Читать книгу Tempted - Kimberly Van Meter - Страница 13

4

THAT WENT SMASHINGLY TERRIBLE, he mused with a wry twist of his lips.

Not only had he chased away two women, he was left with the crazy impulse to follow Harper to her room like a damn stalker.

Clearly she wasn’t interested, right?

No, Teagan didn’t buy that act. Harper was into him, but for some reason she didn’t want to be.

He didn’t like drama or baggage. Hell, he had enough of his own to bother with without dragging someone else’s aboard.

So if Harper wanted to run, he wasn’t about to chase her.

Sounded good in theory.

Sounded damn good.

Except, he was already formulating what he might say to her when he showed up at her door.

Maybe words were the problem. Maybe he ought to just kiss her senseless.

Harper looked as if she needed a little something in her life to muss up that perfectly styled hair.

She was gorgeous, no doubt about that, but he wanted to see her, no makeup, bed head, and in shorts and a T-shirt.

Preferably over breakfast.

That’s the liquor talking, bud. Slow your roll.

Probably true.

He had just enough alcohol in his system to lower his inhibitions, but this whole thing was outside of his comfort zone.

Remember the good old days when you just hooked up with someone at the bar and if things worked out you started the dialogue?

Now he was on a singles cruise. If that didn’t feel like geriatric dating, he didn’t know what did.

He didn’t have the same kind of luck as J.T., meeting the love of his life when she walked into the hangar to hire him.

Forget the part where she almost got them killed. Hey, no one’s perfect.

And maybe if he wasn’t in a bit of a drought, he wouldn’t be fixating on Harper.

Yeah, that was it. It was the drought’s fault.

For the past year and a half, his life had been consumed by Blue Yonder. Trying to keep the business afloat had been harder than either he or J.T. had anticipated.

You know it’s bad when you have to choose between buying toilet paper or food because if you buy both, bills weren’t going to get paid.

Hell, he’d even considered reenlisting.

Thankfully, J.T. had talked him out of that temporary insanity. He had no interest in the soldier life anymore. That was a young man’s game.

And although J.T. liked to remind him that they were neither old nor unfit for duty, both Teagan and J.T. had become accustomed to the luxuries of civilian life.

So, about that drought.

Teagan tried to think of the last time he’d dated.

It took a minute—probably longer than it should have—but his last date had been disappointing. Not because she hadn’t been hot, not because she hadn’t had a great personality, just because his mind had been elsewhere.

Owning your own business had a tendency to suck the energy from every possible outlet.

Including his mojo.

The woman, Clara, had been more than willing to take it to the next level. But his conscience stopped him when things became heated.

Although in hindsight, telling a woman you have to go, after making out for a good solid hour, clothes nearly in a pile, was probably not the best.

But Teagan had known that if he had slept with her, it would have been worse.

Score one for a conscience; zero for his blue balls.

He ought to forget about Harper completely. The whole point of this cruise was to meet up with someone. Maybe he didn’t have to find Mrs. Right, maybe she could just be Mrs. Right Now.

He wasn’t above enjoying himself if the moment was right. But even as he scanned the room, looking for someone who might interest him for the evening, all he could think about was Harper, in her room.

Alone.

It was almost as if he didn’t have a choice. His brain wasn’t going to let anyone else upstairs. Perhaps if he went to Harper, got firmly rejected, he could get the closure he needed and move on.

Just as he was about to make good on his idea, the bar stool was occupied again, only this time, it was with one of the men who’d been clustered around Harper like a drone bee around the queen.

The man didn’t waste time and got right to it. “Hello, friend, whatcha drinking?” he asked.

Curious, Teagan answered, “Beer.”

“Ahh, down-to-earth man,” he said, after ordering a glass of wine. “Look, I’m just going to get down to brass tacks because that’s the kind of man I am, which I’m sure you can appreciate.”

Teagan couldn’t wait to see where this was going.

“You see, I’m the kind of man who sees what he wants and goes after it—no matter the obstacles. That’s how I am in business and how I am in life.”

“Good for you,” Teagan replied, tipping back his beer.

“Yeah, so I think you’ll understand what I mean when I say that I got dibs on the hot brunette.”

Teagan made a point to peer around the room as if looking for said brunette. “Can you be more specific?”

“The one who was sitting right here a few minutes ago. Hot bod, long dark hair and a rack to die for. Ring a bell?”

Teagan didn’t much like Harper being reduced to such simple attributes but what could he say? He’d been pretty much snagged by those very visual cues himself. Still...he didn’t like when this douche did it.

“I’d say it’s probably a good idea to let the lady decide who she wants to spend time with,” Teagan said, finishing his beer. “Don’t you think? I mean, she is an adult, capable of making her own decisions and something tells me, that Harper is the kind of woman who would take offense to hearing someone talk about her like you just did.”

“You gonna tattle on me?” the man joked, but Teagan wasn’t laughing. He was pretty much done with this conversation and the only thing keeping him from punching this guy’s lights out was that he didn’t want to be put in the brig. Or whatever served as a holding cell for unruly passengers. “So you’re saying you’re not going to back off?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I called dibs.”

