Her heart jumped. The stupid traitorous thing. Linc kicked her out, and with one sentence from Tim, she’d slipped back into the sick habit of worrying about him.
Maybe she really was pathetic because she really did care about Linc. Still. “Why are you saying that?”
“He’s stomping around and pissed off, and it’s not the usual boss stuff. This is the nuclear version. People are afraid to approach him with anything.”
Okay, this she could handle. She understood the pent-up anger Linc harbored and kept under tight control. She knew a little about his past, mostly from rumors around town and hints from his sister when she’d called about the time of their dad’s heart attack.
“His anger-management issue is not really new. I just calmed him down before he unleashed on everyone,” Thea said.
Tim looked at her again. “He wants you.”
Her heart slammed against the inside wall of her chest with a rat-a-tat-tat that had her pressing a hand there. “No, he made it pretty clear he doesn’t.”
“He hired an investigator and tracked you down.”
To sue her. Tim didn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t have to. “Because Linc still thinks I stole from him.”
Before she left DC, she sat in her condo and jumped at every sound in the hallway and call from the lobby desk, just waiting to be served with legal papers. When the knock didn’t come, she tricked her brain into thinking Linc decided not to follow through. But now she suspected she only got a brief break while he gathered more of his supposed evidence, not an actual reprieve.
This time when Tim stared at something in the distance, he didn’t stop. “Oh, shit.”
“What now?” She spun around and moved to the end of the porch. From there she could see the front end of a car travel up the unpaved driveway.
Tim exhaled. “Looks like you can ask Linc all these questions directly to his face.”
Chapter Six
Linc turned off the car and sat in the front seat with his hand still on the steering wheel. He didn’t need to get closer to the cottage to see the problem. He recognized the car parked next to the group of trees. He’d basically shadowed it the whole drive.
Last thing Linc wanted was to be tripping over fucking Tim Ray. The guy hadn’t offered one helpful piece of information on Thea, but he got a look at the cover of the investigator’s report on Linc’s desk and raced up here. Just what Linc needed. More trouble.
Linc knew exactly what Tim had done today because Linc followed the guy. He’d been following the guy for weeks. From the beginning Linc knew Tim would be the one to lead him to Thea.
With the directions to the cabin mapped out, the idea had been to fly up to Syracuse, rent a car and drive over to Thea’s place. Tim had messed that up, which seemed to be how the guy operated. He proved to be a damn expert at wrecking Linc’s plans.
Worrying Tim would tip off Thea, or already had, and she wouldn’t be at the house as expected, Linc had taken off on a drive he’d never planned to make, shadowing Tim and watching the GPS. Linc had to admit it looked like he’d panicked for nothing. Thea hadn’t left the cabin. If anything, she’d hunkered down and readied for battle.
Thea, the reason he skipped eating and fought off a bout of exhaustion. But the thought of seeing her now made the sleep and food deprivation tolerable.
He caught a glimpse of her hair in the breeze. Then she moved, and he spied the oversized navy sweater and pink cheeks as she performed her best snow-bunny impression.
Being near her made the tight ball in his gut loosen. The anger and frustration at not even knowing where she was faded away. The long drive, Tim’s dodging—none of it mattered. Only she did.
Linc leaned back in the seat and drank in the sight of her. Her hair was longer, maybe a bit darker, and curled at the ends. Hell, bald she’d make his erection thump. He had it bad for her and the weeks apart—closing in on ten of the damn things—had his nerves snapping.
First, he had to get rid of Tim, and he guessed throwing him in a ditch wasn’t an answer that would sit well with Thea. Unfortunately.
Linc opened the car door. With each step, more of Thea’s face came into view. The tiny “o” on her mouth and wide eyes let him know he’d managed to keep the visit a surprise up until a few minutes ago. When he’d walked into the office this morning and found Tim studying the file on the desk, Linc almost fired him. Instead, he used it as a wake-up call to get moving.
Linc made it halfway from the car to the house now before Thea started shaking her head.
She pointed back down the long, tree-lined drive. “Nope. You can’t be here.”
All he wanted to do was rush up those steps and pull her into his arms, but he stopped at the bottom. Barging in wasn’t the answer. Forget the claims of lying and the deceit. Forget the racing away and the refusal to talk to him about what had happened. Seeing her now after weeks apart, the attraction kicked stronger than ever. The need pounded inside him until it took over everything.
His days played out the same without her. He got up, went to work but the days got harder, not easier. Standing only feet away from her now, something clicked.
Her hands wrapped around the porch railing and her knuckles turned white. “I didn’t invite you.”
“Yet.”
“You fired me for no reason. You acted like a complete ass and I am not ready to see you.”
The only thing he cared about was the last part and making that no longer be true. “It’s been nine weeks.”
“So?”
“I already gave you time.”
“You…I…” For a woman who always kept her cool, the sputtering thing came out of nowhere. “This is my property.”
Linc’s gaze went from her pale face and the need driving him, to the man standing in the way. “Why are you here?”
Tim shrugged. “She likes me.”
