Willow (10 page)

She watched him sink his teeth into his first slice then watched him chew it. The muscles in his neck worked, tightening and flexing. When a bit of sauce caught in the corner of his mouth and his tongue darted out and licked it away, she groaned. Who knew eating cold pizza could be such a turn-on?

“
Willow, if you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to be eating my pizza a great deal colder.”

Willow flushed and looked away. “I can’t do it anymore tonight. I’m…I’m sore from…from earlier. I know we had a deal, but I don’t think…unless you really need to.” She chanced a quick look at him and turned away quickly. He was pissed again.

“
How sore…look at me please.” She turned to see how mad he was. “How sore are you, Willow?”

She bristled. Not at his question, but at the tone. It was soft and inviting. “If you need to do it again, it doesn’t matter, does it. Do you? Need it, I mean?” She stood up and pulled his shirt over her head and off. “Just tell me how you want me.”

Anger made her voice harsh, humiliation made her body stiff. She was batting a thousand and she just wanted to get out of here. When the half empty pizza box hit the floor, she jumped back and tried to cover her body with her hands. She had a moment to appreciate his semi-hard cock before she backed away from him. He jerked her hands away from her body.

“
It’s too late for that. Damn it, woman. Do you think I’m an animal?” He shook her. “I asked you a damned question. How sore are you?”

Steeling herself for his fury, she was taken aback by the gentleness of his tone. Then she looked into his eyes. There was fire there, different than before when they had been having sex. Now his eyes were bright instead of dark, but still filled with passion. And even pissed, he was still beautiful.

“
Let go of me, Jared. You’re hurting me.” he released her so quickly that she staggered. When he reached for her again, she backed up. “If you don’t require any more sex tonight, then I’d like to go home. I need to be…I have stuff I need to do before work tomorrow.”

She felt ridiculous standing there naked in front of an equally naked man discussing work, but she made herself look at his face. Every part of her wanted to taste him again, but she knew that now was not the time. Escape was all she could think about.

“
You are the most stubborn woman I…please tell me how badly I hurt you?” She didn’t understand why he cared. Most men she knew wanted the woman gone as soon as they were finished. At least that’s what she’d overheard the men saying at work.

She turned her head and looked down at the carpet. “I’m sore. I burn when I…when I go to the bathroom, it burns a little.”

“
Are you bleeding anymore,” he asked her softly. That alone made her more embarrassed than telling him that she was sore. Men just didn’t ask about those sorts of things. But Willow was beginning to see that Jared wasn’t your normal man.

“
No. Not since…not since you entered me the first time.” She felt the tears threaten to spill. “I’d like to go.”

She didn’t wait for his answer, but turned and went into the bathroom. She didn’t care if he was angry or not, but she needed a minute to herself.

She dressed quickly and gathered her things from the shower. She started to leave the condom on the shower ledge, it was his after all, but was afraid he’d forget it. And since the room was in her name, she didn’t want anyone to know what she’d been doing. Stuffing it into her pants pocket, she gathered her things and left the tiny, colorful room.

Jared was dressed and leaning against the dresser when she came out. She wasn’t sure what one-night stands did when they parted company, so she stuck her hand out to shake his. He reached out for it and she actually sighed in relief. But it was short lived. He yanked her to him, wrapped his arm around her waist, and held her.

“
We aren’t finished, Willow. You gave me your virginity and I’d like to know why. Also, I have some questions I want answers to. Who was the man from the other night? Why is it rumored that you and Conley are sleeping together when we both know it’s not true?” He pulled her chin up and looked into her face as he continued. “Why did you sleep with me?”

She felt his arms tighten around her when she struggled. She couldn’t even look away from his prying eyes because he held her still. She could feel the rigidness of his cock against her belly and stilled when she found herself pressing against him.

“
You agreed to no questions.” She struggled again. “Let me the fuck go.”

The kiss was unexpected, as was the tenderness of it. Willow felt her body betray her by responding. She was achy with need of this man and couldn’t understand it. Even her nipples brushing against the inside of her bra felt wonderful. When he lifted his head but didn’t release her, she found she didn’t mind so much having him hold her, and she wanted to hit something because of it. Closing her eyes, she thought maybe she’d finally gone off the deep end. Then they snapped open when he whispered to her.

“
We aren’t finished. I still have four hours left of my night. And I—”

“
Then get it over with. I’m here now, so fuck me.” Please, her mind screamed at him, but she shifted and winced at the slight pull in her muscles. The soreness gave her a quick reminder of why they really couldn’t.

“
No. Not tonight. We’ve had entirely too much…fun tonight for you and I’m very sorry about that. But we will. Soon.” He let her stand, but he did as well, still not letting her go. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Willow. For tonight…well, try and rest up for me.”

Lowering his head again, she leaned into him until they were pressed tight against each other. His cock was hard again and she started her hand down the journey of his ribs to touch him. Jared stopped her by pressing his hand over hers. She moaned before she could stop it.

“
Not tonight, love. But soon.” The whispered promise was made against her lips as she claimed them again.

She was confused. He looked happy that she was leaving, but didn’t want her to forget him. He wanted to fuck her, but wouldn’t take her because she was sore. Didn’t men need to…shifting her bag over her shoulder, she wasn’t sure what men needed, but she needed and didn’t have a clue how to ask for it. As she stepped through the doorway, his voice stopped her.

“
I will get my answers, Willow, and we will finish our night together. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She didn’t say anything, but stepped out into the chilled night and then drove home.

~o0o~

Jared had to laugh every time Willow practically ran passed the room he was working in. Twice now he’d go in search of her just to see her reaction and it had been well worth it. Even in her anger, she was stunningly beautiful.

