by Piper King
Maybe I should stop her from getting out of the truck. But I’m not sure what I would say. Or do. Or where we’d go next. So, I don’t say a damn thing. I watch her slide across the leather and jump down onto the pavement below. And then she walks away, her gorgeous thighs and ass shifting in her tight blue jeans.
I wish I could think of a way for both of us to get what we want.
But I can’t.
So, there’s nothing else I can do.
Noah and Luke are waiting at my house when I’m done dropping of Zoe. They came over after we closed the shop for the day in order to discuss a plan for recovering our gear. A little steak and a little wine (for them, not me), and a powwow. It had been a long time since the three of us put our heads together like that, and it felt damn good.
Of course, the only solution we came up with involved me chatting to Zoe. Luke thought it would work. Noah thought we should come up with our own version of sabotage. Some way to ruin her meeting the way she’d ruined ours.
In the end, Luke was right. As always.
“Brother!” Noah exclaims when I walk through the door and knock the dirt off my boots. An old habit I’ve had for as long as I can remember. My little brother pops up from the couch where he’s been binge-watching the latest hit on Netflix and drinking beer. His eyes are blood-shot, a sure sign he’s had too much to drink again. “Tell me you put that snobby city girl in her place and got our equipment back.”
“She’s not a snob,” I can’t help but answer. Because while Zoe Austin is a lot of things, she’s not the stereotypical suit-clad, heel-wearing ice queen any of us thought. She’s much more than that, though I can’t expect Noah to understand. All he knows about Zoe Austin is that she stole our stuff. “But yes, we got the dozer and the loader back.”
“Victory!” Noah fist-pumps the air. “How’d you do it? Did you seduce her like I said?”
Okay, I have something to admit. Noah suggested I seduce Zoe in order to convince her to hand over the keys and the location of our beloved equipment. I managed to get into her pants once, he argued, so I could surely do it again. Right?
Well, sure, he’d been right, but I swear that’s not why I hit on her, and it’s definitely not why I fucked her sideways in my truck. I meant every word I said to Zoe and I never intended to follow my brother’s suggestions. Hell, I didn’t plan on listening to him ever again, about anything. Not after his bet landed us all in this mess to begin with.
“It doesn’t matter how I did it. All that matters is I have the keys, and I know where they are. We can drive them into the lot in the morning before Mr. Richards swings by to check them out.”
“So, where’d she park ‘em?” Luke asks, half-asleep in the Lazy Boy he bought me one Christmas as a gift. Though he spends more time in that chair than I do.
“In my own damn field.” I gesture at the back of the house. If I’d bothered to look out my kitchen window before leaving for work after breakfast, I would have seen them sitting there and gleaming under the morning sun.
Luke’s lips quirk. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Nope. They were right in my own backyard the whole damn time.” I shrug and toss the keys to Luke. I trust him more than I do Noah, at least with the safety of our machines. “Anyway, doesn’t matter now. We have the dozer, so we’re all set for tomorrow.”
“So, we’ve got the contract then, right?” Noah crumples an empty beer can and tosses it at an overflowing trash can in the corner.
“Well.” I wince. “It’s not that simple. Zoe has a meeting with the developer tomorrow at eleven. I guess he wants to cover all his bases.”
Noah scowls and throws another beer can. This time it ricochets off the wall with the force he puts behind it. He looks as mad as I felt earlier, because he doesn’t understand that Zoe needs this job just as much as we do. “She only got that meeting because she screwed with ours. What are we going to do to ruin hers?”
“We’re not going to do anything,” I say, because I meant every word I said to her about the truce. No more screwy business. “Let’s just focus on our own meeting. Okay?”
Noah’s scowl deepens, and he glances at my clothes. Despite my best efforts, my t-shirt is rumpled, and the zipper on my jeans is unfortunately at half-mast. Whoops. So much for keeping our little exploits to myself. “You fucked her again, didn’t you?”
