Big Bad Wolf (18 page)

Nick stared down at the passionate woman under him.
Did he think he could switch her on and off, give her what she wanted and needed, and somehow avoid any long-lasting effect on himself?
He’d known from the very first she was different, that his feelings for her were more complex than mere attraction.
What they just shared proved it—she belonged with him.
He belonged with her, damn it.
And there was nothing he could do to make it last.
It was simply not possible.
He couldn’t see her away from her business, plucked from her responsibilitie
s
she took so seriously.

Jaymee stirred under him.
“I think I died,” she said, awe in her voice.

He smiled down at her.
“Am I too heavy?”
He shifted.

“No,” she immediately protested.
“Don’t.
Not yet.”

He understood.
Like him, she didn’t want to disconnect yet.
He was, to his amazement, still semi-aroused.
Not possible, after the
mind-blowing orgasm that had had him pounding into her like a wild animal, but the hard evidence was undeniable.
He surged back in, and they both sighed with pleasure.

“I can keep going till the storm stops,” he offered.

Jaymee smiled in the darkness.
“I don’t think it will ever abate,” she told him.

Her honesty touched him.
She was a woman who didn’t play coy or hard to get.
She had resis
ted out of fear, and once she’
d discovered the fear was nothing, she’d given herself wholly, taking back ecstasy in equal measure.
He loved her lack of pretense.
He loved her passion, which she’d hidden behind her work.

He inhaled sharply.
Did he just say he loved?

“Do you still want lunch?” she asked, her shyness interrupting the sudden earth-shattering disclosure.

“Hmmm?” he asked, still grappling with the truth.

“Food,” she repeated.
“Sustenance.”
Her stomach rumbled helpfully.

Nick laughed.
“Woman, you’re bad for my ego.
I kiss you, and you talk business with a contractor.
I make love to you, and all you want afterwards is food.”

He pulled out of her, and she contracted, still reluctant about letting him go.

“I’m just fueling you up, that’s all.
Can’t have you running on empty.”
She laughed when he bit her shoulder menacingly.

“Later,” he promised, “but only after you tell me about your other job.”

Jaymee sighed.
She’d forgotten about that memory of his.
“See here,” she said, as she rolled off the bed, “there must be a fair exchange.
I’ll tell you my secret, if you tell me yours.”

Leaning over the night table, she turned the light on, and they both blinked at the sudden brightness.
She did it on purpose, wanting to look at him.

Nick lounged on his side lazily, watching her as she stood up.
She was damned distracting, and she knew it, using her nakedness to try to get information from him.
He grinned.
If he didn’t know her, he’d have suspected her of being the enemy.
His grin widened as she picked up the little rag pieces of what was left of her clothing, dangling it in front of her with bemusement, like she couldn’t believe
those were
once her clothes.
So, the woman wanted to barter, did she?
He wondered what she would say if he told her the truth.

“Every one of them?”
He kept his voice light.

Jaymee heard the challenge.
She had been around men long enough to recognize a retreating male when she saw one.
Unaware of how she looked, she put her hands on her hips.
“Scared?
I’m not going to beg you to stay, Nicholas Langley.”

She was magnificent, her hair thick and unruly, teasing her breasts, which peeked temptingly at him between the dark auburn curls.
In the lit room, her eyes glowed deep green.
He wanted to give her everything she wanted, and more, but since he couldn’t, he would give her honesty, or as close to it as he could.

“Secrets can be dangerous,” he warned.

Jaymee just smiled, climbing back into bed.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I don’t need to know your secrets to see you’re dangerous to me, Nick.
I know you’re going to leave me, and I know it’ll be soon.
Just let me at least know why, even if you have to lie.”

“I’ve never lied to you.”
Withheld information, perhaps, but never lied.
However, he’d deceived her, and he knew she hated deception, above all else.

“You don’t trust me,” she stated, her eyes downcast.

“No,” he denied.
“It’s not that.
We’ll eat, wait out the storm, and we’ll talk.
With our clothes on.” He cupped her breast.
“If we stay in this bed any longer, we won’t be talking for a long time.”

He put her hand back on his aroused state.
Jaymee blushed.
She still wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy.
Looking down, she unconsciously licked her lips and heard him groan.
She looked questioningly at him.

“Don’t, darling,” he said, amusement and exasperation in his voice.
“That look ought to be banned for indecency.”

“I beg your pardon,” she said, huffily.

“Lustful.
Simply sinfully indecent.”
He kissed her long and thoroughly, then reluctantly got off her.
“I need some dry clothes, after the way you tore mine off.”

Jaymee stared at him incredulously.
“Why you—”
He was already walking away, and she got up and went after him.
“Tore your clothes off you!
Of all the twisted, chauvinistic—”

His laughter drowned out her accusations as she beat on his back all the way to the bathroom.

*

Nick liked her company.
The release of their pent-up tension put them at ease.
They were relaxed and talking comfortably. She was surprisingly well-informed about current affairs, and her interests co
vered a variety of subjects which
had nothing to do with construction and business.
They conversed like old lovers, sometimes touching, sometimes kissing, in between jokes and discussion.

