The gleam in his eyes had her pussy creaming. It was the one he’d had while he’d taken her over and over at the construction site.
“I do like having room to work,” he said.
She cursed her traitorous body. Even now, she could feel it gravitating towards him. Her lust for him had been bad before but she’d not known what she’d been missing. Now she knew and every single cell inside her wanted to be in the know
again.
Without responding, she led the way to the room she wanted to use. Slater met them in the hall.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. This is Mr Carter, I met with him yesterday and his boss has sent him to see where we are at. I was taking him to Room Three to do just that.”
“Okay.” He reached out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr Carter. I’m Mr McKenzie.”
Ariel waited with impatience as they finished their greetings. Slater sent her a look she knew meant to visit him later. Finally they made it to Room Three.
“Take a seat,” she ordered as she walked to the computer keyboard by her chair. Typing in her code, she accessed the file and up it came. A three-dimensional image of the museum appeared in the middle of the table. She touched another button and the lights dimmed considerably in the room, allowing the image to be more easily viewed.
“Wow,” Tuck said, leaning forward. “Call me suitably impressed, Ariel. Truly. This is awesome.”
She ignored the warm feeling that accompanied his compliment. “This is what we’ve worked out.”
Ariel gave him the spiel that caught him up to where she was currently at. Different colours were highlighted at times to correspond to what she was explaining. Surprisingly, Tuck didn’t interrupt with comments about their time fucking, but he did ask questions that were logical and made good sense.
She leant back and thumped her pencil on the table. The lights remained low and the image continued to hover over the glossy surface.
“I’ll be finished with the rest tomorrow if you need to go over it all once it’s entirely completed.”
“I’m fucking impressed. Who’s going to be coming to install?”
“We’ll send a team of four. They won’t get in the way of you or your men, so don’t worry about that. They’re good and fast. It won’t take them long to put all this into effect.”
“Seems so complex,” he commented.
“It is on one hand. On the other, it’s not. Probably just seems that way since it’s not for a house but a museum, and we wanted to ensure that any of the artefacts they bring in and have either on display or in the back are well protected.”
“I’m at a loss for words, Ariel. Truly I am. Y’all have done an outstanding job. I know Richard will be pleased and if the museum isn’t then they’re stupid. What did they think of it, by the way?”
“I spoke to Gerald yesterday and he just said to get it done and make sure nothing was delayed with the opening. They have some big exhibit coming to be part of the opening day gala thing they’re holding.”
She relaxed as they spoke. This was the Tuck she remembered. The one who was easy to talk to, not the one who stole her panties and fucked her with raw abandon until it hurt to walk.
Shit. I have got to stop thinking about all those times. Each and every one. The multiple and numerous orgasms he’s given me.
“You going to the gala?”
“Me?” She took deep breaths, desperate to lower her core temperature. “Not sure why I’d go. Unless it was something I really wanted to see but then I’d have to be able to afford the tickets even.”
He grunted and she gestured with her chin.
“You?”
“No clue. Opening day is a long way off.”
“True. It is a bit out there.”
He rose and walked around the table to take the seat beside her. Swallowing, she focused on the image instead of him.
“Why do things have to be difficult between us?”
“They don’t. Let me alone and we’ll be fine.”
“You still going on about that ashamed bullshit?” he snapped.
“I don’t judge you and how you react in the flings you partake in, Tuck. Why do you think you have the right to nose into how I handle it?”
He whipped her chair towards him. “Because
your
fling had to do with
me.
You don’t get to treat me like a leper and avoid your own apartment.”
Anger spiked along her spine and she matched him glare for glare. “Wow, I’m pretty sure you’re not my parent and therefore have no right to tell me anything about how I act.”
“Like a scared wuss. I thought you said you were a Marine.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Watch the words that come out of your mouth next. I don’t take kindly to slander against the Corps.”
“I thought they were supposed to be some of the bravest.”
“We are,” she replied instantly. “One has nothing to do with the other.”
“Bullshit.” He jerked on the chair. “You’re running.”
