Playing With Trouble (Desire Bay)

by Joya Ryan

  “Makes sense,” she said.

  “Which means Henry Davis’s order is here.” He pointed at the clipboard he had along with the various sizes of wood Henry had ordered. “We’re going to stack his order against the wall right there.” Jake pointed to the east side of the warehouse. “So when we have to load it and deliver it next week, we already have it ready to go.”

  “Okay,” Laura said, nodding in understanding.

  “I’ll use the machine to get the bulk of the order, but if you want to work with the guys on walking over the smaller pieces, you can do that.”

  “Will do,” she said with a smile, but Jake could tell she was dragging a bit. This was hard work. But she was doing it. They all worked together to get the wood organized, and Laura kept pace the entire time.

  Jake was more than impressed—he was certain now that he’d been wrong about her. She was staying. Laura Baughman was done running. And he was ready to risk a hell of a lot for her.

  Laura watched Jake use heavy machinery all day, and holy hell, he was sexy. All those muscles working and the effortless ease with every move he made had her panting. He was in his element. Confident. And she could see why her dad trusted him. The shop was in good hands with him.

  He was patient with her, too, showing her how the warehouse operated and answering her questions. He really did have this job down, and if she were honest, she hated this. Moving wood was not her idea of fun. She wanted to get back to her flower shop, with a new respect for what went into this part of the business.

  A twinge of guilt flooded her.

  If Jake was right, and the warehouse brought in the majority of the revenue for Baughman Home Goods, she’d have to get on board real quick. Otherwise the company would suffer. And maybe Jake was better to oversee it all than she was.

  She really had no idea what she was doing when it came to this aspect of the company. She was learning, but she’d never be as good as Jacob. And she didn’t want to be. He clearly loved his job and was amazing at it. She loved the floral shop. Overseeing all the men and the orders and moving lumber wasn’t her expertise and wasn’t enjoyable.

  What the hell kind of owner was she trying to be, then? She didn’t even like the main part of the business. But the idea of leaving the floral shop behind made her chest throb. She was finally making headway with it, integrating into the community a little and building a life. She was finding happiness. And she didn’t want to give that up. But she couldn’t chase any of those things at the expense of the business, or Jacob.

  She thought of the California job. Of her mother’s memory. Of her father’s retirement and the fate of Baughman as a whole. It was so much responsibility, and it was hers to lose. To fail.

  Maybe she should think harder about California . . .

  Jacob chatted with the crew, and the men dispersed in several directions, some handling the distribution of the gravel, and the others off to various tasks. That was, whatever Jacob instructed them to do. She, however, felt sweaty, her hands ached from carrying the wood, and she had a nasty splinter.

  It was break time.

  Because while she felt gross, Jake just looked hot. And not in temperature.

  She wound through the massive warehouse until she found a quiet spot in back near a small counter that housed a lone coffeepot. She stared at the concrete floor.

  Leaning against the wall, she took one long inhale . . .

  “You all right?” Jacob asked, weaving around pieces of machinery she didn’t know the names for and coming to stand in front of her.

  “Yes,” she said and gave her best smile. “Just taking a quick breather.”

  Surrounded by heavy machinery in the corner and the smell of fresh-cut lumber, her hormones ignited when Jake looked her over.

  His jeans were dusty, his T-shirt tight over his muscles, and holy God, the man was built and strong and sexy. And as Jake came toe to toe with her, she realized that she really did need to breathe. Preferably with his mouth against hers.

  She reached for him, cupping the back of his neck and yanking him down for a kiss. He instantly responded and pushed her against the wall, devouring her mouth.

  “Looks like I need a breather, too,” he said and nipped her bottom lip.

  She unfastened his belt and tugged on his pants. She didn’t know what came over her, but she did know she had to have him. Had to feel his skin. Had to feel all his strength wrapped around her.

  This was happening, and she was beyond ready. She was frantic. Clanging her teeth against his as she tried to kiss him hard while tearing at his clothes. Damn, she needed him.

  “What’s gotten into you?” Jake asked but kept busy working her pants open. He seemed just as desperate for her.

  “Don’t know. You on a big machine is hot, I guess.” She got his belt open and his cock free. She gripped him tight.

  He growled and tore her pants off and kicked her feet apart.

  Grabbing a condom from his pocket, he put it on quickly, then hoisted her up and plunged inside her. Her legs wrapped around his hips, and she cried out his name.

  “You’re so sexy working hard, you know that?” he said and thrust inside her again.

  She held on tight. Just like the other night. Just like every night when it came to Jacob in her world.

  “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”

  The rain started, and it pounded the tin roof above, creating a pretty echo and loud dinging sound.

  He fucked her against the wall, hard and fast. His mouth stayed on hers as he took her body to the brink in record time. With the sound of the storm brewing around them, there was no fondling, no sweet kisses or exploration of bodies. This was sex against the wall. Rough and wild and consuming.

  With every hard thrust Jacob gave her, her ass banged against the wall and she cried out louder and louder. Her body started to crackle with the impending orgasm that was just out of reach.

