
And all he could do was watch her go.
Oh, yeah, he really was just one big, fancy idiot.
TESSA GOT UP EARLY the next morning, got ready in record time and, for the first time in the history of her existence, left for work with time to spare.
When she opened her front door, Carolyn popped her head out of her apartment next door. “Hey, there. Wow, you’re…” She glanced at her watch. “Twenty minutes early?” Her welcoming smile vanished. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” Tessa locked her front door and crossed her fingers that her car would start today.
“Uh-huh. Nothing.” Carolyn eyed her carefully from head to toe. “You look good. New clothes?”
So she’d splurged on the way home last night, buying a new dress for work, and only partly because it was red and made her feel sexy. “This old thing?”
Carolyn didn’t buy it. She put her hand on her hip. “There’s a guy at work, right?”
Oh, yeah, there was a guy. But if her sister got wind of it, there’d be no peace. “There’s work at work.”
“So everything’s okay?”
She put her Sunday best smile on. “Of course.”
“You’re just…early. For no special reason.”
“Yep.”
Carolyn crossed her arms. “Honey, I know you, and I know something’s up. So you might as well spare us both the time and tell me what’s going on.”
“What’s going on is me loving my job.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely sure.”
Carolyn eyed her for another long moment before she was satisfied. “So, are we on for dessert and a movie tomorrow night?”
“Of course.”
“Great.” Carolyn kissed her on the cheek. “Have a good day, hon.”
And Tessa might have, if her car had started.
She sat there in her uncooperative VW and sighed. It was temping to run back to her sister for help, but this was her life, her problem, and she wanted to handle it on her own. Always being rescued by a sibling didn’t count as handling it on her own.
She took the bus again. Once inside Reilly’s building, she got off on the fourth floor where she knew he sometimes worked out. Oops, funny how that had happened, her getting off on the wrong floor…
She looked through the glass doors of the gym. The room was lined with exercise equipment and filled with early worker bees, all of whom were in various stages of sweating. Serious, intent faces abounded everywhere.
Tessa stood there for a moment trying to decide if she felt any remorse at all for having such a serious aversion to exercise.
Nope. No remorse at all.
She recognized some of the people she’d run into all week—the croissant lady from the lobby, the attorney from the second floor… And there, in the far corner, facing the wall of windows that opened to the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains, running on a treadmill was her temporary boss.
Headphones on his ears, he ran for all he was worth. His T-shirt clung to him, delineating every muscle, every nuance in his long, sleek back and arms. His legs pumped, burning calories. As if he needed to! The man didn’t have a single inch of excess anywhere.
Her eyes caught and held on to his very fine backside.
She took a quick moment to glance furtively around, making sure no one caught her staring at his butt.
No one even looked her way.
She liked this fourth floor, she liked it a lot. She liked to see Reilly all tall, dark and sweaty and she stood there for one long moment, just soaking him in. How many times had she told herself she wasn’t going to want him? And how many times had it not mattered?
She still wanted him.
Then suddenly, Reilly turned and looked unerringly right at her. His skin gleamed, his eyes glittered and his body made her knees knock together as he slowly cocked a brow, silently asking her what the hell she was doing standing there with her eyes locked on him.
Yikes. Like the calm, steady woman she was not, she turned and fled.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Tessa froze when the elevator dinged its arrival. From her perch at the receptionist’s desk where she sat pretending to go through the messages on Reilly’s answering machine, she stared at the elevator doors, her heart galloping.
What would she say to him? She hadn’t a clue, she had no excuse, nothing prepared—
The doors opened. Reilly stepped off. “Morning,” he said, and without a word about her Peeping Tomina act, he strode down the hall, leaving her staring after him.
In fact, he never said a word about it or how it’d gone for him at Eddie’s the day before. She assumed Eddie was safe enough for now, but she’d have liked to hear that for sure.
In fact, Reilly sat holed up in his office all day and when she came in to say goodbye, he thanked her for all she’d done.
Composed and cool as ever.
She’d actually forgotten that it was over, that he’d hired her through Thursday only and she nodded to herself as she left. It had come to an end, she’d known it would.
No big deal.
It was just a very small part of her had hoped he’d hire her on permanently, maybe even admit to needing her. Her. Not Marge, not any other temp who could have done the work, but her.
Hadn’t happened, and as always when she fell, she picked herself up, dusted herself off and went on her merry way.
12
THE WEEKEND CAME and Tessa spent Saturday getting her car fixed and putting the charges on her poor credit card.