The mood remained light and companionable as they ate and waited for the rain to stop, until Jaymee’s father returned some time later.
He scowled at the sight of them lounging on the sofa.

Nick studied him for a few seconds.
For once the old guy wasn’t drunk.

“You lost the Excel contract,” Bob said, not even stopping to greet either of them.

Jaymee sipped her coffee, not moving from the curled up position against Nick’s hard frame.
“Word gets around fast,” she observed, as she stirred the hot liquid with a spoon, “or did you just get your gossip straight from your good friends Chuck and Rich?”

“They tell me the inspector’s got a complaint about you,” Bob accused.
He came closer and stood behind an armchair.
His face was red with anger, as he glared down at them.
“You were cheating on the job, they said, and got caught.”

Nick put down his cup on the coffee table and sat up straighter.
Jaymee didn’t even stir, sliding comfortably against his arm as he shifted positions.
He couldn’t get over how cool she always was when it came to handling her father.

“Is that so?” Bob continued his tirade against his daughter.
“Did you ask them to undernail the shingles?”

“If I told you I didn’t, would you believe me?” she quietly countered.

“Excel fired you.
Obviously, you did something wrong.
Look at you, sitting on your butt on a work day.
I wouldn’t have done anything like that in the old days, but since you took over, everything’s gone wrong.”

Jaymee was used to these accusations, but she wasn’t going to allow her father to spoil today.
Not today.
Without answering, she drained the rest of the coffee, took Nick’s cup from the table, and got up to go to the kitchen, leaving her father alone with Nick.

That didn’t stop Bob at all.
Without bothering to lower his voice, he turned on Nick.
“It’s you, isn’t it?
She’s got her mind on you and not on what she’s supposed to do.
Instead of taking care of the business, she’s sitting here and telling the men to cut corners.”

“She has never told us to undernail or cut corners,” Nick said quietly.

“How would you know?” the old man sneered.
“You just hang around her, and probably couldn’t tell a nail from a staple.”

Nick stood up, towering over the other man.
“I know your daughter would never do anything that’s dishonest.
I can tell you just like to stand around and point a finger at everything, yet you don’t bother to help her at all.
Why don’t you stop tossing down that alcohol and see the world clearly for once?”

“I can see all right.
I can see she lost a good account and Gregg’s got it.
It’s clear she doesn’t care such bad news gets across town quickly.”

Nick wanted to shake him hard.
If he didn’t know how frail the old man’s health was, he’d do more than that.
He took a step forward.
“If the alcohol hasn’t killed off all your brain cells yet, why don’t you ask around town whom Chuck and Rich work for these days?
How come they know about the undernailing, if they didn’t do it?”

He watched as Bob frowned with sudden confusion.

“Let it go, Nick,” said Jaymee from the kitchen doorway.
“The rain’s stopped.
Let’s take the walk I promised you.”
She sent her father a hard glance, and said to him, “Either you want me to run the business my way, or you don’t.
I’ve been keeping my part of the bargain, Dad.
You keep yours.”

Bob snorted and turned to sit down on the sofa.
Picking up the television remote, he pressed the ‘ON’ button.
“The good Lord knows I’m going to die before I get my money,” he said, changing channels.

“Oh, you’ll get your money,” Jaymee promised softly. “Every damn penny of it.”

She took Nick’s hand and led him out the back door.
Once outside, she set off at a brisk pace, going deeper into the woods on one side of the property.

The trail was muddy and slippery from the rain, but she was surefooted, as if she had used it many times.
Nick followed, looking around now and then.
When the silence continued, he put a hand on her stiff shoulder and stopped her.

“Don’t let him do this to you anymore,” he said, turning her around to face him.
He stroked the lines around her mouth, thumbing her lower lip gently.
Her eyes were glittering from unshed tears.
“If I hear another one of his accusations, I’m going to bash his face in, your father or not.”

“Oh, Nick!”
Jaymee had to smile, even though she was still angry.
“You don’t even know why my dad is the way he is.”

“I don’t give a fig.
He has no right to say those things when he doesn’t even know what you do.
I’m tired of standing by while he batters you like you’re some punching bag.
He’s nothing but a frustrated drunk.
I don’t know why he’s so bitter, but drinking isn’t the way to solve any problems.
And certainly,” he looked down at her possessively, adding, “not by treating my woman like dirt.”

Jaymee stared.
She wasn’t used to having someone else defend her, fight her battles for her.
It was confusing and...thrilling.
Not knowing what to say, she latched on to the one important phrase.
“Your...woman?”

Nick’s gaze was steady.
“You have a problem with that?”

“Yes!” she said, then turned away.
“You can’t say that to a woman, then leave her!”

“What if I have no choice?”

She could understand that.
She’d had no choice for eight years.
She sighed.
“You told me
you aren’t a criminal.”

“I’m not.”

She started off on the trail again, looking over her shoulder.
“Come on.
I’m going to show you my secret and then you’re going to tell me yours, and it’d better be as good a story as mine, or I’ll...I’ll fire you!”