by Piper King
Because it was the best fucking sex I’ve ever had.
“Did she really come here to apologize? Tell me the truth, Harper.”
She studies me for a moment before answering. “You know what? She did. Good luck getting an apology out of her now though. You don’t deserve one.”
Harper turns and flounces out of the bar but not before shooting one last scalding look at Noah. His grin widens, and he waggles his fingers in a little goodbye, which only antagonizes her more. She slams the door behind her, leaving the three of us in a cloud of pure ice.
“Well, that was fun,” Noah says. “Looks like you dodged a bullet, Jack. Miss Fancy Pants doesn’t have a sense of humor. Neither does Harper for that matter. That girl needs to get laid.”
“I’m going to go talk to her.” Ignoring the sounds of my little brother’s protestations, I push open the door and step into the cool night. I spot Zoe and Harper only several feet ahead, walking in the direction of the bed and breakfast Harper inherited from her grandmother a couple of years ago. Zoe must be staying there. Well, that explains how the two of them ended up on the same team.
“Zoe, wait,” I call out, jogging to catch up to them.
The two pause and turn, and both sets of eyebrows raise high on their foreheads.
Zoe crosses her arms, shakes her head, and takes a step back. “Don’t you have a blonde to lure out to your little sex spot in the trees? Or did she turn you down when she realized you use the same dumb line on all the girls? Go wild or go home. Really, Jack, you couldn’t come up with something better than that?”
“It worked on you, didn’t it?” I could slap myself on the face just like she had. I came out here with every intention of clearing the air, but for some reason, my mouth couldn’t stop itself from throwing a barb right back. It’s hard to act like a rational human being around Zoe. I have no idea why. It’s like my brain, my cock, and my mouth are all on different pages.
My brain wants me to shut the hell up. My mouth wants to snap back. And my cock? Well, it’s getting harder by the moment, mostly because I’m noticing the way her tight little jeans highlight every inch of her delicious curves. And her light cotton top is just thin enough to betray her hard nipples.
Is she cold? Or is her own brain and body at odds like mine?
“Only because I was bored.” She narrows her eyes and lifts her chin. “I really don’t know what I was thinking. You are so not my type.”
“Trust me, sweetheart,” I answer, trying not to show just how much I hate her words. If I’m not her type, then who is? Probably some hotshot CEO in New York who cares more about his suit fit than her mindblowing pleasure. “You sure as hell aren’t my type either. Want to know why Noah bet me to talk to you? Because I can’t stand snobby city girls who have sticks up their asses.”
I shouldn’t have said that, even though it’s partly true. I don’t like snobby girls, but Zoe’s the opposite of everything I thought she was. And she doesn’t have a stick up her ass, evidenced by the exhilarating wildness she showed me last night. The only thing inside her was me. She was free, happy, full of life. And the way her eyes flash now tells me it wasn’t a passing fad. It’s who she is, whether she knows it or not.
“You say that like it’s an insult, but I love who I am.” She takes a step closer, erasing the distance between us. She’s so close that I can feel her hot breath on my skin, can feel the heat radiating from her body. “I prefer men more sophisticated. Ones who don’t smell like grease. Ones who don’t wear dirty jeans. Successful men. Ambitious men. Men who know what they want and go for it.”
I laugh, though it’s a pained one. If she’s saying that to me, maybe she really doesn’t get me after all. I’ve thrown my life into building my own business with my brothers. Just because I have dirt under my nails doesn’t make it true.
“Any man who has to wear a suit to get what he wants isn’t much of a man in my own not-so-humble opinion,” I say.
“Unfortunately for you, your opinion doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matter, huh?” I step even closer, and there’s no longer any space between us at all. Her chest shudders against mine. “Or maybe you just think you’re too high and mighty to consider the opinion of a lowly country boy who built up his own business from scratch.”
Energy crackles in the air. Zoe’s eyes widen. Her lips part. Our gazes are firmly locked on the other, and I swear I could stare into these blue eyes of her forever. Even though there’s intense anger radiating between us, there’s something more. Maybe it’s the way our bodies barely brush. Maybe it’s the way her hands tremble. Maybe it’s the way she licks her lips.
Don’t glance at the lips, I tell myself. But my cock wants nothing more than to explore that wonderland of a mouth again.
“I’m done with this conversation.” She breaks the stare, putting distance between us as quickly as she can by jumping back several feet. It’s like she’s been scorched, and I have to admit, I feel like I have been, too. “I have an important job to do, after all. While some people can spend all their time making bets and hitting on random people at bars, I like to take my job more seriously than that. I’m here on business. There’s a contract to land. And I plan to win.”
“Once again, you’re talking all high and mighty, but you were there last night just as much as I was,” I say. “You drank the whiskey. You chatted me up. And no matter how much you want to deny it, you loved what came next. Your moans of pleasure betrayed you.”
“It was a mistake,” she says quickly. “One I’ll never make again.”
And with that, she turns and strides off. Harper trails just behind her, casting me strange glances every few feet. She’s been a witness to the entire exchange, which means the whole town will know about it by morning. Great.
