Book 3 in The Steele Brothers Series
“Figures!” Gabriella muttered as she stepped out of her rental car. Looking around, she had to be impressed with the scale of the building. It was one of the largest in the area and, by far, the most luxurious. But the boom in Seattle’s corporate district didn’t interest her. Not in any way, she told herself firmly.
She was here for one reason and one reason only. Get the signature, get back into her rental car and fly home. Toby, her fiancé, would never know about Teague Steele. No one in Boston could ever know! This was her secret, her one stupid moment of madness.
Teague was the biggest mistake she’d ever made. As soon as their…time together had come to an end, she’d realized how stupid she’d been that weekend.
Unfortunately, her weekend fling had turned into a bigger mistake than she’d thought possible. Teague might be gorgeous, funny, interesting, fascinating to talk to and…okay, yeah, he was beyond incredible in bed. But he wasn’t the kind of man she needed in her life. He was rough, obnoxious, arrogant, and didn’t listen to her needs adequately. He was just irritatingly sure that he knew what was right for her. For them.
Well he wasn’t right! He’d been shockingly wrong!
She’d been wrong to…sew her wild oats with a man like Teague Steele. Stupid and wrong and just…stupid!
Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down, reminding herself that everyone made stupid mistakes that they regretted. She squared her shoulders, breathing in and out to find that inner peace that she’d struggled so hard over the past year to achieve.
It had been like that from the first moment she’d met Teague Steele. The racing heart, the crazy emotions, the insane actions…definitely not the actions of a woman with an intelligent and cautious head on her shoulders. Teague made her crazy. End of story.
Toby understood her. Toby was sweet and kind and so considerate, he made her feel respected and cared for. Toby was her future. Teague Steele, with all of his charm and devastating smiles and that amazing way he had of…well…
She shook her head and pushed thoughts of THAT out of her mind. THAT was irrelevant now. Teague was her past. Toby was the man she needed for her future. Teague was definitely not her future. Not in any way.
And as soon as she got his signature on these papers, she could put him out of her mind and move on with her life. Back to Toby.
Taking another deep, cleansing breath, she carefully stepped away from the relative security of her rental car, not exactly sure where to look, but determined to find the man. Tucking the brown envelope under her arm, she headed towards the only trailer on the construction site, hoping she appeared more confident than she felt. From past experience, she knew that the trailers on a work site usually housed the construction managers and, if the person were a good site manager, they would know where all of the employees on the site were at any given time.
She had to carefully step over the loose boards that had been laid down over the mud as a sort of pathway but the boards had been well used over the years and were barely better than the thick mud that seemed to surround every work site. Mud and dust. Her beautiful, black Prada pumps were not designed to be maneuvering around mud clumps, she thought with derision and frustration.
When she reached the steps leading up to the trailer, she sighed with relief when she’d arrived with her lovely shoes unsullied.
Stepping into the well-lit and surprisingly clean trailer, she was relieved with the warm interior. A smiling brunette woman with sparkling blue eyes looked up. “Hi! Can I help you?” she asked.
Gabriella returned the smile, thankful to find a friendly face. “I’m looking for Teague Steele. Do you have any idea where he might be?”
“Oh my!” the vivacious brunette laughed. “He could be just about anywhere.”
Gabriella’s smile brightened, trying to hide her impatience. So much for a good construction manager knowing where all of his or her men were on any particular day!
“Is there any way to get in contact with him? This is pretty important.”
The brunette pushed away from her desk, revealing an extremely round, very pregnant belly. “Sure!” she said and pushed herself out of her chair.
Gabriella immediately felt bad for making a pregnant woman get out of her chair. “Don’t…!” she started to say, but the brunette woman shook her head, waving away her concern. “Oh, don’t worry. My doctor said to walk as much as possible now, to keep the blood flowing, so this is good for me.”
Gabriella still cringed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, feeling truly horrible as the woman waddled over to the window where a radio was charging. She lifted the walkie-talkie up and pressed the side button. “Teague? You have a visitor,” she called out.
