HellKat

by Roze, Robyn

  He nodded in fresh understanding. Things just got a whole lot clearer about Kat James. He knew firsthand she liked to be in control, except the one night she wasn’t ... Now he knew why she needed it so badly too.

  He decided to repeat his question from earlier, even though he now knew the answer. “Why don’t you work in the family business?”

  Kat stared at Tucker for a beat and then, once again, redirected her gaze out the window. “I like my freedom too much.” She swung her eyes back to his. “I like being financially independent from my family. It’s important to me.”

  Tucker mulled the new, hard-won insight into this woman. She wanted control over her own destiny. Didn’t want to live anyone else’s dreams. He could respect that, encourage it. Even so, he had the irresistible urge to bait her, poke his fiery hellcat and risk the sting of her addictive claws.

  “I never took you for the passive-aggressive type.”

  Kat cocked her head and zeroed in on her target. “There’s nothing passive about me, Williams.”

  “Sure about that, sweetheart? I mean, from what you said it sounds like you’re just being stubborn. Have you and your mother ever had a sit-down? Or do you just do the opposite of whatever you think she’d do, to prove your point?”

  Kat remained stone still, her eyes boring into his, her lips coiling in displeasure. “And what point would that be?” Her tone cut with cool precision. Then she angled closer, a caution flag waving in her eyes. “By the way, I can’t wait to hear this.”

  He did his best to maintain a sober expression, but the lie was damned hard. “Well, maybe you are like her, and it pisses you off. So, you do things to prove to her, and yourself, that you’re different.”

  Kat’s arms locked in haughty defiance, causing Tucker’s attention to dip down. His eyes had a mind of their own and it was impossible to peel them off the swell of creamy cleavage now taunting him above her strapless dress.

  “Those aren’t my eyes, Williams,” she said with suppressed amusement.

  With heavy lids, his cloudy focus lazily roamed up the silky line of her throat, lingered over her soft pink lips, and locked onto her lush green eyes. His head felt squeezed, crowded with battling images of having had every square inch of her flawless skin in his hands. Jesus, his palms burned from the memories. Tucker cleared his throat, swallowed, and glanced away briefly.

  When their eyes met next, they both understood the power had shifted, in her favor.

  She studied him like a lioness ready to pounce on her next meal. “Let me get this straight, Tucker. You think I secretly want to be some man’s accessory? You think I want to be in some man’s shadow? Hell, anyone’s shadow?” She snorted in disdain. “You had six months to obsess over me, Google me, and this is the bullshit you come up with?”

  The glint in her eyes, the slight tug lifting the corners of her mouth told him he’d been had. He couldn’t have stopped the excitement building in his chest, or his pants, if he’d wanted.

  “You just love to piss me off, don’t you? Why is that, I wonder?”

  She plucked the cherry from her shake, embraced the lucky red ball between her lips, and sucked the sweet fruit off the stem. Hot spikes of need shot to his groin, dug in deep, twisted tight as she then took her time licking her straw clean, her skilled tongue sweeping the creamy remnants from her lips. He couldn’t move, couldn’t think. He was powerless to do anything but sit paralyzed, waiting for whatever delicious torture she had planned next.

  “Want to hear my theory, Williams?”

  He nodded, but the foggy haze still clung to him.

  “You see, I’ve had time to think about what happened between us six months ago too. And I’ve thought about it a lot.” She inched across the table, her breasts teasing him, begging him to unleash them. “This is what worked for you last time, worked for us. We both like the same game, and I’ll play it with you all day long, and all night too.” She’d stretched the words until his ears thundered with his own heartbeat. They were almost nose to nose, her scent swirling around him. “That’s why you’re really here, trying to piss me off right now. You want to know if it’ll work again. You want to know if you can lift this dress and fuck me up against a wall again, don’t you?”

  Her nose brushed against his. Their lips so close ...

  He rolled his bottom lip over his teeth and clamped down. Hands fisted, he called forth every ounce of strength to hold back the nearly overwhelming urge to pull her across the table and onto his lap.

