Seducing His Wife

by Elizabeth Lennox

  Sure, she’d sent him a letter explaining things. But that letter had been a load of crap. It hadn’t explained anything to his satisfaction, but she’d told him very plainly that things were over.

  “You look different,” he commented, trying to calm his raging temper. Every impulse inside of him was telling him to toss her over his shoulder, carry her to his bed and keep her there until she came to her senses.

  Instead, he swung around and headed back to work. “What do you want, Gabby?” he asked as he headed back into the building again. He had work to do and he didn’t have time for another burst of her regrets or explanations.

  Gabriella stared, stunned, as he simply walked away. He wasn’t even going to greet her? How rude!

  But what could she expect from a barbarian like Teague Steele? He was six feet, three inches of rude, obnoxious sex appeal with no redeeming qualities! He’d never made things easy for her, why had she expected today to be any different?

  Rushing after him, she wanted to pick up one of the clumps of mud and throw it at his back, her fury at his rude behavior making her nuts and…

  NO!

  Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment, regaining her composure and her sense of calm. She would not turn into that nutty woman again. She would be cool and composed, elegant and sophisticated. Words he didn’t understand, but they represented who she truly was as a person. He wouldn’t know that because…well, he’d only seen the crazy side of her that weekend in Vegas. He’d only known the woman who couldn’t get enough of…and who…

  Enough!

  He wouldn’t make her do crazy things! Not anymore! Been there, done that, got the memories that wouldn’t leave her alone.

  Opening her eyes, she glared at his back, wishing she had the skills to…

  Stop it! She was a lady! She did not attack men, no matter how obnoxious or rude they might be.

  Pressing forward, she followed after him with as much dignity as the situation allowed, no longer concerned with her shoes as much as just wanting to punch the man. “Teague! Don’t you dare walk away from me!”

  He continued walking, his broad shoulders such a delicious target that it was hard to resist running over to punch him. “Teague!”

  He still didn’t stop, but he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Why not? You did it. Why can’t I?”

  She swallowed past the lump his words caused. She probably deserved that, Gabriella thought. It still didn’t excuse his rudeness, but…yeah, that was a good jab. “That was different and you know it!”

  He stopped, looking up at the ceiling as if checking something, and he wrote on his clipboard. “Darlin’, how the hell can you say it is different? Simply because you were the one doing the walking last time?” He scoffed as he looked down at her. “Honey, you should be quite familiar with payback by now.”

  Gabriella’s mouth fell open at that comment and she couldn’t stop the heat that flooded her cheeks and neck. Payback! Of all the…he was referring to the time that she’d…and then he’d…

  “Don’t you dare bring up those moments!” She hated that her voice quivered with those words or that her body flamed to life in ways it hadn’t since…but the memories were making her head spin. And her toes curl.

  She shivered when he laughed. He moved closer to her, his height making him tower over her even in her three inch heels. “You mean, don’t remind you of the times when we were in bed? And you wanted to tease me with that beautiful mouth of yours?” He paused, watching her eyes dilate, her mouth fall open, and her cheeks turn that beautiful shade of pink. “But I didn’t let you get away with that, did I, Gabby?” He smiled slightly when her breathing grew ragged. “And when you thought I was finished but I…”

  Gabriella slapped her hand over his mouth, trying to pretend that her body wasn’t heating up with that memory or the heat she could feel emanating off of his body. Or the incredible, masculine scent of him now that he was closer to her.

  “Stop,” she whispered, desperate for him to stop flooding the memories through her mind.

  His fingers wrapped around her wrist and pulled her hand away. He moved even closer to her, his body almost touching hers, and she felt her breath catch in her throat.

  “Why should I stop, Gabby?”

  His voice was low, sexy and sent shivers throughout her body. Everything about this man made her insides tremble with awareness. Need. The things he did to her, the way he made her feel and…

  “Please, Teague!” she gasped, desperate now. “Please don’t do this.”

