Back In The Bedroom

9

THE NEXT MORNING, Tessa turned the key of her VW Beetle, but for the second morning in a row, nothing happened. Yesterday she’d thought it was just a dead battery and she’d charged it overnight.

Apparently she’d been wrong. “Come on, baby,” she coaxed, and tapped the console lovingly. She tried again.

Nothing.

With a sigh, she leaned back. Her sister had already left for work, so she couldn’t get a ride from her. If she called Rafe, he’d probably get on the next plane.

She couldn’t call Eddie again.

So she got on the bus and decided not to worry about her car until she could do something about it. By the time she got onto the elevator in Reilly’s building, it was one minute after eight and her heart was pumping. She hated to be late and she ran off the elevator the moment the doors opened.

“I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly to Cheri, who stood there stripping off her sweater, clearly having also just arrived.

“No need to be sorry, you’re close enough.” Cheri smiled. “And since you’re holding a Krispy Kreme doughnut bag in your hand, you’re my new best friend.”

Tessa laughed. “It’s a shameless bribe for your son, but I brought enough for all of us. I’m determined to see him smile today.”

“Now that I’d like to see. He’s working out now; there’s a gym on the fourth floor he sometimes uses in the mornings. Between that and the doughnuts, it might just do the trick.” Cheri turned on the stereo to soft rock, opened the shades to the beautiful view and flipped on the lights to the hall that led to the offices.

Apparently there wasn’t a regular receptionist, because there wasn’t enough phone traffic to warrant one, which left the two of them taking turns answering phones. Knowing Reilly liked his messages first-thing, Tessa sat at the front desk to check his machine.

“He’s not easy to get to know,” Cheri said behind her. “And yet you already seem to have him pegged.”

“Yes, well, we got what you might call concentrated time together that night we spent locked up in Eddie’s house,” Tessa reminded her.

“It’s funny what the long nighttime hours will do to a person when they’re awake,” Cheri said. “How much more open you can be, how much more you’ll share.”

Tessa had to smile wryly at that. They might not have shared a lot of words, per se, but there’d been enough kissing and touching to make her feel extremely open. And vulnerable.

She wasn’t comfortable with that. Not one little bit.

“Is that what happened, Tessa?”

She sighed. “In a manner of speaking. And now, in the light of day, facing each other over accounting ledgers, it’s been a little…awkward. Sometimes a lot awkward.”

“Plus, Reilly has a way of making things as awkward as possible, doesn’t he?” Cheri said, smiling sympathetically. “I love him, I love him with my entire heart and soul and yet I want to just smack him sometimes for not letting people…I don’t know…see him. He’s so afraid he’s going to end up like his father. He’s a bit hung up on his privacy.”

“I noticed.”

“He doesn’t get that from me, I’ll tell you that. Actually, I don’t know where he gets it. Probably from working for the government as an operative doing…well, I’m not really sure, to tell you the truth. I’m just glad he’s not still doing it.”

Tessa stopped in the act of opening the bag of doughnuts. “You mean he was…CIA?”

“Was.” Cheri winced. “He didn’t tell you.”

“No. But it explains a lot. Why did he get out of it?”

Cheri took a moment to answer. “Let’s just say his last mission nearly killed him. Literally. It made him wary. And unhappy, I think. In any case, it took him a long time to recover and in some ways he’s still recovering.” She put her hand on Tessa’s wrist. “You’ll be patient with him, won’t you Tessa? Patient, and kind, and compassionate?”

“I’m sorry for what he went through, but I think you have the wrong idea-”

“You like him,” Cheri said. “You care about him. I can see that.”

“I barely know him.” And because she didn’t want to talk about it anymore, she busied herself with sharpening a pencil.

Cheri took the hint and left her alone. Tessa stared at the electric pencil sharpener, her mind far from the pencil and stuck on Reilly.

He’d been in the CIA. He’d been hurt.

He’d become wary because of it.

He needed patience. Kindness and compassion.

She had those things, but she wasn’t sure Cheri knew what she was asking. Reilly didn’t want anything from her but work.

A few moments later, Cheri handed her a stack of work and gave her a little smile. “Are you going to offer me a doughnut or are you just going to torture me with the scent of them all morning?”

Tessa set them out. She took the stack of work and a glazed doughnut and went to her desk to dig in. After a while, Cheri popped her head into the room and said she was going out to run some errands.

