Ten

Nate somehow managed to keep his mind on his job for the rest of his shortened shift. The overnight was quiet, and he even managed to get a little shuteye in.

Work over, he finished up and headed out to his truck. The blue F-150 was parked at the back corner of the lot, the noonday sun glinting off the hood despite the cool air of the day. His keys were in his hand as he felt his cell phone buzz in his pocket.

Inside the cab, he answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, Nate.”

Her voice warmed him, curling under his skin to coil tightly in his belly. “Hey.”

“Do you have time for lunch? You just got off shift, right?”

Lunch. With her. Hell, yeah, he did. If he could, he’d make it lunch to go with a dessert of naked Allison. He opened his mouth to answer, but she kept talking.

“I've just lost a big account and I don’t know what the hell to do. I need a listening ear, if you don’t mind.”

His noonday nookie hopes died a quick, fiery death.

Dumbass. What did you think, she was calling him up for a naughty nooner? You’re her friend, not her lover, despite what happened yesterday. If you want to keep her, you need to remember that fact.

“I can do that.”

“Mind if we call something in and eat it at the office? I don’t want anyone to overhear. Deb’s gone out for some doctor’s appointment or something this afternoon, so it’s empty.”

“I’ll pick up Chinese food on the way,” Nate said, mentally mapping the way from her favorite greasy takeout to her office. “Be there in twenty.”

“You’re an angel,” she said, and blew an air kiss before killing the call.

Shaking his head at the disappointment still soaking his bones, Nate nosed the pickup toward the restaurant.

He needed to cool it. Things were still uncertain, and until he knew how to play it, he should just respond to her cues.

But the need for her was growing deep within him, and he wasn’t sure how long he could keep it at bay. He was still determined that one way or another, they’d be together. But keeping his hands to himself was a difficult proposition.

Especially with the memory of her body wrapped around his cock so raw inside him.

The computer screen didn’t change, no matter how many times Allison blinked at it.

An email was open in her browser, and the words were completely unbelievable.

It was from the Dallas Cancer Foundation, the group she’d organized the event for just last weekend. The one Burt had almost ruined with his drunken accusations.

Thinking maybe something would make sense if she read it aloud, she cleared her throat.

“Ms. Kurtz, we wish to terminate our business relationship with you effective immediately…” Her mouth went dry, and she took a swig from the water bottle beside her mouse, then resumed reading. “Thank you for your services up until now but we have decided to engage another company for our needs, going forward…”

There was more, but none of it changed the fact that she’d just lost another major client.

Allison slumped back into her office chair.

Deep breath in, let it out. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, the smooth leather arms under her palms warming against her skin. Slow, even, oxygen met and left her lungs in an easy rhythm.

“Hey,” said a deep, sexy voice, and her eyes popped open.

“‘Thaniel,” she said, and before she knew what the fuck was happening she’d leapt out of her chair and thrown herself at him. Wrapping her arms around his middle, she buried her face in his chest. “Everything is shit and I don’t know what to do.”

Frowning, she squeezed him harder. He hadn’t wrapped his arms around her, hadn’t held her back. For a long moment, she stood there, listening to the thump-thump of his heart against her ear. But damn it, she wanted a freaking hug. What was wrong with him?

Stepping back, she opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind...

Oh. In one hand, he held a bag full of Chinese takeout, and in the other, there was a drink tray with two large Styrofoam cups.

“Let me put this down,” he said, stepping to the leather couch. He put the food and drinks down on the coffee table there.

Feeling more than a little foolish, Allison smoothed her blouse.

What was her problem? This wasn’t like her. She didn’t fall apart. She planned. She moved forward. But for some reason, when her big, strong, cowboy mechanic came striding through that door, she felt like maybe being strong and in control twenty-four-seven might not be what she wanted. Letting someone else help her shoulder the burden was so, so appealing.

But what did that make them? Would he resent that kind of burden when she couldn't promise him a relationship?

A hand at her waist pulled her close to his big, warm body, and her thoughts dissipated like smoke on the breeze.

“Sorry about that,” Nate said, his broad hand sweeping up and down her back as he kissed the top of her head. She closed her eyes, her arms winding around his neck.

For a long moment, they stayed that way, holding one another. His touch never wandered farther south than her waist, and though she thought about tilting her head up for a kiss, she didn’t.

The comfort was too fragile and too necessary to push any farther.

“When did you find out about it?” Nate asked, breaking the silence as he pulled back to look at her.

“This morning. Deb called me before I left home.”

“Come on,” Nate said, threading his fingers through hers. “I know that means you didn’t eat breakfast. You always think better after a meal.”

She let him lead her to the couch. It was nice to accept the takeout box and chopsticks he offered her and do nothing but eat in silence next to him.

He was right. As the food hit her stomach, washed down by fresh iced tea, her neurons started firing.

Thinking was good, but thinking out loud with Nate to help her was better.

“I lost a brand-new account this morning,” she said, stirring her leftover lo mein with her chopsticks.

Nate crooked a brow at her, his fork—none of those fiddly chopsticks for him, the damn things just pissed him off—poised with a bite of broccoli just below his chin. He didn’t say anything, just waited for her to continue.

“They’d emailed the general mailbox, despite the fact that I’d been corresponding with the CEO from my own email account. There wasn’t any information, just a general ‘thanks but no thanks’ kind of message. I went to their offices, but the receptionist basically admitted that she was supposed to run me off.”

The more she talked, the madder she got. She set down the remains of her meal and leaned toward Nate as she continued.

“Just before you got here I lost another account. The Cancer Foundation.”

“The one from the party last weekend?”

She nodded tightly in response to his question. “That fundraiser made buckets of money. Twenty percent more than I’d projected.”

“And you don’t know why.”

She shook her head. “I called, but Carol was really cagey about the whole thing.”

Shoving to her feet, she paced in front of the fireplace, barely aware of Nate's eyes following her movements.

“Oliver’s secretary said it was a woman, so it’s not Barry. If not him, though, who?”

“Maybe someone new?”

Allison stopped just in front of the hearth and turned to look at Nate. “But there isn’t anyone new in town. There's me, and Barry. That’s it. The only other firm went out of business five years ago.”

“Hmm. That’s a hard one to figure, then.”

She sighed, looking at the hearth. “All that and Burt called the office again. He said he wanted to talk to me, but Deb put him off. I can’t deal with him again, not after that shit he pulled at the gala.”

Nate’s growl startled her, and she whirled to look at him. The expression on his face was downright deadly.

“It almost makes me wonder if the two things are connected.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Nate said, setting his fork down, “it seems to me that there are three options. Either Barry’s got a woman working with him, someone new’s in town and looking to snap up some big clients, or someone’s trying to sabotage you.”

“Sabotage?” Her mouth fell open.

“Someone not involved in the kind of work you do.” Nate cracked his knuckles. “Burt was pissed that you cut him out of the business with the divorce. If that fucker is trying to drag you down to get revenge, I’ll seriously consider using the bastard for a new exhaust pipe.”

Anger whirled inside her stomach, so intense that she couldn’t speak for a moment. That rat bastard. As much as she hated it, she couldn’t deny that his words made sense.

“Burt,” she spat, her hands curling into fists at her sides. “That greedy goddamn son of a bitch.”

Nate pulled his cowboy hat off and dropped it onto the empty space on the couch beside him. Ruffling his shaggy brown hair, he smiled, an expression that sent shivers down her spine.

“I almost hope it is that bastard. I owe him another right cross.”