  “Why not?” he argued, his voice husky. His hand tightened around the delicate bones of her wrist.

  Why not? Why? Her mind wasn’t working, wasn’t processing. She couldn’t remember. And then the flash of light hit her finger, her diamond engagement ring sparkling. She gasped and pulled back. Toby! She was betraying her promise to Toby! “I didn’t come here for this!”

  Teague watched her, saw the way her eyes dilated, her body fought not to arch into his so that they were touching. Everywhere.

  “Why did you come here?” he asked softly, his grip tightening on her slender wrist. She was so tiny, so delicate. She was the complete opposite of him. A year ago, he hadn’t been able to get enough of Gabby. She was so amazingly alive, so fresh, and ready to laugh. It was like she’d been craving laughter and release her whole life but hadn’t ever really had a reason.

  He’d given her a reason.

  And she’d walked away!

  She stepped back from him and took a deep breath. His eyes dropped to her chest, trying to see those beautiful breasts as she heaved for oxygen but…nothing. The damn suit was too stiff, too formal to see anything. Her tiny waist was gone in the shapeless material; her legs were hidden because the hemline came down to below her knees. The only thing sexy about her was the shoes. The damn shoes that looked completely out of place here at a construction site.

  Then again, Gabby looked out of place. She looked wrong when she should look absolutely right. Everything about her was right – for him!

  But she’d walked away.

  He had to keep telling himself that.

  He stepped back again and looked down at his clipboard, trying to get the sweet, feminine scent of her out of his nose. She was history, he told himself.

  So, why hadn’t he taken off his wedding ring?

  Disgusted with himself, he tried to shake off the spell she could so easily weave around him. Dropping her wrist, he moved away, putting space between them and forcing his attention away from the beautiful woman who had tormented him for so long.

  “I came to talk to you,” she started off.

  Teague moved over to the next column, inspecting the bolts to ensure they had been welded correctly. Nodding his head in approval, he moved to the next, trying to feign indifference if she followed him or not. He shouldn’t care. He should tell her to get the hell out of the building and off of the property.

  He looked back at her, noticed her pretty, delicate steps as she tried to walk around the various equipment that was laying on the concrete floor.

  “Hell,” he muttered and walked over to one of the walls. He grabbed a hardhat that was hanging on a hook and thumped it onto her pretty head, not caring if the helmet messed up her hair. In fact, he hoped that it would muss it up a bit. Anything would look better on her delicate features than that tamped down hairstyle. What was she trying to prove? That she wasn’t the passionate, sexy little wisp of a woman that could make a man crazy with just a smile?

  Not working, he thought, as he tried to inconspicuously adjust himself in his jeans.

  “Please, Teague,” she began in a rush when she finally caught up with him again. She was out of breath and getting worried, needing to get away from this man. “I have a flight back to Boston in three hours. I don’t have much time.”

  Teague spun around and looked down at her. The look in his eyes tore at her gut. He had to clench his fists around the pen and clipboard so that
he didn’t reach out and touch her again. “What the hell do you want Gabby?” he demanded.

  Gabriella clenched her teeth, trying to tamp down her anger. “First of all, please call me Gabriella. I no longer go by Gabby.”

  The change in her name just pissed him off further. Leaning closer, he was less than an inch away from her when he said, “You shouldn’t be going by Hicks either.”

  She pulled back. “Why wouldn’t I? That’s my name.”

  He shook his head. “Your name,” he enunciated carefully, “Is Gabby Steele. Remember?”

  Gabriella gasped and pulled back. “I never changed my name!” she told him with fury.

  “You didn’t need to. You married me. That made the name change automatic.”

  She shook her head. “No! No way! I would have had to submit paperwork to change my last name.”

  He was quiet for a long moment, staring down at her. In the end, he reined in his temper once more. “Got it. Okay, you didn’t want my last name or me. So, what the hell do you want, Gabby?” he asked her, ignoring the more formal version of her name. He did it partly to irk her and partly because the woman he remembered wasn’t “Gabriella”. She was just “Gabby” with all the lushness that the name implied.

