Читать книгу Working Man - Melanie Schuster - Страница 6

Nick meant what he’d told his brother the day before. He intended to see Dakota again and as soon as he could arrange it. He’d called his insurance agent that afternoon and explained the situation, emphasizing that he didn’t want her to have to spend a single dime on the repair of her vehicle. “She’s new in town, so we need to make sure she gets the best body shop available to take care of her ride. It’s a new HHR, but I don’t really have that much faith in dealerships. When you talk to her company make some suggestions about repairs, okay?”

Nick’s long-time agent was smiling for all she was worth on the other end of the phone. She’d known Nick for years and had never heard so much concern and caring in his voice, but all she said was “Will do, Nick. I’ll make sure she gets nothing but the best.”

Satisfied that one thing on the agenda was taken care of, Nick moved to the next item. He was going to pay Miss Phillips a visit and he was even bearing flowers, something his sister-in-law had insisted on. He had to laugh when he remembered her exact words. Patsy was as sweet and Southern as she’d been the day Paul had met her some twenty years before and she demanded that the men in her family demonstrate good manners at all times. “Don’t go over there empty-handed with a mouth full of gimme and a handful of much obliged. Take her a nice plant or something. It’s the least you could do since you and my daughter managed to destroy her car and scare her to death.” she’d told him sternly. “And be extra nice to her because I have all her books and I want her to sign them for me.”

He was still chuckling when he turned down the street on which Dakota lived, but the mirth died away when he saw where she was living. Another B. Jackson Production, the sign read. Oh hell, naw. How in the world did she get caught up with that crook? He frowned deeply as he surveyed the brick town homes that lined both sides of the street. They looked fine from the outside, but if he knew anything about Bernard Jackson, he knew the interiors of the houses were shoddily put together with substandard materials and workmanship. They were pure-d crap, and every reputable builder in the state knew it. Bernard Jackson was one of Nick’s main business competitors, and to say he couldn’t stand the man was a masterpiece of understatement.

After a stint in the army, Nick had returned to Chicago and started his own construction company. He was a master contractor and builder, and had parlayed his expertise into a building firm with an impeccable reputation for expert work. Nick was into land development and real estate as well as residential and commercial building and he’d worked long and hard to make himself into one of the most respected men in the business. He did it by keeping every promise he ever made, by delivering every project on time and on budget and by working harder than anyone else in his company. He had nothing but contempt for men like Bernard Jackson, fast-talking con artists who won jobs by underbidding and then defrauding their clients by using cheap materials and taking shortcuts. The result was crappy houses that weren’t worth a quarter of what the clients ended up paying for them.

He particularly hated Bernard because he was a good-looking guy with a snappy wardrobe and a habit of preying on lonely women who’d worked hard to save enough money to refurbish their homes, or worse yet, who’d saved for years to make their dream of home-ownership come true. Bernard was also known to pay off inspectors and appraisers, so his underhanded practices made him rich, instead of putting him in jail where he belonged. For reasons he couldn’t understand, the thought of getting his hands around Bernard Jackson’s neck and choking the life out of him was very compelling to Nick at the moment. How a woman who was as smart as Dakota Phillips was supposed to be had got tangled up with that lying, conniving, thieving jerk he had no idea, but there was no way Nick was letting him get away with it.

By the time he pulled up in front of Dakota’s unit, he was hot as a firecracker. He glanced at Dakota’s bright-red HHR with the sad rear end and made a mental note to make sure she had transportation while it was being repaired. It didn’t occur to him that the body shop would see to that, he just didn’t want her to be inconvenienced. He was surprised to see her sitting on the front steps when he got out of his truck. She looked rather like a little lost girl sitting there with her elbows on her knees, staring down at her bare feet. Nice, pretty feet, too, with some kind of pinkish nail polish. No corns, bunions or other unsightly things were visible, which gave him a little thrill. Nick loved a woman with sexy feet. She was sexy all over, with her long curly hair flowing loose over her shoulders. She looked up at him approaching and he was thrown off guard by her look of utter hatred.