Alone, Tessa went into the small photocopy-fax room and started making a stack of copies she needed for one of Reilly’s clients. She got into a rhythm of lifting the top of the machine, replacing the sheet she needed copied, placing it back into the file. The sound of the copier was loud and hypnotic, so that when someone stepped up right behind her suddenly, she let out a little scream and jerked. Papers went flying as she whirled around, flattening herself back against the machine.

“Hey. Hey, it’s just me.” Reilly. He stood there, all in black, of course. Black athletic shoes, black running shorts, black T-shirt, which was plastered to him. The man sure was in some kind of amazing shape. She registered this in a distant way because he’d nearly given her heart failure and she couldn’t talk. He definitely looked the secret agent part, she’d give him that. Tall, edgy, dangerous…

“Tess?”

Get it together, she told herself, get it together before you annoy the hell out of him for acting like a baby. “I’m sorry. I’m fine.” She bent for the papers.

“Are you sure?” He hunkered down beside her and started helping her.

“No, I’ve got it.” She shoved the stack all back into the file, figuring she’d fix it when she was alone and could breathe again. “I’m just fine. Really.”

“All right.” He eyed her carefully. “I’m going to shower in the bathroom in my office.” He paused. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I just thought I was alone, that’s all. Cheri said you were working out.” He looked good all hot and sweaty and bothered. Extremely superhero-like.

Had she ever really seen a different side of him, a soft and gentle side, even for a moment? No. She had to have imagined that, because this man with his see-through eyes and rock-hard body and low, rough voice didn’t have a soft and gentle side-

He reached out, dispersing her thoughts like the wind. His hand settled on her shoulder and squeezed it lightly. “It’s okay, you know, it’s just delayed shock.” Standing, he pulled her up. “I…know what you’re going through.”

Oh, damn. He knew. He knew because something terrible had happened to him on his last mission, something much more terrible than being held up in Eddie’s house. He was big and tough and strong, and yet he understood, and wanted her to know that.

He needs kindness and compassion and patience, Cheri had told her and yet here he was offering it to her. She stared down at the papers, which suddenly went a little blurry, because here was that flash of beta guy again and it confused her.

With a sigh, he took the stack and set it all on the copier. He put his hands on her again, her hips this time.

“I’m really fine,” she whispered, wanting it to be so. Wanting it to be so quite badly.

“Yes.”

She shifted a little closer, needing the contact, needing…so much.

“Don’t.” His voice was low, gruff, and he tried to hold her off. “I’m all sweaty.”

“I don’t care.”

“Tess.” But he pulled her just a little closer, waiting until she tipped her head up to his.

“You know what?” she whispered. “I think I lied. I don’t think I’m so fine. It…” She closed her eyes and saw the gray room. Saw Reilly standing in Eddie’s kitchen with a gun. “It keeps coming back.”

“I’m sorry.” He looked her over, his jaw going all tight and bunched and sexy when he took in the bruises on her throat. “I’m really sorry.”

Something deep within her curled, warmed. Ached. “Maybe you should go back to snarling at me.”

“I don’t snarl at you,” he said, grimacing. “I never mean to, anyway. Not at you.”

Oh, no. He was making her melt again, melt into a boneless heap. The way he looked at her, as if she was something he needed to run from and run to at the same time… Without permission, her arms snaked upward around his neck and held on for dear life so that he couldn’t change his mind and back away. Her chest brushed his. So did her thighs. And everything in between.

Every single erogenous zone in her body stood up and took notice.

His fingers tightened on her hips for one moment, then he dropped his hands from her and stood back.

Which was a good thing. It reminded her why she was here. Work. Just work.

She didn’t want to feel this tug for him. She wanted him to go far, far away and leave her to that work before she forgot her entire humiliating experience with him at Eddie’s and did something stupid.

Like kiss him for a third time.

Oh, no. No, the next time they kissed, he was going to initiate it. He was going to want it. Because she already knew that if he did kiss her, she’d give in, she’d let him do it. She’d let him kiss them both senseless.

And then he’d walk away. Pretend it didn’t happen. She didn’t have to be ex-CIA to know that.

But he didn’t kiss her.

Not even once.

THE NEXT DAY Reilly was on his way into the office when Cheri called him on his cell phone.

“Oh, honey. Glad I caught you. I’m not working for you today.”

Reilly had already gone for his run that morning and was eating his way through a fast-food breakfast as he drove. He knew the two cancelled each other out, but he didn’t care. He ran because it felt good and he ate what he ate because it tasted good. “Are you sick?” he asked her.

“I’m never sick.”