He had left the hotel shortly after she had. One, he wanted to make sure she got home safely; two, he wanted to know where she lived. And that had really surprised him

He had her address, of course, but he didn’t know the area. He had thought she might live in an apartment or a condo, but she was in a house. And a very beautiful one at that.

Even in the moonlit night, he could tell it was huge. And in what was once a very influential part of town too. The house sat back from the street and had large, well-manicured yards and expensive cars in the driveway.

The curved drive was lined with small trees and flowers, plenty of deep green grass. Jared could tell that work was being done on the house. There was a large dumpster near the garage and it looked like the large structure was being re-roofed.

The house itself was a three story monster with aged brick and shutters. He wanted to come back during the day and have a look at it, but didn’t know if she shared the house with someone else or lived with a bunch of hungry dogs. He decided to wait until she invited him over. Then thought he’d be waiting a long time for that to happen and decided he would just show up. He went home a much happier man.

As he waited for the lunch hour to roll around, Jared thought about the woman he’d spent the better part of last night with. The woman was a contradiction. She was sexy and shy, capable and unsure of herself. He’d watched her heft a sixty pound bag of dried plaster over her shoulder to help one of her men and flay the skin off of one of them for doing the same thing. He thought perhaps he could spend hours watching her.

When the signal came to break, he grabbed up his lunch cooler and went to the upper floors to find her. He’d seen her go up about twenty minutes ago and hadn’t seen her come back down since. He found her standing near the far window talking on her cell phone. She turned her back on him when he continued into the room and shut the door.

As she continued her conversation, he readied their lunch. Jared pulled two overturned crates over to a large spool of wiring and started pulling out the lunch he’d brought.

“
No, that’s not what I said, Dad. I said I don’t want to come, not that I wouldn’t be there. I know what this means to Mom. I’ll be there.” Jared grinned at her end of the conversation. Seemed their parents had something in common. They wanted their children to remain children.

“
Two weeks, three at the most…no, that won’t be…Dad, I’m begging you not to set me up anymore. Please? I can find my own dates. No, you didn’t say—”

Jared looked at her when he heard she was going to find her own dates. He’d decided last night that he wanted to continue this…well, he wasn’t sure what they had going but he wanted more of this woman. A great deal more.

“
Look, Dad, I have to go...okay…Yes, I love you too and I know you want only the best for me…Yes, tell Mom I love her as well. Goodbye.”

She stood with her back to him, but he knew that she was aware he was still there. When she spoke, she sounded so dejected that he wanted to laugh.

“
I don’t suppose I could convince you to just go away, could I? I’m having a particularly shitty morning so far and I get the feeling you’re going to add to it.”

He laughed out loud and realized he had done that a great deal when around her. Laughter was something he’d not done much of when he’d been in Paris.

“
No, I’m not leaving. Come here and eat, Willow.” She didn’t move and he was tempted, too tempted, to get up and bring her back to the makeshift table. Touching Willow James had become addictive and he wasn’t sure he thought that was a bad thing.

She turned around and sat down. She picked up the roast beef sandwich that he’d had Beard make for them and took a small bite. Then after that, she plowed into it like a woman who’d not eaten for several days. He watched her push aside the pickle while he polished off his own sandwich, but she did eat the macaroni salad and drank two bottles of cold water. Her appetite amazed him.

Teasing her, he put the last bite of his sandwich on her plate. “You can have that if you give me a kiss.”

Her grin made his heart skip several beats. But she only picked it up and popped it into her mouth as her cell phone rang. She didn’t pull it out when the sounds of dogs barking chirped from her pocket. He picked up the trash as she sat there and looked at the dirty floor.

“
Why have you had a shitty day? You seem to be on schedule here. The last of the drywall is up and the walls are being primed. In another month, you will be on another project and this one will be a memory.”

She stood up before she answered. He was glad he was still sitting. “No. No, I won’t. This is my last job. I’m quitting after this…if I’m not fired first.”

~Chapter 11~

Shawn Talbor watched Will James go into the office, the new guy hot on her ass. He wondered about the guy. Something wasn’t quite right about him, but Shawn didn’t know what it was. He decided the man wasn’t worth his time when he had bigger fish to fry.

His daddy had said that he wasn’t going to be bailing him out anymore and that if he fucked up once more then he was going to have to kick him out of the house too. That wasn’t going to happen. He had plans for that house once his old man kicked the bucket and getting thrown out wasn’t part of his plan. And if he had to take out his dad to stay then what was one more death in the family?

Shawn moved toward the large stacks of piping that was scheduled to go back to the storage area in the morning. He was really glad that he’d overheard Conley tell the bitch that the truck was coming in or he would have been out some grade-a coke. He’d made plans to have the drugs picked up on Saturday, and now the bitch was moving his hiding place out five days early. Leaning over, he was ready to pluck the first of many containers out when Conley spoke behind him.

“
That stuff has been counted, Talbor, so if any of it comes up missing, I’ll know who to hunt down. You got yourself a little side line going on there where you’re selling Stone inventory?”

Shawn had had enough of this nosey bastard and nearly pulled out his gun to take care of him once and for all when he saw Sherman coming toward them. That was another bastard he was taking care of as soon as this was over.

“
You’re one lucky prick, you know that, Conley? You should buy him a beer. Sherman there just saved you from being dead.” Talbor walked away.

He was going to have to come back tonight and when he did, he was going to put the bitch behind a little just to extend his hiding place. He looked up at the big windows in the front of the place. Yeah, that was as good a place as any to start. New windows would have to be ordered and maybe she’d finally get her ass fired over this.