Give and Take

by Lee Kilraine

  “I’m sure.”

  “Is this because you think I’m nice? You said I was nice. And honestly, now that I’ve seen the way your family treats you, I guess I am. But the thing is, you and I couldn’t be more different. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re total and complete opposites.”

  We were. I agreed.

  Wyatt was quiet. I wasn’t.

  Wyatt was buttoned up and starched. I was loose and comfortable.

  I loved vivid colors. He loved beige.

  I loved fun music. He craved quiet.

  I loved animals. He didn’t want to even hold them. And when he did, he looked like he’d never held an animal before. As if he was afraid he’d hurt it. It reminded me of when a man holds a tiny newborn baby in his hands for the first time and holds it like it’s spun glass—breakable and precious.

  But there was something there—something I hadn’t figured out yet—something about Wyatt that called to me. Yes, we were different, but I looked in his eyes and felt a connection. Tenuous. Guarded. Unsure. But definitely there. And while I did think it was more than just sexual attraction, I wasn’t sure what that nameless something was. Yet. I’d figure it out in time.

  I’d been so busy running from the men my parents picked for me, that I’d failed to take time to think about, let alone find, a man I wanted. But if I thought about it, what I wanted right now, what I’d been wanting since I moved into SBC, was Wyatt.

  So in this moment, what I was left with was—what was wrong with sexual attraction?

  “Wyatt, opposites attract. It’s science. Lord knows, science isn’t my area of expertise, but I can feel it. I can feel that spark and electricity between us. Can’t you?”

  “We each also have goals. Big ones. That we can’t afford to be sidetracked from.”

  “I do have big dreams, it’s true. But the biggest part of my dream is to be happy. I think you make me happy. One hour of mutual pleasure isn’t going to bring us to a screeching halt.”

  “Rhia…”

  “Never mind. This is silly. I’m not going to beg you to sleep with me. God, I don’t think I’m that pathetic.” Was I?

  “It’s not you, it’s—”

  “If you say ‘me,’ I’ll punch you in the stomach. Stop. I just—I just wanted something just for me. For us. Not someone that my parents approved of. Not something my family was pushing me into. And because life can be stressful, just something for fun, you know? I figured you might want the same thing, that’s all. Forget I mentioned it.”

  I turned to my desk, only to be stopped by Wyatt’s hand on mine.

  I looked down at his strong fingers and loved the scrape of callouses from his palm on my wrist.

  “It’s fine, Wyatt. You’ve opened your office to me. Pretty much opened your life to me. I’m not going to ask you for any more.”

  “Whoa, hold on now. Slow down just a second and let me think. I didn’t say I didn’t want you. I’m just not sure it’s a smart idea. What if I do want you too?”

  Chapter 13

  Wyatt

  “What if you want me too? Simple…say yes.”

  “It’s not that simple.” Thorne men and relationships didn’t mix well. And if I let this happen and then it all blew up—the way it does for Thornes—I’d still be stuck sharing this office with a woman who probably wouldn’t want to see my face every day.

  “How about I try to simplify it for you?”

  Rhia kissed me.

  She went up on her tiptoes, closed her eyes, and kissed me. And it was more than I’d imagined it would be. Hell yes, I’d imagined it. Thought about it as I tossed and turned trying to fall asleep. Ever since that very first time her lips had touched mine, it was almost all I could think about when I no longer had work keeping it out of my mind.

  And when her soft lips touched mine, I couldn’t stop from reacting. I speared one hand through her wild, fiery curls to the back of her head and kissed her back. It shot a bolt of sexual heat straight through my chest, to my gut, then down to my cock.

  It took a second for me to remember we were in the office. The last thing I’d want was one of my brothers walking in. With more reluctance than a person could imagine, I pulled my lips from Rhia’s. Our breaths mingled as I stood trying to remind my brain I was an evolved human and to ignore the Neanderthal below my belt.

  “Rhia, that was—” God, I had no words. Not unusual, but this time for an entirely different reason. That kiss was nothing like the light kisses at her parents’ house.

