Читать книгу Night Heat - Brenda Jackson - Страница 11

Bas parked his car in front of Sadie’s Bed and Breakfast and glanced around. He certainly hadn’t expected this, all the changes that had taken place in Newton Grove since he’d last been here fourteen years ago.

It was still one of most beautiful, quaint towns he’d ever traveled to, but it no longer had that Mayberry look. He’d passed a Wal-Mart and Home Depot, certainly two things that hadn’t been here before. And the library had been given a face lift. But the drive-in theater appeared to still be intact, as well as the Newton Rail Station that provided a memorable excursion up into the Smoky Mountains.

And from what he saw it was still a favorite place with tourists, which meant the souvenir shops that formed a tight circle in the town square were still thriving. The county fair, which was always held the third weekend in August, was a major event and always brought enough excitement to last the towns-people until the fall festival in the middle of November. He smiled, remembering all the stories Jim had told about both events. Boy, had he enjoyed hearing them.

Bas got out of the car and shoved his keys into the pocket of his jeans, appreciating Jason Kilgore for making arrangements for him to have a place to stay while in town.

Just being back in Newton Grove was stirring memories of how closely he had worked with Jim that summer, the bond they’d made and the special friendship that had been forged. He took a moment to lean against the fender of his rented car and glanced around, reflecting. In his mind he could actually see Jim loading lumber into his pickup truck while preaching to Bas in that strong, firm, yet caring voice. He’d told him the importance of a man being a man, about handling your responsibilities and taking advantage of every opportunity. The memory tugged at Bas’s heart, and emotions swamped him. They were emotions that Jim had effectively shown him that it was okay to possess.

Bas suddenly blinked when the sound of a car’s horn reclaimed his attention. Sighing deeply he went to the trunk to get out his luggage, thinking of his encounter with Jocelyn Mason. If the woman had her way he would be headed back to Charlotte by now. He could almost feel the daggers she had thrown in his back when he’d walked out of Kilgore’s office.

He sighed again and glanced up toward the sky. “Jim, old friend, I hope you knew what you were doing because I don’t think your daughter likes me very much.”

“Aren’t you that same young man who used to give us trouble?”

Sebastian glanced up from signing his name in Sadie’s Bed and Breakfast’s registration book and met the old woman’s eyes. Something hard and tight settled in the pit of his stomach. It was a reaction he got whenever anyone recalled his less-than-sterling past.

If she had been someone from Charlotte, he would have shamefully admitted to it. But he distinctly remembered being on good behavior that summer while living in Newton Grove. For that reason he stared at her and said, “No, ma’am, you must have me mistaken for someone else.”

Evidently she thought otherwise and her blue eyes sparked as she said, “No, I don’t think so. I might be old—I’m pushing seventy—but I have a fairly good memory about some things. You worked with Jim, as part of his construction business one summer, over thirteen or fourteen years ago.”

Bas’s stomach began feeling unsettled again. She certainly did have a good memory. “Yes, but I didn’t get into any trouble,” he said defensively.

The old woman laughed. “Not any of your own making, trust me. But whenever you worked outside at a construction site on those extremely hot days, you drew an audience every time you took off your shirt.”

She barked out another laugh and continued. “Yeah, I do remember that summer. You had all the young women acting like silly fools whenever they could take a peek at you. And I remember Marcella all but salivating whenever she saw you.”

She studied him for a moment then said, “I understand you’re going to be helping out at Mason’s Construction again.”

He took his Visa card out of his wallet to hand to her. News traveled fast in small towns. “Yes, ma’am, I am.”

“I’m glad you saw fit to come help Jocelyn for a while now that Jim’s gone. Lord knows she wouldn’t ask for it, even if she needed it,” Sadie went on to say. “And I’m curious as to what Leah’s going to do. I expected her to leave town right after the funeral.”

Bas put his charge card back into his wallet after she returned it to him. “She lives in California, right?”

