Seb (13 page)

“Wow,” Seb said, stopping in the doorway of his office, gripping the doorframe. “This place looks great. I can’t believe you did all of this in one day. That’s amazing. Who put those together for you?” He gestured to the filing cabinets.

Since Seb had been in the shop with a camera crew following him around for most of the day, I’d had the office to myself, which I preferred. It meant I’d been able to surprise him with my efforts.

“I put them together myself,” I said, raising my chin to let him know I wasn’t happy he assumed I needed help. I wasn’t some helpless female. I’d tackled a lot of DIY projects in my old house, right down to plumbing and small electrical jobs like changing out light fixtures.

He grinned. “Good for you. You’re a woman of many talents. I like that.”

Because I knew he wasn’t baiting me, I smiled back, but not before rolling my eyes. “I’m glad you approve, boss man.”

“I definitely approve.” His eyes scanned my body, and I knew he wasn’t referring to my work ethic anymore.

I wished I hadn’t worn white today. My shirt was covered with streaks of grease and a layer of dust, and I’d put my hair up in a messy bun to keep it out of my face while I worked. “Don’t look at me. I’m a mess.”

He chuckled, and that sexy raspy sound made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “You’re the sexiest mess I’ve ever seen then.” He glanced at the time on his phone. “It’s getting late, and the guys are heading out. You want to grab a pizza or something?”

I could have since Mrs. Ryan had called to tell me she was making dinner for my uncle at her place. But I didn’t want to go anywhere looking as though I’d just crawled out of some alley. “Looking like this?” I gestured to my clothes. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“We could order in or head back to my place. You could use my shower, borrow some clothes.”

He had to wear an extra-large, while I wore a small. Everything he owned would have fallen off of me, though I appreciated the gesture.

“Maybe we could just order a pizza and eat it here? I have some work to do when I get home.” My phone, which I’d stashed in my purse while I’d been working, rang. “Sorry, I should get that. It might be my uncle or Mrs. Ryan.”

“No problem,” he said, his fingers flying over his own phone. “I’ll just order the pizza while you get that.”

It was Jarod, which made me think twice about answering, but I had nothing to hide. He was just a friend. I was sure Seb wasn’t the kind of guy who’d have a problem with me having friends of the opposite sex. He wasn’t
that
insecure.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked him. “How’d it go the other night?”

He groaned. “Don’t even ask. She was a nightmare. But I’m getting back up on that horse tomorrow night. Hopefully I’ll have better luck with this one.”

“Fingers crossed.” I admired Jarod’s willingness to keep trying until he found the right person. I’d never been that resilient when looking for a partner, which probably explained why I hadn’t had many serious relationships.

“You wanna grab dinner tonight?”

“I can’t,” I said, looking over my shoulder at Seb, who was watching me curiously. “I’m having pizza with a friend.”

“A friend, huh?” He laughed. “You have a lot of
friends
, Sky?”

“Mind your own business.” I knew he was just teasing. So was I. “Maybe we can get together later in the week?”

“I’d like that. I’ll call you in a day or two. Be good.”

“Yeah, you too.” I disconnected the call to find Seb narrowing his eyes as I put my phone away. He was obviously waiting for me to tell him who the caller was, but I didn’t think I had to justify or explain my friendships to him. “Did you order the pizza?”

“Uh, no, I wanted to ask you want you wanted on it.”

“Oh, pepperoni, bacon, onions, and mushroom would be great, if that’s okay with you?” I pulled a twenty-dollar bill from my wallet and tried to hand it to him.

He only scowled, brushing my hand away. “I don’t want your money.”

“Um, okay, but I was just—”

“I don’t know what kind of losers you’re used to dating, but I don’t believe in Dutch-treat or whatever the hell you call it. When I’m out with a woman, I pay. For everything.”

I wasn’t a big fan of his traditional values. I had no problem paying for things once in a while, but his bad mood had me questioning whether this was the right time to challenge him. “Is everything okay? You seem kind of tense.”

“You gonna tell me who that was on the phone?”

I’d known that was the reason for his mood change. “It was just a friend. He wanted to know whether I could grab dinner tonight, but I told him I had other plans.”

