What he did notice was the mood went from joking and friendly to instantly arctic. And dead quiet.
“Morning, Tori,” Ethan said.
“Morning, Ethan.” She set her bag down, went to the coffee pot and grabbed a cup before settling in at the conference room table, giving their spread-out mess a glacial once-over. “You started without me.”
“We had bids to go over,” Wyatt said.
Tori fixed them all with a cold stare. At least she gave Ethan and Wyatt a stare while glossing over the top of Brody’s head. “And what? I’m suddenly too stupid to sit through a bid meeting?”
“Nobody said you were stupid,” Wyatt said. “We’re all due out on jobsites this morning so we wanted to discuss the bids before we headed out.”
“Which didn’t really answer my question, did it?” Tori said. “Who do you think is going to be submitting these bids?”
“Maybe we thought you might want to sleep in instead of attending a meeting at five-thirty in the morning.”
She gave Brody the most cursory of glances before opening her laptop. “Maybe you should do less thinking and let me do my damn job.”
Wyatt and Ethan gave him the Kent eat-shit-and-die look.
Okay, so maybe she was broken. She’d always had a smart mouth, but she’d been fun, had joked around with them, teased them.
This Tori wasn’t fun anymore.
So maybe it was time he did something about that.
He didn’t know exactly what that “something” was going to be, but he’d figure it out.
* * *
Midway into the day, Tori acknowledged she had turned into a raging bitch over the past several months. She’d nearly bitten Ethan’s head off this morning, had snarled at Wyatt and, as usual, pretended Brody didn’t exist.
She sighed and packaged up the bid Ethan would deliver on a potential new building on the west side of their small town, then started to work on the numbers for Wyatt’s project. Business was flush at Kent Brothers’ Construction, all the guys were busy, and her job as office manager was secure. She should be happy.
Instead, she’d been decidedly unhappy for almost a year now, ever since Brody had kissed her at the last company Christmas party. Everything had changed then, because that silent dance they’d done around each other for years, and all the look-but-don’t-touch fantasies she’d had about him had become a definite reality.
She thought all her feelings had been one-sided, that she could simply adore him from afar and be content with that. And then they’d been in the middle of an argument and he’d kept staring at her mouth and suddenly his lips had been on hers and it had been all whoa—so incredibly amazing her world had turned upside down in the space of a heartbeat.
His body had gone flush against hers, his hand had dove into her hair and his mouth—oh his mouth—had been everything she thought it would be—and more.
Which was the worst thing that could ever happen, because she loved her job, adored his family, and getting involved with Brody Kent, who never met a girl he couldn’t date, sleep with and summarily dump, would be nothing short of the end of her security. There was no way she’d ever become a Brody Kent statistic, no way she’d jeopardize this job she held so dear or her relationship with the Kent family—the only family she knew.
The problem was, that kiss still burned on her lips all these months later, the feel of his rock-hard body pressing against hers still lingered in her thoughts and her nightly fantasies, and she absolutely hated Brody for crossing that line and making her want him even more now than she did before.
When the door to the office opened, she prayed it was either Wyatt or Ethan.
It wasn’t. Brody came in. From the first day she’d hired on at Kent Construction—hell, even before that since she’d known the Kents in high school—she’d had a massive, soul-searing crush on Brody. He didn’t know it, of course. No one did. It had been a secret she’d been keeping for over ten years, and one she’d intended to take to her grave.
Brody looked around, as horrified to find them alone as she was. “The others aren’t back yet?”
She shook her head and firmly planted her gaze somewhere in the middle of the spreadsheets on her laptop.
“Oh. Uh, I need to grab my blueprints for the Handy Market job.”
She didn’t look up. “Not stopping you.”
He made a wide berth around her desk as he headed to the other end of the office.
She hated this tension between them. Before, they’d had easy banter. He teased her mercilessly and she shot him down with cruel barbs. It had been fun—usually the high point of her day.
Now it was just miserable. She felt him behind her and she closed her eyes, wishing things between them could go back to the way they used to be.
Before the kiss that had changed everything. Before she’d erected this wall of protection.
“Tori.”
She tensed. “Yeah.”
“Turn around.”
She swiveled in her chair to face him. “What?”
“Let’s talk.”
Uh-oh. “About what?”
He leaned against his desk. “The Christmas party last year.”
“We’re not talking about that. Ever.” She turned her chair around.
He came over to the front of her desk. “It’s been ten months. Don’t you think you should tell me why you’re so pissed off at me about one little kiss?”
He so didn’t get it. Typical guy. “I’m not pissed off at you about that kiss. It didn’t mean anything.”
“Bullshit. You’ve practically stopped talking to me. Everything changed after that night.”
Her stomach hurt. She needed to get out of here. She stood and grabbed her purse. “I’m hungry. I’m going to grab lunch. I’ll be back in an hour.”
Instead of letting her by, he grasped her by the arms. But his voice was soft and low when he said, “Look at me.”
It had started like this the night of the party. They’d argued. She’d yelled at him and he’d grabbed her. And then their lips had met. She stared at those lips now, hers still tingling at the memory of his mouth coming down hard on hers, the way his tongue had invaded, the hot rush of pleasure that had made her legs tremble.