  He walked away, continuing to inspect the welding. It didn’t matter that the construction site was ahead of schedule and under budget. He wasn’t going to slack off if his men were firing on all cylinders. He’d done that once with this woman, he wouldn’t do it again.

  Gabriella huffed as she finally caught up with him again. “Would you please slow down so that I can talk to you?”

  “No,” he told her and wrote down additional instructions for the column he was inspecting. “What do you want, Gabby?”

  Her fingers curled into fists and he almost laughed at the fury building in her beautiful eyes.

  “I want a divorce,” she told him flatly and pulled the envelope out from under her arm. “All you have to do is sign on the dotted line and I’ll go away.”

  Teague looked down at the papers as she pulled them out of the envelope. She even had a pen ready and the places flagged where he needed to sign.

  He couldn’t believe the sudden, furious urge to punch a wall. The impulse was especially bad since all of the walls in this area were concrete or steel so punching them wouldn’t be a good idea.

  Instead, he stared at the woman in the sexy shoes and ugly suit. The hardhat was too big for her and, under other circumstances, he’d think she looked adorable as she tilted the hardhat out of the way so she could look into his eyes.

  “You never wanted to be my wife, Gabby,” he growled, clenching the clipboard so tightly he was astonished that it didn’t snap in half. “You never acted like my wife, never called yourself my wife, never introduced yourself as my wife. As far as I’m concerned, you aren’t my wife. So since you’re not really my wife, I see no need for a divorce from my wife.”

  With those words, he spun around and walked away from her.

  Gabriella stared after him, the pen in one hand and the papers in another. Not his wife?

  He disappeared around one of the columns and she lost control of her anger. Storming after him, she was more than ready to tackle him to the ground if need be but she was getting his signature on these damn papers!

  When she spotted him again, only about forty feet away as he consulted with three other men, the red haze of fury obliterated common sense.

  “Don’t you dare tell me that you’re not giving me a divorce! We’ve been separated for a year now! I’m getting married in one month’s time and I have a flight back to Boston in less than three hours. Sign the damn papers, Teague, and…”

  Gabriella had been storming across the space separating them, determined to get the obnoxious brute to sign the papers so that she could be done with this and get back to Boston where she belonged. But something stopped her. Literally, she couldn’t move her feet. Looking down, she noticed that…she was sinking! Her beautiful Prada pumps, the ones she’d spent over five hundred dollars on two days ago specifically to try and give herself a boost of confidence while having to face Teague again, were…they were sinking!

  Looking up, she caught Teague’s startled expression as well as the other men he’d been talking with. And then she started to wobble!

  Looking down, she realized that she was now ankle deep in the wet cement and….

  Splat!

  Opening her eyes, Gabriella realized that she was face down in the cement. Lifting her head, she sputtered, spitting wet cement from her mouth, gasping for breath. Suddenly, strong arms were pulling her out of the muck, lifting her to safety.

  Gabby looked down at her arms and legs…everything was covered in cement! Ruined! Even worse, her shoes…they were still in the cement!

  Gabby had been under so much stress in the past few weeks that this latest indignity was just too much! Drawing up the divorce papers, flying across the country and facing the man that…well, facing Teague. And now, she was covered in cement, her lovely shoes now a permanent resident of the building and her suit…her clothes were completely ruined!

  She couldn’t hold back the tears. It was all too much and she’d been trying to keep everything controlled for too long. Sobs burst out of her and she couldn’t stop.

  “It’s okay, honey,” Teague was saying as he cradled her against his enormous chest. Gabriella couldn’t take it any longer. All the tension over the past week burst out of her, she shook with her tears, the anxiety, the worry, and the long flight from Boston to Seattle this morning in the cramped back of the plane. She’d bought the ticket yesterday and the only available seat had been in the last row, the one right by the bathrooms. So every person who walked by grabbed onto the back of her seat, jerking her enough so that she couldn’t even sleep during the flight.

