This Love's Not for Sale (9 page)

Tucker was, again, defenseless. He hated that Lilliana
could see right through him. More than that, he despised the fact that she was right about him.

Stopping in front of the main entrance to the dental office, Tucker started to say something but Lilliana was out the door before he could even get a word in.

Back in his office, Tucker was having a difficult time concentrating. He was on an emotional roller-coaster thinking about the land deal and about what Lilliana had accused him of. Her sad and defensive eyes flashed in his mind. Who the hell had approached her at the restaurant and gave her pause about him?

Tucker called the restaurant and spoke with his waiter who divulged the name. He
had suspected maybe it was Edwards, but to his surprise, it was Darren Schumacher, the man who was once his business partner and confidant.

He promptly dialed Darren
’s cell phone number. As soon as Darren’s voice came on the other end, Tucker ripped into him.

“What the fuck did you tell Lilliana Norris?”

“Nice of you to call, McG.”

Tucker waited impatiently on the other end, about ready to blow a gasket. “What did you tell her?” he repeated.

“Her
who
? Oh, the brunette that owns Margo’s land? Nothing that wasn’t true. I just thought someone should warn her about your conniving ways.”

“You asshole, this deal is mine. Do you fucking unders
tand me? You stay away!”

“From the land or the girl?” Darren
asked condescendingly.

“Both, you prick.”

“So you think you can have that land, that sweet little slice of pie and eat her too?”

“You bet your ass I
’m taking both and nothing, I mean
nothing,
is going to get in my way,” Tucker growled in a murderous voice.

“Like the Newsom deal?”

Tucker was seething mad that Darren would even bring up the dreaded Newsom deal. It was still a point of contention, and the memories of losing out on that deal were still fresh and raw.

“How m
any people are you going to step on to get what you want, McG? How many people have to suffer because of your greediness?”

“Fuck you, Schumacher. You won that deal
, so what are you bitching about?”

“
Everything’s a contest with you, isn’t it? I only
won
that deal because I was honest and the Newsom’s were sick of your bullshit. It’s amazing how a little honesty goes a long way. You may want to try it sometime. Do you even know how to be truthful anymore? I remember a time when you did. You and me. Remember? We were going to take on the world,
honestly.
”

Tucker quickly hung up the phone. He didn’t want to be reminded of his past and how th
ings had ended badly with Darren. They were once best friends and had even gone to college together. He missed Darren and their closeness. He even missed Darren’s cheesy, infectious sense of humor, and yes, his sincerity, too. Tucker was also known for his honesty, but it was his brutal honesty that set him apart and it wasn’t necessarily a good trait and he knew that. 

Trying to
figure out how to make up for Darren’s big mouth, Tucker decided it was best to let Lilliana cool down before he approached her again.

During their time-out
, Tucker had been hit with inspiration and had instructed his assistant to call any and all local and outlying animal shelters. Lilliana and how much they seemed to have in common kept seeping into his thoughts, day and night. Tucker was determined to keep their venture
business only
but Lilliana had somehow managed to get under his skin.

By day four of not having any contact with Lilliana, he was itching to get in contact with her. He even felt the creepy urge to drive past her house to see if he coul
d spy a look at her. He talked himself out of it, knowing full well it was a disgusting thing to do let alone think about, but no woman had ever caused such chaos with his emotions and impeded his ability to think logically.

At the end of a long painful week, Tucker
had heard back from several shelters and mustered up the courage to venture out to her place again for a little butt-kissing session.

Before he even got out of his car, Lilliana was on him, pointing toward the road.

“Off my property!”

“Just hear me out.”

“No, thanks. I was warned twice about you from two people who seem genuinely sincere, and I’m not waiting for lightening to strike me down in order for me to open my eyes about you.”

Two?
Tucker wondered who the first was and then he remembered Lilliana’s overly long conversation with Ariel.  No doubt it was Ariel after the way she had rebuffed his advances before he knew she, too, was married.

“Just let me show you I’m not like the rest, Lilly,” Tucker responded calmly. “I want to take you somewhere.”

“Yeah, I’m sure, right to bed so you can royally fuck me,” she said with glossy, enraged eyes.

Tucker couldn’
t help but smile at Lilliana’s sharp come back. She was more temperamental than any woman he had ever encountered, and he had come across far too many females to even recollect.

