The Girl in the Hard Hat (35 page)

His roaming eyes had to pause.

The safety manager looked breathtaking in a simple dark blue evening camisole with a scooped neckline. She’d dressed it down with a pair of jeans and black boots. But of course, her hair was out, her skin was glowing and that curve between her neck and shoulder looked so bloody kissable he had to consciously bite his tongue. She lifted a hand and waved to him. He returned the greeting but turned away, clenching his jaw. There were already several local men eyeing the tight-knit little group of women, weighing up their chances and their courage.

This was going to be much harder than he’d thought.

He leaned on the railing of the balcony and drank in the black ocean. Suppressing emotions he knew he shouldn’t feel before he threw himself into the fray. The lights of the pub twinkled on the glassy surface of the sea. Black shapes and a gentle splash told him there might be a couple of dolphins frolicking out there.

Half their luck.

Shaking off his mood, he pushed back from the railing and went to join Carl’s group. Chub greeted him first.

‘Not a bad turn-out,’ the large man commented jovially. ‘But I’m thinking I might go inside for some seafood. There seems to be nothing but booze out here.’

Gavin and Dimitri laughed appreciatively as he left the group to sate his appetite. Carl seemed to notice Gavin there for the first time and eyed him warily. After a strained silence, he relented, slapped Gavin on the back and said, ‘What the fuck are you doing standing there empty-handed? You waiting for me to buy you a fuckin’ drink then?’

‘Just settling in, Carl.’ Gavin leaned back on the bar. ‘Scoping the scene out, so to speak.’

‘For fuck’s sake,’ Carl rolled his eyes, ‘stop being such a wanker.’ He yelled at the bartender, ‘Get this man a drink!’ He looked shrewdly at Gavin. ‘I suppose you think I owe you one after the way I’ve been treating you.’

Gavin tried to look innocent as the dark-haired man passed him a frothing glass. ‘Your conscience pricking, Carl?’

‘Shut your trap and hit your piss,’ Carl instructed him. ‘’Cause you ain’t getting no fuckin’ apology out of me.’

Gavin accepted this in the apologetic spirit in which it was obviously intended and with a secret smile politely changed the subject. ‘So I don’t see Bulldog about.’

Carl’s face clouded. ‘Just as well. The girls are hatching some scheme and I don’t like it.’

Gavin glanced again at Wendy, Sharon and Lena and noticed for the first time how they kept looking at the door like they were expecting someone. And then, as if on cue, Annabel George walked in, pausing on the threshold to scan the bar.

She was over-dressed for the occasion, not that any man would find fault with her taste. All male eyes turned as one to the mauve halterneck cocktail dress that was both a little too low on the neckline and a little too high on the hem. Her dark curls were piled sensuously on top of her head and her expressive eyes were heavily lined, making them look bigger than normal. If she intended to allure or impress, she would have absolutely no trouble doing it tonight. The odd part of the picture, though, was what she was carrying. A large glass bowl of chocolate mousse, topped with cream and cherries, the presence of which seemed to be causing a stir across the room.

He glanced at the girls. Wendy and Sharon looked worried.

Lena looked furious.

‘I think the show has just started, Carl,’ he drawled, indicating the scene unfolding before them.

Lena walked over to Annabel and was clearly talking rapidly to her, pointing at the bowl and putting her hands on her hips. Annabel was just as clearly
not
listening. She was certainly smiling, but kept trying to glance around Lena as though she were looking for someone else. After a while, things seemed to escalate. Lena put both hands on either side of the glass bowl of mousse and Annabel finally met her eyes squarely. But she wasn’t happy with what Lena was suggesting. She was shaking her head.

Then Lena was trying to tug the bowl of chocolate mousse out of her hands. It seemed oddly like watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon, as the bowl moved dangerously from one girl to the other.

Mine.

Yours.

Mine.

Yours.

And then Lena let go.

A bit of cream slopped out onto Annabel’s gorgeous mauve cocktail dress. The tension in the room escalated as men paused, some mid-drink.