Only two things stopped Linc from firing Tim right there—a promise he’d made to Nick and how ticked off Thea would be with the move. Linc could find another tech expert next week. Not that he needed another reason to piss off his staff, but expertise was not the thing keeping Tim on the job.
“Tomorrow is a work day,” Linc said, pointing out the obvious.
“I’m calling in sick.”
The guy had guts and an answer for everything, but he was running a little short in the brains department. Linc guessed that would be his downfall. “Is that so?”
“That’s the plan.”
For some reason Tim continued to ignore just how close to the edge Linc had inched. Linc had no idea how Tim could miss the danger signals. Becky all but ran from him after giving her office report each morning. Linc’s body shook with anger every time he looked at Thea’s desk chair. Not having her in his bed made him crazed.
He’d thought about trying to screw her out of his system with a series of other women, but the one time he got close to calling someone else for a few rounds of mindless sex he pulled back. He didn’t want another woman. He wanted the one who just may have conned him even as she worked her way under his skin, which went to show how far gone he truly was.
But he was here to fix that. Get the story and figure out how to move past it. All of that required Tim to walk back to his car and drive the hell out of there.
Maybe a threat would do it. “With the boss standing right in front of you, I’m thinking you should turn around and head home. No telling what I’ll do if I see a leave slip come across my desk for you when I know you’re not sick.”
“Lincoln.” Thea said his name like she always did when she thought he needed to back down. She called him bossy, but the woman had a tone that stopped grown men cold.
“I’m merely making a point.”
Her eyebrow lifted. “That you’re a jerk?”
Some of the air left Linc’s lungs. Okay, time to double back and come at this a different way. If Tim and Thea banded together, Linc could be looking at a long, cold car ride home. Alone.
&nb
sp; “I came to see you. Clearly Tim here came to warn you.” Which brought Linc back to the question that had plagued him the entire drive. “You’ve never heard of a phone?”
“She wasn’t picking up,” Tim said.
Linc’s foot found the first step as his gaze traveled over her. The lecture on safety could wait until he knew the more pressing answer. “Why, are you hurt?”
“It’s charging in the bedroom and, frankly, I totally forgot about it until Tim pulled in. I don’t have a home phone up here. Parents didn’t believe in phones over vacation.” Thea dismissed Linc and turned back to Tim. “Did you really come the whole way up here rather than call?”
“I thought I could get you out of here before he showed up.”
Linc took another step. He stood only two below her now. “You mean ‘he’ as in the man who signs your paychecks?”
“That’s sweet but misplaced,” Thea said, talking right over Linc.
Engaging in self-torture by imagining these two together was one thing. Having a front-row seat to his nightmare scenario was another. One Linc planned to end right now. “That’s about enough of that.”
Tim shook his head. “He thinks we’re dating.”
Between the dropped jaw and the big eyes, Thea looked about ten seconds away from asking Linc what the hell was wrong with him. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Hold up a second,” Tim said. “There’s no need to be so harsh about the very idea of us being together. I’m not a damn troll.”
Thea’s anger rolled on. She never broke eye contact with Linc. “So, on top of stealing you think I cheated on you while we were together?”
“I never said that. How do you make that leap?” The woman was going to be the death of him. No question about it.
Linc said one thing and she went running off on a tangent. She wouldn’t focus or answer a question. But she did make it quite clear she wasn’t with Tim. Linc decided the good news would be enough to get him through the rest of the conversation, especially since Tim kept leaning against the railing and didn’t look one inch closer to getting out.
Her eyes snapped with fire. “Tim said—”
“Let’s get this straightened out right now.” Linc dropped the information he now knew. Amazing what happened when he watched people interact when they thought no one was paying attention in the lunchroom. “I know you didn’t cheat if for no other reason than our time together ended up being pretty short, and Tim is dating Becky.”
A smile lit up Thea’s face as she glanced at Tim again. “Is that official? Are you guys finally trying to make a go of it?”
That look, so open and full of joy, touched off something inside Linc. Longing, maybe. Regret, definitely. The expression he once took for granted when she greeted him had nothing to do with him standing here today. No matter how much he wanted her to look at him like that, she saved it for other people, and he would have to earn it back.
Tim didn’t seem impressed with any of it. His eyes narrowed as he shot Linc a questioning glance. “How do you know about me and Becky?”
No secrets there. “You told me to get my head out of my ass and check out what was happening around the office. I did.”
Thea shifted. The small move put her directly between Tim and Linc but she looked at Tim. “You said the ass thing to your boss?”
Tim’s frown only deepened. “Not in those words but close.”
“The Linc I know doesn’t take insubordination all that well.” She held out her hand, not touching Linc but acting as sort of a shield and keeping him from stepping in closer to Tim.
The temptation to move a few inches and let her palm rest against his chest tugged at him. “Maybe I’m a new Linc. The one who is fine with employees dating each other.”
She shot him her best you’ve-got-to-be-kidding frown over her shoulder. “Oh, please.”
“You can leave now,” Linc said to Tim.
Thea was the one who answered. “It’s a six-hour drive.”
