In her arms.
As he strode up the path, he held her gaze. The intensity on her face made his body draw taut and his jeans fit tighter. His work boots scuffed the limestone pavers and then pounded on the floor as he entered the house.
From the kitchen, he heard Guin’s music and the chink and clink of dishes as she cleaned. After the bright sunlight on the patio, the hall was dim, but it was a familiar path so he didn’t stumble. He mounted the steps two at a time and was at her door in short order.
Before he could knock, Ava had pulled the door open. She gripped his wrist, tugged him into the room, and slammed the door shut behind him. His shoulder blades banged on the wall and the breath whooshed out of him as Ava pushed him back.
She sealed her lips to his, lush and firm, demanding. His sac tingled and drew up, his cock already a steely rod. She speared her fingers through his hair as he gripped her hips and pulled her closer.
Her mouth seemed to light a fire under his skin. He slid one hand low on her butt, flexing his fingers, while his other hand skated up her spine. The texture of her hair was like silk over his knuckles as he cupped her nape. Ava prodded her tongue between his lips and he chased it back to her own mouth. Going up on her toes, she twined her arms around him, changed the angle of her head and bit down softly on his lower lip.
She scattered kisses over his chin and jaw, then dropped her forehead to his shoulder. “God, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’m not like this at all. Not aggressive.”
A chuckle rumbled deep in his chest and he tightened his grip on her when she leaned back. “I think I like assertive Ava.”
The heat of her skin warmed him as she moaned and snuggled closer, burying her face in his neck. “It’s you. You do this to me. I saw you on the path, the look on your face determined and I . . . I don’t know, every ounce of my control fled.” She groaned again.
One hand tangled in her hair and the other gripping her waist, Will spun their bodies until he’d sandwiched her between the wall and his chest. He rocked his arousal into her belly as he stroked her breast. The pert tip pebbled beneath his palm and he flicked his thumb over it, delighted with her physical response to him.
Her answering moan brushed his nerve endings, burning inside him. He probed the confines of her mouth with deep, thorough thrusts of his tongue.
“Will.” Her breath warmed his lips.
Her hand was light but firm on his chest. Her fingertips slid between the buttons on his chambray shirt, the skin-to-skin contact almost too much for him to bear.
“Ava.” One word, guttural and needy. Leaning hard into her, he let his body show her what she did to him. Against her lips he whispered, “Want nothing more than to strip you bare and spend the next few hours in bed with you.”
Her eyes opened and she held his gaze. “I’m not stopping you.” She slipped a button free on his shirt and pushed her fingers into the opening.
Catching hold of her hand, he curled his fingers around hers, stopping her play. “You’re not going to believe I’m saying this, but honey, there’s so goddamned much work to do. Can I get a rain check? And maybe a blow job?” Brows waggling, he skimmed his other hand from her breast, down her ribs until it landed on her hip. He played his fingers along her waistband, wanting nothing more than to pull her pretty pink tank top free of her pants and drag his fingers over bare skin. To shove his jeans to his knees and encourage Ava to take him in her sweet, hot mouth. He tucked the thought away in his come-back-to-it file. His fingers flexed hard on her flesh, before he released her and took a shaky step backward.
Disappointment and admiration competed in her gaze. She licked her kiss-swollen lips, and the corners of her mouth quirked. “I see I’ve been too good at my job.”
“Well, you have taught me to pay attention to details.” He grinned at her. “Later, I’ll show you what a good student I really am.” Will trailed a fingertip down her throat, swirled it in the scallop at the base, then traced further south, ending at the scoop of her top.
Her mouth went slack and her breath hitched. “Promise?” she breathed.
He bent his head and nuzzled her ear. “Oh, I promise.”
~ ~ ~
Ava walked ahead of Will toward the office, her legs trembling after the sexy interlude in her bedroom. The touch of his fingers at the small of her back warmed and excited her. It took every disciplined ounce of her resolve to not toss her responsibilities to the wind, grab his hand, and drag him back to her room so she could deliver the blow job he’d requested.
Pushing out a breath, she hoped to expel her inexplicable and uncontrollable desire for the man and her cravings for his body. She could do this. She would revert to Avalon in front of others. Sweeping her hand over her French twist hairstyle, she tucked a loose strand behind her ear. The cool, controlled, highly efficient consultant was back; the one hired to whip Rolling In The Clover, and its studly owner, into a lean, mean, wine producing machine.
An unexpected wave of need and rebellion swamped her. Locking down the wild, abandoned side of her shouldn’t be this hard. Taming chaos had never been an issue she struggled with.
But that was before Will. He’d released a facet of her personality that, now it was free, didn’t want to be shut down and hidden behind the control freak she’d been. Ava sucked in a deep breath and eased it back out, wishing for a good balance between those two sides of her.
Will’s chest brushed her shoulder as he reached around her to open the door to the office. The crackle of need under her skin wasn’t helping her regain control at all.
Guin slammed the phone into the cradle as Ava walked through the door. “What’s wrong?”
Lips pursed and eyes shooting a death ray glare at the phone, Guin grunted, “Bad news.” She met Will’s quizzical gaze as he claimed a seat at his desk. “I just got off the phone with the trucking company. Hurricane Meg struck again.”
