Ramagos, Tonya - Strictly Accountable [Stud Service 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (6 page)

“Uh-oh.” Her breath drifted over his lips in a warm wave of minty temptation.

Brody lifted a brow and pulled away slightly. “Uh-oh, what?”

Sabrina shook her head, an infinitesimal gesture he felt more than saw. “Just uh-oh.”

“I’m going to kiss you, Sabrina.” He would destroy himself if he didn’t now. Holding her this way was making him high, making the blood pound in his head, pushing him to an edge he didn’t know existed. “Really kiss you.”

“Yeah, I’m figuring that out.” The vixen licked her lips daringly.

“You’re not stopping me.” He would scream if she tried. Hell, he might even start begging himself.

“I will in a minute.”

“Then I guess I better hurry before the minute is up.” Her lips twitched in the start of a smile he didn’t let form. He didn’t hurry. It surprised him that he didn’t want to. Taking it easy, going slow, didn’t usually fall in his nature of loving a woman. He preferred hard possession over tenderness no matter how much compassion he showed a woman. But this woman, this kiss, he found himself relishing. He brushed his lips to hers again in the softest caress that drew a sigh from her, low in her throat. The sound moved over him like satin, soft and tantalizing, and damned if he could pull away. He pushed his tongue between her slightly parted lips, found hers, and felt himself start to spiral. Doom never tasted sweeter.

Sabrina melted against him. Her arms wound around his neck as she gave herself over to the kiss he controlled. He slid his tongue over hers then bit it lightly. The sound she made ignited a firestorm within him that raced through his bloodstream. Her fingers delved into the hairs at his nape, fisted, and he took the kiss deeper, harder. Somewhere in the sex-frenzied fog of his brain he heard Dierks Bentley start to sing about feeling that fire. Brody felt it, all right. He felt the flames start to die as she pulled her hands from around his neck and flattened them on his chest between their bodies.

“That’s my phone,” she said breathlessly. “Brody, it’s work. I have to answer it.”

Brody growled as he let her go. “Appropriate ring tone,” he muttered and saw amusement twinkle through the darkened arousal in her eyes as she met his gaze and dug for her cell phone.

“Hello.” Pause. “What are you talking about?” She sighed heavy and rolled her eyes.

Brody let his hands fall away from her and took a voluntary step back to give her space as she continued the call.

“I’m headed out the door now. Nothing came through. We’ve got to do something about this, Lucille. I’ll be there in twenty.”

“Trouble?” Brody hooked his thumbs in his pockets to keep from reaching for her again.

Sabrina’s answer came in the form of a dry, humorless laugh as she shoved her phone back in her purse. “I’ll text you tomorrow before I head out,” she told him as she made a beeline for the door.

Brody followed her out into the hall, silently cursing with every step the stupid ass who invented cell phones. The woman had gone from flaming-hot to iceberg-pissed with a call. He stopped in the doorway, leaned a shoulder against the frame, and watched as she stalked right out the front door. As much as he hated to see her go, he couldn’t help but admit how flat-out sexy a pissed off woman could be.

“Did she puke on you, too?”

Brody slowly turned his head to find his sister poking her head through the kitchen doorway, lips spread in a wide, teasing smile. He gave her the hard scowl he perfected at times like this when they were kids, stalked into the office for his Stetson, and slammed it on his head as he headed for the back door. His sister’s gleeful laughter followed him all the way out.

* * * *

Sabrina didn’t know what possessed her to swing by her kiosk on Sunday before heading out to Holt’em Up Ranch. Premonition, she decided as she rounded the corner at the entrance to find the office swamped. Rita sat at one of the two desks with a client while another couple waited on the bench and still another family of four stood nearby looking none too happy. Taking a deep breath for patience, she pasted on her best smile and greeted the waiting customers.

“Hello and thanks for coming to Mason Tax Service. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

The hefty gentleman on the bench with swinging jowls and stern beady eyes got to his feet. He pointedly looked at his wristwatch. “We’ve been here nearly a half hour. The lady there said it would only be ten or fifteen minutes.”

Sabrina seethed inwardly. “I’m sorry for any inconvenience, sir, but if you will join me at the desk over here, I will be happy to get started on your return now.” She turned to the family of four and beamed another professionally sweet smile. “Rita is finishing up her current client now and will assist you as soon as she obtains their signatures.”

The wife nodded and muttered a “thank-you” as Sabrina walked to the empty kiosk desk. She didn’t so much as glance in Rita’s direction. She didn’t need to. She sensed the tension in her employee and heard the anger simmering in her tone as she bid her client good day and invited the family of four to take a seat.

Less than twenty minutes later, Sabrina shook hands with the stern gentleman and his wife, pleased by her abilities to soothe his ruffled feathers and earn an obviously heartfelt “thank-you” from them both as they left. She tucked the flap into their envelope file and spun in her chair to put the tax return in the file drawer with the others awaiting IRS acknowledgement. The kiosk design put the desks back to back with the filing cabinet between the two. Rita sat at the opposite desk, her lips set in a thin line and her eyes throwing sparks.

Sabrina ignored her as she mulled over the various ways to handle the situation. The woman knew her job, had been versed on what was expected of her as a Mason Tax Service employee, and defied almost every ounce of that training at any given turn. Letting her slide didn’t fall into the category of options. Chastising her in the middle of Walmart, while extremely appealing at that moment, didn’t work either.