“Then you should invite me in.” Linc would give just about anything to get in that front door. Some part of him knew if he could get her alone, if they could talk it through without all the distractions and easy ways out, they could at least move past the non-speaking stage. Hell, he’d take any positive sign right now.
She leveled a finger in his general direction. “You are not staying.”
He decided to go with logic because he really didn’t have another argument. “You just pointed out how long the drive was.”
“For him.” She nodded at Tim.
Ignoring the cold air blowing through his long-sleeved shirt and Tim’s stupid smirk, Linc dove in. He pitched his voice low and kept his gaze only on her. “Thea, invite me in.”
The staring contest started a second later. The wind howled and the sun started to dip in the late-afternoon sky. She didn’t even blink as she watched him, but whatever she saw brought the color rushing back into her cheeks.
She nodded. “Okay.”
“What?” Tim shouted the question.
“It will be fine.” She frowned at Linc. “And, really, it’s time. There’s no reason to put it off.”
Linc thought she could use a bit more enthusiasm, but he stayed quiet. Victory hovered right there, so close he could almost grab it. If this kid did something to change her mind, Linc might just drop kick him into the icy lake.
Tim didn’t back away. He touched her arm. “Can I talk with you alone?”
“No need to wander off. I can stand here and pretend not to pay attention.” Because Linc had every intention of listening in on Tim’s big news or not-so-subtle warning, whichever way he played this.
“You can wait out here.” Thea held up a hand to Linc as she motioned for Tim to open the door. “Go ahead.”
Linc decided to call that a win. “Fine, but I’m not moving.”
Chapter Seven
Thea’s insides jumbled. Another minute or two of Linc’s calm conversation, and she’d throw up on his shoes. A pregnant woman could only take so much excitement, and having Linc land on her doorstep went way over the line of what she could handle before her head exploded.
She wanted peace and some time to think. She’d left DC for many reasons, but the main one was to get some breathing room from Linc. She didn’t want to run into him, and if his photo with some unknown woman had turned up in the newspaper’s style section, she might have gone right over the edge.
This was her turf. She should be able to set the ground rules and pick her visitors. Not that Linc understood any of that. He pushed his way in and demanded attention, just as he always did. Yet, through the waves of shock and pain at seeing his face, she didn’t want him to go.
The man ruined everything.
She paced the three-by-five floor space of the U-shaped kitchen area. She needed more room to speed up and rev up her anger, but she settled for bouncing off counters. Or she did until she slammed the side of her hip into the edge of the stove.
Hissing, she rubbed the sore spot. “The guy picks now to be all you can’t get rid of me. Honestly, he is so infuriating.”
Tim stepped right in front of her. “I have to leave.”
Thea cut off in mid-whine. “What?”
“I can come back, but Becky is at the Sherwood Inn in downtown Skaneateles.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe I called that a downtown.”
“It has food and shops and art galleries. It’s a downtown, just a small one.” Thea leaned against the counter as she tried to wrestle her wandering thoughts and get caught up with the conversation. “But what was your point and why is Becky here?”
“Becky insisted on coming up here with me. She had just gone into our room and I was unloading the bags when I saw the boss driving through the parking lot.” Tim winced. “When I couldn’t get in touch with you, I panicked and took off for the car to get here and warn you he was in town.”
“Without telling Becky?”
“I texted her. But, yeah, I
basically stranded her at the inn and she’s pissed.”
“I bet.”
“She’s going nuts being trapped there while you’re here dealing with Linc.”
Bad news piled high over the last few weeks, but this sounded good. Promising. “You are officially a couple.”
“She was upset after you left and I comforted her.”
“Sounds like it.” Thea grabbed Tim’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m happy for you.”
She’d been throwing those two together almost from the beginning. Becky had a bad break-up she wouldn’t talk about and Tim did a lot of consoling. Thea would sit in meetings and watch Tim stare at Becky, then Becky stare at Tim. It was like taking a giant step back into the seventh grade. They snuck peeks and smiled at jokes but avoided each other.
The nonsense went on longer than Thea ever thought possible. Before she left the office, she was on the verge of knocking their heads together. She’d actually planned a dinner party for the three of them, one where she would disappear and they’d be stuck with each other. They’d needed a push and Thea decided to give them one. Good for them for getting there without help.
“We decided to check on you and combine the trip with a romantic weekend away, our first one, which is the other reason I gave up trying to reach you. We were trying to surprise you.”
The scenario started making sense in Thea’s mind. “So, you’re not calling in sick tomorrow.”
“I have the day off, but I wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to tweak the boss. Not after what he did to you.” All emotion drained from Tim’s face. “Which is why seeing his car in town sent me flying over here. On that subject, keep your phone in your pocket while you’re up here.”
Thea flipped through all the information and focused on one piece. Most of her bodily functions stopped at once—breathing, heartbeats, everything. She thought she even heard the clunk. “So, Linc really did follow you from DC?”
No way could that be true. The man dated random women and rarely any woman more than a few times. Except for that time a month ago. Gwendolyn, the one who kept emailing and who sent him notes at the office. The one who made Thea crazed and had her doing stupid things like snooping.
Baby, It's Cold Outside: Men at Work, Book 1 Page 6