"And then, at the eleventh hour, the notoriously flighty and unpredictable millionaire Robert Albrecht decides to commit to a purchase, saving her from all those money woes that were about to sweep Rebecca away."
"Sometimes, people get lucky."
"Sometimes," Onyx agreed, but he didn't sound convinced in the slightest.
The two men stood there for another minute, both of them looking at the giant black stone cock on the pallet. Distantly, from outside the warehouse, Carter heard the rumble of the forklift's engine turning over.
"You've invited her over to the studio a couple times," Carter said after another minute of silence.
He glanced sideways at Onyx to see if these words provoked a reaction, but if they did, the artist did a good job of hiding them. "She's come over and viewed some of my pieces."
"I bet." Normally, Carter considered himself pretty adept at reading others, but Onyx proved more challenging than most; the man's face might as well have been carved from the same stone that he used to create his sculptures. A little voice told him that it might be best to hold his tongue here, but he plunged on regardless. "You know, she spent last night with me."
"The whole night?"
"Well, no, not the whole night," he answered, stung a little that Onyx managed to ask the one question capable of deflating his story somewhat. "But the time we did spend together was quite... intimate."
That last word hung in the air between the two men for a minute, both of them feeling it out and getting a sense for it.
"The game's not won yet," Onyx finally said. "This is just the first quarter. She might come to her senses at some point."
"Or she already has," Carter countered, but he didn't exactly like the thought of what challenges might lay ahead. For someone like Onyx, with a legitimate reason to keep on showing up at the gallery, and his obvious, almost overwhelming sex appeal... the man literally carved dicks for a living, by god!
Another minute passed, both of the men carefully not saying anything. Carter caught the rumble of the garage door to Onyx's studio lifting up, as the forklift finally headed in to come and collect the pallet. From here, Carter knew, it would be loaded up into the back of an enclosed truck, and then the forklift itself would be rolled up onto the back of another truck. Both trucks would head over to Albrecht's mansion, where the process would run in reverse. Finally, once Albrecht had decided where he wanted to proudly display his newest art acquisition, the sculpture would carefully be removed from the pallet so that it could settle into its new, more permanent home.
"I'm fronting her the money for the commission on this sale," Carter said, as they moved aside to give the forklift operator room to maneuver his vehicle forward. "She's very appreciative."
Was that a wince that he saw for an instant on Onyx's face? "Mixing money and emotion is never a good idea," he replied, but he didn't sound quite relaxed and confident as before.
Carter just shrugged, feeling like he'd scored a point.
Of course, he told himself, this whole thing is ridiculous. There was no need for the two of them, both professionals, both of them adults, to be fighting over a young woman like a couple of boys tussling in mud on the playground.
The forklift headed forward, but then paused and backed up again, the driver of the machine trying to determine the best way to approach with the prongs to slide them into the corresponding holes on the pallet. Onyx cleared his throat, coughing as the machine stirred up some rock dust from the cement floor.
"So, she's gotten things settled with that ex-husband of hers, then?" he asked.
"Doing it today. I dropped off her check, and she said she'd be heading over to finalize matters with him during her lunch break." Carter thought about adding that he'd also brought her lunch, the leftovers from their date the night before, but decided that he didn't need to bother tightening that particular screw any further.
"Good." Onyx paused, looking down at one hand and watching his fingers as they curled into a fist, and then relaxed. "I've heard of the guy."
This surprised Carter, and he turned and looked at Onyx with his eyebrows raised. "Really? Barry? How do you know him?"
Onyx shrugged, frowning a little. "He's a dentist. I needed a dentist."
"What?" A wild thought popped into Carter's head. "Wait, this wasn't recent, was it? You didn't go to try and scope out the enemy or something-"
The artist turned and raised a single eyebrow. Carter snapped his mouth shut mid-sentence, feeling like a bit of an idiot for jumping to the assumption.
"It was before I met Rebecca," Onyx went on after a minute. The forklift's prongs were now under the pallet, and the machine groaned as it began lifting the wooden square and its heavy, delicate weight up off of the ground. "I needed some dental work. I saw an advertisement for his practice, gave it a try."
"And?"
Onyx winced, lifting one hand and pressing it briefly against his jaw. "Not the dentist that I'd recommend."
It might be petty, but this fact made Carter grin with a hint of savagery. "Good. He sounded like an ass."
"Yeah."
The two men lapsed once again into silence. They both followed after the forklift as, its payload now raised a foot or so off the ground, it turned around and trundled back towards the garage door, out to the waiting trucks. Laden down with its load, the machine's engine strained to keep up a decent head of speed, and the two men were easily able to keep pace as they walked along.
It really was ridiculous for the two of them to be fighting like this, Carter reiterated to himself. After all, they'd worked together, and the relationship benefited both of them - Carter would recommend one of Onyx's pieces if it seemed suitable for one of the properties he needed to move, and Onyx mentioned Carter if he talked to any buyers who needed a real estate agent. They'd never exactly been close, barely more than professional acquaintances, but they'd built a comfortable relationship, in their own way.
And now, with Becca suddenly inserting herself in their equation, the whole thing had slid sideways. They were squabbling with each other, as if Becca was a prize up for grabs. After all, he reminded himself, the choice was ultimately in her hands. They could both be charming, and in the end, Becca would make whatever choice she decided was best.
But she's damn well going to pick me, he growled privately to himself, inside his own head.
"Well, that's that," Carter said as they stood outside in the sunlight, watching as the forklift released the statue and pallet carefully inside the covered truck. "I'm riding along, helping Albrecht make sure that the piece looks good at his mansion."