There was a bit of static on the line before that deep, sinfully sexy voice came back. “Who is it?”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough time for Gabriella to brace herself for its impact. Darn it! She’d warned herself to be careful and here she was, getting all googly just hearing his voice. She straightened her shoulders, refusing to acknowledge that her entire body was trembling simply because she’d heard one man’s voice. It simply wasn’t happening and she was only imagining her response because of…well, she shouldn’t think back to that time…to the way he would….
Shaking her head to help banish those memories, she inhaled a revitalizing breath and straightened her shoulders. Gabriella was cool and calm, relaxed and unaffected.
This kind of reaction was exactly why she needed Toby! Her fiancé definitely didn’t make her crazy like this! She never trembled around Toby! She was calm and collected, sophisticated. What’s more, she never, ever, lost her head. She never worried that she’d say or do something silly or stupid. She never laughed at inappropriate comments or blushed like a silly schoolgirl from just a wicked glance. Those were all reactions she’d eliminated from her life; reactions that Teague generated.
Troy was her future. Not Teague!
The friendly woman turned to Gabriella, eyebrows raised in question.
Gabriella hesitated, not sure if she should give her name. After the way they’d left each other, he might not talk with her again.
“Um…just tell him that Gabriella Hicks is here to speak with him,” she said softly, her confidence waning.
Shoot! She’d worn her best shoes and her most expensive suit for this meeting, needing all the confidence she could muster in order to deal with Teague Steele. But three words, even garbled by the radio transmission, and she was a quivering mess of nerves. Darn it! He’d always done this to her! From the first moment she’d seen the man in that stupid hotel bar, the man had flummoxed her! He’d twisted her up in so many ways, driven her crazier than she’d thought possible.
It had been a year! A whole year since she’d heard that voice, seen the man and still, just his voice made her stomach clench with that…
No! Absolutely not, she told herself firmly and squared her shoulders. She would not give in! She was stronger than this! She could rise above the crazy sensations the man caused her to feel!
“Gabriella Hicks, honey,” the woman repeated into the radio.
Gabriella’s fist clenched with jealous fury when the brunette woman used the endearment. Were this woman and Teague…was that his baby? Gabriella couldn’t believe the hatred that rushed through her mind at the possibility. It took her a long moment to realize that there was an equally long pause from the radio. Even Ms. Bubbly was looking at the radio as if Teague were being rude.
But then the man did something even more outrageous. “Tell my wife,” he emphasized that word so there could be no mistake, “that I’ll meet her at the front of the building in five minutes.”
Gabriella gulped, her face burning as Ms. Bubbly’s mouth fell open. Her head spun back to Gabriella, then lower, obviously looking for a wedding band.
It wasn’t there. Gabriella had taken it off the day she’d walked away from Teague. A sick feeling entered her stomach but she fought for control. With her chin going up a notch, she banked her anger and forced herself to continue smiling. “Where would the front be?” she asked, as politely as possible. The man was horrible, she thought, with an anger that was so intense, she could barely see straight.
But these kinds of reactions had always been the norm when it came to Teague Steele. Everything about the man made her feel raw, exposed. Vulnerable! Her emotions were never mild. When she was around the man, her feelings were too powerful. Too intense.
The brunette pointed towards the entrance, but it was a weak gesture, diminished because of her shock.
Gabriella had no idea where the other woman was pointing, but she nodded her head in thanks and stepped back out into the cold, cloudy afternoon. Once she was clear of that ridiculous excuse for a pathway, she carefully made her way towards what looked like an area that would eventually be an elegant entrance to the building. Assuming that was what Teague had meant, she stepped over puddles of mud and gravel, used whatever means possible to protect her shoes from any kind of damage and carefully avoided all large machinery. It was loud out here, with jackhammers and cranes, men calling out to one another, as well as other construction sounds, all of it making her extra anxious.
Darn it, she should have just hired someone to deliver these stupid papers to Teague! She shouldn’t be here. But she’d needed to see him one last time. Why, she had no idea. Maybe to apologize. Maybe to get him to understand why she’d had to leave him. Maybe just to prove to herself that she was over him.
Regardless of the reason, she’d been wrong. Dead wrong!
