Royal Trouble (22 page)

Until then, he would wait.  Wes wasn't in a hurry.

"Thanks for worrying, mom, but we'll be fine, I promise."  He and Trey would be fine, because Wes was going to make sure of it.

Leigh Ann tried to focus on the computer screen, but her ears were burning up.  She heard every word of Wes and his mother's conversation out on the front porch. 

Eavesdropping is rude, Leigh Ann
.  Her mother's voice popped into her head unexpectedly, and she gritted her teeth. 
Eavesdroppers never hear anything good about themselves
.

"Shut up, mama," she grumbled, her fingers hitting the keys a lot harder and faster than she actually typed.  In fact, she was just typing a bunch of gobbledygoop, while her ears honed in like a spy device on what Wes and his mother were saying.

Her mother was right, she hadn't heard anything good about herself, or anything she wanted to hear. 
Not going to work out...she's not the type of woman I want or need...she's just my assistant. 
What kind of woman did he think she was?  A woman like his ex-wife evidently. 

He had called his ex-wife a selfish, lying, cheating bitch.  That must be what he thought of her too.
 
And he'd made love to her even though he felt that way about her.  So what did that say about him?  He was a selfish bastard who had used her, because he wanted to get laid and she was available.

Sickness boiled in Leigh Ann's stomach, heated by the anger consuming her.  As soon as she could, she was finding another job and getting the hell out of here.  Because it was the right thing to do, she would give him notice that she was leaving, give him time to find someone else, but there was no way Leigh Ann was staying here. 

Wes Jepson was not the man she thought he was.  Leigh Ann couldn't tell her sister she was leaving because she had slept with him, that he'd used her.  Roxanne and Wes were friends, and Leigh Ann didn't want to be the cause of ending that.  The reason she'd give her sister would be she just wasn't cut out for this job.  That her sister would buy.  Roxanne had seen it herself.

Hearing the front door close, Leigh Ann gathered her emotions and molded them into a front she'd assumed many times.  Polite, calm and professional.  She knew how to do this and never let him know how much he'd hurt her.  Leigh Ann was an expert at repressing her emotions, she'd practiced it all her life.

Leaning on the door, he crossed his arms over his chest, his face as hard as his eyes.  "We need to talk tonight," he told her.

She looked up at him, feigning surprise.  "Oh? We can talk now, if you want," she replied chirpily, batting her eyes and smiling.  The sooner, the better in Leigh Ann's opinion.

One brow lifted as he said, "About last night...."

"What about last night?" Anger tried to sharpen her words, but she fought it back.  "I think I get the picture," she said smiling, her face feeling like it was going to crack.  "It was a one-time thing, right?"  Damn straight that's what it was, because it would be a cold day in hell before she let this man touch her again.

"I don't want you to get the wrong idea..."

Leigh Ann lifted a hand to cut him off.  "We had fun, it was a little stress relief.  Didn't mean anything, right?"  That sickness in her stomach surged up to her throat, but she clamped it down and held her broad smile, although it felt like a ton of bricks sat at the corners of her mouth.

His shoulders relaxed, and the straight line of his lips lifted a little at the corners, before he said, "Really?"  His obvious relief made the sickness worse.

"Oh, sure...what did you think I expected you to declare your undying love?" she asked with a forced laugh.  "I'm a big girl, Wes...I know what last night was about." 

It was about him using her for sex, because she was available and more than ready, with no intention of showing her respect or any iota of caring afterward.  Cold, hard sex, a basic function to satisfy his itch.  Not that she had any expectations of a relationship.  She knew the score, and had taken the risk with him anyway. 

But he could at least pretend that it meant
something
to him.  That she meant something and wasn't just a warm body he had used for the night.  Her only expectation now was to get away from this handsome, but unfeeling man as soon as she possibly could.

"So no hard feelings?" he asked, his voice slightly disbelieving as he pushed off the door frame to stand with his hands on his hips.

"Absolutely none," she said around the knot in her throat, then added as evenly as she could, "It was sex, Wes."

"Yes it was," he agreed.  Her sickness got worse when he gave her that sexy bedroom smile, and she saw desire flash in his eyes.  "Damned mind blowing sex," he told her, taking a step toward the desk, but Leigh Ann held her hand out again and he stopped.