  A strangled breath filled with a curse burst out of him. “This isn’t a game to me, Kat.”

  She flashed a warning smile. “It’d better not be, Williams. You have no idea how close I came to not giving you this chance at all.” She took her time admiring his masculine features up close, lingering on his mouth. “You have a lot of ass-kissing to do, cowboy.” One sculpted brow raised in provocation. “And not the kind you’re so fond of, as I recall.” She winked and then slid herself and those mouthwatering breasts, slowly, back to her side of the table. Her aura glowed with confidence.

  Tucker took measured breaths, concentrated on the woman across from him. The woman who had consumed his thoughts, his fantasies, since he’d first laid eyes on her that rainy day. Then he shifted focus to the endgame, and everything settled into place. A broad smile split across his square jaw.

  He leaned forward, enthusiasm bright in his eyes. “You’re even better than I remembered.” His timbre was rough with admiration. He grasped her hand, pressed it to his lips, and brushed his chin across her tender flesh. “You don’t know it yet, but you just sealed your fate, Kathryn James.”

  The gleam in her determined eyes matched his own.

  ****

  “No you did not, Kat. Please tell me you did not dump a great guy like Grant Collins for that douche bag, Tucker Williams.”

  Cassie’s drama queen crown sat firmly in place this morning, but the disillusionment shading her best friend’s delicate features caused Kat a second of doubt. Until she remembered the excitement of last night. The fantastic hours spent with Tucker, talking, teasing, and laughing. They’d taken an unhurried stroll, hand in hand, to her apartment, neither of them wanting to part ways any sooner than necessary.

  A rush of heat surged through her, melted away all reservations as she recalled the atmosphere of time standing still while outside her apartment last night, with him. The tangle of regret and desire in Tucker’s eyes. The moonlight and shadows sweeping over them through the sway of old tree branches, fanning the scent of early spring in the evening breeze. The brush of his fingers at the side of her face, their foreheads pressed together, not a sliver of light between their bodies as he’d held her close, about to kiss ... when a group of rowdy, cursing teenagers had stormed by. The charmed moment had vanished like warm breath in the chill of winter.

  Just as well, best to take it slow. No need to make a fool of herself again.

  Kat searched her friend’s face for any shred of support. She’d anticipated Cassie not taking the news well. After all, she’d been at ground zero, had witnessed the Tucker Williams fallout: shattered glass, yelling, tears, shame, and anger, not to mention the renewed, ultimately successful search for a new investor. Cassie Porter had been a great friend. No judgment, no criticism. She’d taken Kat’s side without hesitation or question.

  Cassie and her fiancé, David, had fallen head over heels for Grant—best friends and couples heaven. To make matters worse, Grant and David had recently become squash partners. Kat’s train of thought skidded to an abrupt halt from the visualization of Tucker crammed on a squash court chasing after a little ball—a ridiculous image she shoved away in the never-gonna-happen drawer.

  The two couples, alike in so many ways, had spent a good deal of time together at nightclubs, cheering at Yankees games, supporting the opera and ballet, and dining at trendy gourmet restaurants. The connection had been a quick, easy fit for all of them, comfortable from the beginning.

  Co
mfortable. Followed by: boring.

  Frustrated, Kat rested her head against the back of her chair and searched the ceiling in her office for clarification.

  “I know it doesn’t make sense, Cass. I never expected to see him again, but then he showed up and ...” She looked past Cassie, unable to find the words to make her friend understand.

  “And what? You dump Grant Collins? Grant freaking Collins? For some guy who clearly isn’t your type, let alone worthy of you. Some guy you had hot sex with for one night. The same guy who lied to you?” Cassie’s hands dropped to her lap, and she fell back against her seat with a disappointed sigh. “Does this have anything to do with Grant not being in a rush to jump your bones?”

  “You know better than that.” Kat scoffed at the absurd question. “I told you before, he felt more like a brother sometimes—bit of a mood killer for me. Even if we weren’t having sex, Cass, the chemistry still should’ve been there.” Like with the mountain man, who had her swimming up to her eyeballs in his addicting hormonal cocktail.