Will jolted upright in his seat. “Better tell me.”
Guin covered her mouth with a fist, drew a deep breath, and chugged it back out. “She scheduled the pick-up three weeks ago, right after you got the order. But . . . she called three days ago and cancelled the shipment.”
“She can’t do that!” All traces of Ava disappeared with Guin’s news. Avalon now paced in front of the picture window behind Will’s desk.
His knee bobbed at a frantic pace, his fingers gripped around the chair’s padded armrests. “Did you explain Meg no longer works for Rolling? That she had no authority to cancel the shipment?”
“Of course I did.” Guin actually looked affronted that Will had questioned her action. “They apologized profusely for the error.”
Shoulders high around his ears, as though bracing for attack, Will asked, “Were you able to get us back on the schedule?”
Guin shook her head sorrowfully. “They picked up another emergency order to fill the gap. They don’t have any free trucks to accommodate us.”
“Fuck!” Will’s voice boomed in the confined space, ricocheting off the front window.
Ava dropped her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “We can work this out.”
“How the hell do you propose we fix this?”
She squeezed again, a bit harder. “We just have to look at the logistics.”
Will surged out of his chair, one wheel running over Ava’s toes. “Sorry, you okay?” When she mutely nodded, he ducked around her, yanked the door open, and sped out of the office.
Ava tossed a helpless look toward Guin, then limped after Will. His long-legged stride took him from the steps to the end of the path, his boots stomping. He turned, his fingers rubbing at the back of his neck, and paced, muttering and cussing. Morning sunlight dappled through the trees, igniting sparks of red and gold in Will’s dark hair.
Guin joined Ava on the po
rch. “Do you think he’s okay?”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Ava shook her head. “The hits just keep coming for him.” She descended the steps to the sidewalk as he stalked toward the porch, concentrating on the ground, the knuckles on his clenched fist white. “Will, come back to the office. We’ll come up with a plan. We’ll try a different trucking company.” She reached him and covered his fist with her hand.
He shook her off. “I need this wine on a truck in two days’ time. It’s not even in the fucking bottles yet. I don’t get it.” He seized her shoulders in a punishing grip. “I treated that bitch fairly. Paid her well. Overlooked her lax work ethic and her drinking on the job. Dad was even better to her. And this is how she fucking pays me back?”
Resting her hands on his wrists, Ava caught his gaze. “You forget I’m the queen of efficiency. We can get this done.” She closed the short distance between their bodies and slid her arms around his waist. She’d be damned if she could figure a way to fix this at the moment. But hugs never hurt.
She held him a moment, his heart pounding frantically against her sternum, his body tense. His breath shuddering, he dropped his hands from her shoulders and hugged her as she stroked her hands along his spine, up to his shoulder blades, then back on a repeat circuit of comfort.
Behind them, Guin retreated to the office. Ignoring everything else, Ava held Will close, desperately trying to infuse calm and logic in him. Banging commenced, echoing out of the office, followed by the sound of fingers pounding on a keyboard.
“It’s ten hours to San Diego. Closer to thirteen depending on traffic around San Francisco and L.A.,” he mused aloud, his breath tickling her ear.
When she tensed to move away, he flexed his fingers on her hips, holding her near. Ava relaxed against him, content to stay in his arms as he thought through the problem.
“I could do it. Make the drive south and get the shipment there on time.”
“Wait.” She pulled back enough to look him in the face. “You want to make the delivery yourself?”
“I’ve never used any other trucking firm. Just the same guys my dad and most of the other wineries around Cloverdale use. Which means I don’t have a relationship with any firms. I doubt another logistics company would drop their regular customers to help me out. Unless we can find another shipper at this late date, I think I have to make the drive.”
She finally pushed out of his arms and retraced the path he’d beaten on the sidewalk. “How long will it take to fill the bottles?”
“My system isn’t as high-tech or automated as some. There’s plenty of manual labor involved.” Will scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Eight hours. Maybe a little more.”
“Another hour to load the cartons into whatever truck or trucks we find.” She hit the end of the path; stepped onto the gravel lot. When she spun, the pebbles crunched and spurted away under her heel. “So we could be on the road first thing Thursday morning?”
“Or even tomorrow night. If we start at daybreak and work through lunch. The order is due by Friday morning.”
“Okay, so we load the truck on Wednesday, drive all night. Maybe traffic won’t be as bad at night. That leaves us on time for a Thursday delivery. We’ll certainly hit the deadline.”
“We?” He arched a brow, a smile playing on the corners of his mouth.
“Heck, yeah. We’ll do it together. I can’t drive the truck, but I can keep you company.” She paused to let the facts sink into her brain. Once they did, sweat broke out on her palms. She’d just volunteered to sit in a vehicle for something like nine hours without hesitation. During the trip to the winery, she’d had to stop six times. Driving to and from San Diego was going to be torture.
My assignment is to make sure he gets more efficient. I’m just doing my job. Even as the thought occurred, she recognized it as a line of bull crap. She’d made the offer in order to be near him.