“Who the hell are you?” she said in a distinctly unfriendly tone of voice.

Nick kept walking until he was at the foot of the stairs. “I’m Nick Hunter. Remember the truck that bumped into you yesterday?”

Dakota looked blank for a moment and then frowned even more. “Oh yeah, I remember. That was the first of three horrible things that have happened to me since I got to this wretched town. Yes, I remember your girlfriend slamming into me like I was invisible. It was a fun day,” she said drolly.

A lesser man would have dropped off the flowers and scrammed, but Nick was too tough for that. He made a motion with his free hand and she actually scooted over to make room for him to sit next to her. “I came to apologize again for my niece’s part in the mishap,” he said, trying not to emphasize the word niece. Before she could react, he asked what the other two things were that had caused her to be upset.

“The second thing was getting here and finding my newly refurbished townhouse is a piece of junk. It’s a pile of crap from top to bottom and if I ever get my hands on the so-called builder I’m not going to leave enough pieces for them to bury. I don’t know how things are done in Chicago, but there are laws against fraud and misrepresentation in D.C., and when I’m through with that piece of slime he’s going to be intimately acquainted with every one of them.”

She didn’t raise her voice, but the calm, deadly words let him know she meant every single one. This impressed him, almost as much as her perfect complexion and her long silky eyelashes. “Well, that’s two things. What’s the third?”

Dakota looked at him directly for the first time, her face a mask of weary disgust. “My cat, the lovely Cha-Cha, managed to lock me out of the house. I came outside to get something out of the car and before I realized the car keys were in the house, I heard the door slam shut and a loud click, which meant that girlfriend put her big fat paw right on the lock. So I’m out here with no keys and no cell phone and she’s in the house laughing at me.”

Nick stared at her for a long moment and tried hard not to laugh, but when he turned to see Cha-Cha sitting on the windowsill looking innocent, he had to. He burst into laughter and surprisingly, Dakota didn’t seem to be offended. On the contrary, she shrugged. “Knock yourself out. If it was anyone else but me, I’d be laughing, too. You don’t happen to have a cell phone I can use, do you?”

Nick gave her a genuine smile this time and assured her he could do better than that. “Here, these are for you. Peace offering. You don’t need a phone, you need a man who knows what to do, and that happens to be me. Be right back,” he added as he got up and dusted his pants off before heading for the truck.

Dakota looked at the flowers and despite her miserable day, she smiled. They were beautiful: black-eyed Susans, purple freesias and some other blooms that were shades of pink that looked lovely with the bright yellow and purple petals. She turned to the window and waved them at her naughty cat. “Ha! I got flowers and you got nothing. Serves you right, little wench.”

She watched Nick retrieve something from his truck and was amazed that she hadn’t noticed how handsome he was. Tall, with creamy skin and a body she knew was hard and muscular from their brief encounter the day before, he was a real treat for the eye, especially now that he wasn’t wearing that cap and those sunglasses. All that curly hair and those green eyes, super bone structure and those perfect white teeth…if she were in the market for a man, she would have been knocked off her feet for sure. And the way he’d slipped in the information that the young beauty was his niece was real cute, but it wasn’t going to get him any points. The way she was feeling towards the male of the species right now just made him an interesting specimen, nothing more. She had no more interest in him than she would in a statue. Although, when he started walking towards her again she had to admit that he reminded her of a Thomas Blackshear statue come to life—perfect features, rich coloring, undeniable sex appeal and total masculinity. She had to suppress a trembling sensation as she watched him walk. He was just a little bit bowlegged and it was incredibly sexy. Damn him anyway, she thought. Damn all men. They’re all critters.

Nick had returned with a tool belt and a smile. Dakota was trying to look evil, but she was too taken with the sight of his long legs in his neatly pressed jeans and his broad chest covered with a nicely fitting blue T-shirt. Besides, she was curious. “So what are the tools for?”