But that doesn’t matter, not right now. Not when I have the sudden urge to call out and have the last word. Unfortunately, there’s only one thing that pops into my head. And it falls right out of my mouth before I have a chance to think it through.
“Yeah, we’ll see about that!”
What a fucking idiot. We’ll see about that? What kind of parting shot was that? Like either one of us has any urge to fuck the other at this point. Of course it’s a mistake we’ll never make again. I certainly have no desire to get back into her pants, and the way she looked at me makes it clear she feels the same way. She hates me, for fuck’s sake. We’re on opposite sides of the battleground, and we’ve fired enough shots between us that there’s no hope for even a cease-fire, let alone a treaty that involves shedding clothes.
I watch her cute little ass wriggle as she disappears down the street.
I definitely do not want to spank that ass.
Not even a little bit.
11
Zoe
There’s a message on my voicemail when we return to the bed and breakfast. Harper disappears into the back to brew up another cup of her soothing cinnamon concoction while I listen to my boss’s angry words. He heard about the botched meeting this morning, and he’s none too pleased, to say the least. In no uncertain terms, he makes it clear that I better get the contract signed by the end of the week. Or I’m toast.
“Bad news?” Harper asks as she returns to the front room with two cups of cocoa and cinnamon. She pushes one into my hands and blows little puffs onto her own, trying to cool down the steaming liquid.
“It was my boss.” I take a sip of the drink before letting it cool down and wince when it burns my tongue. “He’s not happy about how badly I’ve screwed up.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I say with a sigh. “If I don’t turn this around, I won’t have a job come Monday. But I have to admit that if I were the developer? I’d run far, far away from me. I call myself a professional, but I was the one who looked like an amateur next to Jack. I totally lost the plot.”
“When are you meeting the developer again?”
“Well, that’s just
it,” I say with a heavy sigh. “He said he would call me to reschedule, but he’s meeting with Jack and his brothers tomorrow to check out their operation first. I have a feeling he’s just going to go with them once he sees that they have everything they need to move forward with the project.”
“Hmm.” Harper sets down her cup and meets my eyes. “You had a lot more fight in you at the bar. What happened to that girl?”
“Yeah, well, it’s easy to fight when I’m face-to-face with that smug idiot.”
Harper’s lips quirk. “I have to admit, I’ve never seen Jack Hall as rattled as he was tonight. You’ve really done a number on him.”
“He didn’t seem rattled.” I frown as I remember how he hit on that blonde using the same stupid lines, like our night together meant nothing to him. “He seemed like an arrogant jerk who’s used to women bending over and taking it.”
“Trust me, he was rattled.” She shifts in her chair and gives me a sly look. “So, I take it you two didn’t try that position.”
My face flames. “Well, we did. I mean…Gah! Why is this so complicated?”
“It’s always complicated when sex is involved.”
“You’re not wrong about that one.” I plop into the flowery chair and cover my eyes with my hands. I’m starting to get a headache again. Partly from Jack. Partly from the overwhelming swirl of flowers in Harper’s place. “I just wish I knew how to salvage this. Mr. Richards will se that their fleet of machinery is in tip-top shape tomorrow, and he’ll probably sign the contract right then and there. I won’t even get a chance to counter, not after today’s meeting.”
“So, it’s the machinery that’s the biggest concern here?” Harper asks, her eyes suddenly sparking with delight. I have a feeling she’s just had an idea, and I also have a feeling I’m not sure I want to know what it is. Because there’s one thing I’ve quickly learned about my new friend. She’s a firecracker, and she’s not afraid to play dirty.
I wish I could say the same for myself, but despite my tough talk to Jack in the bar, I doubt I can do more than roll over and accept defeat.
Bye, bye job.
Which means bye, bye apartment in Manhattan.
I won’t be able to afford my Upper East Side digs if I don’t have the kind of steady income that The Wilson Group provides. I’ll be back to square one, searching for any job that will have me. It took me months to get this one, and I imagine having the red mark of FIRED added to my resume won’t score me any points.
“Yeah, Mr. Richards said he wants to see their equipment. But mostly the bulldozer and the loader since there’s a lot of excavating involved.”
Her smile grows. “What would you say if I told you I know where they keep the keys for their bulldozer and loader?”
“I would ask you how you know that information.” I raise my eyebrows. “It seems like it would require visiting the headquarters of The Hall Brothers. And I wouldn’t expect you to want to be anywhere near your archenemy.”
“I make it my business to know the business of my archenemy.” She stands from the chair and moves over to the door where she flips the sign to from Open to Closed. Not that it will make any difference. She doesn’t get a lot of visitors at her B&B. “So, what do you think? Should we go cause some mayhem before their big meeting?”
“I don’t know.” I nibble on my bottom lip, and my heart begins to beat a bit faster. “As much as I want to take Jack Hall down, I don’t want to actually sabotage his business. And messing with his machinery could screw with any future jobs he wants to land. That’s just a step too far, even when it comes to a guy who got into my pants because of a bet.”
“I just thought we could borrow them is all. Move them to an alternate location.” She shrugs and flashes me a mischievous smile. “And if he can’t locate his bulldozer and loader the day the developer comes by, then well, I guess he’s got some explaining to do.”