“From what?” Her fingers dug into the sides of the armrests. “I have
nothing
to run from.”
“Don’t lie to either of us, Ariel Greene. I bet you’re wet right now and if I shoved my fingers into you, they’d come out covered in your cream.”
“Sex is sex, Tuck. I can get it anywhere and so long as the man is talented, I’ll be wet. I never said I wasn’t attracted to you, so that’s a pointless argument.” Her heart pounded so hard she wondered if it would punch through her ribs and fall out onto her pants.
“You’re still running.”
Now she was getting pissed.
Does he have to keep pushing this issue? Can we not feel the need to address the fact that’s exactly what I’m doing?
“From what?” Cripes, when did her voice escalate so? “You’ve made it perfectly clear how you treat women. You go through them like you’re eating a bag of chips. One right after another. Who’s the one running?”
“So this is on me because I didn’t have a steady girlfriend when we fucked?” His tone dropped dangerously low.
“Had there been a girlfriend in your life,
that
wouldn’t have happened,” she snarled.
“How many batteries do you go through calling my name again?”
Ice coated her heart and she drew on the strength that had got her through Boot. With a barely there blink she stared at him, shoving the humiliation she had into a small dark corner where it wouldn’t see the light of day.
“More than I should be. If that’s all, Mr Carter, I have work to continue.”
He shoved back with a sharp, “Whatever.”
It wasn’t hard to see his anger and frustration but right now, she didn’t care. Her own were surging with the force of a powerful rip tide and she was having a hard time keeping herself from being pulled under.
Ariel moved around and pressed a button. Within seconds, two men dressed in suits stepped into the room. “Yes, Ms Greene?”
She looked them over. The twins on staff—Brandon and Landon Towers.
Landon had spoken. She’d learned to tell them apart over the time she’d worked here. It hadn’t been easy for they had taken great pleasure in trying to fool her.
“Mr Carter was just leaving. Escort him out, please.”
Tuck glared at her but she didn’t care. This was her place—she didn’t have to face a damn thing if she didn’t want to.
“Yes, ma’am.” Landon again. “Sir, if you will come with us.”
The words, while spoken respectfully, truly offered no option. Tuck seemed to realise that and shook his head in her direction as he went with them. She made a big production of shutting off the display as he left the room, so she wouldn’t watch. Then she returned to her office and after a long drink of cold water, got back to work. Doing her damnedest to ignore the desire coursing through her body courtesy of one Tuck Carter.
* * * *
“She tossed me out. Had two men there who escorted me to the door like I would cause a problem.”
Steve sat across from him at the table they’d claimed the moment they had entered the sports bar. A bottle of beer dangled from his fingertips as he stared at Tuck.
“I’m confused, Tuck. What did you think was going to happen?”
“Why is it so hard for her to think of us as being together?”
Steve blinked a few times. “Is that what this is about? You want to date her?”
He leant back and crossed his arms. “Is that such a ridiculous notion to you?”
“Given your track record? Yes.”
“I want more, Steve.”
“Obviously.” His retort was dry.
Tuck flipped him off and drank some of his beer. “I didn’t want anything more with the others. It’s her I want it with. Why is that so hard for her to understand?”
“Have you told her this? Or was it more of an ‘I fucked you numerous times, I bet you’re wet now’ kind of thing?”
Tuck shrugged.
Steve laughed even as he shook his head. “There’s your problem. You want her, you should tell her. Better yet, ask her out on a date.”
“And how do you propose I do that when she’s avoiding me like the plague. Hell, like I’m the one who gave it to her.”
Steve rolled his eyes and waved for another drink. “Poor, poor Tuck. Not used to having to put out energy to get a woman. Wonder what that says about the women you’re usually with.”
“You know, you truly can be an asshole.”
“More than you know, man. More than you know. Look, Ariel’s not been talking to me either so I don’t know what to tell you. But I suggest you ask, and I do mean
ask
her out on a real date. Treat her like a woman and not like an item you’d just like to fuck.”