“I’m going to get your door open and then we’re going to have a little talk with your cat. It’s not safe for her to be locking you out. Chicago is a big city and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you,” he said with a sexy twinkle in his eye.

She could feel her eyes widen at his flirtatious words, but she disciplined her face to stay neutral. Ignoring his flirting, Dakota turned so she could watch him work, sniffing the fresh scent of her bouquet as he took a few small tools out of the belt and went to work. He fiddled around with a small pick, and, in minutes, the door popped open.

“That lock is worthless,” he told her. “You’re going to want to replace it as soon as possible.” He opened the door and held his hand out to help her up. She took the hand he extended to her and tried to get up gracefully, but it wasn’t really possible. She suddenly remembered that she was not looking her best, in a pair of gray sweats that were so old they were legitimate antiques and a tattered sweatshirt that had once belonged to her father. Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. She gathered what was left of her dignity and invited him in.

As they crossed the threshold, Cha-Cha leaped from her post in the window and made a dive at Nick’s feet. Dakota clicked her tongue in mock disgust. “See how you are? You lock me out looking like a bag lady and then you try to put the moves on the man who rescued me. You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you?”

Cha-Cha ignored her and concentrated on Nick, wrapping herself around his ankles and purring loudly. “You’ll have to excuse her,” Dakota told him. “She loves men, especially good-looking ones. She likes the sound of their voices or their smell or the feel of their hands or something.” As the cat sniffed Nick’s feet, she began to purr loudly until Nick bent down and picked her up, something that surprised Dakota. She hadn’t pegged him as a cat lover. He let Cha-Cha twine around his upper arms and nestle in his neck while she emitted a low rumbling noise interspersed with little squeaks of joy. Dakota rolled her eyes at the spectacle and looked around for something to put her flowers in.

She excused herself and went into the kitchen, only to have Nick follow her with his new girlfriend draped over his shoulder. “Thanks for the flowers,” she said as she looked around for a vase of some kind. There was nothing to be found but a bottle that had once contained mineral water. Nick surprised her again by taking the bottle from her hand and using his pocket knife to trim off the narrow top of the bottle, leaving an unorthodox but effective vase. She took it from him and looked at it. “Thanks again. That was a good idea,” she said with a smile. She turned the water on to fill the impromptu container and jumped when a loud rattling sound came out of the tap, followed by a bang and a gush of nasty-looking brown water. “Well, that’s just the cherry on the cake of my day. What else can go wrong with the Amityville horror?”

“You need to have your pipes bled. Whoever put them in should have done that before you moved in,” Nick said.

“If I ever meet him, I’ll be sure to mention that, right before I blow a hole in his butt,” she retorted. Cha-Cha appeared to have changed camps because she looked at Dakota with disinterest before giving Nick’s ear a contented little lick.

“You never met your contractor? How did that happen?”

“It’s a long, stupid and pathetic story and I’m sure you don’t have time to listen to it,” she muttered as she looked again at the drywall, the crummy workmanship on the counters and the cheap cabinet fronts. Something occurred to her and she turned her eyes to Nick’s. “By the way, what are you doing here anyway? You didn’t just run by to pick my lock, so I’m guessing you have another reason for being here.”

“Yeah, I do. Or I did. Let me take a look around here for a minute and then we’ll talk.”

Before Dakota could say another word, he left the kitchen with Cha-Cha clinging to his shoulder. In a few minutes he had toured the whole place, stopping in her bedroom and shaking his head. There was her unmade air mattress, a small lamp, a clock radio and her suitcase, opened to reveal some very pretty and colorful underwear. He stopped walking, causing Dakota, who was right on his heels, to bump into his back. “You spent the night here? You slept on the floor of this place all by yourself?”

The incredulity in his voice grated on Dakota’s already frayed nerves. “Yes, I spent the night here. What was I supposed to do, sleep in the car? The movers are on their way here with all my worldly goods and the driver doesn’t seem to be answering his cell phone. I have to be here when they arrive,” she said, brushing her fantastic hair out of her eyes.