“So we hear. Leah left here at eighteen. She hated this place, claimed Newton Grove was too small town for her. She wanted to see the world and headed to California.”

After a quick pause she added, “She broke Reese Singleton’s heart when she left. They’d been sweethearts. He’s a good man who didn’t deserve what she did to him. You’ll get to know Reese rather well over the coming months.”

Bas leaned against the counter. “I will?”

“Yes, he’s the foreman at Mason Construction. But he might not be there for too much longer.”

Bas lifted a brow. “Why not?”

“Because he’s better suited as a carpenter than a builder, and I heard that Jim left him a bunch of money to start his own business.”

Bas turned to follow Sadie up the stairs to his room. Once he got settled he would check out what was happening over at Mason Construction.

The nail was taking a beating as Jocelyn hammered it relentlessly into the wood. A part of her wished it was Sebastian Steele’s head.

If there was one thing she didn’t need it was aggravation, and the man had gotten next to her like nobody’s business. The nerve of him, thinking he could just waltz in and take over. Mason Construction was now hers and she would run things the way she saw fit, regardless of what he had to say.

It wasn’t as though she didn’t know what she was doing. Heck, she’d been reading blueprints practically since she could walk. Growing up, she’d spent hours at every job site with her father, learning each aspect of a builder’s trade, from the ordering of the supplies to the overseeing of each structural design. While many construction workers had their specialties, Jocelyn was truly a jack-of-all-trades. She handled a paintbrush just as expertly as any artist; she could fit a pipe together as well as any master plumber, and she worked with brick, stone, concrete block and structural tile with the skill of an accomplished mason. For years she had worked alongside her dad and his crew as a fill-in, doing whatever task was needed and learning just about everything she could, before school, after school, weekends, whenever. She practically lived at Mason Construction except for those summer months when Jim Mason would ship her and Leah off to Aunt Susan in Florida.

Their mother’s sister was as refined and proper as the words could get, and had been determined to pass those characteristics on to her nieces no matter how much they’d balked at the idea. After a while, Jocelyn and Leah discovered it was easier to just go with the flow and accept all the lacy, frilly dresses, the tea parties and the countless hours of walking with a book on their heads to perfect that graceful walk.

Now that she was a grown woman, Jocelyn appreciated her aunt’s teachings and guidance to a degree she’d never thought would be possible as a young girl. She was glad she’d had the chance to express her gratitude to Aunt Susan before she died a few years ago. Jocelyn thought about the deaths of the three people who’d meant a lot to her—her mother when she’d turned sixteen; her Aunt Susan around six years ago and now her dad.

“If you keep beating that nail to death you’ll whack it all the way through and bust up that board. Who ruffled your feathers today?”

Expelling a deep breath and clutching the hammer more tightly in her hand, Jocelyn decided Reese was right. There was no reason to take out her anger and frustration on a piece of wood.

She glanced up at him and knew he was waiting for an answer. It hadn’t taken much for the men who worked for her to tell she was in a relatively foul mood, which is the reason they had been avoiding her. Reese had been at lunch when she’d arrived. Evidently the guys hadn’t wasted any time giving him fair warning. Too bad all those deeply ingrained proper manners and stiff rules Aunt Susan had taught her weren’t working for her today, especially the one about a lady not letting a man get on her last nerve, at least not to the point of showing it. A lady kept her cool and handled a man with charm and diplomatic grace.

Today, thanks to Sebastian Steele, all she could say to that notion was hogwash!

After leaving Jason’s office she had gone home long enough to change into her work clothes, then joined the men at this particular jobsite. The only reason she hadn’t been here at the crack of dawn like they had was because the mayor had requested her presence at a meeting in his office at eight. He liked being kept abreast of the plans for the city’s Founder’s Day Celebration next month, and since she was this year’s chairperson, she had brought him up to date over bagels and coffee. And then there had been that ten o’clock meeting in Jason’s office, the one she wished she could delete from her mind.

