Gray
The next day, I had reason to question my sanity. For someone who didn’t do relationships or commitment, I was letting a certain woman take up a lot of my thoughts. But then again, I was experiencing a lot of firsts with Tessa.
The first time a client was tying me up in knots.
I didn’t mind bringing work home with me, thinking about a job while I sat on the couch watching one of Ash’s hockey games. Puzzling out solutions to fit a client’s needs while I worked out at the gym. Lying in bed going through a punch list for a job while I waited for sleep to overtake me.
What was happening with Tessa was different. Sure it was the same in the sense that Tessa’s job was on my mind while I watched a game and worked out, but it wasn’t measurements or floor plans that ran through my head. No, it was Tessa, the woman, who was taking up space in my brain. Lying in bed, it wasn’t Tessa’s job that kept me awake at night. It was Tessa…and her lips on mine. And imagining the feel of her mouth around my cock. Her hands scraping over my shoulders. The taste of her. The noises she made when I made her come.
And if it stopped there, maybe I could handle it. Maybe. But it didn’t. Because I also couldn’t get her scars out of my mind. No. Not her scars. It was knowing that she’d been through a horrible accident and fought her way back. That way she’d tipped up her chin at me in challenge, in defiance, the first night we met. I could picture her doing that sitting in the hospital. Like, okay life, you may have knocked me back, but you can’t stop me. Something about her got to me like a punch in the gut.
I’d spent my whole adult life avoiding emotional entanglements. I’d built walls around my heart so thick they were impenetrable. Unscalable. Walls I started building before I was five. They’d stood strong for almost three decades.
Tessa was the first woman I couldn’t keep out.
She was the first woman I didn’t want to keep out. I knew this woman. Was learning new things about her every day. And the more I learned, the more I liked her. The more I respected her strength. Her kindness. Her quirkiness. I’d never really done this before.
Up until now sex was a release. Purely physical. An activity between two consenting adults who just want to get off. Not this time. Not even close. Watching Tessa come and the feel of her hands and mouth on me, something grabbed me in the chest and tossed me around. And all with my pants on.
I could only imagine what it would be like to be inside her. By that I meant, that’s exactly what I’d been doing all week instead of sleeping. Imagining making love to Tessa. It was a piss-poor move for a guy trying win a thousand dollar bet with his brothers. Normally I’d say my dick didn’t care. But for the first time…pretty sure my heart was taking the lead on this project.
I’d never been in love before. But I’d had a front row seat while Beck fell head-over-heels for Sam. I had a feeling I was falling for Tessa Madigan. A little more every day.
You’d think I’d have learned my lesson with the grown-ups in my life when I was young. I’d managed to avoid letting anyone close enough to hurt me my whole adult life. So what in the hell was I doing putting myself in such a precarious position now? Couldn’t help it.
Not after watching Tessa, obviously in physical pain, suck it up and act like everything was fine. She and Sully spent an hour visiting with the patients at the rehab facility. Seeing the smiles on their faces—I got it. I got why it was so important to her. Because it was important to the patients. It made a difference. Sully even provided incentive for one teenaged girl to walk between the parallel bars when she’d been too frustrated to keep going.
I reached out and rang Tessa’s doorbell.
“Gray! What are you doing here?” Tessa stood in the doorway, Sully in her arms, her face softly lit by the porch light.
“I know you stocked up microwave meals to get through your reno, and you’ve probably been dreaming of heating up that frozen turkey, gravy, and succotash delight, but I brought you a pizza in case you were still hurting too much.” I smiled and held up the box, trying to tempt her.
“Too much to push the buttons on the microwave?” Her gaze ping-ponged between my face and the pizza, before sticking with the pizza. “You got it from That’s Amore? I love their pizza.”
“I know.” I could tell. If she looked at me the way she was looking at the pizza in my hand, I’d have already jumped her. “I saw the pizza box in your recycling when I was here last week. I took a chance and ordered the Tessa Madigan special.”
That got her eyes back on me. “You did? So you’ve got a pepperoni, onion, and bacon pizza in that box?”
“That’s what I’m saying.” I nodded at her. Before I could say another word, she grabbed me by the placket of my button-down shirt and pulled me in.
I lifted the plastic bag in my other hand. “So, I didn’t need to bring a pint of coffee toffee ice cream and some muscle cream that Ash said the Roughnecks trainer uses on the players and is rumored to work miracles?”
“Holy cow, you were already my hero for bringing my favorite pizza.” She blinked up at me, sucking in a breath so deep, I watched her breasts lift and fall. Nice. “Bringing my favorite pint of coffee toffee and cream because I’m sore too? I’ll nominate you for man of the year, especially if the cream is any good. I’m still a little sore.”