“There’s an animal shelter in the next county over that’s actively looking to lease land for their outreach animal program. I thought maybe you could go and speak with them.”

Lilliana wanted to believe Tucker, but there was something nagging at her about him, and the man who had approached her in the restaurant put a seed of doubt in her mind about Tucker’s motives. She had the same troublesome feeling about her ex, but instead of listening to her gut instincts, she ended up with an STD, a divorce and a small-town scandal. She promised herself she would be more vigilant this time, despite Tucker’s smooth way and warm caress, and in spite of the fact that his smile had been invading her dreams since she last saw him.

Lilliana thought she had seen the last of Tucker the week previously and that
he wouldn’t show his face again, but she knew that was wishful thinking. If everyone was to be believed, Tucker would stop at nothing until he had gotten her to sign over the deed to her land. She hated to admit it, but seeing him again was almost a relief.  Even if he was smug as hell and untrustworthy, he was pretty to look at and she knew Tucker was attracted to her so there was at least that.

Feeling embarrassed at h
er outburst, she wiped her eyes of the angry tears that threatened to burst forth and avoided Tucker’s gaze.

“Let me lock up the house,” she replied, finally giving in.

It wouldn’t hurt to at least speak with the animal shelter and she swore to herself that she would keep her guard up and her eyes open at all times around him.

After grabbing a light jacket and locking
the house, she settled into the passenger seat, and Tucker buckled her seatbelt for her like he had before. It was a peculiar gesture that no man had ever done before, let alone twice in a weeks’ time. Still leaning over her, Tucker’s large thumb swept away a stray tear in the corner of her eye as he watched her mouth keenly.

“I’m a big girl,
I can buckle myself in,” Lilliana told Tucker, even though she relished the close physical contact from the man she neither trusted or cared for.

“I have no doubt that you can, but
I enjoy doing this and knowing that I’m the reason you’re safe.”

Lilliana
found Tucker’s response self-gratifying yet strangely endearing. Tucker paused near her lips and leaned in as if he was going to kiss her.

“You’re taking a lot for granted. I haven’t even decided whether or not I like you.”

Tucker’s eyes darted from her eyes to her mouth and back. “Oh, you like me,” he responded a little too confidently.

His self-confidence both annoyed and turned Lilliana on, something she was having a difficult time coming to terms with.

“Drive, McGrath,” she stated coldly, turning her face to the window.

Tucker sighed and
revved the engine loudly. “I don’t know what you think you’re accomplishing by being so damned defiant. I’ve already told you that you’ve got me all wrong, but if you insist on making me wait, I can respect that.”

Lilliana
almost wavered, but something in Tucker’s voice alluded to deception and she wasn’t about to let it go.

“Then prove me wrong,
” she stated clipped, glaring at him through narrowed eyes.

Tucker’s eyebrows raised and he pushed
his chest out as if accepting her challenge, “I will and then you
will
be on your knees for me,” Tucker said softly through gritted teeth.

Lilliana had the sudden urge to slap Tucker upside his
narcissistic head and she just about did until Tucker began chuckling lightly at first. His laughter built into a full rolling boil and Lilliana was beside herself.

She couldn’t help hide the irritation in her voice.
“What the hell is funny?”

“You! Holy fucking Christ, if looks could kill I’d be dead
and castrated on the spot. Damn, Lilly, you really need to keep that shit in check before you hurt someone. Or yourself!”

She wasn’t
sure exactly why her irritation was so entertaining but his statement reminded her of her mother, Kate. As a child and teenager, Lilliana had been grounded on more than one occasion for the harsh looks she had thrown her mother’s way.

“You’re lucky I’m a
somewhat reasonable woman.”

“
I think you’re overestimating yourself, pet. And you’re lucky I’m feeling generous and
somewhat
patient or else I’d simply take what I want,” he countered.

Ha
d Tucker just threatened her
again
? His countenance remained stoic and Lilliana didn’t know how to interpret his remark. “And what exactly is it that you want, McGrath?”

R
eadying herself for all hell to break loose, Lilliana sat forward in her seat and turned to face Tucker. Tucker’s eyes on the road, but the corners of his mouth rose in a sarcastic grin.

“I’ve already made it very clear what I want. I don’t partic
ularly enjoy repeating myself so you’ll just have to jog your memory to last week’s encounter.”

