Chapter 9 #3
Greer swung open the door to the room then stood back with a wide smile on her face. A wide, expectant smile.
Shit.
A disappointed woman was not his happy place.
Alex breathed, bracing himself. Then he walked inside.
Not shit. Holy shit.
The walls were now a warm sepia color. The scary cot was gone, and in its place was an iron-framed double bed covered with a simple quilt.
Nothing frilly. The floor sported a Persian-type rug, the kind that only looked better with some age on it.
In the corner sat a recliner facing a damn big flatscreen TV. “Greer, I…uh…”
Hell, he didn’t even know what to say. He took in the small kitchenette, completely spotless and stocked with cooking utensils and other stuff. Wait a minute…was that…
He strode over to the stove and flipped over the Dutch oven sitting on top. It was. “This is Le Creuset.”
“I raided the Junior League Bargain Basement sale a little early.”
He poked his head inside the adjoining bathroom. Just as spotless as everything else. Thick brown towels were rolled and stashed inside a metal bucket. New shower curtain. Matching rug.
Chilly air crept up the back of his neck, and he swung around to eye the AC unit. “That has to be a replacement.”
“Nope. Amazing how well it works once I encouraged the neighbors to move on and shot a little freon into it.”
“What do you want from me?” Because someone didn’t do all this work without an ulterior motive.
“Who said I want—”
“You took the time to clean up this place. Hell, you decorated it. Where did this stuff come from?”
“It’s all just been sitting in my dad’s house, and I thought…
” Greer grabbed her hair in both hands, twisted it in a way he was coming to realize meant she was nervous or unsure.
Biting her lip, she turned a circle, looking over everything in the place.
“You don’t like it? I can change out the quilt or rug or—”
He caught her arm and stopped her second rotation. “It’s great. But why go to all this trouble for a stranger?”
Her uncertain expression hardened. “Normally, when I let a man get both his hands inside my bra, I elevate him to at least acquaintance.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You wanted out of the B&B. It’ll be a lot harder for your fan club to find you out here, and even if they do, you can lock the gate to keep them away.”
“So you’re just looking out for my bodily safety?”
“I was a Girl Scout. Community service is in my blood.”
He could see that. An even shorter Greer wearing one of those little paramilitary uniforms he’d seen today. And knee socks. Oh, hell, he’d like to see her in those now. But this community service thing hit him like being pistol whipped across the face. “I’m not a charity case.”
She shuffled back a step. “I never said you were.”
“I have money.” Just not money to spend on hotels and other useless shit that didn’t gain him anything.
“Fine,” she snapped. “Then you can pay me rent. Think two grand a month would be fair?”
He rubbed his forehead. Even though the air drifting around him was cool, Greer’s swirling anger was approximately two hundred and twelve degrees. “What does your brother think?”
“About renting you this place or the artisan village?”
“Yes.” They were both big risks.
“He believes in me. And he believes in what our dad designed for me when I was just a baby.” She hiked up her skirt and stuck out her boot.
But it wasn’t her feet that caught his attention. It was the delicate curve of her knee and the shapely muscle of her thigh. God, what he wanted to do to those thighs. What he wanted them to do to him.
“These say I’m supposed to take risks.” All too soon, the fabric dropped to cover her skin, which disappointed him way more than was smart. “Alex, are you listening to me?”
He jerked his attention back to her face. “Huh?”
“I don’t get you. First, you’re all pissy because I offered you a place to stay. Then you’re not even paying attention because you’re so busy staring at my legs.” She paced closer until it felt as though she was wrapping him up with rope. “What do you want, Alex?”
“You.” Mother of God, why now, of all time, for him to develop a careless mouth? It was the hands-down truth, but he was not in Prophecy to get a little action. And that was all it could ever be if he took this woman to bed.
Greer was so up in his personal space, they were breaking some rule of physics. “What’s stopping you from having me?”
“What I meant is I want this damn contract with PBC.”
“And you can’t have both?”
“I don’t sh—”
She clapped a hand over his mouth. “Yeah, I’ve heard that one, so save it.”
