Slippery When Wet

by Kristin Hardy

  “How long’s that going to take?”

  “Lady, I don’t know. Ask the prime, it’s his headache. Our job is just to get the new drywall hung and mudded and then it’s somebody else’s problem.”

  “You’d better believe it’s somebody else’s problem,” Taylor said grimly. “This was supposed to be done last week.”

  “I don’t know nothing about that,” the burly workman allowed. “You oughtta check with the boss. He’s in the trailer outside.” He fingered his prybar. “We’ll get it done as quick as we can.”

  Taylor knew where the trailer was. A weathered tan, it sat on a side street abutting the building. She whirled and marched out the door, her heels ringing on the concrete floor.

  “What are you going to do?” Nicole asked from behind her.

  “Stay here,” she snapped. “I’m going to find out what the hell is going on.”

  Taylor’s mental temperature had raised to full boil by the time she hit the pedestrian tunnel. Her landlord had been very clear about the dates her business would need to be closed in order to allow renovations in her space and to the facade of the building. The closure had been the reason she’d given herself the luxury of a vacation, her first in years. She’d been expecting to return to a whole new look for the place.

  It was a whole new look all right. A look of disaster. She’d been out of her mind to sit down in Mexico and trust people to do their jobs, she railed at herself. She knew better than that. Leave nothing to chance, it was the first rule of business ownership.

  Still, that was no excuse for the contractors. This whole mess was completely unprofessional. They were supposed to get it done, plain and simple. That was their job. They had a schedule, she had a business. She wasn’t about to be bankrupted by their incompetence.

  Taylor stopped at the trailer steps, not even trying to cool the fury that boiled in her blood. Sometimes, calm was the best way to get things done, but sometimes letting loose made more of an impression. Slapping a hand on the door latch, she wrenched it open, and mounted the steps to walk into the trailer.

  And found herself face-to-face with Dev Carson.

  THERE WERE TIMES, DEV THOUGHT, when the whole world seemed to stop for just an instant. Times like this. High color stained her cheekbones, her eyes were stunned, it was the face that had haunted his dreams since she’d left him in Mexico. He’d thought of her throughout the interminable hours of his trip home, the scent of her lingering in his mind, the feel of her skin a memory in his fingertips. For a vacation fling, she’d carved herself quite a spot in his head.

  He didn’t give a damn what he’d agreed to, he wanted more.Gone was the bronze sarong, the turquoise bikini, the hot pink sundress. The woman who stood before him now was an urban sophisticate in expensive boots and a forest-green wool coat. Her smoothly coiffed hair was a far cry from the sun-streaked, finger-combed tangle it had been the week before.

  That wasn’t the only thing that was different. The lazy indolence was gone. Tension vibrated through her, and he was pretty certain it was aimed at him.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  He’d expected anger, but she seemed more shaken as she found her voice.

  “I work here.”

  “You what?”

  He could see the instant it sank home and the shock morphed into fury. He’d expected her to be angry. The intensity, though, surprised him. “I work here. My partner and I are the prime contractors.”

  “You mean you’ve been here all along?”

  “How do you think I found your agency?” he asked reasonably.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Why didn’t I ever see you?”

  He shrugged, staring at the fragile line of her neck, wondering if she still wore the same scent. “My partner and I have a couple of projects going. I was mostly working over at the Peabody renovation until I had a good reason to be here.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  He couldn’t resist baiting her. “You never asked.”

  “Don’t give me that. We agreed that things were supposed to be over after we got home.”

  “So? I didn’t figure any job played into our agreement.”

  “You work practically in my front yard and you don’t think it plays into ending the affair once we get home?”

  “You had to know I lived here somewhere,” he said reasonably. “We agreed, not to track each other down after we came home, and I didn’t, did I? I’m just here working.” He leaned a hip on his desk. “In fact, right now I’d say you’re the one who’s coming after me.”