“No, what you had to do is to find someplace to store your stuff until this place gets fixed,” Nick contradicted her. “It’ll be at least three weeks before this place is ready for you to move into, maybe a month. If your furniture is in here it’ll just make it that much harder to get the place done right,” he told her as he absentmindedly scratched Cha-Cha’s ears. She was practically singing with delight at his touch and it was really annoying Dakota for some reason. She abruptly plucked the cat off her perch and put her on the floor.

“Look, Rick,” she began.

“Nick,” he corrected her. “My full name is Nicholas DeVaughan Hunter, but everyone calls me Nick.”

“Okay, Nick.” Normally she would have been embarrassed about forgetting someone’s name, but it didn’t bother her this time. She was too busy reacting to his take-charge tone of voice. The last thing she wanted or needed was to be bossed around by a stranger. “It’s obvious this dump needs something. I’m thinking about a gallon of kerosene and a few matches, but that’s not really the answer, tempting as it sounds. The point is, I start a new job on Monday, I don’t know a soul in Chicago except my new employer and I have no idea where I’m going to find a reliable contractor to fix this place. I have no idea where the crook who did this to me is and trust me, I’m not going to rest until I find him.”

“So what’s your point? You need a place to put your stuff until this place is ready, you need a place to stay, and you need the best man in the business to get the job done,” Nick told her.

“I think we’ve already established that,” Dakota said dryly. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I can get any of these things, would you?”

“Of course, darlin’. There’s one man for the job and you’re looking at him.”

Dakota stared at him suspiciously, thinking that he was teasing her. He looked calmly competent and sincere, as though he meant every word. She opened her mouth to start interrogating him, and to her chagrin a huge growl started in her stomach and charged its way out of her in the noisiest way possible.

“You haven’t eaten a thing today, have you? You need some food, baby. I’ll go get us something and we can work out all the details while we eat.”

He didn’t wait for her answer; he just turned and left the room. She and Cha-Cha looked at each other with wide eyes. “Chach, girl, who was that masked man?” she murmured. “What in the world are we getting ourselves into now?” Her cat had no answer for her other than a soft purr as she wound her way around Dakota’s legs.

An hour later, Dakota was in a much better mood. The first thing she’d done when she heard the door close behind Nick was to dash into the bathroom and take a speedy shower. She put on a little makeup, put on her favorite scented lotion and matching perfume and managed to find a cute outfit, a pair of jeans with flowers embroidered down one leg and a soft-pink top with a deep scoop neck and three-quarter-length sleeves. She thought she looked much better than she had that morning, but she wasn’t aware of how sexy she looked or she might have put on something else. Since there was nothing to sit on, she dragged the air mattress downstairs to the living room and put it in the center of the room, smiling as she arranged her flowers nearby. She had put a throw over the mattress and it looked kind of cute, albeit makeshift and Bohemian in the middle of the empty room.

Nick returned rather quickly with two bags of food that smelled wonderful to a starving woman and her hungry cat. “I hope you like soul food,” he said. “There’s a place not too far from here that has the best food in Chicago.”

Dakota smiled the first really genuine smile he’d seen on her pretty face. “I eat plenty of it, how do you think my butt got to be this big?” She was so hungry she didn’t even think twice about what she’d just revealed to him, she was too interested in the food. “What did you bring us?”

Cha-Cha was going crazy, walking around Nick’s ankles in figure eights and making throaty sounds that signaled extreme hunger. “I brought some fried chicken, potato salad and greens. There’s some Crowder peas and cornbread, too. You’re gonna like their cornbread, it’s just like homemade. Your cat must smell that chicken, she’s going nuts,” he commented.

“Actually, it’s the greens she’s after. She’s crazy about them,” Dakota said as she walked to the kitchen to get Cha-Cha’s dish.

Nick admired her figure as she walked away. If soul food was what put that luscious behind on her he was going to make sure she had a steady supply from then on. She looked even prettier than she had earlier and he could tell she’d done a little primping while he was gone. It pleased him to see that she’d made the effort, although she would probably deny that’s why she’d done it. She returned to the living room, where the cat was now dancing around in excitement.