"Front and center," Onyx echoed back Carter's earlier words, not even bothering to disguise his smirk this time. "Hope that favor was worth it."
"Just one of my many favors that others owe me," Carter responded, stung by this dig. "And you're one of those people, if my memory serves me correctly. Maybe, someday, I'll call in the one that you owe me."
Onyx didn't respond to that one, and although the darker man's face remained expressionless, Carter still chalked this up as another point for himself. Wanting to duck out while still ahead, he headed towards his car.
Behind him, Onyx stood implacably, watching the real estate agent leave. Normally, he wasn't a competitive fellow, but something about Carter just rubbed him the wrong way. The real estate agent was cocky, convinced that he was God's gift to women, that he could easily charm Becca.
Not that Onyx didn't consider his own abilities with the ladies. Still, something about Becca made him detest the idea of her settling down with Carter. Of course, Onyx wasn't about to do anything stupid, but Becca Grace... He remembered how she'd gasped at the sight of his pieces, but even as her eyes went wide, reached out to touch the stone. She had a spark of bright curiosity about her, one that had somehow survived from childhood into adulthood so far. She deserved to be nurtured and loved, not breezily used.
Something about Carter just seemed too breezy, too casual.
; After a moment more of watching the trucks drive away, Onyx headed back into his studio. He could always swing by the Halesford Gallery again at some point, he considered to himself. Last time, he'd nearly convinced Becca to come out and pose for him, let him use her as a model for his next set of pieces.
Maybe he should go offer her that invitation again. After all, the choice was ultimately hers - the breezy, overly casual real estate agent, or a mysterious and supremely gifted artist, one who worked with his hands every single day?
In the end, Onyx told himself, she's going to end up picking me.
Up above the two men, high in the sky, the sun shone down brightly on Davis, bathing the city in its warmth and energy. The day was a perfect one, not a cloud in the sky - full of promise and opportunity.
***
The End!
You can still sign up for ANOTHER free book!
Sign up for my mailing list, and I'll give you another full-length novel, filled with mystery, romance, and sexy twists and turns, entirely for FREE!
A Billion Little Clues
Melinda Gaines, overworked personal assistant, is cursed with permanently bad luck. Her boss keeps making unreasonable demands, and no guy has seen the inside of her apartment in months.
But when Melinda is sent to a party at the CEO's house, she ends up on a romantic, moonlit balcony with an unnervingly handsome stranger. Melinda is convinced that her run of bad luck is over.
That is, until she finds that her latest crush is being accused of murder...
Want it? Click here to sign up and get it now, or copy the following link into your browser:
http://smarturl.it/Westlake
My subscribers are the first to hear about my latest novels, and get unique sale opportunities, as well as a chance to read advance copies - all for free! Sign up now!
If you enjoyed this story, check out other works by Samantha Westlake:
On Duty - A Small Town Police Romance
"I glared up at my father's house, my unhappy childhood home. I'd sworn that I'd never come back..."
Seven years ago, Kasey Clayton left her unhappy hometown of Roseburg, Oregon. Since then, everything's gone downhill. Her apartment's tiny, her job sucks, her car's a rolling bucket of rust, and she hasn't been on a date in months. And now, her father has died - but he's left his dilapidated house in Roseburg to her.
Back in high school, Jameson was the town's "rebel without a cause." Now, he's tall, sexy, flirtatious - and yet more irritating than any other man Kasey knows. But he's also good with his hands, and she needs his help. As they grow closer, Jameson's flirting grows more intense - and Kasey reciprocates. For now, he's everything she needs to take her mind off her worries.
How can Jameson offer a future, when Kasey wants to flee the town he defends? What will Kasey choose, when forced to decide between the hottest man she's ever known, or finally escaping her hated hometown for good?
A Foolproof Marriage
"She needed a husband. He needed cash. Their plan was foolproof."
Jillian Claymont knows exactly what she needs - a husband. A husband would impress the Vice Presidents at her company, open the door to a big promotion, and give her the success she craves. A husband would also finally satisfy her needy single mother, who keeps pestering Jillian to find a man. A husband could even take care of all the errands she never manages to check off her to-do list.
Only one problem - Jillian has zero dating prospects, and she doesn't know a single man she'd consider "husband material." So Jillian does what any sensible, high-powered businesswoman would do in her situation. She has a couple glasses of wine and turns to the internet...
The Stolen Girl: A Wild Roads MC Novel
"Hello, little kitty," the big biker leered at me as I shrank back in fear. His black glove reached out for me. "You're coming with me!"
When Senator Leonard Sterling comes home from the day's Congressional session, he finds his daughter missing from their family home, her bedroom window shattered, and a spatter of blood on the pieces of glass...
When Elizabeth Sterling wakes up, she discovers that she's in a cheap motel room. Her hands are shackled behind her, attached to a radiator, and she can hear the thudding of heavy boots outside the motel room door...
When Roads, the motorcycle gang's second-in-command, enters the room, he finds that the young woman, forced into a kneeling position on the motel carpet, is glaring up at him. Her beautiful face is filled with fierce defiance as she stares back without a shred of subservience...
Want to see EVERYTHING? I'm willing to bare it all, just for you...
Check out my website to see everything I've written! Get links to all my books, subscribe to my mailing list, and stay up to date on your new favorite author!
http://www.WestlakePublishing.com/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Samantha Westlake has an unfortunate habit of staying up far too late, reading romance and saucy stories when she really should be sleeping and preparing for work. Samantha currently lives in San Francisco, CA. She draws her inspiration from the wonderful people of the city around her, and can often be found relaxing on the wharf, gazing out in the mornings as the fog burns off the bay.
Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance Page 34