  She smiled grimly. “You think I’m coming after you now, buddy, you just wait. My goddamned office is a wreck.” She stalked toward him and he felt his own temper stir.

  Taylor wasn’t the only one who was good and ticked off. The sun-soaked relaxation of Mexico was a fast disappearing memory. He’d come back to chaos, delays, and a boatload of excuses from the subcontractors, with a partner who was nowhere in sight. “They ran into some problems while I was gone,” he said.

  “And you never thought about coming home early to deal with them, did you? I guess lying around on the beach was a bigger priority.”

  He’d known nothing about it, though it wasn’t any of her business. “Did you call your office when you were in Mexico?”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Did you?”

  She held on to the thin thread of temper. “No, I didn’t call my office.”

  “Neither did I,” he said shortly. “As I recall, neither of us had much time for that.”

  She flushed even as her eyes darkened. “Don’t go there, Carson, not if you value your health.”

  He ran a finger down her cheek, smiling when she jerked her head away angrily. “Why, you going to hurt me?”

  “Don’t get cute. I’ve got a business to run. I can’t afford to stay closed another couple of weeks while you get your act in gear.” She stepped forward and got in his face. “I’ve got no flooring, no lights, no power,” she said, stabbing him with a forefinger to punctuate her words. “In some places I don’t even have a goddamned ceiling or walls. My unit was supposed to be finished last Friday. You want to explain to me what the hell is going on and why I’m not ready to open up in half an hour?”

  “Careful, darlin’,” he said softly, anger mixing with arousal in him.

  “No, you be careful,” she retorted heedlessly. “I want my office put together enough to work. I want furniture out where I can get to it, and I want power.”

  “We’ve got to get that whole section of the building rewired before we can get you turned on.”

  “I want you to get me turned on by tomorrow.”

  His control snapped and he reached out to sweep her toward him. “How about right now, instead?” He heard her surprised intake of breath before he pulled them both into the kiss, into the familiar cocoon of hot darkness.

  He’d thought she was sexy when she was relaxed on the beach. She was hotter still, with her eyes flashing and her cheeks stained with color. And it was unbearably tantalizing to feel her body tense and her arms push against him even as her mouth softened and began to kiss him back.

  Suddenly he found himself swept into a torrent of sensation that was swifter and rising faster than he’d guessed. It was as though his footing was disappearing and he was clutching on to her to anchor himself, to anchor them both. He’d intended to show her she wasn’t immune, he’d thought to ease some of the ache for her that throbbed through him, but he never expected it to sweep him past all of that and into an insatiable hunger.

  Taylor broke the kiss, breathing hard, eyes dark. “Keep away from me,” she said shakily. “This isn’t about fun and games anymore, Carson. This is real.”

  “I thought last week was pretty real.” He kept his grip on her upper arms.

  “No. Last week was fantasyland, and it’s over. I don’t need you grabbing me and kissing me and I don’t want it.”

 
There she was again, flinging out challenges. “Funny, I could have sworn you were kissing me back.” He concentrated on leveling out his own system.

  Her gaze iced over him even as she rested her hands on his chest. “I don’t care if we boffed our brains out in Mexico all last week, it doesn’t mean anything now. I want to know your plan to fix my unit, Carson, or I go to the landlord.”

  With a clunk, the door swung open. Taylor and Dev jerked apart as a redhead with a boyish looking face stepped into the trailer. He could have been a teenager still, but for the faint beginnings of lines around his gray eyes.

  “Sorry to interrupt.” His eyes flicked back and forth between Taylor and Dev as though he were unsure of what to do next. Finally he settled on Dev. “I thought you might be back today,” he said, just a hair too pleasantly.

  “I thought you might be showing up for work,” Dev said, with a glance at his watch.

  “I had car trouble.” His grin faltered. Dev stared at him impassively.

  “That’s nothing compared to what you’ve got now. Taylor DeWitt, this is Riley Caldwell, my partner. Taylor runs the travel agency on the ground floor.”