Lilliana found Tucker’s statement so ridiculous, she began to mumble under her breath.
“Take what you want,” she snorted along with a few expletives. “I’ll give you a foot up your…”

“Zip it
, Lilly. Seriously, I’m doing my best here to remain gentlemanly but you’re treading on thin ice.”

“
Unbelievable.
Seriously
, I don’t think you know the first thing about being gentlemanly. I’m not sure what kind of women you’re used to dealing with, but you don’t get to
take
what you want
with me.  You’re haughtiness goes beyond anything I’ve ever experienced and right at this moment, I could care less about discussing my land with an animal shelter. Just turn this stupid, over-priced car around and drive me home!”

***

Tucker slammed on the breaks, locking up both their seat-belts as he skidded onto the gravel shoulder.  To say Lilliana was treading on thin ice was the understatement of the century. She had broken through that ice and they were both about to drown in the frigid cold water. He flung his car door open, jumped out, and threw his hands in the air as he spewed out a long line of obscenities that reached the celestial heavens.

He wanted this deal more than he had ever wanted anything else, but he wasn’t sure he could withstand the fork-tongued brunette any longer. Damn her
for being so unmanageable, inflexible and fucking beguiling. He hated that he was so attracted to her and that they had so much in common. More to the point, he despised that she had gotten under his skin and peeled away the layers of his cool exterior.

When he was finally able to calm his raging temper, he leaned over the hood of his car, his hands resting on the hot metal and his head downcast.
Tucker peered up through his long bangs to see Lilliana watching him wide-eyed and motionless. He stood, turned and sat on the hood, trying to catch his breath. Tucker hadn’t lost his temper like that since before he left his parent’s home. He had always prided himself in his cold detachment and aloofness, but this woman… what the fuck was she doing to him? Hearing the passenger door close softly, he turned to see Lilliana moving toward him warily.

“Tucker... I’m sorry. I know I can be… difficult. I get my temper from father, or so my mother said. I wouldn’t really know. Anyway…” she shook her head as if getting side-tracked
.

Tucker watched her
inquisitively. Lilliana could be quite a charming little thing when she was repentant. She was so charming, in fact, the thought of burying himself in her popped into his mind again at the image of her unblemished, bee-stung lips trying to form the words to make him less irate. 

Lilliana
kept her eyes to the ground as she kicked at the rocks underneath her feet, bringing up dust as she stuttered out something incoherent. She reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and Tucker reached out and pulled her to him. 

“
Difficult is not the word I would use to describe you,” he whispered. “Cheeky, insolent and imprudent are far more accurate a description.”

When she opened her mouth as if to
speak, Tucker rapidly forced his mouth onto hers, holding her firmly by her waist with one hand and the back of her neck with the other. His unyielding grasp on her didn’t allow her to resist, even though she tried. She placed her palms on his chest and tried to push him away but he forbade it. He was going to show her that,
yes
, he could take what he wanted and right now, what he wanted more than anything was to shut her the hell up.

***

When Lilliana realized her efforts were futile, her body sagged in his arms. She accepted Tucker’s tongue in her mouth and it felt just as good as it did the first time they kissed. She couldn’t deny that she wanted this man in all his conceitedness and untrustworthiness.  She wanted desperately to believe that he was different and that everyone else was lying about him. Her voice of reason was screaming at her to run the other way, but his controlling hands felt so good on her and his mouth… that sweet, soft, delicious mouth of his… God how she wanted it roaming over every inch of her body. How could she resist him when he wouldn’t allow it? At this moment, she was his captive in every sense of the word and she basked in it.

Tucker’
s mouth ghosted her jaw line where he licked tenderly, then over to her ear where he delivered another soothing lick. Lilliana rested her hands on his thighs and tilted her head to the side, permitting him access to her neck. 

“That’s it, pet, give in. It’ll make things so much easier,” h
e murmured as he bit gently into her flesh, sucking ferociously and bringing the blood to the surface of her delicate tissue. 

Reality slapped Lilliana in the face
and she reluctantly backed away when she felt Tucker’s grip loosen.

“Easier for whom?” she a
sked, cringing at the desperation and hurt in her voice.

Tucker’s lips parted and his eyebrows furrowed, but only a long sigh could be heard.