He mumbled against her palm and pulled her honeyed scent into his lungs. Damn stuff detoured to his brain, making him feel like a bee on a nectar bender.
“Look, if you want PBC’s contract, then you have to win the tooling part of the competition. Which means you have to stick around for another couple of weeks. Why not enjoy yourself at the same time?”
Rather than try to answer, Alex flicked out his tongue and painted a tiny spiral on her palm. Her eyes widened and darkened. She drew her hand from his mouth, but before she dropped it completely, her fingertips grazed his lips.
Alex sidestepped, giving himself room. Room to breathe. To think.
Finally, he said, “I’m assuming you’ll want media coverage on this competition.”
“Of course.”
“If I stay, you have to promise to keep them away from me—no pictures, no name in a blog, nothing.”
“Why would I do that…” She must’ve caught the no-bullshit look on his face because she nodded. “Done.” Then she said, “Now, what about you and me?”
“Greer, you’re a girl next door, and I’m…”
“Not a girl?”
“Not the boy next door.”
“Not a boy at all.” She sidled closer again, and the smell of her warm skin pinballed around inside him, setting off every bell, buzzing every cell.
Slowly, so damn slowly, she smoothed her hand up his chest until her fingertips rested just below the rounded neckline of his T-shirt. His muscles went rigid.
She flicked open one of his shirt buttons. Didn’t matter because his T-shirt still covered his skin. But right now, what he wanted was for her to undo every button and push his T-shirt up his chest. He wanted it so bad that his skin pulsed with the need.
Instead, Greer slid her fingers higher, stroking the hollow of his throat.
She had to feel how hard his heart was thumping.
Then, she hooked two fingertips inside the fabric and tugged.
Before he could stop her, she pressed a kiss to the exposed skin.
When she used his own tongue-swirl trick back on him, he grabbed her hips and backed her against the wall.
He grabbed one of her thighs, hitched it up to his hip so he could press his hard-on against her.
Jesus, it was like he was one of those magic inflating toys—just add Greer and watch your sea-dick grow to an incredible size.
“I’m not a nice guy. I’m not like any of the men you’ve known before.
I’ve seen things and done things you can’t even imagine. You don’t want any of this.”
She tilted back her head to show him heavy-lidded eyes and a do-me smile. “I so want every inch of that.”
When he released his grip on her leg and let it fall, her boot made a thud on the floor. “Goddammit, I’m more than just my cock.”
His harsh words cleared some of the sex fog from her blue eyes.
She reached up, cupped his cheek in her palm, stroked her thumb over his cheekbone.
“If you think I don’t know that, then you’re not paying attention.
You’re an incredibly talented artist. A man who does what he says he’ll do even when he’s been backed against a wall and is as pissed as a close-shaved hedgehog.
I like you, Alex. Wanting you is just a side benefit. ”
His chest warmed like a light had been flipped on inside his heart.
How long had it been since someone liked him?
Sure, people respected his work, women wanted him, but he wasn’t sure anyone had any affection for him.
For the past eight years, he’d rejected all that.
And as for the love he’d been given before that time, he sure as hell didn’t deserve it anymore.
“Why are you doing all this other shit—the competition, the place to stay?”
“You don’t trust very easily, do you?”
Try not at all. “In my world, people give to get.”
She rose to her toes, rubbing all that curvy body along his.
The kiss she pressed to the corner of his lips was so light, so soft.
He’d never felt anything so simple, so without expectations.
Then she drew back. “I’m sorry about whatever, whoever made you believe the world is a shitty place.
But you can trust me.” She took his hand and led him back to the center of the room.
“And I’m sorry I assumed you’d be overjoyed about staying out here, so—”
“How about two hundred a week?”
“I’m not asking you to—”
“You either take my money or you can rent the place to someone else.”
“But I don’t want…” She snapped her mouth closed, but Alex heard her unspoken words.
Anyone else. She didn’t want anyone else but him.
If there was one thing in the world he didn’t deserve, it was this woman.