by Haley Travis
But the other two were a coin toss.
Going through the paperwork more thoroughly, I skimmed through previous deals to see if we usually won over bids from Wright. We always kept track of who else was interested in a job. There was a lot of competition for the best work in the city, and we needed to know who else was after it.
From the looks of things, we beat Wright at nearly every opportunity.
The only jobs that they had ever beat us for on a consistent basis were a selection of condo towers going up in the West End of the city by the lake. But those building corporations were not of the variety we usually dealt with.
It was the sort of corporation that changed its name every two years, both for tax purposes and other questionable legal reasons. The sort of corporation that employs a lot of family and select friends, and was extraordinarily close-knit.
It was the sort of “ family ” that nobody crossed. Or else.
I knew that my uncle had nothing to do with them, so I didn’t realize he had ever quoted on those jobs. Maybe it was only to piss off Wright. It was a few years ago, before I was really keeping an eye on the paperwork.
As soon as I submitted the last of the quotes, I got a call from Gus, one of our carpenters, that his partner Louis didn’t come in today.
It sounded like Gus had been trying to cover for him, but was just getting too far behind. The problem with having twenty condos to finish in a certain time frame was that you really needed to hit each day’s target. Getting behind was simply not an option, because there was no way you could guarantee that you’d catch up.
There are all the cliches about construction taking double whatever the time was quoted, but we really tried to distinguish ourselves by always hitting deadlines. Or having a darn good reason if we were a day late, such as custom finishes being held up in transit.
I raced over there to help him, and by the time my workday was done, It was already seven-thirty. I jumped in my car and called Tana before deciding whether I should go home.
“Hi,” she answered, and I could picture her sweet smile already.
“Hey, sweetheart. I’ve had a lousy day. I was thinking about taking you out for dinner, but I just can’t deal with the outside world right now.”
“Do you want to come over for dinner?” she asked.
“I would absolutely love to. I don’t want to impose, though, if you have other plans.”
“Don’t be silly,” she said quickly. “Come on over.”
“If you hear the screeching of tires in about thirteen minutes, that’s me pulling into your parking lot,” I chuckled.
She ended the call while laughing at me, and I found the quickest route to her apartment. As soon as she opened the door, I held up my hands. “I am the worst guest ever. I didn’t have time to bring you a gift.”
Damn, she was beautiful. She had her hair swept to one side today, her lovely eyes sparkling as she let me in.
“No gifts, just your wonderful company is enough.” Tana kissed me quickly, then returned to fussing around the kitchen table. Or maybe she considered it the dining room table. Her apartment was really one long room, plus the bedroom and bathroom, and I really didn’t know how she divided it up.
“I know that I should have tried to impress you by making dinner, but I got held up at work tonight,” she said, sliding the various Chinese food dishes into large bowls. “Dr. Brannigan is great, but he’s definitely more of an optometrist then a professional organizer.”
“Uh oh. Is he driving you nuts?” I asked.
She shook her head, smiling gently. “Not really. But it would’ve been handy if he had figured out the layout of the shop area and the storage before ordering in all of the glasses frames. He sort of sprung everything on me, and he’d done half of it before I could step in and make sense of things.”
She set out plates, forks and chopsticks, then poured us large glasses of water. “I’m not complaining, mind you. Everyone has their own process. It will be fine in a couple of weeks, I’m sure. Just growing pains.”
“I’m glad that he has you to straighten him out,” I said.
As she began to sit down, my hand darted out over her chair to squeeze her cute round butt a little.
“Sir, that is absolutely inappropriate dinner behavior, “ she snapped, but her eyes were smiling.
I stared at the ceiling while reluctantly retracting my hand. “How do I tell my new girlfriend that she’s so hot it’s tricky to behave myself?”
Looking back at Tana, she was nearly blushing, placing a napkin on her lap.
Then I realized something. “Sweetheart, I’m your first boyfriend, aren’t I?”
She nodded, looking at me expectantly.
“So that means you have no idea whether I’m doing a good job or not?”
Her eyebrows arched, then she shook her head. “Don’t you dare think I’m going to fall for that. I won’t get talked into cleaning your house, or whatever it is you’re thinking.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. But maybe you’ll forgive me if I work long hours sometimes, and have weird friends.”
“I like your weird friends,” she said softly. “And I really like that you introduced me to them right away.” She looked down at her plate, poking a piece of broccoli around with a chopstick.
“Why wouldn’t I introduce you to everyone I know? You’re amazing.”
She shrugged, staring into space for a moment. “I don’t know. Some people seem to compartmentalize their friends. Some of my friends from school got boyfriends, and never really spoke to me again. And my mother was strangely secretive with her friends, never letting me meet them.”