“Okay, we need to share with her or we won’t be able to eat in peace,” Dakota said with a smile. “Which one is mine?” she asked, looking at the bags.

Nick reached into the larger bag and took out two containers. “They’re both the same, so help yourself,” he said as she took one from him.

He watched with amusement as she put a small portion of greens in the cat’s dish. She used the plastic knife and fork to cut it up finely, and then added a small piece of cornbread, which she crumbled over the top. Cha-Cha fell on it as though she hadn’t eaten for days, purring loudly while she ate. While Dakota cleaned her hands with a small bottle of antibacterial cleanser, Nick watched the scene in amusement.

“I never saw a cat eat greens in my life,” he said, taking the bottle from Dakota and using it on his hands.

“Oh, she loves greens, grits and catfish. If you want to see her really go nuts, bring some chitlins up in here. She’ll gank you for them,” Dakota said before saying a quick grace and taking her first taste of the deliciously prepared food. “This is sooo wonderful! Thank you so much, Nick.”

Nick watched her eat and smiled with satisfaction. She ate daintily but with good appetite and was obviously enjoying every bite. He loved watching a pretty woman tackle a good meal, it was a wholesome and sexy sight that often led to some fantastic after-dinner sex, but he wasn’t crazy. He knew better than to put some cheap moves on her so soon. She was a different breed of woman and he could sense it, but it didn’t stop him from teasing her as he dug into his own meal.

“What you know about chitlins? You look like the beefWellington type to me. You don’t seem like the type who would eat chitlins or pig’s feet or anything real down home,” he said between bites.

Dakota rolled her eyes at him. “I could ask you what you know about beef Wellington, which I happen to despise. What do you think you know about me that makes you say something like that? Did you bring anything to drink? I’m not touching that water from the kitchen tap,” she said grumpily.

Nick indicated the other bag. “I brought us some sweet tea. And you just seem like the real sophisticated type, you know.”

Dakota reached for the bag, took out both tall paper cups and handed him one. She opened the other one and took a long draught before cutting her eyes at Nick.

“You know nothing about me. And I doubt that you’ll get to know me much better, so let’s just keep out of each other’s business, okay? Let’s talk about what you think you can do for this house, how about that?”

Cha-Cha was inching her way to Nick, trying for another handout. Nick obliged her with a little piece of chicken before fixing her owner with a long sultry gaze.

Dakota was suddenly uneasy with his scrutiny and looked down to see what he was staring at. “Did I spill something? What are you looking at?”

Those big pretty breasts of yours, he thought, but prudently kept that notion to himself. “I was just thinking about how to get your house in order. Why don’t you move in with me until everything is finished?” he asked quietly. He enjoyed the look on her face as she really did spill something; iced tea rolled right down her chin and splashed onto her bosom. As much as he wanted to lean over and lick it off, he didn’t miss her next words.

“Are you out of your mind?”

By nightfall, Dakota was fairly confident that the man was in full possession of all his faculties. While they ate their dinner, he’d explained to her that he was in the business and that his crew could get her house up to the proper specifications in short order. He also told her that he owned three storage facilities and that he could have her things stored there until the house was ready to be occupied. By the time they’d finished eating, he’d made a few phone calls, and when the movers arrived, he’d directed them to the storage place, and by the time she’d cleaned up after their meal, he was ready to prove to her that he meant every word of what he’d told her.

He took her to his offices, which were spacious and nicely furnished. He introduced her to his office manager, Leticia Banks, and showed her all his credentials, licenses and letters of thanks from grateful clients. Dakota had been impressed in spite of herself. Leticia, who was plump, pretty and well-dressed, had given her a sly smile.

