“I’m losing money, anyway. Might as well have some fun.”
They discreetly slapped a high-five.
The next two hours, as the sun went higher and higher in the sky, Jaymee dallied as long as possible on each roof, calling out to Nick to retrieve tools that somehow managed to slide off the roof. Like he’d warned, the inspector was very thorough on the first roof, but as he became hotter, he cut down on his requests to check the smaller stuff.
“The shingles are stuck down good, aren’t they?” Jaymee cheerfully commented as she took her time detaching the one at which the inspector was pointing. Using a flat bar, she finally loosened it enough to flip it up for him to see that there were indeed six nails in that shingle. “Any other area?”
“Over there, by the valley,” the inspector said, puffing up the incline.
Nick took the flat bar and imitated Jaymee, but being a novice, he soon poked a big hole through the shingle.
“Ooops.” He looked adoringly apologetic at Jaymee, and it was all she could do not to smirk at the schoolboy expression on his face. “Sorry, boss.”
Jaymee shook her head. “Go down and get some cement. We’ll have to patch it up.” She turned to the inspector and said, “He’s rather new at this, but he’s quite good for a beginner.”
“Uh-huh,” muttered John, wiping sweat off his flushed face.
“As you know, it’s all cemented down at the valley,” explained Jaymee, “so it’ll take a little longer to peel it back.”
“Never mind,” the inspector said. “If it’s cemented, that’s all I need to know. Just patch that up and let’s go on to the next roof.”
“Oh, sure. Nick, where are you?” Jaymee yelled, standing at the edge of the roof.
“I’m looking for the cement,” he called back.
Jaymee rolled her eyes. “It’s the blue can in the back of the truck!”
“Oh!”
“He’s a little slow,” she sweetly told John. “Gosh, it’s hot today, isn’t it? Must be a hundred degrees up here.”
By the third roof, the inspector’s crisp, white shirt was plastered against his skinny frame. The pants lost the starched-up look. The man was sweating so profusely, Jaymee gave him a towel to wipe off.
“We should take a break, John,” she told him. “Let’s do that, and then continue with the other houses. How many more did you want to see? We’d better get on them before the noon sun bakes them up.”
John shuddered as if he couldn’t bear the thought of staying out in the heat all day. “This is it,” he firmly declared, marking down on his clipboard. “Everything looks fine to me, Miss Barrows. The complainant was obviously wrong.”
She pulled off her tee-shirt and wiped the perspiration from her body with it. She gave the inspector a brilliant smile and tilted her head back. “Can I get a copy of your inspections? If any other contractors have doubts, I can just show them your forms. That’d really help me out, John.” She walked to the flushed-face man and handed him her water bottle from the cooler. “Something to help cool you off.”
A few minutes later, she waved jauntily at the departing inspector, then turned to find Nick leaning with folded arms against the tailgate of her truck, his head cocked to one side.
“What?” she asked.
“Come here,” he ordered, softly. The schoolboy look was gone. Jaymee slowly approached him, wondering what had brought out that glint in those blue-gray eyes. When she stood in front of him, a long finger slid under her chin to tilt her face up. She stared, squinting against the bright sunlight. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Tease a man like that. The poor son of a bitch almost had a heat stroke when you took off that tee-shirt.”
A slow, sultry smile spread on her face, making Nick catch his breath. Without her usual guarded expression, she was like sunshine, her face warm and inviting.
“Serves him right,” Jaymee said. “I wasn’t teasing him, anyhow. I was hot, too, what with your great acting talent in making us suffer through all your mistakes.”
They both started chuckling, and the humor grew into full-scale laughter as they remembered the poor inspector toasting in the heat when Nick dropped the hammer off house number one, forgot the inspector’s nail-puller on house number two (that had caused them to drive back to retrieve it), and lastly, disappeared for almost fifteen minutes to look for a portable bathroom. All minor, but added to the minutes on each baking roof.