  Cassie looked unconvinced.

  “Is this Tucker simply a means to an end? A way for you to keep from falling back into old habits with you-know-who?”

  “Okay, now that’s just crazy talk.”

  “Really? Let’s back up. Dan called you on New Year’s, sent you flowers for Valentine’s, and had balloons and your favorite cake delivered for your birthday. That’s not a man who’s moved on. That’s a man who believes you’re going to cave at some point.”

  Kat smacked her lips together, perturbed. “I guess he has stalker tendencies? Look, we have a long history, Cass. You know that.”

  “I never understood the relationship you two—”

  “You just never liked him after you thought you’d caught him cheating on me back in college.”

  “True. I’ll admit the whole open-relationship thing has never been in my vocabulary, but you two lasted longer than most marriages. So, who am I to judge?” She studied Kat. “But I still can’t believe it was your idea back then, not his.” Cassie paused as if she hoped Kat had a juicy, long-awaited confession to make.

  “You’ve known me forever. Why’s it still so hard for you to believe? I didn’t want to be exclusive with anyone. College is the time to get your freak on, not mate for life.” Her face lit up with a clever grin. “Unless your name is Cassie Porter.”

  Cassie’s chest jutted out in offense. “I had plenty of boyfriends back in the day, thank you very much.”

  “Yes, you certainly had your share of,” Kat air-quoted, “boyfriends. I think the euphemistic phraseology is prolific serial monogamist.”

  Cassie pushed over Kat’s cup filled with pens and pencils, spilling them across the desk and onto the floor. “Oops. Sorry about that.”

  They giggled in unison. Good times. Good memories.

  “Well, all I know is Dan Walsh must’ve thought he’d died and gone to heaven when he met you. Although there were times back then I wondered if he was really on board with your arrangement.”

  “Of course he was.”

  Cassie’s face scrunched in doubt. “Well, you knew him better than me.”

  The idea of the feelings he’d admitted to her over a year ago possibly extending as far back as their college days bothered Kat. She had flaws. Self-absorption among them, but she wouldn’t have missed obvious signs. And Dan had always spoken his mind about everything. No, Cassie was wrong.

  She had to be.

  “But I still say he’s behaving now like a man who’s infatuated. Just because your feelings haven’t changed doesn’t mean his didn’t at some point.” Humor lit Cassie’s face and her hand covered a giggle. “Oh my God, can you imagine if he ever gets wind of Tucker? Sees Tucker?” Now she laughed out loud. “Dan Walsh’s ego could never withstand it. He’d see it as a cry for help. He’d lock you in a room and perform an intervention.”

  “Yeah, and knowing him, it’d be a naked intervention.” Sexual compatibility had never been their problem.

  The friends laughed, tensions eased.

  “I haven’t initiated anything with him, Cass. And I don’t intend to, either. We, whatever we were, had to end. He’ll get the message, when he’s ready, and then he’ll move on.”

  Cassie had warned Kat over the years that having Dan on speed dial prevented Kat from taking other men and relationships seriously; she’d never have to build a real relationship with Dan always lurking in the shadows ready and willing to pick up the slack. So, Cassie had swallowed her own reasoning without question when Kat repeated it to her last year, instead of discussing Dan’s sentimental admissions.

  “Your mother is going to have a stroke over this. And I’m talking about both decisions: dumping Grant and dating Tucker.”

  Cassie was right. Her family absolutely loved Grant, especially her mother. The matriarch’s devastation over the loss of her perfect future son-in-law was inevitable.

  Kat shook her head but couldn’t quite clear the haze. In the last forty-eight hours, her life had flipped upside down. This dazed state had only occurred twice in her life, and the same man was responsible both times.

  “I know this is out of character for me. I never thought I’d be interested in a man like Tucker. Cass, you and I have known each other since third grade. You know the men I’ve dated in the past. You know the type I always go for. We both know it’s never been a man who looks or sounds like Tucker Williams.