He called dibs. Good God, give me strength.

Teagan smirked as he rose from his seat. “Well, I’m not twelve and I don’t recognize the dibs game any longer. She’s not a piece of candy, she’s a woman. If you can’t interest her squarely on your own, then that’s not my problem. Good luck with your dibs.”

Teagan pushed past the man, leaving him to burn hot coals into his back but Teagan didn’t care. The man was an asshole.

But even so, the man had served one unexpected purpose—he’d given Teagan a much-needed splash of cold water on his overheated brain.

The purpose of this trip was to loosen up and have fun, not beat down every Tom, Dick and Harry who hoped to snag the “hot brunette with the smoking body,” and if Mr. Swagger was any indication of what chasing after Harper Riley would be like, then Teagan was out.

As if the universe was listening, a sassy redhead cast a flirty smile his way and he responded in kind.

J.T. was a vocal proponent of redheads now.

And this one wasn’t bringing gun-toting maniacs in her wake.

This trip may be salvageable, after all.

* * *

HER GAME FELT OFF. With Stuart being a no-show and then Teagan getting in her head, Harper felt tilted, which wasn’t a good sign.

She needed to be on target to snag Stuart.

Harper changed into her pajamas, removed her makeup and then crawled into bed, phone in hand.

More research.

Stuart. Buck.

She stared at the most recent picture, taken at some toilet seminar where he’d been the lead speaker, and chewed her lip as she frowned.

The Toilet King.

Harper wrinkled her nose with distaste. That was a tall order, but Harper didn’t care what other people said about her as long as the checks cleared.

Louis Vuitton bag.

Chanel dress.

Louboutin heels.

Teagan had been spot-on.

And the religious workouts—Pilates, CrossFit, Zumba, yoga—anything and everything to keep her body fit and toned.

It was exhausting.

She had no social life.

Friends were a luxury she couldn’t afford.

And God only knew she never confided in her lovers about anything, because she wasn’t the person they thought she was.

She played a part, for which she accepted payment in the form of expensive gifts and luxury vacations.

But she wouldn’t be young forever.

Sooner or later, time would catch up to her and no amount of Pilates would keep her ass from succumbing to gravity.

Harper winced at the cruelty awaiting her and that fear renewed her purpose.

That’s why Stuart was so important.

This one was going to marry her.

No more playing the mistress or girlfriend with nothing legally binding.

She couldn’t live on gifts alone.

And that meant she had to be smart.

Stuart wasn’t a stupid playboy with a trust fund.

He was a successful businessman who’d been loyal to his wife until the day she died.

Stuart held old-fashioned values and believed in hard work and fair play.

Honestly, Stuart was the kind of man Harper would have liked for a father or grandfather.

Except instead of going to Stuart for fatherly advice, she was going to seduce the man.

Harper groaned when a tiny bubble of bile rose in her throat.

What was wrong with her?

Stuart was not the worst she’d slept with.

He seemed kind, generous...and incredibly old.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t the Crypt Keeper, but compared to Teagan, Stuart was a fossil.

She closed her eyes and immediately Teagan was there.

Hard muscles covering a solid, manly frame.

Sensual lips that played with a flirty smile and begged to be kissed.

How was a guy like Teagan single, anyway?

Either the women in his circles were incredibly stupid or he had some heinous defect.

Maybe he chewed his toenails.

Maybe he picked his nose and ate his boogers.

Or maybe he had some weird sexual fetish like armpit licking or he liked to dress up like a baby and be breast-fed.

Yes, keep thinking of Teagan as a deviant, a voice encouraged, otherwise, you’re going to find yourself pressed up against him before you know it.

How long had it been since Harper had enjoyed a real relationship? Been with someone because she wanted to be, not because he was a target.

Just as she started to mourn her lack of true intimacy, the specter of the past rose to slap her.

It was hard to forget her mother’s tears. The horrible sadness that clawed the personality out of Anna Riley, and Harper was sure that the subsequent drag on her immune system had eventually led to MS.

Whereas Anna had once been sweet, kind and way too trusting, time and repeated heartache had left the woman a shell.

The disease had robbed her of everything else.

Harper had been twelve when Rex had conned her mother out of their savings, leaving them with nothing but bad credit, crippling debt and no way out.

And her mom had gotten pregnant, too.

Harper blinked furiously at the unwanted tears that threatened to fall.

Some say that things happened for a reason.

Losing Rex’s baby had been a blessing in disguise but it’d taken the final toll on Anna.

Harper’s childhood had disintegrated, leaving behind nothing but cold, hard adulthood.

And she had vowed to never let a man do to her what had been done to Anna.

If anyone was going to suffer scars, it wouldn’t be Harper from that moment forward.

She stilled for a moment to gather her focus.

That’s it, remember the pain. Remember the reason men like Teagan are bad news.

Releasing a long breath, Harper felt a renewed sense of purpose and returned to her research.

Tomorrow...Stuart Buck.