  “Nice,” she said, her eyes soft and warm.

  “Not sure nice is the word I’d pick.” It was way beyond nice. Hot. Sexy. Potent. Spectacular. But it felt too damn good. Too damn addictive. Not good. “But we can’t.”

  “We just did.”

  “We can’t do it again.”

  She bit her lip. “But what if we both want to?”

  “We have a rule against sleeping with another employee for a reason.”

  “What’s the reason? You don’t believe in fun or being satisfied?”

  “No. It’s because when relationships end—and they always do for Thorne brothers—it changes the dynamics and makes for a crappy working environment.”

  “Well, a kiss isn’t a relationship. And I’m not an employee of SBC, so the rule doesn’t apply to me.”

  “We share an office. I think the rule applies.”

  Rhia shook her head. “No. It doesn’t. And you’re a stickler for rules, so you know it. Are you sure you aren’t using it as an excuse to avoid kissing me again? Or more?”

  “What more?”

  She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “S…e…x.”

  Yeah, I went hard. Faster than a person can spell sex, I went rock hard.

  “If I admit the rule doesn’t apply, will you admit it’s still a very bad idea for you and me to become involved?” It was no lie I’d been drawn to her since I first met her at the expo. “People want a lot of things that aren’t good for them. Like sweets. Or a glass of whiskey. Doesn’t mean they should have it.”

  “You know what I just heard you say?” She ran her hands up my chest, distracting me from moving away from her. Far, far away where I might have a hope of keeping my hands off her. “You just said I’m sweet as sugar, and I go to your head like a good smooth, aged whiskey.”

  Yep. That about sized it up. “That doesn’t make a relationship a good idea.”

  “Who’s talking about a relationship?” Rhia took two steps back. Then two more. “I don’t have time for a relationship. I’m just talking about sex.”

  “Just sex?”

  “You heard my family. If Seize the Day fails, I’m looking at a lifetime of working behind a pharmacy counter. I can already feel the marrow being sucked from my bones. So, I’m as focused on my job and goals as you are. That doesn’t mean I want to stay celibate the whole time. I respect that you’re totally focused on passing your exams for your architect’s license. But were you planning to remain celibate until then?”

  “Uh… I hadn’t actually thought about it.” Celibate for another year? Obviously, I hadn’t thought this whole process through when I set my goal. “I guess not.”

  “Right. I just thought since we’re attracted to each other, but you don’t want a relationship any more than I do—it seemed like a perfect fit.”

  Huh. It was fucking tempting. But the whole sharing an office thing was still there.

  “Okay, never mind. I’m sorry. I obviously read this whole thing wrong. Forget I said anything. In fact, erase that kiss from your memory. It never happened.” Rhia turned away, when my hand reached out of its own accord, bringing her back.

  “Whoa, wait. Not so fast.” My brain told me I was right, but the clench in my gut was telling me I couldn’t ever erase her kiss. And something deep in my chest, in the dark empty spac
e I tried to keep locked up tight, was clawing at me to open up just a crack and let her in. “I just—I just need to think this over first.”

  She looked at me, her eyes moving over my face before her lips tilted up the smallest measure at the corners. She nodded and squeezed my hand once. “Okay. That’s fine. I’ll text you my address…in case you change your mind. And even if you don’t, we’re still fine, Wyatt.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay.”

  Rather than stand there and keep making an idiot of myself, I escaped. I went right to where I always go when I had something I needed to think over: the woodshop. When I had a problem with a house plan I couldn’t get right, or some fight I’d had with one of my brothers, or one of those crappy times when a childhood memory tackled me from out of nowhere, I found my peace, my center, when I built furniture.

  Creating an object of beauty from a piece of raw wood felt like magic to me. The feel of the wood in my hands. The way it warmed up and sanded down into the texture of silk. The smell of it, especially mesquite and red oak, swirled around me and into my lungs and calmed me. Every step in the process gave me back a little piece of myself whenever I felt scattered.