Jocelyn put the hammer down, deciding at the moment it was rather dangerous in her hand. “If you must know, Sebastian Steele is the person who ruffled my feathers. He has to be the most infuriating man I’ve ever met.”

Reese smirked at her. “In other words, he wouldn’t let you have your way with anything.”

Jocelyn picked up the hammer again and hit it a couple of times in the palm of her hand. “You like your face, Reese?”

He grinned. “Yeah, I like my face, considering it’s the only one I got.”

And Jocelyn knew all the local girls thought it was a rather good-looking face, making him the most sought-after bachelor in town. But he was also the most elusive. She’d known Reese for six years, ever since his family had moved to Tennessee from Alabama when Reese was nineteen. The first time he’d seen her and Leah together out at the county fair, he had decided the then seventeen-year-old Leah, who was about to become a senior in high school, would one day be his wife. He was convinced he could erase the thought from Leah’s mind of ever moving away from Newton Grove.

He’d been wrong and had gotten a broken heart to prove it.

“Well, if you like it so much, then knock it off. I’m not in a teasing mood.”

“So I gather. Hey, this Steele guy can’t be all bad since Jim thought enough of him to leave him part of the company.”

Jocelyn frowned, narrowed her eyes, preferring not to be reminded of that. “Just because Dad liked him doesn’t mean that I have to like him, too.”

“No, but still I’d think you’d respect your father’s wishes and try to make things work.”

Jocelyn started hitting the hammer in the palm of her hand again. “You’re really making me mad. Don’t you have something to do?”

Reese grinned. “Yeah, but I thought I’d come over here to make sure you’ll be more help than a hindrance today. You know how I feel about going behind you and—”

Oh, that did it! He had really pushed her the wrong way, and just from the smile on his face she knew he was enjoying every single minute of getting her riled. She shot him a dark look. “Okay, just wait until you have to follow Steele’s orders and see how much you like it.”

Reese leaned against a window casement. “I don’t mind following orders as long as they’re solid and sound. And like I said Jim evidently trusted this man’s judgment or he wouldn’t be here.”

“And it doesn’t bother you that Dad didn’t leave you a part of the company?”

The smile on Reese’s face suddenly disappeared and he said in a quiet tone. “The only thing I ever wanted from your father was his baby girl. But that’s history. Some days I wish I had never laid eyes on Leah.”

Jocelyn nodded, understanding his feelings completely. Because of the four-year gap in their ages and the differences in their personalities, she and Leah hadn’t been particularly close while growing up and she could never understand how her sister could walk away from a man who loved her as much as Reese had.

She waited, knowing Reese had more to say. For years he had kept his battered feelings locked inside, refusing to talk to anyone, even her father, about Leah and the hurt she’d caused him. But they’d known and accepted that the main reason Reese had joined the army within months of Leah’s departure was to get away for a while. And he’d stayed away for two years.

“And why is she still hanging around? When is she returning to California?” he asked, with deep bitterness in his voice.

Jocelyn asked herself those same questions every morning when she awoke to find her sister still there. It wouldn’t surprise her if Leah left during the night without saying goodbye. That was how she’d done it the first time. Her father had been devastated, Reese heartbroken and Jocelyn left wondering if she could have done something, anything, to improve their relationship while growing up, if she should have been less overprotective and smothering as Leah had claimed.

“I don’t know why she’s still here, Reese. A part of me would like to think she’s finally decided to come home to stay, but I won’t get my hopes up wishing for that one.”

“And I’m hoping for just the opposite. I wish she would leave and go back to wherever the hell she’s been for the past five years.”

Jocelyn felt Reese’s pain and a part of her knew that even after all these years, he hadn’t gotten over what Leah had done to him.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

Jocelyn swirled around and her gaze collided with Sebastian Steele. She was surprised to see him, but should have known he would show up sooner or later. Her eyes narrowed. “Yes, your very presence is interrupting everything.”