But she was here now and she was determined to close this chapter on her life once and for all. She had a sixty thousand dollar Valentino wedding dress hanging in her apartment, a fabulous fiancé waiting for her return and a very pretty diamond engagement ring on her finger. No, it wasn’t as beautiful as the one that Teague had given her on that crazy afternoon. But it was very elegant and….
Oh, who was she kidding? She liked Teague’s ring better but it was over between them! It didn’t matter which engagement ring she liked more. She was marrying Toby! She had a good future with Toby! He wanted kids and a family. He was calm and quiet and he never inspired crazy emotions within her which made her do stupid things that she’d later regret.
Like marrying a man who was so completely wrong for what she wanted for her future. What she needed for her future.
Teague couldn’t give her that. He wasn’t the man for her. Which was why she was here now, determined to fix the mistake she’d made a year ago.
Stepping out of the temporary office, she made her way back across the slightly warped boards, heading towards the “entrance” to the building under construction. It was a more difficult trek this time, since her knees were wobbly, and she was having more than a little trouble breathing, but she wasn’t going to reveal any of that to the man waiting for her. She would be strong, competent, and cool as a cucumber. She would wow him with her coolness. She would perplex him with her sophistication and show him how wrong they were for each other.
She had no idea what his reaction to her presence might be, but she wasn’t going to go all googly-eyed like she had when she’d first seen him. That hadn’t been her true self. The woman she was now, this sophisticated woman with a good job and a steady future…this was the real Gabriella Hicks.
“Coming to celebrate our anniversary, darlin’?”
Gabriella froze. That voice! It was a thousand times more potent in real life than through a crackling radio. Her stomach clenched and her toes curled up in her beautiful Prada pumps. Every muscle in her body tensed as sexual awareness surged through her body like a streak of white hot lava.
She looked up slowly, her eyes taking in the heavy, steel-toed work boots, the jeans with the mud on the bottom edge, long, long legs and…she rushed passed the middle part of him, unwilling to acknowledge the lean hips and impossibly broad shoulders, and forced her eyes to focus only on his face.
But even that face was startling. His eyes, so impossibly green she could even see the color from this distance, stared back at her, and she knew! She knew he was remembering all of those days. Oh, and the nights! Those frantic, crazy, insane days and nights when they couldn’t get enough of each other.
She hadn’t felt anything like that since she’d left him.
Her mouth opened slightly, her breath caught in her throat, and every sense in her system reacted to the man, to the memory of the way he could make her feel. Not just in bed, but oh yeah, the man was an expert there! But also out of bed. She’d laughed! Darn it, the man could make her laugh! About anything and everything. She’d laughed so hard, she’d made a fool of herself!
And they’d always been touching. Thinking back to those crazy days, she remembered how she’d always needed to be touching him, craving that connection with him. Sometimes it was only a light touch or wanting to hold his hand while they walked down the street. And other times, she’d needed so much more, wanting her whole body plastered against his with nothing in between to hinder that touch.
She shook herself mentally and pulled her mind away from those memories. She never wanted to feel that way again! Teague was so wrong for her! So completely wrong!
“Teague,” she offered as greeting with a slight nod of her head. It was the best she could do. Anything more, and she might…she might just break down and beg him to…to…
Teague couldn’t believe that Gabby was here. His thumb rubbed against the gold band on his finger as he stared at her, stunned by her presence and more affected than he wanted to be.
Her soft, blond hair was no longer flying around her shoulders like a golden halo. It was all caught up in some horrible clip and twirled on the back of her head. And she was wearing more makeup than he’d ever seen her wearing before. She looked…made up. He preferred the wild hair and the fresh face, the laughing eyes and the sensuous body next to his. He’d liked the way she would bite her lip when he did something to make her tremble, or the way his hands could dive into her soft hair, his fingers tangling in those silky locks as his body throbbed with the need to possess her, to make her cry out his name as she released all of those stuffy inhibitions that made her spine stiffen. There hadn’t been anything stiff or tense when he’d finished with her.
Damn, his body hardened as he remembered the way she would curl into his side, her body limp and her voice nearly spent after she’d screamed her pleasure.
That stiff, ugly suit did nothing for her incredible figure. Even her makeup was hiding those exotic eyes. And whatever she’d done with her lipstick made her lips look…wrong.