  I worked on my newest project, a new chair for our conference table, to add to the set of six I’d already made. But today, with my senses on high alert from the kiss with Rhia, I decided to avoid working on the table saw. My thoughts were too scattered and all over the place to be near that sharp whirring blade.

  Instead, I hand-planed a slab of warm red oak. It was a physical task that used my whole upper body. The repetition of the blade along the grain of the wood was satisfying, both the soft swooshing sound and watching the rough lumber smooth out with each push of the tool.

  It was here in the woodshop where I managed to smooth out the rough spots in my life.

  It took me a few hours, but what I figured out was Rhia was right. There was obvious attraction between us. Pretty damn white-hot on my end. And I didn’t see why we couldn’t have a round of mutually satisfying sex while we were each focused on our professional lives. It made sense.

  Once I made my decision, I moved on it. The first thing I did was call Rhia.

  She picked up right away.

  “Seize the Day. Rhia Hollis speaking. How can I make your next event spectacular?”

  I was pretty sure “by getting naked” wasn’t the right answer here. “Hey, Rhia.”

  “Wyatt! You called! Oh, so is this a yes? Sure, that’s why I gave you my number. You’re saying yes. Oh, wow. I’m a hot mess. I was hoping you’d call, but now that you have, I’m nervous.”

  “Would it help if I hung up?”

  “Don’t you dare! No, come over. My place in an hour. No! Make it two hours. No! Make it thirty minutes. No—”

  “Rhia. I’ll be over in an hour. I’ll bring Chinese food.”

  “Pizza.”

  “Pizza it is.”

  “Pepperoni and onion. Oh, wait, no! Just cheese. I don’t want onion breath.”

  “Cheese pizza. One hour. I’ll be there.” And I hung up before she could say anything else.

  I rang Rhia’s apartment doorbell at exactly nine o’clock, a cheese pizza in my hand. I’d also grabbed a bottle of red wine. The pizza was helping me avoid the feeling that I was making a booty call. It said we were a step up from simple fuck-buddies.

  Rhia answered the door and my plan to eat pizza and relax before making love went right out the window.

  Chapter 14

  Wyatt

  “Heck, Wyatt, come in. You caught me in the middle of freaking out about what to wear when I answered the door. I swear I’ve been changing clothes since you called an hour ago.” She pulled me inside by the hand, laughing at herself. “I wanted to get my look just right.”

  “What were you going for?” Because the barely-there tight tank top and her pointed nipples were making it hard for me to think. My hand itched to stroke along the sexy slice of belly her low-riding sweatpants exposed.

  “Something that would make you want to tear my clothes off and have at me.”

  “You found it.”

  She released a jagged sigh. “Thank God. You okay if we save the pizza for later?”

  “Hell yes.” I set it on her small kitchen table as we reached for each other. The pizza box could have landed on the floor for all I knew. Because all the hours of being closed up in the same office with Rhia, listening to her sexy laugh, her husky voice, her enthusiasm about everything, had grabbed me by the throat.

  I kissed her hard, my lips trying to drink her in. There was no time to think. It was just instinct and need and pent-up passion. I couldn’t get enough of her mouth. Her lips felt perfect against mine—the connection I’d been craving since she’d brushed them softly against me weeks ago. Only this wasn’t soft. Not this time.

  “I need to see you. To touch you. I need you to touch me. I need to run my hands over your skin and hear you moan in pleasure.”

  “I’m pretty sure I need all that too.”

  “I don’t ever do anything halfway, Rhia.”

  “I’ve noticed that about you. It was a major selling point when I considered acting on my attraction for you. The intensity you have when you work on your drafting board or focus on a project on your computer… I’ve sort of fantasized about you looking at me like that—in bed.”

  I may be a man of few words. I may keep my emotions locked up tight, so my world doesn’t feel out of control. But all of my unspoken words—all of my suppressed emotions—were unleashed.

  I wrapped my hands around her face and took my time with our first real kiss. I wanted to get it right. I knew this was simply mutual attraction, and giving in and getting off—yet, it felt bigger. Something I didn’t want to mess up.