"One time, Wes," she repeated evenly.  "It's done."

He hesitated a moment, then asked in an uncertain voice, "Wasn't it good for you?"

"Oh, it was good..." Beyond good, earth-shaking, heart breaking, but that was irrelevant.  "But you were right, since we work together we need to keep it professional.  You can do that, can't you, Wes?" she asked sweetly, widening her eyes, wanting to laugh at his shell-shocked expression.

"Yeah, sure...that's good then," he agreed, but his shoulders had tensed up again, making Leigh Ann feel a tad better.  He wasn't as unaffected as he was pretending to be apparently.  His body language and his face said he still wanted her. 

Well, wasn't that just too damned bad?

She's not the type of woman I want or need
.  She was good enough to sleep with, but she wasn't good enough to be his
type
, if he was looking for a relationship.  Leigh Ann wasn't a game player, but Wes Jepson deserved a little lesson about using people, and treating them like crap. 

While she looked for another job, and another place to live, maybe she'd just give it to him. By the time she walked out on Wes Jepson, he would have his dick in his hand and it would be so hard he could pound nails with it.  She was Roxanne Baker's sister, and she had learned from her sister how to pay people back when they crossed her.  It was time for Leigh Ann to tap into her genetics and extract a little revenge herself.  It wasn't in her nature, but she could do this, needed to do it to reclaim her dignity.

Wes was tired, wrung out emotionally, and he needed a beer to extinguish the slow building anger that had set up shop in his mind.  All day long he dreaded talking to Leigh Ann, had built it up in his mind that she would blow up, be hurt and storm out of his office when they talked about last night.  That hadn't happened.

Instead, she had basically given him the brush off.  Told him it was a one-night-stand and she was perfectly fine with that.  She had acted like it meant nothing to her.  Totally not what he expected, and it threw him for a loop.  It had bothered him all afternoon.  It was still bothering him now.

Toweling his hair off, he wrapped the towel around his hips, shaved then walked into his bedroom to change clothes.  Wes should be happy,
ecstatic
she felt that way, because that is exactly how he thought he felt too.  But when the tables were turned on him it wasn't how he felt at all.  He was really confused, slightly hurt and insulted.

She had used him for sex.

That is how men acted, not soft, emotional women like Leigh Ann Baker.  Except for maybe her sister, Roxanne, women just weren't built that way.  Well the women he had known anyway.  That she had the capacity to make love to him so enthusiastically all night long, then get up this morning and act like being around him didn't bother her at all, was as mind blowing to him as the sex had been.

Now, she was downstairs with Trey making sandwiches for their supper.  Something normal and ordinary.  Wes was upstairs trying to wrap his mind around the situation.  Hiding out from her again, this time because he had no idea how to deal with the situation.  Just like he'd hidden out in his office the rest of the afternoon to avoid her.

What he needed to do was talk to her about moving out.  She should have been gone by now, had enough time, and he had paid her twice.  She should have enough money to do that now.  If not, he would chip in whatever she was short.  Wes needed her to move out. 

So why the hell didn't he want her to leave?  It didn't make sense, he didn't make sense, even to himself.  Wes knew he had to go downstairs.  Trey was down there and he hadn't seen him in nearly a week.  The fact that he was even contemplating staying up here instead of going downstairs because she was down there, told him he needed to get her gone fast.

Wes dressed, then stopped to draw in a breath to shore up his flagging courage, before he made his feet move.  At the foot of the stairs, he contemplated running right back up them.  At the breakfast bar, Trey munched on a sandwich, while keeping up a steady conversation with Leigh Ann, even though Leigh Ann was bent over the dishwasher piling dirty dishes inside.  Her beautiful ass was in the air, and the short skirt she wore barely covered her ass cheeks.

Swallowing down the desire that shot to his throat, Wes curled his fingers into his palms, and strode toward the kitchen, but his eyes stayed on her enticing curves.  He decided that if she had on underwear under that short skirt, it was of the thong variety.  Not a scrap of material covered the bottom of her firm round cheeks.  With a muffled curse, Wes adjusted himself then stomped into the kitchen.