‘Oh fuck!’ said Carl as Annabel scooped a handful of mousse out of the bowl and threw it in Lena’s face. It hit with a splat like wet mud. Lena squealed, dipped her hand in the bowl and threw some back.

A cheer erupted from the crowd.

‘Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!’

Sharon tried to pull Lena back but there was fury in her eyes. Annabel looked crazed as she flung another sloppy missile while trying to keep the bowl out of Lena’s reach.

Wendy tried to step in but was pushed viciously aside, almost overturning the chair she crashed into behind her. As she was righting herself, her eyes met Gavin’s again across the room. The silent message she threw at him was louder than any shout.

Please help me.

While he had been content to watch the show, he was not immune to that face or that message from her. With a sigh, he put his beer on the counter and walked over to the skirmish. Many guys booed him but under Wendy’s grateful gaze, he put a hand on each of the girls’ shoulders, holding them easily apart with his superior strength.

‘Listen, ladies, as much as everyone is enjoying this, I think it’s time to break it up.’

To his horror, they both turned on him like two angry cats, simultaneously scooping handfuls of mousse from the bowl and slapping it into the front of his shirt and splashing it on his face.

‘Bloody hell!’

Thankfully, just at that moment an authoritative voice boomed beside him. ‘What the hell is going on here?’

It was Bulldog, jaw clenched.

His presence seemed to have a calming effect on both women. They both sagged in defeat. Gavin released his grip.

‘Daniel,’ Annabel reached imploringly towards Bulldog. But the TCN project manager immediately went to Lena, his right hand tilting her chin up so he could examine the damage wrought in chocolate on her face.

‘
Are you crazy?
What are you doing?’

Lena winced. ‘Er, defending your honour?’

When he did nothing but glare angrily down at her, she reached up and ran her finger down her cheek and then put the chocolate-loaded tip in her mouth. ‘Revenge never tasted so sweet.’

‘Stop that,’ he warned, half laugh, half groan, and then taking her hand turned around. ‘I’m taking Lena back to camp to get cleaned up.’

‘Daniel,’ Annabel implored again, ‘what about me?’

Several men immediately jumped to her aid. Each one looked sleazier than the last. Bulldog’s eyes passed over them. Finally, he chose someone who hadn’t actually volunteered.

‘Chub, will you drive Annabel home?’

Chub, who had been carefully weaving his way through the crowd carrying a large bowl of deep-fried prawns, looked up in annoyance at being suddenly called upon.

‘Seriously?’ His eyes travelled to a chocolate mousse-covered Annabel. ‘
Now?
A man needs dinner before dessert.’

Annabel gasped in outrage, a hand pressed against her heaving brown bosom.

Wendy touched Chub’s arm lightly. That pleading expression was back again, making Gavin feel jealous it was no longer directed at him. ‘Please, Cobber?’

He hated the intimacy he heard in her voice when she spoke to the HR manager.
Why doesn’t she talk to me like that?

‘All right,’ Chub sighed. He looked over at Annabel. ‘Come on then. But we’re eating these first.’

Bulldog turned to take off with Lena, so Annabel reluctantly made haste to follow Chub, leaving Gavin standing there looking at Wendy.

She put a hand on his shoulder. ‘I’m so sorry.’

His insides twisted at her touch and he looked down at the mess on his shirt to cover how much she affected him. ‘Guess I should go back to camp too.’

‘No,’ she protested immediately, ‘I’m not going to ruin your night as well as your shirt.’

‘Seriously, Sarge, it’s no trouble.’ It’s not like he’d wanted to come in the first place. What a great excuse to leave.

‘Come on,’ she tugged on his arm, ‘I’ve got an idea.’

‘But –’

She didn’t allow him to speak, pulling him through the crowd with determination. They went inside and straight towards the toilets.

‘Er, Sarge.’ Gavin dragged his feet. ‘Are you aware that this is the ladies’ room?’

‘Yes.’

‘Are you also aware that I’m a man?’

‘Very aware,’ she nodded softly as she turned to meet his gaze. ‘Don’t worry, there’s no one else in here.’