And with nothing else to say, she walked off.

No woman, Bas quickly decided as he watched Jocelyn cross the floor into what would be a master bedroom, should look that good in a pair of jeans. He scrubbed one hand across his jaw, pondering that phenomenon, as he continued to stare at her. He had found her utterly attractive earlier that day in a skirt and blouse, but seeing her dressed in work wear was having a more potent effect on him.

Well-worn jeans clung to her body like another layer of skin, but then gave a little with each step she took, providing a comfortable fit. Then there was her T-shirt, the one that boldly advertised Mason Construction across her chest, that made him appreciate, as he always did, a woman with a nice set of breasts.

The work boots and the bandana she wore around her head did nothing to detract from her femininity, and he had to concede that no matter what kind of clothes Jocelyn Mason wore, she was one of the sexiest-looking women he’d ever seen.

“I gather you’re Sebastian Steele.”

The man’s words pulled Bas’s attention back into focus and he shot him a curious glance. He had seen Jocelyn talking to him when he’d arrived, and the conversation had seemed pretty tense. Did the two of them have something going on more personal than business? “Yes, I’m Sebastian Steele.”

The man studied him a moment and then said, “And I’m Reese Singleton, Mason Construction’s foreman.”

Bas remembered the name and everything Sadie had scooped him on earlier that day. This was the man who had gotten his heart broken by the other Mason female. He offered his hand. “Nice meeting you.”

“The same here. I heard a lot about you from Jim.”

“All good I hope,” Bas said, returning his gaze to Jocelyn. He could tell from her body language that she was mad, from the way she was slapping the paintbrush against that wall as if she was brandishing a sword instead.

“She’ll be fine. Jocelyn has a tendency not to stay mad for long.”

Bas switched his gaze off Jocelyn and back to the man standing beside him—someone whose presence he had momentarily forgotten. Reese was grinning, his dark eyes flashing amusement behind the lenses of his safety glasses. “Is that right?” Bas asked, not liking the fact that Reese thought he knew Jocelyn so well.

“Yes, that’s right,” Reese said, hooking a thumb beneath his tool belt and leaning back against a solid wall. “I’ve known Jocelyn for almost six years now and her bark is worse than her bite. She’s upset that her dad left you in charge of things for a while, and also that you got part of a company she felt was rightfully hers. But like I said, she’ll get over it.”

He studied the younger man and suddenly felt something he usually didn’t experience with men other than his brothers—trust. For some reason, though, Bas knew that Reese Singleton was a man who could be trusted.

“I hope she gets over it because I have a job to do, one Jim left for me, and whether I want it or not, I plan to see it through. I owe him that much and more.”

“Me, too,” Reese said, following Bas’s gaze as it moved to Jocelyn once more. “My family moved to the area when I was nineteen. I worked for Jim in the day and took college classes at the university at night. He replaced the father I lost at sixteen. He was my voice of reason when I didn’t have one, my mentor and a good friend. At one point he stopped me from making a grave mistake, one that could have cost me my life.”

Bas nodded. It sounded as if at one point he and Reese had been tortured by similar inner demons and in both situations it had been Jim who had helped to take them out of the dark and lead them into the light.

“How about if I introduce you to everyone?” Reese said, breaking into Bas’s thoughts. “The sooner you know what’s going on, the better. Right now everything’s running smoothly but we can’t expect things to stay that way since this is Marcella Jones’s house we’re presently working on and she’s known to change her mind a lot. This is the third house we’ve built for her and her husband, and with this place she decided almost at the last minute that she wanted to add a huge lanai off her living room and bedroom. If nothing else changes, we’ll be wrapping up things here in about three weeks.”

“Thanks and yes, I’d like to meet everyone.”

Bas glanced around as they made their way over to a group of men who were working on the cooking island that was part of the summer kitchen. Marcella Jones wasn’t just getting a glass-enclosed lanai; she was getting a huge area that would be well suited for any and all her entertainment needs. He had to admit he liked the layout of the house and had admired each and every detail while passing through earlier.