“You look a little overwhelmed, sugar. Don’t worry about a thing, Nick can deliver on anything he says he can do,” she assured Dakota. “He’ll have you hooked up in no time.” She gave Dakota a sunny smile that didn’t seem to match the coolly assessing look in her eyes, but Dakota filed that away for later consideration. She was too busy trying to calculate how much more this was going to cost her and she was hoping she wouldn’t have to go to her father for additional funds. She had a big chunk of money tied up in the Amityville horror, as she was now calling her house, and she dreaded the thought of more debt. She’d been totally upfront with Nick about it, too.

“Look, I believe you. I think you can do what you say, but I’m worried about the cost,” she said earnestly as she sat in the comfortable chair that faced his desk. “I already have a bundle tied up in this situation and I’m not made of money. There’s not a money tree in my backyard waiting to be harvested,” she said with a sigh.

Nick had turned those mesmerizing eyes of his on hers and didn’t crack a smile. “Have I asked you about money? You worry too much, baby. I’m trying to help you out and you’re questioning every move I want to make.”

Dakota blinked her long lashes at him. If she didn’t know any better, she would swear there was something personal in what he said, almost something sexual. She stared back at him and once again she had to suppress a strong physical reaction to the man. Suddenly she remembered how he’d snickered when her big behind was getting back into her car after the accident and as angry as the memory made her, it gave her a kind of reassurance. Whatever he wanted from her had nothing to do with sex, he wasn’t attracted to her. For once her extra pounds had come in handy. At least she didn’t have to worry about him trying to get with her in return for his favors.

“I apologize for being slightly paranoid,” she said in a quiet voice. She shrugged her shoulders and added, “But you’re a businessman and a good one, from the looks of your operation. You didn’t get that way from giving people handouts and as far as I know, construction work doesn’t have a pro bono arrangement.”

Nick continued to stare at her for a long moment before answering. “Look, baby, it’s commendable for you to be honest about your situation and to be concerned about mine, but I got this, okay? I’ll get paid because I’m going after Bernard Jackson myself. And when I’m done with him, he won’t be able to do this same number on anybody else. People like Jackson give all black builders and contractors a bad name. You aren’t the first woman he’s swindled and you won’t be the last, unless someone puts a stop to it.”

Dakota was captivated by the change in Nick as he spoke. The intensity of his voice and his rising emotions made his voice even deeper and he seemed even more masculine than before, if that were possible. Her response to his firm declaration moved her so that she felt another massive tremor working its way through her body and she had to work hard to control the urge to fan away the heat he generated in her. Oh, this is bad, this is really bad, she thought. “You sound very sure of yourself,” she told him.

Nick leaned back in his oversized desk chair and linked his fingers behind his head. “I am sure of myself. I know what I can do and nothing comes out of my mouth that I can’t back up. That’s just the way I am. You’ll understand that when you get to know me better,” he said with a smile that bordered on cocky.

The smug look on his face was enough to snap Dakota back into her senses. She was about to say something smart when Nick excused himself to answer his phone. She took a good long look at him and had to admit she liked what she saw. He was too tall; she liked men who were about six feet, maybe an inch or two taller. She hated a man who loomed over her; there was something bothersome about it. But he was a handsome man, no question. She knew women in D.C. who’d pay to get a date with a man like Nick. Those cheekbones, that strong chin, that head full of beautiful black hair and especially those green eyes—he could have been a model if it weren’t for the fact that he was so broad-shouldered and muscular. Suddenly Nick looked up and caught her staring at him. He gave her a smile that could have melted an iceberg and this time she really shivered.

“Okay, Miss Lady, have I convinced you that I can be trusted? Are you going to allow me to do what I do and get your house in order?”

As if she had no will of her own, Dakota felt her head going up and down as she nodded yes. “But I’ll still need a place to stay. Are there any residence hotels nearby? Those executive suite places?”

Nick rose and came around the desk, holding out his hand to her as he did so. “Baby, I told you I’ve got it all handled. Come with me and I’ll show you what I mean.”

Lordy, what am I getting myself into now? she thought as she accepted his hand.

As though he could read her thoughts, Nick suddenly pulled her up out of her chair and touched her chin with the fingers of his free hand. “You gotta trust me, baby. I got this. Let’s go.”