It was quite impossible to slow his erratic heart now that they were alone and she had so much more skin on display than usual – all creamy, curvaceous perfection. His eyes devoured her as she put her hands on her hips and said, ‘Take off your shirt.’

Something in his face must have given him away because she laughed – a glorious gurgle that made him think of precious gems being scattered across a velvet display case. ‘Relax. I’m not going to rape you,’ she said.

‘What a shame!’

She blushed, holding out her hand. ‘I can rinse that area of your shirt and dry it under the hand dryer. We’ll be done in minutes.’

‘All right,’ he finally agreed, willing his body to stop buzzing as he unbuttoned his shirt. Perhaps, if he hadn’t been so focused on controlling the rush of blood to his loins, he would have realised the extreme foolishness of this seemingly harmless move.

Wendy could hardly breathe. After bending down to splash the cream and chocolate off his face, Gavin stood up straight again, torso exposed, steadily regarding her, the very image of masculinity. Broad-shouldered with a gorgeous pair of pecs and a double keyboard set of perfectly formed abdominal muscles tapering beneath. His upper arms were a sculpture of easy contours.

His jeans hung low on his hips, revealing the waistband of red underwear that had the word ‘Spiderman’ repeated around the circumference of his waist.

Belatedly, she realised he was still holding out his shirt to her and tore her gaze from his underwear to the checked cotton. She snatched it from his grasp and immediately turned towards the sink to spot-clean it. Hot water flowed freely from the tap and, relaxing a little, she looked up to watch him in the mirror.

‘So,’ she injected what she hoped sounded like cool indifference into her voice, ‘what’s with the Spiderman underwear? Got a fetish you want to tell me about?’

She saw him grimace in the mirror. ‘It was a practical joke that I haven’t had the heart to throw out. My sister, Kate, bought them for me a couple of Christmases ago.’

Kate!

Her eyes jerked to his in the mirror. The woman he had been sending flowers to was his sister. The knowledge took one sandbag off her heart. Not only was Gavin ten points less promiscuous, he’d also just given her the very first ever piece of personal information about himself. It was a step in the right direction.

‘You have a sister?’ She tried to preserve the indifference in her tone.

‘Yeah.’ To her disappointment, he didn’t elaborate. In fact, his face clouded as though he’d realised he’d said too much. She sighed. They weren’t getting emotionally closer despite the fact that she had now seen him practically naked.

Her gaze dropped from his face to his shoulder to his perfect collarbone to his . . .

‘Hey, what’s that?’

‘What’s what?’

She draped his shirt over the dryer and, wiping her hands on her jeans, went towards him in a kind of stupor. Of their own volition, her fingers reached out and touched the round indented scar just under his collarbone. His skin was warm and supple under her fingertips and she couldn’t resist prolonging the touch. His pec muscle jerked as she explored the damaged skin.

‘If I didn’t know any better I’d say it was a bullet wound.’ She had said it as a joke, not really believing for a second it was true. After all, where would Gavin have come in contact with an angry gunman?

But the way his body stilled and the awkward silence that followed gave her pause.

‘Not that I’ve seen one before,’ she mumbled. ‘I just watch a lot of crime shows.’

‘It’s nothing,’ he rasped. ‘It’s just nothing.’

Like a surveyor discovering new terrain, her eyes moved further down his chest to another scar below that. It was more of a wide slash than a round scar this time. He sucked in a breath as her fingers followed the trail of her eyes.

‘Shit, Gavin, what have you been doing with yourself?’

Her eyes widened as she spotted yet another scar just under his ribcage. Her fingers began a path diagonally across his chest towards it, until he startled her by snatching her wrist.

‘Will you stop that?’

‘Sorry, I –’

‘Don’t apologise, just don’t do it.’

‘O-
kay
.’ It was hard not to hide the hurt in her voice. He searched her eyes furiously for something she couldn’t fathom and then released her wrist. ‘No harm done,’ he ground out.

She swallowed. ‘I was just curious, that’s all. It looks like you’ve really been through something.’