“Yeah, with a friend. Is that what I am to you, just another friend? Like the douche who just called you?”

My jaw dropped. “How dare you call him that! You don’t even know him!”

“Why the hell did you tell him you were having dinner with a friend?” he demanded, stepping closer, crowding my space as he backed me against his desk.

Seb was an imposing man, but I already knew him well enough to know I had nothing to fear. He may have intimidated most people but not me. I wasn’t afraid to stand my ground with him.

“What should I have called you?” I asked, looking him in the eyes as I squared my shoulders. “My boss?”

“Your…” He growled, his eyes darkening with frustration as he seemed to search for the right word. We weren’t lovers, and it was too soon for me to call him my boyfriend. I knew he was realizing I’d had no other option, but he clearly still didn’t like my reference.

I curled my hands around his massive biceps. “Seb, I think you’re a great guy, but we need to put this thing in perspective. We haven’t known each other long. We’ve only been out a few times. We’re still figuring things out, right?”

He clenched his jaw, gripping my waist. “Do you have a lot of male friends?”

Funny, Jarod had just asked me a similar question, but he had been joking. Seb was obviously deadly serious.

“A few,” I admitted. “Though I’ve lost touch with most of my friends since my uncle got sick. Do you have a problem with that?”

He stepped back, raking a hand through his cropped dark hair. “I don’t know. It’s kind of weird for me, to be honest. None of my girlfriends have ever tried to have guy friends when they were dating me.”

I tried to be understanding, to see things from his perspective without jumping to the conclusion that he was a possessive jerk who actually thought he had a prayer of controlling me. “Well, I guess I’m not like the other girls you’ve dated.”

“And for the most part that makes me happy,” he said, rubbing a hand over his chest. “But this, uh, friend thing makes me kind of uneasy. I’m not gonna lie.”

I had to appreciate his willingness to be honest, even when it made him look bad. “I’m sure you must have female friends.” I could already tell he had a large social group, from the guys who worked for him, who clearly thought of him as more of a friend than a boss, to the clients who’d passed through just to catch up with him. He was well-liked and respected. I assumed that extended to women as well.

“Not really.” He shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that I work in a male-dominated industry, or could be that it’s because I’ve been burned a few times by women in recent years, but it’s just easier for me to trust guys. I don’t worry about whether they have an ulterior motive.”

“I guess I can understand that,” I said, perching on the edge of his now-tidy desk. “Maybe I find it easier to trust men because I spent so much time with my uncle growing up. That and we always had his students over for dinner. The guys on his teams were older than me, so they always treated me like a little sister.” He was watching me carefully when I said, “Honestly, I think they kind of felt sorry for me because I lost my parents.”

He nodded, seeming thoughtful. “Okay, I get why you feel more comfortable around guys, and I’d never try to tell you who to be friends with, but just so we’re clear, you’ve never had a ‘benefits’ arrangement with any of these guys, have you?”

I laughed. Most of the men I’d maintained friendships with since college were former football players who’d gone to pot after they stopped playing. “No, definitely not. I have a policy against sleeping with my friends. It makes things too awkward.”

“Good.” He gripped his phone a little tighter. “So, uh, you don’t have any female friends?”

This wouldn’t have been such a big deal to him if he’d met most of my friends, but I smiled. “I’ve kept in touch with a couple since college and one or two I used to work with, but they’re all married with kids. It’s not easy to get together when everyone’s trying to balance a full-time job with a family.”

“I guess not.”

“But like I said, since my uncle got sick, I haven’t made my social life much of a priority. That’s why when I met Jarod, I figured—”

“Who’s Jarod?” he asked, scowling.

“The friend who called me just now.” I pushed off the desk and walked the few steps toward him. I slipped my arms around his waist, tilting my head back to look at him. “If this is going to work, you’re going to have to learn to trust me.”

He sighed. “I know. Crazy thing is I do trust you. And I swore to myself I wouldn’t let my guard down this soon, not after what happened with—”

“Amy. I know.” I tried not to be offended that he was comparing me to other women, but it stung. I wanted him to judge me based on my actions, not someone else’s.