After a wiggle, which made the hem of the skirt dance, Leigh Ann stood, shut the dishwasher and pushed the button, then gave him that knee-melting smile of hers. 

"Oh, Wes..." she drawled, then her tongue darted out to lick her gorgeous lips as she held his gaze.  She bit her lower lip and he held back a groan. "Your sandwich is in the refrigerator."  She turned and the skirt swished again.  Wes's eyes followed her to the sink, until Trey squealed to catch his attention.

"Daddy, Miss Leigh Ann made me a nutter butter sandwich!  It's better than Nana's!  She put bananas on it for me."  Trey took a big bite of the sandwich and grinned.  Wes could see for himself how good it was in the gap between Trey's teeth.

"That's great, sport," Wes said then turned his gaze back to Leigh Ann. 

Soft tendrils of blonde hair had escaped her ponytail and stuck to her damp flushed cheeks.  Her makeup was different.  It looked like she put on extra or something, because her blue eyes stood out like jewels in her face, they were smoky and mysterious, and her lips were glossy, lusher than he remembered. 

She noticed him looking evidently, because after a sly smile, her eyes raked down his body slowly, stopping at his crotch for a beat, before her tongue darted out to wet her mouth again.  Like a camera, flashes of where that tongue had been on his body early this morning, and the havoc it wreaked, entered his mind and made Wes even harder.  His fly was so tight now, he thought he might bust the zipper on his jeans at any second.  But he knew that was going to be an ongoing state for him, until she moved out. 

The thought of her leaving acted like a splash of water in his face, and helped the situation some, but not nearly enough.

"Wes?" she asked batting her eyes innocently.

"Yeah?" he responded, entranced by the hemmed edge of her scooped neck tank top, which barely covered her hardened nipples from his view.  She was turned on, and he was turned on, but there would be no relief for the situation.  His eyes darted to Trey who popped the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth.  Trey was here, and Leigh Ann didn't want to go there with him again. 
It's done
.

"Your roast beef sandwich is in the fridge, would you like me to get it for you?" she offered tilting her head to the side.

"Sure, thanks...a beer too, please," he grumbled then dragged his eyes back to Trey as he made his way around the breakfast bar to sit beside him.

Wes's eyes latched onto her ass again, as Leigh Ann opened the refrigerator then bent inside to pull out the sandwich plate and a beer.  She turned around then stopped at the edge of the counter to pop the cap off of his beer.  Holding his gaze, she licked the rim, then tipped it up to take a long drink.  Now, his damned beer was going to taste like those lips, he thought as she slid it across the bar to him with a coy smile.

She passed him his sandwich, then announced, "I'm going to eat in the living room and watch some TV."

"Fine," he growled, but his eyes followed her as she sashayed toward the sofa.

Wes would have to talk to her about putting on more clothes around Trey.  His son didn't need to see all that, and Wes damned sure didn't either.  He took a large bite of his sandwich, and gasped. 

The bitter taste of mustard overwhelmed his taste buds, and stung his eyes.  She must've put the whole jar on his sandwich.  He rolled the bite around a time or two, trying to get his breath back, then picked up his beer and almost drank what was left in the bottle to wash out his mouth.  He glanced toward the sofa, and met her eyes.  Leigh Ann lifted her sandwich to him and smiled softly, before she turned back toward the TV.

After he finished his sandwich, because he didn't want to hurt her feelings, Wes picked up his and Trey's plates and took them to the sink.  Trey announced that he was going outside to play with Silas before dark.  Wes searched around for an excuse to keep his son inside, his buffer between him and the woman who temptation incarnate, but came up empty.  Trey darted out the patio door, and Wes was left standing there with another beer in his hand, staring at the living room, at Leigh Ann, who was now sitting in his recliner flipping through the channels.

Maybe he could make it to his room, he thought, and walked softly toward the stairs.  His foot touched the first tread, and he thought he was home free, but Leigh Ann's soft sweet voice teased from the sofa, "You going to bed already?  It's not even dark,
old
man."

Old man
?  He felt like an old man right about now...worn out and used up.  Wes was older than the sassy blonde bombshell, who he estimated was twenty-six or seven.