That sounded really off to me, but I certainly wasn’t going to point it out.
“People all have their strange social systems,” I said, picking up a fork. “I know I’m a heathen for not using chopsticks, but I’m really hungry, and my big fingers are clumsy today. Will you forgive me?”
Tana shook her head sadly. “It might be the difference between dessert and no dessert, if that’s the chance you want to take.”
“I’ll live,” I chuckled, spearing a huge piece of spicy chicken and jamming it into my face.
As we ate and talked and laughed endlessly, I realized that I didn’t want the night to ever end.
I’ve always enjoyed my job, but this weird bit of tension about my uncle being strange was throwing me off. I wanted to completely ignore it until I absolutely had to go back there.
I stayed too late with Tana in my arms on the couch in our magical little bubble, having to force myself to leave at ten. When it was just the two of us, every single thing in the world was perfect.
CHAPTER TEN
* Tana *
After puttering around my apartment for most of Saturday, I tried to curl up with a book, but found myself repeatedly staring off into space, thinking about my new relationship.
Even though Tyler and I really hadn’t spent a lot of time together yet, I somehow felt like I knew him better than anyone. Maybe it was because we were getting to know each other on a physical level as well as an intellectual and emotional one.
Maybe it was that we both seemed completely fixated on each other.
I still couldn’t get over the fact that Tyler seemed utterly infatuated with me. It wasn’t something I could even begin to understand, so I tried to put it out of my mind. But it was there.
Our lives were becoming entwined, slowly but surely. Without being nosy or prying, we always knew where the other one was, and what we were doing. A text here, a phone call there, we just always seemed to be in touch.
For a girl who had spent so much time alone throughout her entire life, I felt transformed. It was absolutely heavenly always having someone to talk to and be interested in all of the strange little details of my everyday life.
Tyler seemed genuinely relieved that he could talk about his work and my eyes didn’t glaze over. I was never bored. Perhaps he had that problem with women before, sinc
e he commented on it twice.
Of course I was going to pay attention to something that was such a large part of my boyfriend’s life.
Since I did know a bit about paperwork and organization, I was extremely happy I was able to help him with a few details and suggestions.
The second my phone rang around four in the afternoon, I grinned, already knowing who it was.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Tyler said before I could even answer properly. “I’m driving around dropping off and picking up supplies for an hour, then if you like, I could come to your place and hang out.”
“Sure. Would you like me to make dinner?” I asked.
“No – let me pick up takeout. I don’t want you to go to any trouble. Plus, if you like, we could watch a movie and you could pause it whenever you need to tell me something. I’m sort of curious about your true movie-watching style.”
I loved the way he made me laugh harder than anyone ever had before. “Sounds good.”
“Great. I’ll see you around six. I’d make kissy noises, but Gus is with me in the big truck right now, and he’d look at me funny.”
I could hear another voice grumble, “You’ve lost it, Tyler.”
“You can make them in person as soon as you get here,” I said.
As soon as he hung up, I did a quick sweep of the apartment to make sure everything was spotless, and took a shower so that I could do my hair properly.
I liked the way that Tyler and I seemed to be just going with the flow, physically. It had been so nice just kissing and cuddling the other night.
I would have thought that he might expect more and more every time we were together, so taking a step back for one evening was sweetly refreshing.
After styling my hair, re-painting my nails pale pink, and basically fussing like a lunatic for a few hours, Tyler finally arrived.
I loved the way he swept me into his arms immediately. I loved the way he already knew to get Thai chicken with spicy noodles. I loved the way I actually felt completely relaxed and completely excited around him at the same time.
After we ate, he indulged me with one of my favorite old movies that I had first watched when I was around ten years old, when I didn’t even understand most of the plot.
Since then, I’d become mildly obsessed, following the careers of most of the side character actors, the locations, and the inspiration for some of the pivotal scenes.
I very carefully managed to only stop the movie four times to tell Tyler pertinent details.
He didn’t seem the slightest bit annoyed, and actually stopped it once himself to point out a car in the background that was the first car he owned when he was eighteen.
When it finished, I said, “See? You can watch a movie and have a running conversation at the same time.”
“You’re absolutely right. That was much less annoying than I would have expected.”
“I hope that I’m never annoying around you,” I said.
“You’re not. You’re wonderful,” he said, tilting my chin up with his fingers to bring his lips to mine. “This is one of those stupid weekends when I have to work on a Sunday,” he said gently.
“I understand if you have to leave,” I said automatically, trying to hide my slight disappointment.