  “Sure.” Riley’s eyes flicked to Dev even as he took Taylor’s hand. “Sorry for the problems we’ve had in your unit.”

  “I appreciate that, but it’s not much of a help,” Taylor said flatly. “I’m more interested in what you and your partner can do to speed up the repair process. I’m losing money every day my office is closed.”

  “Look, Riley and I need to talk scheduling,” said Dev. “Why don’t you go get yourself some coffee and we’ll crunch some numbers. I’ll get you a revised timeline in about fifteen minutes.”

  “It better be good, Carson, that’s all I’ve got to say.” She turned around and walked out.

  Riley walked over to the door and checked the latch. “So what was that all about?”

  “You mean why’s she ticked off? You heard.”

  “Not enough, apparently.” Riley tapped the wall lightly with his knuckles. “These walls are kind of thin, you know. It sounded like the end of a real interesting chat.”

  “Which is beside the point right now,” Dev said steadily.

  “I mean, if you’re going to start bringing women in here,” Riley began.

  Dev cut him off. “The only women who are coming in here are the ones whose offices have been flooded. You want to tell me what the hell happened with her unit? It was supposed to be done last week.”

  Riley scratched his neck. “It was done, at least mostly.”

  “Look, you said you could keep track of this job and the renovations at the Peabody while I was gone. You said we didn’t need to hire a fill in.”

  Riley shifted uncomfortably. “I just had some personnel problems, and the city inspector at the Peabody got ticked when he tripped on a board and he slapped us with a whole bunch of unnecessary violations.”

  Dev leveled a gaze at him. “How many times have I told you to get the job site clean enough to eat on before the inspectors show?”

  “Cleanliness isn’t on the inspection sheet. The work was done,” Riley insisted stubbornly.

  Dev sighed. Over the years, he and Riley had developed a division of labor that worked. One of the key parts was having Dev manage the city inspectors and the disputes between workers. He should have known if trouble was going to crop up while he was gone, it would be rooted in those areas. “We’ll take care of it. Now tell me what happened in the front unit.”

  “Oh, that.” Riley shook his head. “They wanted another door cut into a conference room upstairs. The kid on the crew went at the wall with a saber saw. Cut clean through the inch and a half water line.”

  Dev closed his eyes. “Niagara on the Inner Harbor.”

  “Pretty much. It poured down into the lobby and into the travel agency’s unit. The lobby was okay because it’s mostly terrazzo and marble faced, but the agency…” He raised his palms. “Then again, you two might be close enough that she’s not going to mind.”

  Dev bristled. “Don’t.”

  “I mean, even though you did just break off your engagement and all,” Riley continued, ignoring him.

  Dev folded his arms and gave Riley a dangerous stare. “You want to tell me what this is all about? And Riley, be careful,” he suggested.

  Riley sighed and dropped into a chair. “Melissa’s been calling here for you every day since you left.”

  “Good for her.” Dev turned around and picked a coffee mug from his desk, squinting at the residue in the bottom.

  “She wants to talk to you, Dev.”

  “Not going to happen, Riley.” Dev poured himself some coffee from the pot, reasoning that the hot brew would kill anything living in the cup.

  Riley massaged the bridge of his nose. “She’s my cousin, Dev. You guys wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for me, which is something she reminds me of every single time she calls.”

  “Riley, it’s not your problem, okay? You’re not part of it. You can tell her that for me.”

  “Uh-uh.” Riley folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not going to tell her anything. You’ve got something to tell her, you do it.”

  “I already told her everything I had to say when I walked in on her with that punk that your sister brought to the Jack and Jill party.”

  The silence stretched out. Riley sighed. “Yeah, I know. It was a bad scene, Dev. I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, well don’t be. We weren’t right for each other and I should have figured that out a long time ago. Melissa figured it out first, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess she’s changed her mind.”