  The sound of the dump truck returning echoed through the warehouse. Mannie was back from the gravel delivery and near the front of the shop, while Jake had her pinned against a corner in the back.

  Oh God! They were going to get caught.

  She tried to scramble away, but Jake didn’t let her budge. Instead, he put a hand over her mouth and thrust harder.

  Her eyes went wide.

  “You’re coming for me, baby,” he said quietly.

  His strength and determination surrounded her and with every deep glide, every punishing thrust, he took her so deeply that her back slid up the wall.

  She couldn’t deny him. The fire spread from her sex to her breasts, burning up her blood as her release shot through every single vein.

  She screamed against his palm, and he just fucked her harder. Through her orgasm and into another one while he found his release.

  His breath was heavy in her ear as he groaned her name and she felt him tense and come, his big body shuddering against hers.

  He slowly peeled back his hand and peppered kisses across her mouth, her nose, and her cheek, finally letting her slide down while he cleaned up.

  “Boss?” Mannie called. His footsteps came closer. “Boss, you back here?”

  Laura moved double time to tug her pants on and fix her hair and try not to panic. Jake just looked cool and collected. He simply fastened his belt and watched her.

  She made a gesture in Mannie’s direction.

  “Hey, I’m back here,” Jake called out.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she whispered.

  “What? You’re dressed.”

  “I’m frazzled!” she whispered, harsher this time.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said, just as Mannie walked up. “Hey, how did the delivery go?” Jake asked him, as if nothing had just happened.

  “Great. Straightforward.”

  “Excellent. You can take off for the day if you want, after we go over tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be up front,” Mannie said, then nodded to Laura and turned to l
eave.

  Jacob just turned to her, gave her a kiss, and smacked her butt. “That was the best damn breather I’ve ever had.”

  He gave a smile that made her mouth dry and other areas wet. She watched him walk back toward the front of the shop, and she knew right then that she was in big, big trouble. Because not only was she growing increasingly worried that she couldn’t run the warehouse anywhere near as well as Jake could, she was also falling for the sexy foreman and worst, it was affecting her heart.

  Chapter Twelve

  “This is going to be real nice, Cal,” Jake said to his buddy, looking out at several acres of land ready to be built on.

  “The plans are all drawn up, and this whole area will have rustic-looking log cabins instead of the cookie-cutter houses you normally get with subdivisions.”

  “It’ll look great, man.” Jake slapped his buddy on the back. He’d known Cal a long time. And the man not only worked hard but was talented. The homes he built were unique. He’d started a small construction company once upon a time and now had a major contract and his own crew.

  “Yeah, and you’ll be the lumber supplier, right?” Cal nudged his shoulder.

  “Still haven’t hired someone yet?” Jake said. Which made his buddy face him with a serious look on his face.

  “I have to, Jake. I can’t wait any longer,” Cal said. “I hear with Laura working there, you can be freed up more. Take this project. Work with me on it.”

  Jake couldn’t do this right now. He was thinking of Laura and how the time was coming for Walt to step in. “Speaking of Laura, I heard she went for the supplier and marketing job. She’s great and really talented. You want to work with someone, it’s her.”

  Cal shook his head. “She’s great. But I’m going with someone else from Lincoln City.”

  “What?” Jake said in shock.

  “Cheaper and more experienced. It’s nothing personal.”

  But it would be to Laura. She’d worked so hard, and this rejection from Cal wasn’t good for business. Jake knew the hole she was in. She was pretty much banking on this contract. Otherwise, with small orders here and there, it would take her a while to dig out of the red ink she was currently swimming in.

  “What would it take to get her the contract?” Jake asked.

  Cal frowned then raised his brows. “You.”

  Jake was silent. He had a feeling. Then he did the only thing that felt right—and wrong at the same time.

  “You want me, I come as a package deal. Laura, too.”

  “Seriously?” Cal said with shock. His friend looked at him. “What the hell has gotten into you?”

  “What?” Jake said.

  “You’ve been fighting me on this and now you’re ready? Because of a woman?”

  “Not a woman, the right woman. For your job, I mean. She can do it; she just needs a chance.”

  “So you’re not worried about the business? Especially when word spreads that you’ve been slacking at Baughman.”

  “We’re not slacking,” Jake said immediately. But he knew what his buddy was referring to. Russ’s mouth was bigger than his beard, and he clearly didn’t like Laura. He was likely still pissed about the delay in delivering his order last week. Even with a 20 percent discount and free delivery for his next two orders, apparently the old man was still running his mouth.

  “Everything is fine. Solid,” Jake said. “Now do you want the deal or not?”

  Cal looked him over. “You’re my foreman for six months and lumber supplier for the project?”

  Jake nodded. “So long as Laura is also your supplier and landscape designer.”

  Cal held out his hand to shake Jake’s. “Deal.”

  Laura was just putting the finishing touches on the arrangement that would be the start of a monthly order for the senior center.

  Tilly had called her a few days ago, and after a meeting and some paperwork, Laura officially had a regular customer. She was still set to go to California at the end of the week, but if things kept looking up and she got the deal from Cal, she could stay in Yachats. She just really needed that deal.