  “I wish there was something I could say to make you understand. For the first time, Cass, I’m not really sure what I’m doing, or why I’m doing it. I just feel like,” she hesitated, trying to find adequate words, “I have to. I have to know. I don’t expect you to understand it. Just be my friend and don’t fight me on it, okay? I need one person in my corner on this.”

  Cassie’s expression warmed, but it didn’t hide the concern in her eyes.

  “I’m always in your corner, Kat, and I always will be. Just don’t let this douche—” she stammered, “guy, hurt you again. Okay? Be smart about this.”

  “I will, Cass. You have my word.” A vow made to her friend, and to herself.

  “The last time I went to a baseball game was,” Tucker paused, digging around in his memory bank for an answer, “hell, I guess when I was a kid.” Nostalgia mixed with the abrupt realization of the unnoticed passage of time crisscrossed his face. Then his focus returned to the present, and he rewarded her with the sweetest smile she’d ever seen. A smile with the power to weaken her knees and rev her heart.

  “Your Yankees hat suits you, but I figured you more for a cowboy hat.”

  “Yeah, I have one of those, but I like this better.” He gripped the blue bill and gave it a tug.

  A shiver raced up her back at the huskiness in his tone, the need filling his eyes. God, it had been a long month. In a good way, a way she hadn’t expected.

  “Had a great time today, Kat. Just like I always do with you.” The tenor of his words made her flesh tingle with yearning.

  She tried her best to tamp down the feelings she’d developed for him—the ones growing stronger and increasingly difficult to ignore.

  “Yeah, me too,” she said with an awed whisper. She drew a deep breath. “In fact, I’d say the past few weeks have been great. We’ve covered a lot of ground, done just about everything.” She paused, her focus lingering on the sexy curve of his lips. “Almost everything ...”

  Since the first night when they’d almost kissed outside her apartment, she’d decided to stick to holding hands, nothing more. She’d never known how to do anything part way. It was all or nothing for her, in everything, and always had been. And she already knew there would be no stopping at a kiss for her, not with him. The promise she’d made to Cassie, and to herself, was real, necessary even. She needed to be smart about this. Think it through—beyond the great sex. Yeah, she’d tried him on for size on a whim all those months ago, and he’d fit.

  He had fit perfectly.

  “Tell me, Tucker, what
’s your favorite thing been so far? Besides the obvious.” She gave him a quick wink and playful grin.

  “Well, the obvious aside,” the corners of his eyes crinkled, “I’d have to say the horseback ride in Central Park. That was a really nice surprise.” His fingers quickly skimmed her cheek, then dug back into the front pocket of his jeans. “And I think we’ve pretty much traveled the world when it comes to food. Can’t really get that back home, not the variety anyway.” He paused, seemed to turn over their time together in his head. “That clambake was fun. We rode a bus. What was it called?”

  She stood mute, time had stopped, the thump of the pulse at her throat counting the missed seconds. She stared like a fool, fantasizing, while he waited for an answer. The telling look on his face said he knew exactly where her mind had drifted. She glanced away, cleared her throat. “The Jitney. We took the Jitney to the Hamptons.”

  “Right. The Jitney ...” His voice faded away, the X-rated movie playing in his head evident on his face.

  Kat’s body flushed with heat as she battled the impulse to climb him, wrap her arms and legs around him, devour him, right outside her apartment where they stood.

  He’d shown up almost a month ago on her doorstep unannounced, asking for a do-over. He had to be missing his horse ranch, the green open spaces and clean air. Shoulder-to-shoulder people must be a big adjustment for a man used to spreading out, not a neighbor in sight for miles. But here he stood, patient as ever. He hadn’t complained, not once. He’d been a good sport from the beginning, seemed to have settled into his temporary city life.

  “What about you?”

  She looked confused. “What? What about me?”

  Her concentration had jumped ship, left her to sink or swim. She knew this tango was headed upstairs, quickly. And she didn’t feel like stopping the dance anymore.

  Being with Tucker these past few weeks had calmed her, shifted the gears inside. Her life had always been insanely busy and mostly about meeting self-imposed goals and feeding her ambitions. She’d never had much downtime in her life; she’d always moved at a fast pace, much like the city itself. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.