Those violet eyes had flashed desire at him and those wide lips were normally full and laughing. She’d been so beautiful a year ago that he’d felt his body tighten with anticipation even as they’d stared at each other across the bar. No one had existed for him after he’d seen her. He’d ignored all of his responsibilities, calling in his brother Logan to take over the meetings he’d gone to Las Vegas to handle. He’d completely dismissed his entire carefully planned out schedule so that he could spend more time with Gabby. Never before and never since had any woman caused him to ignore his responsibilities like Gabby had during that trip.
Vegas! He hated that town now.
After a whirlwind romance where he’d spent most of his time in bed with Gabby, well, except for the trip to the wedding chapel where they’d gotten married, he’d made plans in his mind. A new house, kids, Gabby laughing by his side until they grew old and too weak to make love any longer. He’d just hold her hand when that time came.
He’d been such a romantic sap! All the stupid fantasies of being with Gabby, all the plans and hopes, had been for nothing.
She’d left him! Damn it, she’d left him and said he wasn’t the kind of man she wanted for her future. She’d said their marriage had been a crazy, impulsive mistake!
At the end of their long weekend together, she’d just walked away. No explanation, no discussion. Nothing at all. Just her gorgeous derriere hurrying away, her soft, blond hair whipping around her head, teasing him. Taunting him as he’d stood on the sidewalk in stunned surprise. At the time, he’d been too shocked to go after her. And then, when he’d finally been able to move, the anger had surged. Anger laced with confusion because he had no idea where to find her, to discover why the beautiful woman who had come apart time after time in his arms over the long weekend, had simply up and left.
Sure, she’d sent him a letter explaining things. But that letter had been a load of crap. It hadn’t explained anything to his satisfaction, but she’d told him very plainly that things were over.
“You look different,” he commented, trying to calm his raging temper. Every impulse inside of him was telling him to toss her over his shoulder, carry her to his bed and keep her there until she came to her senses.
Instead, he swung around and headed back to work. “What do you want, Gabby?” he asked as he headed back into the building again. He had work to do and he didn’t have time for another burst of her regrets or explanations.
Gabriella stared, stunned, as he simply walked away. He wasn’t even going to greet her? How rude!
But what could she expect from a barbarian like Teague Steele? He was six feet, three inches of rude, obnoxious sex appeal with no redeeming qualities! He’d never made things easy for her, why had she expected today to be any different?
Rushing after him, she wanted to pick up one of the clumps of mud and throw it at his back, her fury at his rude behavior making her nuts and…
NO!
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment, regaining her composure and her sense of calm. She would not turn into that nutty woman again. She would be cool and composed, elegant and sophisticated. Words he didn’t understand, but they represented who she truly was as a person. He wouldn’t know that because…well, he’d only seen the crazy side of her that weekend in Vegas. He’d only known the woman who couldn’t get enough of…and who…
Enough!
He wouldn’t make her do crazy things! Not anymore! Been there, done that, got the memories that wouldn’t leave her alone.
Opening her eyes, she glared at his back, wishing she had the skills to…
Stop it! She was a lady! She did not attack men, no matter how obnoxious or rude they might be.
Pressing forward, she followed after him with as much dignity as the situation allowed, no longer concerned with her shoes as much as just wanting to punch the man. “Teague! Don’t you dare walk away from me!”
He continued walking, his broad shoulders such a delicious target that it was hard to resist running over to punch him. “Teague!”
He still didn’t stop, but he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Why not? You did it. Why can’t I?”
She swallowed past the lump his words caused. She probably deserved that, Gabriella thought. It still didn’t excuse his rudeness, but…yeah, that was a good jab. “That was different and you know it!”
He stopped, looking up at the ceiling as if checking something, and he wrote on his clipboard. “Darlin’, how the hell can you say it is different? Simply because you were the one doing the walking last time?” He scoffed as he looked down at her. “Honey, you should be quite familiar with payback by now.”
Gabriella’s mouth fell open at that comment and she couldn’t stop the heat that flooded her cheeks and neck. Payback! Of all the…he was referring to the time that she’d…and then he’d…