  I let myself feel the electricity between us. Shockingly hot and powerful. I wanted more. I slid both my hands from her delicate jaw, up and through the soft tangle of dark red, gold, and copper curls like I’d been wanting to do since we’d first met. Damn, it felt perfect. I fisted one hand in her hair, tugging her head back so I could devour her. Her lips, the soft skin of her neck, and along her jaw.

  “I love your hair,” I said, winding my fingers through the soft fire of her curls. “I want to see it draped across my chest.”

  “Yes.”

  It felt like a tidal wave crashed over me, pulling me down, tossing me around only to throw me back up and out of the stormy seas.

  “Bedroom?” Now that I was here. Now that I’d committed to this one time for me and Rhia, I wanted it all and I wanted it now. I wanted us naked and horizontal. I wanted Rhia Hollis, and she wanted me. No more. No less.

  I wouldn’t say I had vast experience in the bedroom. In fact, I was a virgin when I graduated high school. I might have (definitely) gone a bit wild my freshman year of college. But then I settled my ass down, so I could focus on my degree. Yes, I’d had a couple girlfriends in college, but no relationship that lasted very long. What girl is going to put up with coming in third behind my studies and my brothers? None.

  I had enough understanding to know what was happening here—with Rhia—was different from anything I’d ever experienced. She had me tied up in knots and every cell in my body on alert. I had this urge to give her everything I had, and I wanted really bad for it to be enough.

  She kissed me once more, then took my hand, leading me down a hallway to her bedroom.

  “I’m on the pill.”

  “I brought condoms.”

  “Do you…uh…want a drink first?”

  “Hell, no. Just get naked and I’ll take it from there.”

  “Oh, okay.” Rhia whipped off her shirt and sweatpants, and underneath she was all sexy lingerie and voluptuous curves.

  “You’re beautiful.” I pulled my shirt over my head and unzipped my jeans, but I needed her hair down m
ore than I needed my cock free. I searched for the elastic that imprisoned her curls and fumbled around until I released them. Without even thinking, my fingers sunk in through the soft tangles, like flames around my fingertips, each curl wrapping tight.

  “The dreams I’ve had about your hair.” Demented. Degenerate. Twisted. Yes, I was. They were. “Dreams about you and that always-busy mouth of yours. I’m going to kiss you so long and hard that you won’t have air to talk. I’ll leave you panting.”

  “You won’t,” she said, stretching up and taking a bite of my lower lip. “You’re too nice.”

  Not in the bedroom. All my walls fell. I stopped worrying about keeping my distance. About control. I let go, unconcerned with feeling safe and pulled together. I let go of every safety line usually holding me down.

  I touched every part of her; I gave everything I had to give.

  I kissed my way up her neck and along her jaw to the sweet spot under her ear. All the while I was stripping her out of the last scraps of lace, baring her to me. Her gorgeous breasts and peaked nipples. I tasted them, sucked and pinched them, listening to her sighs and moans. Anticipating her catch of breath.

  “Oh my God, Wyatt!” Her own hands touched me, and I groaned with the pleasure of it. Her soft fingers, dragging along my shoulders and arms, down to stroke my forearms and over my chest, had me in a tight grip. “Wyatt, take off your jeans.”

  Not yet. No. And that reminded me to calm down and take this slow. This might be the only time Rhia and I made love. I didn’t want to rush this. I wanted to take my time and savor every delectable inch of her.

  I was very good at giving something my undivided attention. Oh, hell yes. I took a step back to settle my breathing. My gaze raked her from her wild hair down to her toes and back again.

  “Rhia, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

  “Well, try to hold off on that, but I do know CPR if needed.”

  “It might be…” She sank back onto the bed, and I went with her. I ran my lips along her jaw, scraped my teeth up her neck, and kissed my way to her mouth. I licked my tongue along her bottom lip, and when she opened, I plundered. “I’ve wondered what you taste like, and I never even imagined it would be this sweet.”