Terms Of Engagement. Kylie Brant
of feminine satisfaction in the back of her throat. His chest was just as solid as it looked, with all sorts of intriguing angles and hollows where sinew met bone. She had the overpowering urge to tear her mouth from his and test one hard pec with her teeth.
She didn’t recall ever feeling this fever in her blood that stripped away the caution she’d learned to live by. This scorching heat was its own kind of seduction for a woman used to keeping her own wild nature tamed.
Jack Langley made her want to unleash it. And that made him far more dangerous than she had first assumed.
The realization had Lindsay reluctantly tearing her mouth from his, evading his lips when they would have lured her back.
Each of them drew a deep, shuddering breath. If he said anything, did anything, Lindsay couldn’t be certain she’d have the strength of will to resist him.
When he spoke, his voice was an octave lower than usual. “Don’t forget to lock up after me.”
She had to force herself to back up a few steps to allow him space to pull the door open. Clenching her hands at her sides, she managed to let him walk through it without hauling him back inside.
But it was a long moment before she could manage to do as he directed and lock the door behind him.
“You went to see Neldstrom?” Coming fully awake, Lindsay sat up in bed, her cell phone clutched to her ear. “Mitch, I wish you hadn’t done that.”
Early-morning light slanted through the blinds covering the lone window. She didn’t know what time it was when she’d taken Mitch’s call. But Piper’s opened at 6:00 a.m. Mitch hadn’t wasted any time.
“He humiliated me. In front of everyone.” There was an unfamiliar note of rage in the man’s voice, layered under the mortification. “He looked me right in the eye and dumped the plate of food down my shirt. Poured juice on my head. Said I must be slower than he thought if I didn’t get the message.”
Lindsay’s jaw clenched. The owner of Piper’s, Bill Neldstrom, was something of an ass. She’d seem him lose his temper before. The episode with Mitch hadn’t been his first. But he paid in cash and didn’t require references when hiring. That had made him an attractive employer for Lindsay.
“You didn’t deserve that, Mitch. He’s a jerk. You’ll find a better job. With a nicer boss.”
“No one did a thing to stop him. No one said a thing about it.” Mitch’s voice was tinged with bitterness. “Alex just smirked at me. Like maybe I had it coming.”
Bringing a hand up to rub her temple, Lindsay grazed her cheekbone and flinched. “I’m sorry that happened. Bill had no right to treat you that way, and I’ll tell him that.”
There was a beat of silence. Then, “You don’t work today, do you?”
“No.” Thank God, she mentally added. Various aches she’d been unaware of last night were making themselves known now, a regular little chorus of pain. “But when I see him tomorrow…”
“Don’t worry about it. Bill is going to get his one of these days.”
“Guys like him usually do.” She hoped her words sounded more certain than she felt. Her experience was quite the opposite. Innocents were destroyed while evil flourished. And waiting for justice could take a lifetime. “But I’m free this afternoon. How about if I buy some newspapers and you and I can go through the want ads? That would show Bill, if you had a new job lined up in just a few days.”
“Maybe another time.” Mitch sounded preoccupied. “Promise you won’t go talk to him today.”
Stifling a yawn, Lindsay lowered herself gingerly to a prone position again. That was a promise she’d have no trouble keeping. This would be her first day off all week. “I won’t.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you later.”
“All right. And, Mitch? We will find you a better job.”
Once the call had been disconnected, she checked the time on the phone. Past nine. But she was in no hurry to get up. Jack had been right. Her face had throbbed during the night, making it difficult to fall asleep. She was unwilling to admit that there had been any other cause for her sleeplessness. Unless it had been mortification at the struggle it had taken not to jump the man’s bones before he’d walked out the door.
Pulling a pillow over her face, she sought to shut out that particular memory. It was humbling to discover that despite her conviction otherwise, she hadn’t changed much at all over the last three years. She could switch her name and her lifestyle, dress in another manner, act different…but she hadn’t tamed her nature at all. She’d merely subdued it.
All it had taken was the sex appeal and lethal aura of one man to entice that wildness back to the surface. That meant she still was drawn to excitement. She still found herself tempted by risk.
She had to cancel dinner that evening.
She hadn’t completely lost her mind, those few minutes in Jack’s arms to the contrary. She’d learned caution the hard way. She’d learned to listen to her instincts.
And they warned her not to make a mistake with Jack Langley. If she couldn’t trust herself with the man, it made sense to avoid him altogether.
Pushing aside the niggle of disappointment, she reached for her cell, intent on getting it over with. It rang in her palm. Recognizing the number, her stomach plummeted. But she knew better than to not answer it.
“Lindsay, cancel any plans you’ve made and get down to the restaurant.” As usual, Bill Neldstrom didn’t give her a chance to speak. “Chang just went home sick, and Sarah’s in San Diego for the weekend. I’ve got my hands full here, and I can’t do the cooking and supervise the waitstaff, too.”
Everything inside her rebelled. “Bill, I haven’t had a day off all week. You promised you wouldn’t call me in. Just yesterday, in fact.”
“Well, I didn’t know that Chang was going to catch a bug, did I?” His tone was testy. “You can have a different day off.”
“When?” She wasn’t feeling particularly charitable, especially after hearing about his run-in with Mitch. “You’ve fired the grill cook and Sarah’s gone for a week. Tell me when I’m going to get some time off, Bill, especially with Chang out sick.”
“You want to be off permanently? I can arrange that pretty damn easily.”
The temptation to shove his job down his throat was almost overwhelming. Lindsay sat up in bed, jamming her free hand through her hair. But rent was due next week. And it wouldn’t hurt to have a little extra put aside for when she moved on. Telling Neldstrom off would have to wait until then.
“I should at least get overtime for this.” But she was already swinging her legs over the side of the daybed.
His laugh sounded genuinely amused. “Sure. You bring in a Social Security number and you can get all those Department of Labor perks. Now move your ass. You’d better be here in thirty minutes.”
She took a small measure of satisfaction in disconnecting the call and hurling the phone down on the pillow. Neldstrom was a miserable worm and a poor excuse for a human being. Unfortunately, he had the upper hand and delighted in wielding it. He was one she’d be all too happy to leave behind when she left Metro City.
Striding to her closet, she pulled open the door and grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. It would take nearly the entire allotted time just to walk to the nearest bus stop and make it down to Piper’s.
Dressing quickly, she abruptly remembered she’d been about to call Jack. With a mental shrug, she wiggled into her jeans and fastened them. She could call when she had a free minute at work. It would give her a chance to prepare for the conversation.
She had a feeling she was going to need all her wits about her when