When Rafe found out what she’d spent, he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t called him for help.
Carolyn couldn’t understand why Tessa hadn’t come to her to borrow the money.
And her parents fussed and fretted over the fact she hadn’t let them buy her a new car last Christmas when they’d wanted.
Sure, being smothered by family was just a part of being a Delacantro, but she did her best to remain true to herself and was happier for it. She loved her family so much, but she was living her own life, handling her own responsibilities and thriving that way.
On Sunday, she and her sister went shopping and she was quite proud of the fact that she restrained herself from buying anything but new underwear, because let’s face it, she didn’t need another red, hot dress that would go unnoticed.
“Hmm,” was all her sister said as they stood in line at the lingerie shop with Tessa’s satin, purple panties and matching bra between them.
“Do you have something to say?” Tessa asked. “Because let me remind you, you bought black lace two weeks ago, remember? Did I say ‘hmm’ in that snooty tone to you then?”
“No, you smirked and wondered if Rob was going to get to see them.”
“A reasonable question since you’ve been dating him for months.”
“Dating, not sleeping with.”
“And why is that again?”
Her sister sighed. “I don’t know. He doesn’t even make a move. It’s such a waste of a good relationship.”
Tessa sighed inwardly and wished for a good relationship, to waste or otherwise.
ON MONDAY MORNING, she got an early morning call from Eddie, letting her know Reilly needed a temp for another week. Was she up for it?
Was she up for it? Well, given the way her heart had taken off, pounding against her ribs at just the thought of another week at Reilly’s office, yes. She was most definitely up for it.
Damn it.
She tried to take her time getting ready, tried not to care what she wore or how it looked. Most of all, she tried to be in her usual running-out-the-door-at-the-last-moment state, but before she knew it, she was entering the building twenty minutes early.
And also before she knew it, her finger had hit the fourth floor button.
He wasn’t there. She knew because she stood outside the gym, eyeing each and every treadmill that lined the huge room, but she couldn’t see him—
“Tessa.”
She managed not to jump but did grimace before turning to face Reilly, who’d apparently just gotten off the elevator behind her. Up close and personal, after a three-day break, he was even taller, darker and…hotter than she remembered. “Hi.”
He nodded toward the gym. “You going to work out?”
She nearly laughed, except she was sure it would sound half-hysterical so she swallowed it. “Um, no.”
“You get off on the wrong floor?”
“No.”
“Oh. Are you…looking for me?”
She sighed and forced herself to look in his eyes and not at his leanly muscled athletic body. “Do you remember my claim that I wasn’t pathetic with the opposite sex?”
“I remember,” he said.
“Well, scratch that.”
Was that a smile lurking around his mouth? Because if it was, she was going to slug him. “I’m
quite pathetic,” she said. “Just so you know.” And she moved around him toward the elevator, punching the up button with far more force than was strictly necessary.
“Did Eddie call you this morning?”
She waited for the elevator while staring at the closed doors, wondering if she could have possibly made a bigger fool of herself. “Yes.”
“He won’t give me Marge back.”
“I’m sorry.”
She heard his soft oath, then felt his hand on her arm as he tugged her around. “Look, it’s not what you think,” he said.
“Really? And what do I think, Reilly?”
“I don’t know…” He shoved his fingers through his already-standing-straight-up hair. “That I don’t want you here, that I’d rather have Marge.”
“Wow. Did you figure that out all by yourself?” She punched the up button again for good measure.
“Look, I’m trying to apologize for you getting manipulated into this job for another week,” he said. “Eddie has a way of getting what he wants, at any cost.”
“I don’t need an apology from you.” And she was sad to think he thought she did. “I…” Horrified to find her throat tight and her eyes burning, she inhaled slowly, but it didn’t help. Nothing would. “I just…like the work,” she whispered.
Thankfully the elevator opened and, yanking her arm free, she stepped onto it.
Quickly, she punched the fifth floor button, then, because he was still standing there in his work-out clothes staring at her as if she were a mixture of a cross he had to bear and a morsel he’d like to nibble on, she hit the close door button as well.
The doors slowly, way too slowly, started to slide together—
Until he slapped his hand inside. The doors shuddered, then opened again. “Tessa.”
Oh, no. She was done talking. She hit the close door button with renewed vigor, and watched through shimmering vision as it started to close.
“Damn it.” This time he shoved his broad shoulders through the doors and stepped on with her.
Fine. She’d just get off. She punched the open door button.
But he punched the close door button.
The doors closed and she reached for the control panel yet again, but Reilly grabbed her wrist—