Oka-a-ay. “Attitude adjustment day?”

“Why would I need that, I don’t have an attitude.”

“So it’s…a woman thing?” he asked warily, not really wanting to know.

“Reilly, I’m working for your father today. He’s behind, and-”

“What?”

“And I’ve got you all caught up, so-”

“But…” This was so far from what he expected, he couldn’t think. “You work for me.”

“Yes,” Cheri said with that calm reasonableness she had, that made his brain feel like she was scrambling it. “But he needs me.”

“But…”

“Reilly, honey, honestly. Tessa could do my job blindfolded. You’ll be fine.”

He nearly missed his turnoff. “But Tessa isn’t my office manager. You are.”

“And I need a day off.”

“To work for Eddie.”

“That’s right.”

This made no sense. “You want to work for the man who deserted you when you were a pregnant teenager.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Cheri said, making an annoyed sound. “Look, it’s time you knew this. I’m the one who jumped his bones when I was sixteen. And I’m the one who-”

“Jeez!” He nearly rear-ended the car in front of him. “Over-share!”

“I knew the chance I was taking,” she said calmly. “We’ve long ago established how naive I was, but if you think I have regrets you’re the naive one.”

“Mom.” She was certifiable. “He has a hundred other women he could use for today.”

“Yes, but he wants me. And let’s face it, I’m the best.”

“What about whoever he took to Cabo?”

“Well, I doubt whoever she was knew accounting.”

True.

“Stop acting like an old man, Reilly. I’ll be back in a few days. Live a little while I’m gone, okay?”

“You sound just like him when you say that,” he said, broodingly.

“Have a good day, honey.”

He stared down at his cell after she hung up on him, then tossed it onto the passenger seat. Live a little. He’d lived plenty. He’d lived long and hard, and frankly, was happy with how things were going. Nice and quiet and even-keeled. No surprises. No being konked over the head by idiotic burglars. No being kissed stupid by a little hottie who had somehow-and he was still dizzy over this one-ended up working for him.

By the time he got into his office, he was ready to bury himself in numbers. Lots of numbers.

Tessa sat behind the front desk on the phone, her brown hair swinging as she turned to watch him walk in. Her big, bright-green eyes gave away her every thought, as usual.

She was thinking she would have been happier if he hadn’t shown up.

Join the club, baby.

She recovered nicely, even gave him a little wave accompanied by what seemed like a very genuine smile. So genuine he nearly waved right back.

“I’ll be sure to note the changes to the payables,” she said sweetly into the phone. “Oh, why, yes, I’ll tell Mr. Ledger that you think I’m the very best temp he’s ever had,” she said, laughing. “Just so happens that I think so, too. Bye, now.” She hung up and sent him a saucy look that dared him to say otherwise.

“Maybe you should tell Eddie you need a raise,” he suggested.

“Then he’ll charge you more.”

“I can handle Eddie.”

She smiled. “So can I.”

“I don’t imagine there isn’t much you can’t handle,” he heard himself say.

“Nope. That comes from being the baby of the family,” she said proudly. “My sister and brother like to worry about me, but it’s their own fault I’m this way. They created me.”

“So you’re close to them.”

“Very.”

“They probably don’t try to run your life,” he muttered, thinking of his mother.

She laughed at that. “Are you kidding? They live to run my life. That’s what love’s all about, Reilly.”

Yeah. Love. He forced his eyes off her and the sunshine-yellow suit dress she wore and looked around the counter that just yesterday had held a bag of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, reading his mind. “I’m fresh out of cash until payday.”

Ah, hell. He came back toward her. “Don’t buy me doughnuts with your own money. There’s no need. There’s petty cash in Cheri’s desk.”

“But then it’d be you buying you doughnuts.”

“Yes, and then no one owes anyone anything.”

She just looked at him.

Resisting the urge to squirm, he walked past her and headed down the hall toward his office.

“Good thing Cheri told me you weren’t a morning person,” she muttered.

Which stopped him in his tracks.

“She also said you’re not an afternoon or evening person,” she said. “In case you were wondering.”

He had to ask, even knowing he shouldn’t. “What else did she say about me?”

Her smile widened just a little bit wickedly.

He did squirm now.

“She said you’re egotistical, grumpy, stubborn and innately suspicious.”

Okay, that he could handle, as it was true.

But then she put a finger to her chin as she thought. “Oh, and that she felt none of those things were your fault.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Because she and your father screwed you up and what they didn’t screw up, working for the CIA finished off.”