The open-beam cathedral ceilings and the floor-to-ceiling windows would make the home light and airy, and provide a full mountain view no matter where you looked. In his mind he could see the finished product decorated with the finest of furnishings and beautiful art work.

Bas glanced over at Jocelyn and caught her staring at him. In that quick instance, something passed between them, and he felt it all the way to his gut. He frowned and told himself silently that the last thing he needed was to get interested in any woman, especially Jim’s oldest daughter, no matter how tempting she was.

He had a job to do and he needed to get his mind on doing it and not on doing Jocelyn Mason.

Jocelyn swallowed back the knot that threatened to block her throat. Why did Sebastian Steele have to look so damn good? And those jeans he had on weren’t helping matters one bit.

She gritted her teeth, wondering why she found him so attractive, then quickly decided his good looks and well-built body definitely had something to do with it. She jumped when she felt the mobile phone in her back pocket vibrate. Putting aside the paintbrush, she pulled the phone out. A quick check of the caller ID indicated it was Leah.

For the past five days, ever since the funeral, her sister had mostly spent her time going through their father’s belongings and packing things up to give away. At first they had started doing the task together and then the memories had gotten too much for Jocelyn and she’d asked Leah to finish without her. Her sister had agreed. That was the one thing Jocelyn noticed about Leah since she’d been back. She was a lot more agreeable and less argumentative these days. There was a time when the two of them would disagree about almost anything, including the weather.

“Yes, Leah?”

“Just wanted you to know I cooked dinner and I thought it would be nice if we invited a guest.”

Jocelyn moved her shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. She definitely didn’t have a problem with Leah preparing dinner since her sister was a pretty good cook, but she did have a problem with the suggestion of a guest. She couldn’t help wondering if Leah was finally going to come out of hiding and face Reese by inviting him to dinner. She had done a pretty good job of avoiding him the few times she’d returned home over the past five years.

“And just who will this dinner guest be?” she asked, curious as to how many languages Reese would say the words hell no in when he got the invitation from Leah.

“Jason called for you a short while ago and happened to mention that Mr. Steele arrived in town today.”

“And what of it?” Jocelyn asked, leaning back against a wall she hadn’t started painting yet.

“I think it would be a good idea to invite him to dinner. After all, he was Dad’s friend.”

“But that doesn’t make him ours,” she snapped, looking down at the hammer she had placed at her feet. She then glanced across the room at Bas. It was a tempting thought but she quickly decided that nothing and no one was worth going to jail.

“But I want to meet him. Aren’t you curious?”

Jocelyn rolled her eyes. “I’ve met him and prefer not spending unnecessary time in his company.”

“You’ve met him?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Earlier today at Jason’s office.”

“Well, what do you think of him?”

Jocelyn glanced back across the room. Bas was staring at her and it annoyed her that she felt a quick tightening in her stomach. She wished she could blame it on something like indigestion but knew she couldn’t. “There’s no way I could sum up what I think of him in twenty-five words or less.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

Jocelyn couldn’t help but smile. Now this was the Leah she was used to, someone always ready for a fight, and not the mousy person Jocelyn had picked up from the airport a couple of days before the funeral.

“Well, then,” Jocelyn decided to say, “how about infuriating, maddening, annoying, irritating, exasperating, galling—”

“Okay, okay, I get the picture, at least yours. I’d rather take my own snapshot and form my own opinion.”

“Fine, then count me out.”

“Aren’t you being a little immature?”

That did it. Taking a slow, steadying breath, Jocelyn walked around the wall into a bathroom whose fixtures had yet to arrive. What she had to say to her sister needed to be said in private.

Closing the door behind her, she braced herself against the area where the pedestal sink would be and said rather heatedly, “How can you of all people fix your mouth to call anyone immature, Leah? I’m not the one who acted like a spoiled, immature brat by up and leaving home without as much as a goodbye, leaving her family worried for over a week before we finally heard from her.”