His smile turned into a grin. Reaching out as she approached him, he laid his hand on her arm and touched his mouth to hers. “Thanks, honey.”
She returned the kiss, savoring the taste and texture of his lips, the smooth glide of his tongue as he traced it around the outer rim of her mouth. She pressed herself against him, gripping his biceps. Will released her mouth and threw his arms around her, pulling her up close and hard, spinning her body through the air. His whoop of delight boomed in her ear and she tightened her hold on his shoulders.
He set her on her feet, skated his hand down her arm until he’d tangled their fingers together. Then climbed the steps backward, pulling her along with him through the office doorway. “Let’s go find a truck.”
“Already found a rental with a lift,” Guin called out as they entered the office. “They’re holding it for us to pick up tomorrow morning. I used your personal card for the deposit, Will. They couldn’t get approval on the business account. The bank has a hold on the card since you reported fraud on it. They haven’t had time to issue a new one.”
Will’s fingers tightened on hers at the reminder of Meg’s duplicity. Then he shrugged. “Can’t be helped. Thanks for getting on finding a truck so quickly, Guin. Luck seems to be on our side so far. Hopefully, it’ll hold and we’ll get through this shipment without encountering any other snafus.”
Chapter 25
The sun was on its descent when the Team Vino van inched up to the bottling building. Another SUV eased into a parking space under the large sycamore tree at the edge of the building. Jules and her team of workers had arrived. She’d called from the road to update Will on her location.
Jules twisted between her side view mirror and the driver’s, directing the man behind the wheel with slashes of her hands and lots of smiles. Will stood in front of the van, motioning them backward. Even though the driver’s face was partially obscured by the sun’s glare on the windshield, Will noted amusement in the guy’s expression.
The second the van rocked gently to a stop in front of the oversized door, Alex Dixon slammed the gearshift in park, snagged Jules under her armpits, and hauled her onto his lap.
Holding in his laughter, Will strolled to back of the van and jerked open the doors. He’d never thought he’d be so happy about something that spelled a shit-ton of work for him. The seats had been removed from the rear compartment of what amounted to a mini-bus.
The back of the large people-mover was packed to the roof with boxes. Each bore the bright red lettering of Jules’ winery. They’d have to slap his vineyard labels on the cardboard. It was one additional step in the process of completing this order. Will pulled the jack, complete with a wooden pallet, forward and set the brake on it.
He picked up two of the boxes, listening to Jules’ bright laughter. Alex had his arm slung around her shoulders as they rounded the back of the van.
Releasing his hold on Jules, Alex extended his hand. “Good to see you, Will. Reinforcement team reporting for duty.”
Will lowered the boxes to the pallet and then found his hand clasped in Alex’s firm grip. “Good to have you on my team for sure. Thanks for dropping everything to help.” When Will had called Jules with the details of ‘Operation Get Shit Done,’ Alex had answered. Without hesitation, he’d agreed to pitch in. Since Jules loved Alex, that definitely made him one of the good guys in Will’s book.
The reporter’s appearance today sealed Will’s impression.
Jules drew Will in for a hug as the couple from the other vehicle approached. “We’ll help you unload.” She stepped away and swept her arm behind her. “Will, this is Jacqui Bishop and her fiancé, Luke Rossi. They’ve been at Team Vino for a visit and asked if you’d be okay with them helping. Jac says she’s uncorked way more bottles than she’s ever corked.”
The willowy blond behind Jules blushed a becoming shade of pink. “A fact that probably holds true for most people. Nice to meet you
, Will.”
Offering a smile, Will shook hands with Jac and then with Luke. “Nice to meet you as well. Feels like I already know you, just from Jules’ stories. Thanks for joining this operation.”
Jac trailed her gaze over the back of the van. “Will I be more of a help unloading here, or doing something else?”
Shifting his weight to one hip, Will gave her question some thought. Space was limited on the dock. Five people working to unload the cartons would be a nightmare. “Um, Ava is up at the house starting dinner. Hate to sound sexist, but maybe you and Jules could run up there and give her a hand. Guin says she’s great on a schedule for getting food on the table, but not so creative when it comes to actually preparing edible stuff.” Guin had been in charge of most of their meals over the past few weeks and hadn’t hesitated to unleash her inner chef. Her food had been a culinary experience.
“Well, I’m jumping on the chance to not do any kind of manual labor,” Jules commented on a laugh. She held out her hand. “Keys to the wine cellar, please.”
Will dug in his pocket for his key ring and dropped it onto Jules’ palm. “The best vintages are in the back room on the right.”
As the laughing women sauntered away, Will moved to the van to begin unloading. Alex and Luke stood motionless, staring at their retreating girlfriends, bemused expressions on their faces. Will resisted the urge to roll his eyes, knowing he’d have the same look if Ava was strolling away with them.
He hoisted two more cartons and carried them to the pallet. The rattle of the bottles when he stacked the boxes broke whatever spell the other two men had fallen under.
Alex rubbed his palms together. “Let’s get this show on the road.” He hefted two more boxes and scooted past Will.
Chaos Among the Vines (Romancing the Vine Book 2) Page 20