Maybe she should have just gone with it, indulged in the desire that had burned so all-consuming for him all these years. But she couldn’t. Not with so much on the line. She’d shoved him and run like hell.
Just like now. She shoved him. “We’re at work, Brody.”
He let her go. “I know where we are. But I’ve tried to talk to you. I’ve called you. I’ve texted you. You refuse to talk to me.”
She edged around him and headed for the door. “That’s because there’s nothing to talk about.”
“We kissed. And it changed everything between us.”
She had her hand on the doorknob, ready to walk out. “It changed nothing. Do you hear me? Nothing is changed. Everything stays the same.”
He cocked his head to the side and stared at her. “Tori, nothing ever stays the same. Sometimes things have to change. We all have to change.”
Not her life. She liked it the way it had been. Safe. Predictable. “I can’t accept that. I have to have a certain order in my life, and you disrupted that.”
“Well, you’re disrupting things at work.”
Her stomach tightened. There it was. The change she didn’t want to happen. She finally met his gaze. “Are you saying my job’s in jeopardy?”
He moved toward her and she inched close to the door, afraid if he touched her again she’d cave and spill her feelings to him.
“No. Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Come on, Brody. You and your brothers own this company. I’m just an employee. If something goes down—something bad—you know I’ll be the first to go.”
Brody gaped at Tori. That’s what she thought? That they’d fire her because of this? “Tori. That’s not going to happen. That’s never goi
ng to happen. You’re an invaluable resource to Kent Construction. You’re like—”
He was about to say family, but hell, she wasn’t family. He felt no brotherly bond to her. From the first time she’d stepped foot into the offices of Kent Construction, there’d been an attraction between them. She’d been very young then, so he’d ignored it. Okay, maybe he’d tried to ignore it. There were always plenty of women around his social circle, but that didn’t mean he didn’t notice Tori’s beauty, her flaming red hair, mesmerizing green eyes and her cocky confidence and attitude that he found so sexy.
They’d been playing this game for four years now and on impulse, he’d taken advantage at the last Christmas party. He just didn’t understand why it was such a big deal to her. Until now.
“You think if you and I—that you’ll lose your job?”
She shot him a look. “Come on. You think I won’t? Screwing one of the bosses doesn’t scream job security to me. Besides, you’re not exactly known for hanging on to a woman after she slides between your sheets. Once you’re done with me, do you really think you’re going to want to see me in the office day in and day out year after year? How freakin’ uncomfortable would that be? Furthermore, would I want to see you? Not that I’d have sex with you anyway.”
His mind was in a tailspin as he tried to process what Tori had said. “Just what kind of reputation do you think I have?”
“It’s not the reputation I think you have, Brody. It’s the one you do have. Everyone in town knows you sleep with any woman who’s available. And you don’t keep them. You get bored after a week or so—if they even get to hang around that long. Then it’s dumpsville, and on to the next one.”
He frowned. “I do not.”
“Uh yeah, you do. So, no thanks, not interested in being just another notch on the great big bedpost of the infamous Brody Kent. I like my job, I love your family, and I don’t want to lose either, no matter how allegedly awesome your reputation in the sack is, though I’m sure that rumor is highly exaggerated. I’m going to lunch.”
She shut the door behind her. Brody stared at the closed door, dumbfounded.
So that’s what everyone thought of him? That he was a womanizing douchebag who didn’t give a shit about women or their feelings?
And what the hell did she mean by “allegedly awesome”? There were rumors about his performance?
He dragged his fingers through his hair. Christ. He had no idea.
Wyatt opened the door and came in, saw Brody and grinned. “Oh, good. You’re here. Ethan’s pulling in, too. I’m starving. Want to have lunch?”
Brody lifted his head. “What do you know about my sex life?”
Wyatt’s gaze went blank. “Uh. Nothing. Thankfully. And don’t start sharing now.”
As Ethan walked in, Wyatt tossed his briefcase on his desk. “Hey, Ethan, what do you know about Brody’s sex life?”
Ethan stopped dead, looked at Wyatt, then Brody. “What? Have you been drinking?”
“No. But I think Brody has.”
“I haven’t,” Brody said. “But I just had the oddest conversation with Tori.”
Ethan rummaged through his desk, but stopped to shift his gaze to Brody. “You talked to Tori?”
“Tried to.”
Wyatt took a seat in his chair. “And you somehow got on the topic of your sex life?”
“Yeah. Though I don’t know how.”
“You probably brought it up,” Ethan said with a smirk.
“I didn’t. I was talking to her about the Christmas party, and our lack of communication. I think I may have that part figured out. Or at least some of it. I don’t know, I’m still working on that. But did you know that I apparently have a reputation as some kind of manwhore who has sex with women and then dumps them?”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that about you,” Ethan said.
“You are kind of a dick to women,” Wyatt said.
Brody just stared at his brothers. “Seriously. You both think this.”
“When was your last serious relationship, Brody?” Ethan asked.
“You mean like a long-term girlfriend?”
Ethan shot Wyatt a look. “Clearly the term is foreign to him.”