“Forget about her,” he said, tightening his grip on me. “That’s the last thing I want to talk about. But before we bring this to a close, can I ask one favor of you?”

I knew Seb wasn’t an unreasonable man, so I said, “Sure.”

“Can I just ask you to keep me in the loop, you know, when you’re going out with other guys?”

I rolled my eyes. “You make it sound like I’m dating other people, and I’m not. I’m dating one person. You. That’s it.”

“I know.”

I reached up to smooth the crease lines from between his brows as I reminded myself we all carried baggage from previous relationships. Seb wasn’t alone in that. “Fine, I promise. Feel better now?”

He flashed a quick grin, stealing my breath with how incredibly handsome he was. “Good. Now before I forget, there’s one more thing.”

“What is it?” I asked, stepping back so I could concentrate on what he was saying instead of how hard his biceps were.

“The producers of my show caught sight of you when you were moving through the shop today.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, embarrassed I’d gotten in the way. “I’ll stay out of there from now on when I know they’re shooting.”

“No, that’s not it,” he said, reaching for my hands. “They seemed to think the camera loved you. And well, they might have caught me backing you up against the wall and stealing a kiss.” He looked so cute I couldn’t be mad. “I’m sorry, Skylar. Honestly, I had no idea they caught that.”

“That’s okay,” I said, touching his chest. I didn’t want my personal life splashed all over TV, but I believed he hadn’t meant for it to happen.

“They started asking all kinds of questions—like if you’re working for me, if you’re my girlfriend, that kind of thing.”

“What did you tell them?” I could tell by the way his eyes shifted that he wasn’t comfortable talking about it, which only made me more curious.

“I told them that we were seeing each other and you were helping me out around the shop.”

“Oh.” That didn’t seem so bad.

“They wanted you to sign a release, but then it occurred to me your uncle doesn’t know you’re working here, does he?”

“Yeah, I told him you needed some help with your website and stuff.” I shrugged. “I had to tell him something since I’ll be away from the apartment so much over the next little while.”

“Well, here’s what I’m thinking,” he said, his grip tightening on my hands. “Since the producers seemed so stoked about having you on the show, why not capitalize on it?”

“I’m not following.” Surely he wasn’t suggesting I become a regular on his TV show. That was ridiculous. I was a graphic designer, not an actor.

“Well, the show pays pretty well, even for secondary players like my mechanics and shop manager, so I’m sure there’d be a nice chunk of change in it for you if you’re interested.” When I didn’t respond, he said, “Since you’re going to be here anyway, why not make some money while you’re at it, right?”

I couldn’t deny it would be nice to get a paycheck, but I didn’t feel right capitalizing on Seb’s success. The show was about him and the magic he worked on those cars. I couldn’t figure out what they would want with me. I didn’t know a thing about cars except how to fill them with gas, check the oil, and change a flat tire, thanks to my uncle.

“I don’t know,” I said when I realized he was waiting for a response. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“I won’t deny it’s weird at first, having a camera follow you around everywhere, but you get used to it after a while. And the crew are really good guys.”

“It just doesn’t seem fair,” I said, trying to make him understand. “This is your show. You’re the star. I have nothing to offer.”

He chuckled, drawing me in for a hug. “Baby, you have no idea how much you have to offer.”

Okay, that made me smile. I pressed my cheek against his shoulder, trying to process what it would mean for my life if I appeared on the show. I drew back to look at him. “Do you think this is a good idea?”

He disarmed me with another heart-stopping grin. “I’m not gonna lie—my reasons for wanting you to do it may be kind of selfish.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, trying not to smile.

“I have no doubt they’re going to want to play up the girlfriend angle.” He gestured to my body. “I mean, come on, hot girls and cars just go together. Guys already tune into the show to see what I’ve got going on, but I’m sure they think they’d get even more viewers by using you as bait.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Bait? I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t mean it like that. It’s just that you’re a gorgeous woman. Men will be interested in seeing you on screen. The producers know that.”

“You said they’d want to play up the girlfriend angle. What does that mean exactly?”