“The team swears it works on more than muscles. Apparently they slather it on bone bruises, contusions, and even—other places—and it works miracles. I thought with it still raining, maybe it could help.”
“Thank you, Gray.” Her eyes glowed up at me and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from volunteering to help her apply the cream that very second.
Sully barked once for my attention and happily gave me a proper slobbery, excited greeting once Tessa put him on the ground.
“Hey, big guy.”
“Let me toss the ice cream in the freezer and then we can eat in the family room.” She took the grocery bag and disappeared into the temporary kitchen while Sully and I set up the pizza in front of the TV.
“Tessa, you good if we catch some of Ash’s game while we eat?” I called, only to turn and find she’d already reentered the room. “Sorry. Thought—”
She smiled and handed me napkins and a container of hot pepper flakes. “That’s fine. Fair warning, I’m not a hockey fan.”
“Don’t let Ash hear that.” I shook my head in warning. “He’ll make it his mission in life to convert you. Everyone who knows Ash ends up a hockey fan.”
“I don’t have anything against hockey.” She shrugged as she slid two pieces of pizza on a plate and passed it to me, before serving herself. “I was into academics and never played sports. Want something to drink? I have bottled water and chocolate milk.”
“Gosh, that’s a tough choice. Pizza and chocolate milk? I think I’ll go with water. You sit. I’ll grab them.”
“Water’s in the door in the fridge. And I’ll have you know, chocolate milk goes with everything,” she called to my back, which meant I could grimace at the idea of chocolate and pepperoni and onion. “But I’ll take a water too.”
For the next hour we sat on her couch eating pizza, watching hockey, and talking, with Sully curled up on his bed in the corner. We stuck to safe topics like local restaurants we enjoyed, music, design, we even touched a bit on Tessa’s reno. Safe topics. Funny that Tessa’s reno was considered a safe topic now. It seemed not too long ago that topic used to end up in fireworks.
I had questions about her injury and rehab and Paul—but it felt too good, the place we were in right now. Getting along with Tessa was still so new. Only since I presented her the kitchen plans…and since she came to my apartment. Since she came in my apartment.
“Okay, Gray, I’m sitting here with a dilemma.” Tessa sat on the opposite end of the couch biting her lip and frowning.
Well, crap. Dilemmas usually involved saying “no” to something. Which was fine. It wasn’t like I brought the pizza, ice cream, and muscle salve to try to get into Tessa’s bed. Although, if I were being completely honest, while I didn’t bring that stuff to get into Tessa’s bed, the longer I’d sat here with her—listening to her, watching her, smelling her soft perfume—it might have crossed my mind that it could end up there.
“Here’s my dilemma: I would love to ask you for a massage with the muscle cream…”
“And you’re afraid I’ll take advantage of the situation and try to turn it into sex?” Time to be a nice guy, asshole.
“No. I’m afraid you won’t.”
“Damn. You’re like a damsel in distress with that dilemma.” I felt my lips quirk into a smile.
“Pretty much,” she said.
“So, I’d almost be rescuing you by having sex with you.”
“That’s exactly what you’d be doing.” She smiled at me, but then turned serious. “But—since I’m a modern woman—I promise to rescue you back one day. When you need it. I’ll owe you. If that works for you…”
“Oh, it works. In fact…let’s go. I’ll take Sully out to take care of business, while you go get naked on your bed.”
Damn, she blushed. “I’ll just clean up the—”
“Tessa, I know how to put pizza away. I got it.”
“Okay. One last thing… I left you a note on the fridge.”
I watched her walk down the hallway, before checking the note. It was short and sweet and left me grinning:
You’re fired. Contessa I. Madigan.
Opening the back door in the empty kitchen for Sully to do his thing, I stepped out and stood on the patio while the dog sniffed around the perimeter of the fence. Guard duty, looked like. Any other night, I’d be impressed that he took his job so seriously, but not when I had Tessa getting naked in her bedroom.
“Sully, boy, do your thing,” I called over to him.
Instead, he turned and sat in the bushes and stared at me. Dude.
“Look, buddy, I’m about to make your mistress feel very good. Very, very good if I have any say about it.” He still sat there staring at me. I stared back. “You’ve got to get with the program here, Sul. Here’s what you’re missing. If I make Tessa feel very good, that makes her happier. Happier people give more treats… See how that works out for you?”
“Hey! Gray!” I ran my gaze down the back of the house until I saw an open window and a slim figure in the shadowed inside. “Why are you picking right now to have a heart-to-heart talk with my dog?”
“He’s not cooperating, that’s why.”
“Sully, potty!”
Guess who did his business?
“Gray!” Tessa called from the window again. “Come in here and do me!”