Jaymee found herself in his arms, still laughing helplessly. It felt good to be hugged by a man again, to share funny moments like this. His hands traveled up and down her back, and she laid her cheek on his chest, inhaling the scent of sweat and man.
She was so small, he could drape her over his chest like a pet, Nick observed, as he circled her waist with his hands. So tiny, and yet, so strong. He wanted her so much.
Jaymee could feel him growing hard against her and she rolled her head back. His gaze was hot and untamed, and she could see the tic of his jaw muscle just under his left ear. For the first time in eight years, she didn’t feel the usual fear, the need to back away from such blatant invitation. Her spirit was strangely light, as if some burden had been taken off. Boldly, she placed her small hands on his muscular shoulders and braced her weight on them, then she climbed onto the bumper, planting a leg on each side of the tall, lanky man, trapping him between the vee of her legs. His gaze blazed a few degrees higher.
“Do you know, Nick Langley, you have the longest and sexiest eyelashes on a man I’ve ever seen?”
Her face so close to his he could see the changing green flecks in her eyes. “Is that right?” he drawled, easily balancing her weight against his body. Draped on him like a pet, he repeated silently.
“Mmmhmm. It’s terribly unfair what those eyes do to a woman.” There was a growing excitement inside Jaymee that made her feel sexy, invincible. Tentatively, she licked his crooked smile with a pink tongue, tasting him. “Delicious,” she murmured, and did it again, this time, a lot more boldly. “You’re incredibly edible.”
He was so hard he could feel his pants’ zipper. “I...” He slid his hand behind her neck. “...just found out something that’s been puzzling me.”
“What’s that?” Jaymee nibbled on his lower lip. She felt his thudding heartbeat under her palm.
Nick growled, trying to catch those teasing lips. He applied pressure on her neck. “I couldn’t see how you and Mindy could be such good friends, but now I know why,” he muttered, pressing her closer.
“Oh?” She resisted a little longer.
“There’s a lot more Mindy in you than you let on, Jaymee girl.”
“Mmmmmph!” And that was all he allowed her to say as he tugged hard and her teasing mouth fitted against his demanding one. He kissed her with a leisurely thoroughness that zoned out the world, until they both forgot where they were, and how hot it was, until a passing truck honked. Some guys hooted as they drove by.
“Ravish me too, lady!” one yelled.
“Give him a heat stroke, babe!” another suggested with a leer.
Jaymee surfaced, slightly out of breath. “What are you doing to me?” she demanded, still dazed from the kiss. “I’m standing on the bumper, at a job site, letting you kiss me!”
“Umm, excuse me, boss,” Nick drawled, his own breath slightly uneven too. “I’m the one being ravished.”
He pointedly opened his arms to show how helpless he was under her. His hair was sexily tousled by her roaming hands. His shirt was untucked, almost pulled off his shoulders.
Did she do that? Jaymee jumped off the bumper. She must appear like a desperate woman, tearing at his shirt in bright sunlight!
“That’s all I need! Get a reputation for shoddy work, then get another for running around with the help.” She pulled on a dry tee-shirt over her bikini. Why was she behaving so strangely? This wasn’t her at all, this bold, restless woman. She’d better get back to normal, dependable Jay as
quickly as possible. She took a deep breath. “Let’s get this meeting with Anderson over with. I’ve a bad feeling about what he wants.”
Nick sighed. He was so aroused, he’d have flipped down the tailgate and had her there, if they weren’t out by the road. He couldn’t recall a single time when a woman switched from kissing him to business with barely a blink of an eye. He must be losing his touch. He tucked in his shirt. His sanity, obviously, was a lost cause, what with his libido creating havoc every time this woman was around. He watched her behind as she climbed into the truck and grinned. This kind of insanity, he decided, was a lot more fun than the kind with which he usually dealt.
The reminder of his actual life sobered him. Watching Jaymee smooth back those tempting curls, her cheeks still rosy from the sun and his kiss, it occurred to him there were other things, much, much more enjoyable in the real world than playing hi-tech games with mostly unseen enemies.