“Why is sex always the first conclusion you jump to? Maybe, just maybe, I want to treat this whole situation like a professional instead of a kid.”
He shakes his head and lets out a laugh that sounds a lot more bitter and jaded than I thought my little brother was capable of. “You just can’t see it, can you? Your mind is warped because of this girl. You’re not thinking straight.”
My heart throbs, not because Noah is being a pain in my ass but because his words are hitting a little too close to home. Zoe has made me do a lot of dumb things since I’ve met her, but this time, I’m certain I’m making the right choice.
“No, I think I’m seeing things a lot clearer than I did before she gatecrashed this neverending party of yours.” I waved at his beer cans, at the overflowing trash. Lately, all Noah wants to do is be out and about and drowning in himself. Something’s wrong, something deep down inside him, but he’s never said what. And it’s only going to eat him alive if he doesn’t take a step back.
“You know what? Fine.” Noah throws up his hands. “But when our business goes bust, I hope to hell you still think she’s worth it.”
But he’s wrong. Our business won’t go bust. Tomorrow, he’ll see. But when tomorrow comes, things only get more complicated.
17
Zoe
By the time half past eleven comes around with no sign of Mr. Richards, I realize something has gone very wrong. He’s not the kind of guy to be late to a meeting, especially not one as important as this. He’s got the whole formal businessman schtick down to a T, and tardiness is not a quality that type appreciates. So, either he’s confused or…something else has happened.
I try not to jump to conclusions. There could be any number of reasons why he’s not here yet. Have I gotten a detail wrong? Are we supposed to meet somewhere else? Perhaps his car broke down with a flat tire. Maybe a deer jumped out onto the road, and he had to swerve into a tree to avoid it. Or maybe when I said eleven, he thought I meant…eleven at night?
None of my frantic explanations make any sense.
Time to find out.
“Mr. Richards, hi,” I say when he answers his cell. “This is Zoe Austin. I just wanted to check in with you about our meeting this morning. I hope you’re not having trouble finding the place.”
“Miss Austin? I thought our meeting was cancelled.” His voice is gruff and no-nonsense, and I’m reminded once again of how badly I botched our first meeting. He sounds as if he’s barely tolerating my existence.
Not to mention, his words make no sense.
“Cancelled?” I frown and glance at the front counter of the B&B where Harper is flipping through a magazine about hairstyles. She didn’t mention anything about a phone call, and there’s no reason he’d ring the front desk instead of my cell. “I must have missed your message. Would you like—”
“My message? Miss Austin.” He sighs. “Your assistant called me this morning to inform me that you were unavailable to meet. It sounds to me like you’ve had your wires crossed. I’d come over now, but I’ve already made alternate plans. Have a good day.”
And with that, he hangs up.
My assistant? One thing is for damn sure. I don’t have an assistant. Hell, I barely even have my own job, let alone someone specifically employed to help me with it. Which means someone called Mr. Richards pretending to be my assistant in an effort to stop our meeting from happening.
There are only two people in this big wide world who know I have a meeting scheduled today. I didn’t even tell my boss about it yet. I wanted to wait and surprise him when I managed to snag the deal.
&
nbsp; So, that leaves Harper and Jack.
Harper wouldn’t screw me over. I’ve only just met the girl, but I know she’s on my side.
Besides, she doesn’t have Mr. Richards’ number. A certain someone else does though.
I fight the urge to throw my phone across the room.
Despite all his talk about truces and playing nice, Jack Hall has screwed me over again.
The headquarters for the Hall Brothers is a lot more impressive in the daytime. It’s a small brick building with large glass windows, set back from the road and surrounded by fields. Inside, the lofted ceilings give the impression of strength and grandiosity, overhead skylights shooting beams onto the handmade wooden tables that house a variety of tools, sketches, and miniature buildings. There’s a light layer of sawdust covering everything, but it only lends a certain authenticity by lacing the air with the scent of smoke and wood.