“I want to ask you something, but you have to promise me first that you’ll say no if it makes you the slightest bit uncomfortable.”
I nodded. “Shoot.”
“I have to leave at five in the morning, but if I go home, I’ll be tossing and turning, thinking of you. How do you feel about me sleeping over so that I can hold you all night, and we’ll both sleep well?”
I nodded while leaning toward his mouth, rubbing my lips up and down against his, making us both laugh.
Tyler’s hand slid up into the back of my hair, sending sparks of lust through me. He must have felt me shiver, as he pulled away quickly. “I don’t expect anything,” he said. “Just hoping for snuggles.”
“What if…” I bit my lip, unable to finish the thought.
“Unless you want more than that?” he asked. His eyes locked on mine as if he was trying to read my mind.
I nodded again, slowly and deliberately.
“Are you saying that you might like me to caress this gorgeous body, and make you moan, sweet girl?”
I giggled and nodded, feeling so girlish and soft in his thick, hard arms.
I couldn’t quite believe it when he lifted me as if I weighed nothing, carrying me to the bedroom. He was so gentle, so methodical as he slowly pulled off my t-shirt, unhooking my bra to lay me topless across the bed.
I’ve never felt any particular way about my body. It was rounder, bigger, and softer than I would have liked, but it was pretty healthy and served me well. Now when I saw Tyler staring as he unwrapped every inch of me, it seemed that he appreciated my womanly curves.
His hands, his lips, dancing across my skin with a feather-light touch. The way his tongue circled my nipples, his fingertips skimming along my throat, I felt like I was completely melting.
I also knew that I was falling in love. Hard.
It felt like he cared for me just as much, as his complete attention seemed to be focused on how loud he could make my little gasps and moans.
A warm pressure began to build through my belly, even before his fingers began to work inside the waistband of my loose skirt. Tyler pulled it down slowly, under my hips and along my legs. It was strange being so exposed to him, but it felt right.
Reaching out, I started to pull up his t-shirt, and he helped me slip it off. My eyes roamed around his hard-earned muscles, the thick pecs and rippled abs. He was indescribably gorgeous. When I brought my gaze back to his, he was staring as if he wanted me, but he also needed me. He looked hungry, and that thrilled me to the core.
Standing up for a moment, his belt and jeans hit the floor, and he pulled off his socks, wearing just his shorts.
“You can tell me to stop at any time, Tana,” he said, planting kisses across my stomach as he hooked his fingers into the sides of my panties.
“I’m not going to,” I heard myself say. It was true. I wanted him to do absolutely anything and everything with me that he desired.
As he slowly pulled the fabric down my skin, I could feel how wet I was already. As he glanced at my panties before throwing them on the floor, he chuckled. “If you’re as wet as I am hard, this is going to be amazing.”
He began to move across the bed, and I thought he was coming up to kiss me, but instead he spread my thighs wide. I gasped as I felt the wetness of his tongue against my most intimate skin.
His hand gripped my hip, holding me steady as the fingers of his right hand began to explore every crevice. Shuddering waves of pleasure rippled through me as he buried his tongue against me.
The sensation was so intense I actually thought I might pass out for a second, then I felt the pad of his thick finger nudging apart my inner lips, gently exploring as he slipped inside.
Tyler’s eyes were burning into mine, and he gave me a nod. “Come for me, gorgeous,” he murmured, then resumed the sharp upward strokes of his thick tongue.
My pulse was roaring in my ears as my hands wound into his hair, holding him tightly against me.
As I began to quiver, I could see a wicked gleam in his dark eyes as he gave me another little nod, but thankfully he didn’t pause to speak this time. A deep wave of heat, tension, and bliss soared through me as I screamed, gripping his hair tightly as my body curled forward. My thighs shook around his ears as I gasped, the climax stronger than I could have ever imagined.
When I finally fell back against the bed, Tyler removed his finger and thrust his tongue directly inside me. My squeal seemed to thrill him, then he began kissing all the way up my body to my lips.
My hands ran along his perfect shoulders, down his chest, to grip his waist and pull him against me. I could feel the hot, hard ridge of his shaft pressing along my leg.
“Do you want that, sweethear
t?” he asked softly.
“Yes.” I didn’t know why my voice sounded so shaky.
“Do you want me to grab a condom?”
“Um, it’s okay. I’m on the pill.”
“Good. It’s been so long, and I’ve never felt this connected to anyone before. I need to feel you, baby.”
Tyler slipped off his shorts, then I could feel the heat of his cock branding my thigh. It felt like I was trapped under him, in an incredibly sensual way.