“I didn’t need you to jump in.” The sarcasm in Rita’s tone hit Sabrina with an almost tangible force. “I had everything under control.”

Control, Sabrina thought and figured it to be the operative word of the day. She waited, making sure she held a firm grasp on her restraint before she answered in the calmest voice she could muster. “Mason Tax Service prides itself on our clients’ wait time being as short as humanly possible. Those customers had already been waiting too long when I got here. I’m less than ten minutes away, Rita. You were instructed to call me if you got more than one customer in line when you had another at the desk.”

“I saw no need to call you.” Rita’s voice got louder. “I was minutes from finishing with the customer I had when you showed up. I was handling everything fine.”

Sabrina stared at the other woman, half astonished Rita was beginning to yell at her in the middle of an open kiosk. She spotted the Walmart day manager headed their direction and stood, moving into the traffic lane to intercept his path.

“Todd.”

“Sabrina, it’s always good to see you. I’ve been meaning to get with you on the times of our employee meetings so you can chat with them about the discounts for last-minute filing we discussed. Time has gotten away from me this week.”

“It happens to us all,” she said with forced joviality. “I wondered if you would mind if my employee and I borrow your office for a few minutes. We have some private business to discuss and our office is a bit in the open out here.”

Todd unhooked a key ring from his belt. “I don’t mind at all. You can leave the keys at the customer service desk if you don’t see me when you’re through.”

“Thank you.” Sabrina stepped back to the kiosk, pulled open the center file drawer, and withdrew the “back in five minutes” sign they used when they left the kiosk unattended. She gave Rita only a cursory glance as she hung the sign and said, “Follow me, please.” She waited until they were securely inside Todd’s office, the door closed behind them, before she spoke again. “You and I seem to have a problem.”

“I don’t have—” Rita began hotly, but Sabrina held up a hand and talked right over her.

“I’m not finished.” To her surprise, Rita sputtered to a halt. “I’m not sure what the problem is exactly, but the fact is that I am the manager of this location. When I ask you to do something, I expect it to be done. Those customers waited for twenty minutes longer than necessary this morning. A simple phone call would have prevented that, whether you thought you had it covered or not. Some returns take longer than others to complete. I shouldn’t need to point that out.”

Rita crossed her arms and squared her shoulders as if preparing to launch into a defense. Sabrina didn’t give her the chance.

“This is two days in a row that I have walked into this store and found you with more clients than you can handle. You didn’t call me yesterday, though you told Lucille you did. I would’ve known. My phone was, and is always, on me the whole time. You didn’t call this morning either, and we could’ve lost a client, possibly two if I hadn’t showed up when I did. It’s rare for us to be this busy at this time of the season. Hence the reason we are not both scheduled to be here for the whole shift. However, when it becomes necessary for two of us to be here, we should be.”

This time, Rita opened her mouth to speak, but again Sabrina bulldozed over her. “I’ve done nothing to earn your disrespect and I will not tolerate it any further, especially out there in the middle of that kiosk where anyone walking by can hear. If you can’t handle working for me for whatever reason, let me know now, and I’ll find a replacement. Perhaps Lucille can put you to work at the main office a few days a week.”

Rita’s jaw dropped and Sabrina knew the other woman never expected to be called on her behavior, much less threatened the way she was now. Well, that was just too bad.

“I don’t want to work at the main office.” The sarcasm remained in Rita’s voice, but she toned down the volume to a reasonable level.

Sabrina nodded once. “Fine, then I’ll trust we won’t have any more trouble between us. I’m late for an appointment. If you get backed up again,
call me
.” She opened the office door, waited for Rita to exit, and closed and locked the door. With no Todd in immediate sight, she took the keys to the customer service desk as he’d requested and left. Betsy was the greeter on duty today, but a serious line to her lips replaced the warm smile she usually wore.

“It’s about time you took care of that,” she whispered conspiratorially.

Horrified, Sabrina gasped. “You heard?”

Betsy shook her head. “I saw the two of you disappear into Todd’s office. I guessed you were finally putting her in her place.”

Sabrina shrugged. She silently hoped no one else realized what just transpired. “A girl can only take so much. I’ll see you later, Betsy.” She tossed back a wave and a smile as she dug in her purse for her cell phone with her free hand. She touched Lucille’s speed dial as she stepped into the parking lot and headed for her car.

“Mason Tax Service. This is Lucille speaking. How can I help you?” Her boss’s chipper mood resonated through the wireless line.

“I just called to give you a heads-up,” Sabrina said in lieu of hello.

“Uh-oh, I don’t like heads-ups. They usually mean trouble.”

“And this one is no different, especially in reference to my office these days.” Sabrina pushed out a breath.

Lucille’s slightly teasing tone instantly sobered. “Do I need to call her and talk to her?”

“No, that’s part of the problem now.” Sabrina swapped her phone to her other ear as she pulled her keys from her purse and unlocked her car door. “I’m younger, more experienced, and I’m her immediate boss. If this is going to work out at all, I’ve got to handle it myself, which is precisely what I did this morning.” She proceeded to fill Lucille in on her conversation with Rita.

“Sounds like you handled it okay to me.” Lucille had her back. She never doubted she would have issues there. “And how are things going with Mr. Holt?”

Sabrina slid behind the wheel of her car, started the engine, and exchanged her cell phone for her Bluetooth. “I’m headed there now.” She glanced over her shoulder, and, seeing the lane was clear, backed out of the parking space. “I’m late.”