  “I don’t want to hear it,” Dev said abruptly. “End of conversation. Let’s talk about something more pleasant, like how much the delays from this plumbing fiasco are going to cost us.”

  TAYLOR STRODE DOWN THE sidewalk, her mind roiling. He’d known. He worked practically in her lap, and the whole time they were in Mexico, he’d known it. The whole time they’d talked about an affair that was outside of real life, about cutting things off once they left, he’d known they were going to come home and be face-to-face.

  She concentrated on the anger and tried to ignore the little buzz of awareness his kiss had raised. In Mexico, she’d left herself open to it, but that couldn’t happen here. In the real world, she couldn’t afford to take a chance like that.Nicole sat on the bench in front of the agency, talking with Allie, Glynnis, and the other agents. They all looked up as Taylor approached.

  “So what’s going on?” Nicole asked.

  Taylor bit down on her fury, tamping it down into professionalism. “I’m still waiting to find out. A pipe above us broke, which is what wrecked the walls and the ceiling. I don’t know if it wrecked the carpet, too, or if they never got around to putting it in.”

  “Wow, how long will that take to fix?” Glynnis asked.

  “I’m supposed to be getting their revised schedule any minute now. Can you keep working out of your homes? We get enough e-business that it should keep you busy. This won’t take long, hopefully.”

  “What about me?” asked Allie.

  “We’ll work something out,” Taylor said. “For now, you guys go home, Nicole, let’s go over and get some coffee.”

  As much as she hated to follow Dev’s suggestion, it made more sense than standing out in the frigid air. By the time they’d gotten coffee and muffins and talked over where the business stood, Taylor was feeling calmer.

  “We should be able to keep enough coming in from the e-business to keep our heads above water for another week, then,” she said. “The corporate accounts help.” Then Taylor swore.

  “What?”

  “The meeting with Pace-Miller. I’m supposed to have a briefing with them Wednesday.”

  “Better reschedule for their facility.”

  “That’s where it was supposed to be anyway, but how am I supposed to put the presentation and briefing packets together?”

 
; “I’d say you’re going to take a trip to Kinko’s, boss.”

  Taylor gritted her teeth. “I’ve got a printer and a copier in the office, even though I can’t get to them. If I have to pay a fortune to Kinko’s for printing and copies, it’s not going to come out of my pocket.” Taylor rose. “Let’s go find out what he has to say about the revised timeline.”

  “He who?” Nicole asked, following her.

  She paused. “The contractor,” she said shortly. The man who was off-limits to her in any way, shape, or form. She couldn’t afford it, she reminded herself, she quite simply could not do it. Mexico had been fun, it had been…well, extraordinary, if she was honest, but that had been because it was a fling that had no bearing on their real lives.

  “Hey,” Nicole said as they emerged from the pedestrian tunnel at the entrance to the agency. “Isn’t he that guy that got all mad about his insurance?”

  Taylor nodded. “There’s a reason he came to us, apparently. He was in the neighborhood.”

  “God, he’s even better looking now than he was before,” Nicole breathed.

  In fact, Dev looked tough and capable, and enormously sexy. It was only Pavlovian conditioning, Taylor thought, that stirred up low level arousal just at the sight of him. For a week, seeing him had meant sex. Conditioning. That was all it was.

  “Try to concentrate on business,” Taylor said, as much to herself as to Nicole. “That pretty face could put us all out of a job if he doesn’t get his act together.”

  They came to a stop in front of Dev. “Nicole Stanley, Dev Carson. Nicole’s my senior agent. So what have you figured out about the office?”

  “We’re going to be doing everything we can to get it in working condition as soon as possible.”

  “And what does that mean?”

  Dev consulted his clipboard. “I’ve got my foreman checking status in here, but it looks like the leak upstairs is fixed. The electricians are going to finish up the rewiring in a couple of hours.” He walked through the glass door of the agency, Taylor trailing him.