Jocelyn knew now was not the time and place to unload feelings she’d held inside for years, but she’d done it and there was no way she could take back her words. Nor did she want to.

There was silence on the other end, and then Leah said in a somewhat quiet and unsteady voice, “There was a reason I left the way I did, Jocelyn, and maybe it’s time I tell you why. At least that’s what I’ve been told I should do.”

Jocelyn felt an uncomfortable feeling in the center of her stomach. “Told by whom?”

“Look, I’ll tell you everything when I’m able to talk about it, okay? Now getting back to Sebastian Steele, be forewarned. I do intend to invite him to dinner before I leave, Jocelyn.”

“Leave? When are you leaving?” That uncomfortable feeling about being deserted by those she cared about was becoming unnerving. She lifted a hand to her chest, feeling a tug at her heart at the thought that she was losing her sister again, so soon after losing her father.

“I don’t know, but I won’t leave without telling you. I promise.”

Before she could say anything, Jocelyn heard the gentle click in her ear. She took a deep breath. Her palms suddenly felt sweaty and she rubbed them against her jeans after returning the mobile phone to her back pocket. She had a feeling something was going on with Leah. But what?

She swung around when she heard the bathroom door swing open and her gaze collided with that of Sebastian Steele. She narrowed her eyes, madder than hell. “Don’t you believe in knocking?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders as he leaned in the doorway. “I figured you couldn’t be doing anything too private in here without any fixtures.”

He was right, of course, but still. “Any closed door is an indication that a knock is warranted before entering,” she retorted.

He shook his head. “Save your rules for another time. We need to talk.”

“We have nothing to discuss.”

She made a move to walk past him when he said, “Reese just let Manuel go on my recommendation.”

She stopped and swung around to him, nearly all in his face. “What?” she almost shouted at the top of her lungs, not caring her that her high-pitched voice didn’t at all sound professional. “Manuel’s the best and most dependable worker I have.”

“Sorry, but you’re going to have to find someone to replace him.”

Jocelyn suddenly saw red, blood-red, and she fought the urge to go find her hammer and start knocking a few heads. First Bas’s and then Reese’s. She couldn’t believe Reese had meekly followed Bas’s orders without first consulting her. “How dare you think you can come in here and—”

“He’s an illegal immigrant.”

Jocelyn’s mouth snapped shut and her gaze widened as if she’d been slapped by Bas’s words. Impossible was the first word that came into her mind. Manuel had worked for her father for almost a year. There was no way Jim Mason would have broken the law by hiring an illegal immigrant. “I don’t believe you. We have his citizenship papers on file at the office.”

Bas then said easily, “Any papers you have are bogus. When I asked to see his green card, which is the same thing an inspector would have done had he shown up here, he got nervous and confessed the truth.”

Jocelyn couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. She shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if Duran Law had shown up. He was still plenty pissed about her continued refusal to go out with him. It seemed each time she’d turned him down his pride had gotten crushed. He would just love to hit her with a stiff fine and make her life miserable.

“And how did you know? I’m sure Manuel wasn’t wearing a painted sign on his forehead,” she all but snapped. A part of her was grateful Bas had saved her from possible misery under Duran’s hands, but another part of her resented that he had discovered something she hadn’t.

“I picked up on his nervousness when Reese introduced us. Trust me, in my line of work at the Steele Corporation, I’m faced with this fairly often enough. I wished there was a way around it but the law is the law.”

She glared at him. “I know the law, Bas, and I don’t have to trust you. But still, I appreciate you finding out about Manuel before I was faced with repercussions that I don’t want or need. Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. I was merely doing one of the things Jim brought me here to do.”

And that was what bothered Jocelyn the most, knowing her father actually had brought him here and hadn’t bothered to tell her. Jim Mason had been talking and in his right mind up to forty-eight hours before he’d died. Her father of all people knew that she didn’t like surprises and should have told her about Bas.

