Naughty by Nature (11 page)

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 with 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.