“Oh, you are so bad.” I rub my palms against my jeans, pure adrenaline pouring through my veins. I can’t do this. I really, really can’t do this. Not only is it a step too far, but it’s hardly legal. “Couldn’t we get into trouble for this?”
“Nah. My dad is the sheriff. Worst case scenario, we have to return the machines before the meeting.” She grabs a dark jacket from the coat rack and tosses it my way. “It’s just a prank, Zoe. And payback for the prank they pulled on you.”
Despite my hesitation, her words have me hooked, especially when I imagine the look on Jack’s stupidly handsome face when he realizes his equipment isn’t where it’s supposed to be. And especially when he realizes he finally lost.
He might have won the stupid bet to get into my pants, but he’s not going to win again.
Screwing with my job is one thing, but screwing with my head and my heart is another. Because he definitely screwed with my heart, as much as I hate to admit it. Finding out our mind-blowing, toe-curling, multiple-orgasm-inducing night together was just a joke hurts me far more than I ever want him to know.
So, let’s see how he likes being played.
12
Jack
“We have a problem,” Luke says the second I walk into the shop. My gut clenches. Really not the words you want to hear half an hour before an important future client is about to show up.
“Don’t tell me,” I say as I press my hands to my forehead. “Noah has a hangover and can’t make it in. I knew he was going to be trouble after seeing Harper last night. He always ramps up the asshole quotient when they bash heads.”
“I wish.” Luke leads me to the back door of the shop which opens onto our lot of equipment. Over the years, we’ve collected quite the impressive array of machines, and we can take on pretty much any job that comes our way. Our work in the past has focused on kitchen renovations and that kind of thing, but we’ve done more and more full home builds in the past few years. That’s why this development project is so important to us. It would open so many more avenues of work.
But Luke’s words and stoic face have me more than nervous.
He throws open the door and points out at the lot. Our mismatched collection fills the tiny space, though every machine gleams from the thorough cleaning we gave them the day before. To an untrained eye, nothing would be amiss. But my eye isn’t untrained. And I sure as hell know when something’s even the tiniest bit off in my lot. And nothing about this situation is tiny.
“What the fuck? Where’s the dozer and the loader?” My ears ring when my blood rushes through my veins at super-speed. Those are the bad boys we just upgraded last month, and they’ve barely been used. The two machines Mr. Richards named yesterday. And yet…they’re gone.
Shit, shit, shit. How the hell could this happen? I whirl toward the key rack we hang by the door, and the hooks that usually hold the dozer and loader keys are conspicuously empty.
“Did Noah do this? Some kind of stupid joke to make us lose our ever-loving minds for a laugh? Have you called him?” I clench my hands into fists. “Give me the fucking phone, so I can call him.”
“I’ve already called him. It wasn’t him,” Luke says, his voice low and quiet. That’s the nice thing about my older brother. He’s always cool and collected, no matter what’s going on, and even though I’m about to burst at the seams, his demeanor actually chills me out just enough to process his words.
“Then who the hell was it?” I throw up my hands and stalk back and forth, staring out at the glaringly empty lot. The developer will want to know why we don’t have a dozer and a loader. They are two of the most important pieces of equipment we should have. We’ll only confirm his worst fears if we can’t show him that we are very much prepared for his job.
“Well, you’re not going to like this.”
“That’s not really helping, Luke.”
“Promise me that you’ll deal with this like an adult.” He moves over to the television screen that displays footage from the security cameras we have positioned around our property. “We caught the culprits on c
amera, but I want to be sure you’re not going to do anything irrational when you see who it is.”
His words set off alarm bells in my head. And I suddenly know exactly who’s behind this.
“It was Zoe, wasn’t it?” I know it to be true with every fiber of my being. Of course it was her. Who else would do something like this to us? Not to mention the fact she’s the only person in the world who would know to steal the dozer and the loader. She was there when Mr. Richards asked to see those two machines specifically. Damn it all to hell.
Luke stares at me with a blank expression on his face before turning to the screen. When he backs up the footage and presses play, I curse under my breath at what scans before my eyes. Zoe and Harper sneaking into the shop, grabbing the keys, and driving off in our machines. Who the hell does Fancy Pants think she is? And where the hell did she get the balls to steal right from under my nose?
She’s supposed to be a suave professional who ticks boxes and signs checks. Instead, she’s this daring creature who fucks on the grass and breaks into my shop.
“Give me the phone,” I bark at Luke. “I’m going to call the police. If she’s going to rob us blind, then she’s going to have to pay the consequences.”
“I don’t think that’s wise, Jack.”
“And why the hell not?” I see absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t report her. Sure, I may have started the war when I took on Noah’s bet. And sure, I only made things worse when I hit on the blonde in an attempt to get a rise out of Zoe. But she’s taken things to a whole new level, and I can’t let her get away with straight-up theft.
“Mr. Richards just pulled into the lot out front, and I’m not sure we’ll impress him if our business is crawling with cops.” He taps on the live security footage that shows our front parking lot. Mr. Richards is climbing out of his car and shuffling papers into his briefcase. “We’ll just have to come up with an excuse about the missing equipment until we get it back.”