“Fine,” she said and began walking, annoyed when he automatically fell in place beside her. “That’s a point for you. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak with my crew.”

“They aren’t here.”

She stopped and stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. She quickly rounded the wall and looked around. “Where are they? It’s only three o’clock. There’s another hour of work time left.”

Bas leaned back against an unpainted wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “I gave them the rest of the day off.”

Jocelyn’s mouth dropped. She wondered why it hadn’t just fallen to the floor with his statement. “What do you mean you gave them the rest of the day off?”

“You would have done the same thing. Manuel has worked with these guys for almost a year. They’re like family. All of them were shocked that he’s in this country illegally, but they still felt bad that he won’t be working with them any longer. They like him.”

Jocelyn inhaled deeply. Bas was right. Now that she thought about it, she would have done the exact same thing. “What’s going to happen to Manuel? He has a family. A wife and child.”

“Yes, and he also admitted to receiving public assistance benefits, public education for his son, public housing and other taxpayer-funded benefits over the past year without being detected.”

Jocelyn glared. “You make him sound like a criminal,” she snapped.

“Just stating the facts, ma’am. And something else you need to remember is that illegal immigration in this country is a crime that extends to anyone giving them a job.”

“I know that, and I’m sure Dad didn’t know he was an illegal. Like I said, Manuel’s papers looked legit.”

“I’m sure Jim didn’t know. As for what will happen to Manuel, I have a feeling he’ll be moving his family again. I agreed not to turn him in to the authorities.”

Despite herself, she appreciated him for that. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

For a long moment neither said anything else, but Jocelyn felt it just as clearly as if it was something tangible that she could reach out and touch. It was there, that same damn attraction she had felt from the first moment when her gaze had collided with his in Jason’s office. It was the same attraction that was there each time she’d stopped pacing on Jason’s carpeted floor and found him staring at her with those intense dark eyes of his.

And it was there now as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his head cocked to the side as if taking in the full view of her. A little more than a few feet separated them and whether she wanted to or not, she could feel his heat, and even at the distance she stood she could actually feel the warmth of his breath on her lips, coaxing her own to draw in his heat, mingle in his taste.

She inhaled deeply, thinking she must be losing her mind. She didn’t want to be attracted to the man who owned a fourth of her company. The man who would be a pain in the butt for the next few months.

A man who had her stomach sizzling and intense heat gathering between her legs.

Drawing in another deep breath, she took a step back, started to move past him and stopped when he reached out and grabbed her wrist, gently pulling her closer, bringing her toe to toe, body to body.

“And another thing,” he said huskily, before reaching out and lifting his hand to the knot in the scarf on her head. “I understand that on occasion you’ll wear a hard hat or a scarf like this when there might be a lot of dust in the air. But just so you’ll know, I really like seeing your head uncovered.” And with that, he expertly took off her scarf, which made her curly locks tumble to her shoulders. And, as if he was satisfied with what he’d done, he then handed the scarf to her.

She balled it in her hand, crushed it while wishing it was his neck. Tilting her head, she glared at him. “I don’t care what you like.”

“Then maybe you should,” he said, leaning in close, bringing his lips within a breathless inch. He smiled. “You have some temper and whenever I see you mad it makes me want to taste your anger.”

Taste her anger? What he said didn’t make sense because she didn’t have a temper…at least not normally. Typically, it took a lot to make her mad. But she had to admit that for some reason he seemed to bring out the worst in her. When she opened her mouth to state that fact, he inched even closer and was within a heartbeat of closing his mouth over hers when the sound of a car door slamming had them quickly moving apart.

Jocelyn was grateful for the timely interruption before anything could happen. Something they would both regret.

“That’s probably Marcella coming to check on today’s work…as well as to make more changes. Goodbye, Bas,” she said, moving swiftly past him and walking as fast as her legs could carry her.