Tuck rested his elbows on the table and rolled his bottle on the bottom as he thought about the past week. He’d not once seen Ariel. Occasionally he saw her vehicle in their parking garage, but never her. Woman had gone dark. He didn’t like it at all. He reached for his burger and bit in. This would take a good deal of planning but Steve was right. He wanted something more than that bedroom fling and he had to stop looking at her like sex was all he wished for.
He wanted more sex, definitely. But it was more than that. She’d got under his skin—had since he first saw her and had that thought of lilacs surround him with its gentle and refreshing scent.
They’d played this cat and mouse game for over a year and a half, the teasing becoming more and more sexual between them. Yet at the same time they could just hang at sporting events together and have a great time. She understood the rules and didn’t ask annoying questions through the whole thing. Another bonus was that she’d never asked him to go shopping with her.
Their actual sleeping together had flipped a switch in his mind and all he could focus on was her. He wanted to be able to call her his. Go to sleep with her in his arms.
Shit, it’s like I’m thinking forever.
With a mental reprimand, he focused back on the game on one of the many flat screens around the establishment. He and Steve hung out until late before making their way back to the apartment. Her car was gone—that was the first thing he noticed. The second was that someone was waiting for him.
Daisy.
Ah, shit.
She pushed away from the wall and sashayed over to place her hands on his chest. “Hello, Tuck,” she purred.
“What are you doing here, Daisy?”
Steve waved and gave him a wicked grin as he slipped inside the building.
Bastard.
Tuck stared at the woman whom he had made the mistake of sleeping with. She was dressed in the same way she had been the first time they’d met—incredibly short shorts, a belly-exposing cut-off shirt and stilettos. This time, however, it did nothing for him.
She tucked a curl of her hair—now dark red—behind her ear and stepped closer. “You didn’t answer any of my calls.”
“Nope, I didn’t. Thought you would have gotten the hint from that.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “I thought we had something.”
“It was a one-night stand. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.” Yes, he was being an ass but he didn’t need her hanging around thinking there was more to what they’d shared.
She faltered but regained her composure quickly. Dragging her tongue along her lips—an act he realised was supposed to be sexy—she stepped closer to him and reinitiated physical contact. The tips of her nails began to dig into his skin and he frowned, removing her touch.
“We were good together,” she said.
He exhaled noisily. “I said before, one-night stand. There’s nothing more there. Get it through your head. Goodnight, Daisy.” He walked around her then entered the building. Shaking his head, he made his way to the elevator. More proof that Steve and Ariel were right. He had way too many confrontations like this. And it had to stop.
I don’t want anyone but Ariel now, so it will.
On their floor, he cast a glance to her door and continued to his. Had her vehicle been there, he would have pounded until she answered. But it wasn’t, so he didn’t.
“Yes, sure. We can do that for you. Don’t worry, it’ll be taken care of,” Steve assured.
“Who was that?” Tuck asked when Steve hung up.
“Ariel. She asked me to look after her plants for her.”
His eyebrows converged and he closed the door behind him. “Why? Where is she?”
“She’s gone for two weeks.”
“To where?”
The security had been added to the museum and the men doing the installation were, as she’d said, good at what they did. But why would she leave before everything had been finalised?
“This is her two weeks of service. She’s in the Marine Reserve. This is her full-drill status.”
He calmed down a bit, remembering she had somewhere to be one weekend a month. “How are you going to do that if we don’t have the key to her place anymore?”
“Oh, I have a key.”
“You? You have a key to her place?”
“Yes, she put it in the mailbox, I picked it up earlier today when I got the mail.”
Tuck held out his hand. “I’ll take care of her plants.”
“Nope, sorry man. She asked me to do it. I don’t need you over there sleeping in her bed because it smells like her.”
Tuck muttered some expletives and went to his room. This day hadn’t gone at all as planned. Seated before his computer, he pulled up the plans for his house and spent the next few hours working on them. He was close to having them just right, but it wasn’t quite there yet.