Wyatt shook his head.
“Okay, so I’ve never had one.”
“And you’re what? Thirty now?”
“So? I’ve been busy.”
Wyatt snorted. “Yeah. Busy screwing a bunch of different women. No wonder they all think you’re an asshole. When was the last time you brought a woman home to meet Mom and Dad?”
Brody thought about it. “Uh...high school, maybe?”
Wyatt looked at Ethan. “Case closed. He’s a douche.”
Ethan nodded. “Agreed. Let’s go have lunch. I’m hungry.”
“Hey,” Brody said. “I’m not that bad.”
Ethan and Wyatt headed for the door. “Keep telling yourself that, bro. You coming with us?”
“No. I’ll eat something from the fridge here.”
Wyatt wrinkled his nose. “The fridge of moldy mystery? Good luck with that, man. We’ll be back in an hour.”
After they left, Brody leaned back in his chair and pondered what Tori had told him.
So he had a lousy reputation with women. He could accept that. He’d been no Boy Scout, but he couldn’t recall any of the women he’d dated complaining about it, no late-night teary phone calls from women claiming they were brokenhearted over losing him. He never made promises to any of them, never wanted a relationship, not while he’d been busy with his brothers building the company.
He’d had fun. He wouldn’t apologize for that. But maybe he’d led these women on somehow, led them to believe there’d be something more when he’d never had any intention of doing anything more than just let off some steam and have a great time.
Then again, maybe none of the women were all that upset about being left by him. Maybe it was him that was lacking.
Ah, hell. This was why he never did the whole romance and relationship thing. He had no idea how to do it or how to do it well. Short-term flings were more fun and more his style.
But the way Tori looked at him, and the things she said...
She’d looked horrified at the thought of losing everything that mattered to her just because they’d kissed. Getting involved with him was that big a risk? It had more to do with the possibility of losing her job—he knew it did. But in order to find out what was really bothering her, she’d actually have to talk to him.
“Screw it. Why do I even care?” He dragged his fingers through his hair and went to scrounge through the fridge. Tori was just going to have to be someone else’s problem. He had enough issues to deal with.
Except as he walked by her desk, that exotic perfume of hers lingered in the air, and he realized that she was one big damn problem that had been stuck in his head for a long time.
She wasn’t going away, and she really was his problem to deal with.
Chapter Two
“I’m not kidding, Calliope. He cornered me in the office and wanted to talk about the Christmas party last year.”
Tori’s best friend sipped on her margarita and feigned a look of horror. “Must have been awful for you. The bastard.”
Tori narrowed her gaze at Calliope. “You are not being sincere. I can tell.”
Calliope pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, then leaned her head on her hand, the effects of two margaritas on an empty stomach obviously already taking their toll. “First, I’m glad it’s Friday night because I’m getting a little buzzed. Second, I think I’m getting a little buzzed. Did I say that?”
Tori fought back a grin. “Yes.”
“Okay. Third, eventually you and Brody are going to have to have ‘The Talk.’”
“I don’t want to talk to him. I have nothing to say to him.”
“Ignoring him isn’t going to make the problem—or your feelings for him—go away, you know.” She pulled the stirrer out of her glass and point
ed it at Tori.
“I don’t have any feelings for him.”
“You lie. You’ve had feelings for him since you were fifteen years old and he was the hot quarterback senior at the high school.”
Tori narrowed her gaze at Calliope. “See, this is what happens when I confide all my deep dark secrets to my best friend. You throw them back in my face.”
Calliope shrugged. “No, I’m throwing your honest feelings back at you, my friend, just like you did for me when I was falling in love with Wyatt.”
“It’s not at all the same thing.”
“Isn’t it? You’ve been madly in love with Brody for years. Isn’t it time you acknowledged it and did something about it, like I did with Wyatt?”
Tori shook her head. “Your situation with Wyatt is nothing like my situation with Brody. Wyatt was hurt over his divorce from your sister and you helped him heal from that and in the process he fell in love with you. I’m not going anywhere near Brody because he’s a manwhore with a notorious reputation for dumping every woman he gets naked with.”
Calliope snorted and took another drink. “He does have a bad reputation. A bad reputation for being great in the sack. Wouldn’t you like to own that? Maybe you can redeem him and turn him into a one-woman man.”
Now it was Tori’s turn to let out a decidedly unladylike snort. “Fat chance of that happening.”
“Is that right? Has he been with anyone since that night of the Christmas party?”
“How should I know? I don’t schedule his liaisons with women.”
“Oh, please. This is a small town. Everyone knows who everyone is sleeping with. Gossip runs rampant. And with hot stuff like Brody, the rumor mill is on alert every time he’s seen around town with a new woman on his arm. Have you heard anything—anything at all about him hitting on a woman since the night of the Christmas party last year?”
Tori chewed on her bottom lip and thought about it. “Well, actually...no.”
Calliope pointed the stir stick at her again. “Aha! And that’s because he wants you.”
“He does not. He never even asked me out.”
“Because you’ve been such a mean bitch no one wants to get within twenty feet of you. Can you blame him?”
Romancing the Holiday Page 20