***
When they were on the way to the contractor’s office, Nick asked, “Why all this worry over the contractor? The inspector didn’t find any violations, so there shouldn’t be any problems, right?”
Jaymee’s mouth twisted in a grimace. “You don’t know this area very well, do you? He’s going to ask me to cut my price.”
“Can he do that? Didn’t you sign a contract with him?”
“Where have you been?” Jaymee gave him a long stare at the stop sign. “Construction down here doesn’t work like that. If they want to fire you, they fire you.”
“Can’t you take them to court?”
Jaymee laughed. She pulled the truck in front of a building with a big sign that said “EXCEL CONSTRUCTION.” Leaning over, she pinched Nick. Hard.
“Ow!” He rubbed the spot, frowning.
“Just making sure you aren’t dreaming,” she smoothly told him with a mischievous smile.
“I’m going to paddle your ass for that!” Nick promised, still looking at the mark.
“Poor baby. I’m going to add this to that list about clues to not being a construction man,” she teased.
“What’s wrong with going to court?” Nick demanded, when they were walking toward the office. “Broken contracts are litigable, according to tort law.”
Jaymee stopped dead in her tracks and burst out into such hard laughter, she had to sit down under a decorative palm planted in the parking lot. As he continued to frown down at her, she went off into another round of chuckles. She held up a hand, asking for his help to get back on her feet. When he did, she wiped away tears with the heel of her hands, then cleaned them on her tee-shirt.
“I’m not laughing at you, not really,” she said, in between gasps. “You know, the last time I heard talk like that, I was taking a college business law course.”
Nick arched a questioning brow. “College, huh?”
Jaymee copied the gesture, lifting her brow in answer. “Yeah, except none of those things work like that. Small businesses like mine don’t have the money or the time to go chasing after contracts and small claims, Nick. We’re too busy trying to keep the business going. By the time you pay off the lawyer, you’re probably worse off, so why bother?” She started toward the building again. “Come on, I’ll show you how it is in real life, Mr. Programmer.”
The off-handed nom de guerre almost made him trip. Jaymee didn’t notice the sharp look he gave her, already skipping up the steps to the office. She called over her shoulder, “Hurry up. I want to get back home to see what trouble Dicker and Lucky are in now. They’re still on the clock.”
He grinned. The woman was cocky, confident, and damned arrogant when it came to her business. He couldn’t wait to see the softer side again, when he finally got her into his bed.
***
“You don’t seem disappointed about losing the subdivision,” Nick commented later, as they drove back to where his jeep was still parked.
Jaymee shrugged. She was devastated, but that didn’t matter now. “That’s how it goes.”
“Why didn’t you come down in price as Anderson wanted?”
The competition, according to the builder was offering two dollars less per square for material and labor, and he wanted Jaymee to match or beat that price. A square was approximately a hundred square foot, and Nick calculated dropping two dollars for a forty-squared roof would probably eat up the little profit she’d make per job. He’d stood there and admired the way she’d refused to back down and give in, choosing instead to tell Anderson he should hire that other company, if they could give him the same quality of work at a lower price.
“My price is very fair as it is, and he knows it,” Jaymee scoffed. “The competition’s Gregg’s Roofing, and I know Gregg’s. They’re a huge operation, with high overhead, and I know they can’t stay with this lower price without losing money.”
“So, either Gregg’s will raise the price later, or Anderson’s merely gambling on the fact you might swallow the two dollars,” Nick concluded. There wasn’t much difference between price wars and covert wars, he surmised. Mostly a game of chicken.
“Yeah. Even if I’d been crazy enough to give that price, I have no guarantee next month he won’t find another competitor with another lower price offer. How much cheaper can I go before I cut my losses?”
“So you just walk away and find another subdivision?”
“I have other builders that need roofers. Don’t worry, you still have a job, Nick. Here we are.” She stopped the truck behind his fire engine red jeep.