  It was too much! She was exhausted, tense, disgusted that this man had made her so crazy that she’d once again lost her temper and now she was covered in cement!

  “Honey, please don’t cry!” Teague pleaded as he pulled her closer, his strong arms pulling her higher so that his chin could rub against her head.

  Gabriella couldn’t take it any longer! The sobs came harder and she clung to his flannel shirt, her fists clutching the material as she sobbed out all of the stress of her day and the last week.

  Teague wasn’t sure what to do other than to carry Gabby out of the area. He nodded to his foreman, telling him to finish up the inspection as he carried Gabby back to his trailer.

  Marcy rushed over to him, her pregnant belly making her slower than usual. “Is she okay?”

  Teague nodded. “She’ll be fine,” he said even though Gabby’s silent tears and shuddering body were twisting his guts. “Don’t you have a doctor’s appointment?”

  Marcy patted her belly. “Yes. But I don’t…”

  He knew exactly what she was going to say and stopped her with a firm shake of his head. “No, you go take care of that little guy, Marcy. I’ll handle everything here until you get back.”

  She laughed, shaking her head. “With any luck, I won’t be back.”

  Marcy walked over to the waiting Mercedes where her husband, Teague’s brother, Zeke, was waiting to pick her up. But even as Teague watched, he spotted Zeke coming out of the trailer, his eyes furious as he watched his no-longer-tiny wife waddling towards the car. “Marcy!” he roared.

  Marcy turned slowly, her smile bright as she waved to him.

  “Don’t move, woman!” he commanded and his long strides took him down from the trailer towards her. He spotted Teague and stopped, his eyes widening. “Is that…?”

  “Yes.”

  Zeke put his hands on his hips as he eyed the woman who was covered in cement. He couldn’t see her face since she’d buried it in Teague’s neck, but he could see that the woman was crying. “Are you okay?” Zeke asked his brother.

  Teague chuckled. “I’m always okay. Go take care of my nephew and favorite sister-in-law. Don’t w
orry about me.”

  Zeke looked over at his wife and Teague saw his brother’s eyes soften ever so slightly. “I’ll call you later,” he grumbled. “I want to know what’s going on.”

  Teague might have agreed or disagreed, the grunt of response was non-committal. “Go away, Zeke. Marcy has been having stomach pains all morning and wouldn’t leave when I told her to this morning. I confined her to the trailer, but obviously even that didn’t work since she wasn’t there when you were looking for her.”

  With that announcement, all of Zeke’s attention focused on his wife. “Marcy!” he growled.

  Marcy lifted her hand to stop his admonishment even as she rubbed her ripe tummy with her other hand. “Don’t go there, Zeke! I wasn’t…”

  Teague didn’t get to hear what Marcy “wasn’t” since his older brother swept her up into his arms and carried her the rest of the way towards his car. He tenderly tucked her into the vehicle and hurried around to the other side so that he could get his wife to the doctor’s office.

  Moving towards his trailer, Teague carried Gabby there, relieved when she finally stopped crying. There were a few more whimpers, but by the time he closed the door behind him, her tears were down to a couple of sniffles.

  “You okay?” he asked as he set her down in the bathroom of his trailer.

  Gabriella pulled her arms down from his neck, uncurling her fists from his shirt. She knew that she looked like a horrible mess and reached up to wipe her eyes. Darn it, she’d worked so hard to put on her makeup this morning! She’d wanted to look sophisticated and regal, composed and in control!

  Looking up at Teague’s expression, she knew that she most likely looked absolutely ridiculous!

  “My shoes,” she whispered, and had to fight hard not to start crying again. Five hundred dollars down the drain! That’s what she got for being vain, she told herself firmly. Now she was shoeless, bedraggled and five hundred dollars poorer. Not a good situation, she admitted to herself and took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry,” she sighed, unable to look at Teague now. “I’ll get out of your way.”