But I’m not here to appreciate Jack’s shop. I’m here to tell him off.
He glances up from one of the tables where he’s hammering a nail into some kind of shelving unit while his two brothers work on another shelf at the table just behind him. His hammer falls to his side when he spots me. He cocks his head and smiles that deliciously sexy smile I want so badly to hate right now. Because he’s screwed me over, and he looks far too happy about it.
“Zoe.” He attempts to wipe some dust from his face, but it only makes the dirt spread further across his stubbled jaw. I hate how sexy it makes him look, like he’s pure grit and power. “I didn’t expect to see you today. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“You know what,” I say, curling my hands into fists by my sides. “I can’t believe I trusted you.”
He frowns, and for a moment, I doubt myself. His face isn’t the face of cocky Jack. He looks genuinely confused by my words. Another game? Another trick? It’s hard to tell with him.
“Zoe, what’s going on?”
“I told you about the meeting I was supposed to have with Mr. Richards today.” My voice echoes in the high-ceilinged room. “But he just so happened to mysteriously get a call from my non-existent assistant to tell him the meeting was cancelled. You’re seriously telling me you don’t know what I’m talking about? Because no one else in the world would have screwed me over like this.”
“Zoe.” He raises his hands to his sides and shakes his head. Everything about his expression is earnest and a little bit hurt, like he can’t believe I’m accusing him of this. “I swear I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t call Mr. Richards to cancel your meeting. When I promised to stay out of it, I meant every word.”
“But if it wasn’t you, then who the hell was it? The only other person who knew about the meeting was Harper, but I refuse to believe she’d do such a thing, no matter how much she enjoys playing games like your brother.”
Jack frowns, his face going hard. He turns slowly toward his brothers. Luke stands with his arms crossed, watching the exchange with a blank expression on his face. And his younger brother, Noah, the one who Harper hates with a fiery passion I’ve never seen before, is whistling quietly while he sands a piece of wood.
“Noah,” Jack says in a quiet, yet dangerous, voice. “Please tell me you didn’t.”
“Sorry, Jack.” Noah continues to sand, not even risking a glance at the two of us. “If you didn’t want to take matters into your own hands, I did. The future of our business depends on this contract. All I did was what needed to be done. Besides, I only cancelled a meeting. It’s not like I broke into her place to steal her shit.”
“For fuck’s sake, Noah,” Luke says.
“You went behind my back when I explicitly asked you not to do a damn thing?” Jack throws up his hand and stalks toward his brother. “How could you?”
“How could you? You’re putting a girl you’ve only just met before us. Your own flesh and blood.” Noah finally looks up then, and his eyes churn with anger. “You’re thinking with your dick instead of your brain. I know you won’t appreciate this now, but you’ll thank me later.”
Noah throws the sandpaper onto the work surface and storms out the front door. Moments later, he jumps into his truck and speeds out of the parking lot. Silence descends upon us. I sure as hell don’t know what to say. It feels as if I’ve stepped into the middle of a family drama where I don’t belong. Even though the whole thing is because of me. The entire situation makes my head spin.
Smoothing things over with Jack was supposed to make things simpler, happier, better. I thought we were patching things up. Instead, it seems to have only made things worse. The last thing I want is to cause a rift between Jack and his brothers, but it looks as if it’s too late for that. There’s a gaping hole that can’t be bridged. I don’t have brothers or sisters, but I can imagine how terrible it would feel to lose them over something like this.
But as angry as I am that Noah cancelled my meeting, I’m more than a little relieved that it turned out to be someone other than Jack.
“Maybe I should go…” I start to back toward the door.
“No.” Jack’s voice is firm and hard, and it roots my feet to the spot. “I don’t want you to go. Not like this.”
My heart pounds hard at his words. I don’t want you to go. They’re words I want to hear more than I realized. Not that he means it the way I want him to mean it.
“It just seems like you need to go work things out with your brother,” I say.