  She was ending the workday when the phone rang.

  “Baughman Home Goods, can I help you?” she said happily.

  “This is Wade over at Bucky Burger, and we’re looking for some bark for the front of the restaurant. What’s your price on the thick-cut red timber or the dark ash?”

  “Ah . . .” Laura scrambled to look through the papers she’d organized last week, but she’d never seen a price sheet.

  She ran out to the warehouse and looked for the clipboard Jake had shown her, but all she saw were dates and times of deliveries. Still no price sheet.

  She put her hand over the speaker of the phone and called out.

  “Mannie? Hello? Anyone here? I have a question from a customer.”

  No one responded. Wade on the line did, though. “Hello? Miss? Are you there?”

  “Yes,” Laura said, hustling around the warehouse, looking for any sign of a price sheet.

  “Do you have a quote?” he asked.

  “I don’t at this time . . . ,” she said, still trying to procure any kind of clue as to what bark dust went for these days.

  “Well, we need it by next week. Do you have an opening?”

  She ran back to the scheduling clipboard and saw some free time next week. An hour here, another hour there. Wait . . . how long did bark dust take to drop off? Probably depended on how much he needed.

  “Um, we may have something open, but can you tell me how much you need?”

  “Three cubic yards should do it.”

  Great, now Laura felt really stupid, because she’d asked a question and had no idea how to quantify it. What the hell was a cubic yard and how long would that take?

  “Miss?” the guy said again.

  Laura didn’t know what to do or what to say. She didn’t even know what it took to order such things or if they were stocked or how many crewmen this would take.

  “Can I have someone call you back?” she asked.

  The man huffed, clearly irritated. “Will they call me back with answers?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she assured him.

  “Isn’t this Walt and Jacob’s place?” he asked.

  She wanted to say no. Then yes. Then she realized that the reputation of Baughman Home Goods hinged not only on her father, but on Jake as well. And she was screwing it up.

  “I can have Jacob call you himself first thing tomorrow,” she said.

  “You do that. Or I’ll just go to Home Depot in Lincoln City.”

  The line disconnected, and Laura once again felt like she was losing control of something she had no idea about in the first place. And it wasn’t just the business suffering, it was Jacob, her father, and possibly the crew if she kept trying to fit herself in where she clearly didn’t belong. The truth was clear. She was struggling. Trying wasn’t good enough anymore, and honestly, maybe she wasn’t trying that hard with the warehouse. She was with the flowers. But maybe Jake was right. What if she was running this place slowly into the ground? What would her father say? He’d be brokenhearted if anything happened to the company, and Jake would be, too. She knew that to be true.

  Maybe California was really where she belonged.

  She needed to have an honest conversation with Jacob. It didn’t matter if her pride or her future was at stake. She had to do what was best. What her mother would have wanted. Maybe she was clinging to something she should be letting go of.

  After cleaning up and heading home, Laura didn’t go to her camper; instead she went straight to Jacob’s door and knocked.

  “Hey,” he said, opening the door. “Come on in.”

  She did and kept her head down. Until she noticed a pop of color that caught her eye. The centerpiece she’d brought him last week was proudly displayed on his kitchen table. And it looked to be holding up well.

  “Everything all right?” he asked her.

  She faced him an
d looked him in the eye. She wanted to be a businesswoman? She had to do what was best and have hard conversations. But when she focused on his face, she realized that there was something plaguing him, too.

  “Are you all right?” she asked back.

  “Yeah,” he said a little too quickly and ran a hand through his hair. Crap, this was getting weird between them. Maybe he was rethinking this whole situation. They were sleeping together, after all, and then working together, kind of. Maybe he needed space?

  Why did that idea make her lungs hurt?

  She couldn’t be thinking of emotions now. She had to think of the business.

  “Clearly things aren’t all right for either of us,” she said. “So I’m going to start talking and you’re going to jump in here in a second and we’re going to be honest, okay?”

  Jake nodded. “You’re right. Honesty is best.” He took a deep breath. “Laura . . . there’s a lumber contract.”

  “There’s also a bark dust one,” she said. “At least, there could be, if I didn’t mess it up.”

  Jake frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “A guy named Wade called from Bronco Burger. He wants you to call him by tomorrow morning for bark. Cubic yards of it. I didn’t know what to say.”

  “You mean Bucky Burger?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said. Great, she didn’t even have the name right. “I tried to find a price sheet, and then I looked at the schedule you showed me, but I have no idea how long a cubic yard takes to load or unload, and so I had no context and just sounded like an idiot.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true. And I’ll call him tomorrow and straighten it out.”

  “That’s the thing, Jacob. You always coming in to straighten things out is bad business. You said so yourself.”

  He glanced down, but Laura knew the truth without him having to agree with her.

  Again, she reminded herself to keep her feelings aside and have a business discussion.

  “Oh! And as I was leaving, I heard a voice mail come through. Something about Green Gables?”

  “That’s a golf course,” Jake said. “It’s one of our major clients. They don’t order often, but when they do, it can be big. Do you know what the message said?”