Nick took her averted chin between his thumb and finger and gently tugged on it till she reluctantly looked at him. Her eyes were that dark, murky color again, the swirl of emotions tightly hidden in their depths. She was more upset than she let on, he realized, remembering the constant pressure of some debt she owed.
Running his thumb across her obstinate lower lip, he asked, “After work, in the evening, what other job do you have?” At her look of surprise, he added, “You mentioned something like that last night, remember?”
Did she? She couldn’t remember a thing about last night except...except.... She felt the telltale heat suffusing her face again. Her wandering thoughts brought out an answering heat in his eyes, and she hastily stammered, changing the subject to anything, anything, but that, “It’s nothing, really.”
Nick wouldn’t let her chin go. “You said about your cramp last night too,” he told her in the same quiet voice. “You worked till your body gave out on you, Jaymee. Why?” His voice went lower, to a gravelly growl. “I want to be with you tonight.”
A slow burn started at those direct words, an unfamiliar aching that pulsed inside her. Jaymee swallowed hard, trying to compose herself. “I...I have stuff to do.”
“You’re a non-stop working machine, but unless you tell me what job you do after work, I’m going to stay and tire you out.” He leaned so close she could smell that intoxicating masculine scent that seemed to drive away all her common sense. “Babe, there are shadows under your eyes at night. You could barely stay awake when I worked with your files, and yet you still go about vacuuming and housekeeping. Now I find out you actually work somewhere else in the evenings. No wonder you’re always tired. No wonder your leg cramped up.”
He made her sound so horribly ugly. Shadows under her eyes. Tired-looking. She must be so boring. When did she become like that? Jaymee impatiently pushed away her self-pity. She made a last resort to defend herself. “I like to work.”
“Not till you drop,” he countered, but he didn’t sound accusing or mocking. “Look, I’m not criticizing you. I know how strong a person you are, but lean a little, damn it.”
“On whom? My dad?” she shot back, one corner of her mouth lifted in disgust.
“On me.” Nick’s hand slid from her chin to her shoulder and he pulled her even closer. “For now. You’re an amazing woman, Jaymee, but give yourself a break.”
Amazing? Strong? She stared back in confusion. Did he just praise her?
“Your eyes say you don’
t believe me,” he remarked, when she didn’t say anything.
“It’s difficult to jump from being told you’re tired-looking and owl-eyed to you’re amazing and strong in less than a minute,” she pointed out.
Nick grinned. “Women,” he complained. “They always zero in on the wrong things first.”
Jaymee’s eyes were green and suspicious. “And how many women have you been telling they’re strong and amazing?”
He gave the query a long enough consideration to see her small eyes narrow into warning slits. She looked like a cat about to pounce, he thought, amusement rising. This new switch was unexpected; he hadn’t realized he could make her jealous.
“Not any who looked tired or owl-eyed,” he finally drawled out, then kissed her on the lips hard before she could respond. “I think it’s safer for me to be in my Jeep now. I’ll be a good worker, but you’re going to talk to me after work—” He opened the door, and added, “—boss.”
***
Not that there was much work to do for the rest of the day. “The day just isn’t meant to be,” she said to no one in particular, as she stood in her driveway staring at the looming dark clouds descending like angry warlords.
“Where do you want us to meet tomorrow, Jay?” Dicker asked from under a tree in her front yard.
“Do we have any job, seeing that Excel’s fired you?” Lucky wanted to know, scratching the back of his neck with a twig.
Jaymee didn’t correct the wrong assumption, that she was fired. Still looking at the ominous sky, she said, “I’ll line up a few jobs. We were supposed to do a roof this Friday for another builder, but I’ll see whether it’s ready for us tomorrow. Meet me here in the morning.”
The two men moved toward Dicker’s truck. “Who did Excel get to replace us, do you know, boss?” Dicker asked.
Jaymee shrugged. “I think it’s Gregg’s, but I don’t really know.”
“Say, that’s where Chuck and Rich said they were working now,” Lucky commented.
Holding Out For A Hero: SEALs, Soldiers, Spies, Cops, FBI Agents and Rangers Page 26