“Noah will get over it. He just needs some time to cool off,” Luke says as he sets down his drill. “I’ve got some paperwork to take care of in the back. I’ll let you two chat.”
After Luke disappears down the hallway, I turn to Jack. “I’m so sorry, Jack. I never meant to cause all this trouble.”
He just shakes head and clenches his jaw. “I’m sorry Noah did that to you. He’s really been acting out of sorts lately. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. He’s usually a pain in the ass but never quite this bad.”
I don’t know how to respond to that, so I turn the conversation onto something else.
“Has Mr. Richards been by yet? To see your equipment?” On the word equipment, my voice cracks. Because when I think of his equipment, I’m sure as hell not thinking about a bulldozer.
“He’ll be here in an hour.” He gives me a sad smile. “I’m so sorry this trip hasn’t gone well for you, Zo. I hope you know I mean that.”
“Not everything about this trip has gone badly…”
Jack’s eyes go dark with lust. It’s an expression I’ve seen on him before. In the woods the first night we met. Last night in his fields. And again here now.
It sends chills across every inch of my skin. In a different life, I could be happy with a man like Jack Hall. One where we sit on porch swings and laugh the nights away, watching the pink and gold sunsets while toasting the glorious life we built. But that can never happen to this version of me. We live too far apart. My life is there, and his life is here, and I’m certain he only thinks of me as a one-night-stand (okay, a two-night-stand) who will one day be nothing more than a distant memory.
Why the hell do I have to want the one man I can’t have?
18
Jack
I thought I’d never see her again, and now here she is in my shop looking as hot as the motherfucking sun. She’s wearing those tight little jeans and a V-neck tank top that highlights her perfect set of tits. I want to bury my face in her cleavage and suck on her nipples until she screams out my name over and over again.
Shit. I blink, knocking those thoughts out of my dumpster truck of a brain. I can’t keep thinking of her like this, not when she’s heading back home tomorrow morning. It does neither of us any good. Sure, we had our fun, but that was it, right? Now it’s time to move on like respectable adults and shake hands as we part ways.
Plus, Mr. Richards will be here in less than an hour. Wouldn’t want him to walk in on me bending over my enemy and slamming my balls against her ass.
But the d
anger of getting caught only thrills me that much more, and my dick swells with the need to be inside her.
“I guess…” She swallows hard, a signal that she’s feeling as lusty as I am. Her mouth slightly parts, and her breath spills onto her lips. Lips I want to taste. Lips I want to dive my tongue between. “I should head off so you can make sure everything’s prepared. I’m guessing you’ll get the contract now. And you know what? I think I’m okay with it. You have a great place here, and I can’t fault your ambition. I’ll find another job.”
“You aren’t angry at my brother?” I ask, surprised by her words.
“Well…not really, as strange as that sounds.” She cocks her head and nibbles on her lip as if she’s trying to file her thoughts into an order she can understand. It might just be the cutest expression I’ve ever seen her wear, and that’s saying a hell of a lot. Everything she does is cute, sexy, and delicious as fuck. “I was angry when I thought you were the one who cancelled the meeting. But…I think I’m more relieved that all this is over more than anything else.”
“Why the sudden change of heart?”
She shrugs and lets out a soft sigh. “I don’t know. I’ve been fighting so hard for something I’m not so sure I even want anymore. Construction isn’t my thing. You know that. Maybe, as hard as it was to see at first, this is some crazy blessing in disguise. Instead of settling for a job that only pays the bills, maybe I can find something I truly love. I mean, I might have to camp out on a friend’s couch for awhile, but it’ll be worth it if I can find my dream job in the end.”
I love hearing her talk like this, with passion and heart and a newfound drive that causes flickers of fire in her eyes. This is the Zoe I saw from the beginning. The Zoe I knew was inside her, just waiting to come out when she realized that spark and fire was there. It lights a different kind of spark in my gut, and all my reasons for letting her walk out of my shop go flying right out the damn window.