Page 3 of Wicked Temptations

He grunted. “That’s good.”

“Yes, I’m sure we’re all worried about your time schedule,” she said, sarcasm dripping from every word. “Anyway, I wanted to tell you before she calls.”

“Why?”

“Marcus, you and I both know you love your sisters, but you tend to be a negative Ned when talking about things like weddings.”

“No one would ever call me Ned.”

“Stop that. Just, be nice when she calls.”

“I promise. Is that all you called for?”

“Mostly. But it’s not like I need a reason to call my baby boy.”

Considering that her baby boy was now six foot three and weighed over two hundred pounds, he assumed his mother was never going to give up calling him her baby. So he ignored it.

“So, it was mostly because of Viv.” Marcus knew needling his mother was a safe activity with thousands of miles between them.

“Don’t sound like that. I also want to know how work is going.”

“Going okay. Looks like Del is going to add more people, or so the rumor goes.”

“And have you been seeing anyone?”

Damn, he shouldn’t have pushed her. His mother wanted them all married off and happy, and she constantly worried about him being all alone out there in Hawaii. She acted like he didn’t have an active social life. He did. In fact, this past weekend he’d gone fishing with Adam.

Damn.

“Haven’t really had time.”

“Hmm,” was her only response.

He knew it well and understood she didn’t believe him. One thing he hated about Hawaii was being so far from his family, but it was also one of the better things. If he was still living on the mainland, both his sisters and his mother would be after him about dating. Jessika constantly tried to fix him up with the other high-powered attorneys she worked with, and it always ended in disaster. They talked down to him like he was stupid, and he got pissed off and barely paid attention to them after that.

“Listen, I have a feeling that only a few of us are going to be making it in this morning because of the call last night, so I need to get a move on.”

“You can run but you can’t hide from me, Marcus,” she said with a chuckle. “Be careful.”

“I will. Love you, Mom.”

“Love you.”

He clicked off his phone and sat down in one of the two chairs he kept on the balcony. He did need to get into work, but first, he was going to sip his Kona and watch the sun rise. The first pink and purple rays peeked out over Diamond Head signaling the true beginning of the day.

He had a few things on his plate, and he was sure there would be something on the dead body from this morning. And then there was his original worry of the morning: Tamilya. It seemed that he had been thinking of her more and more lately, and he needed to stop it. That bridge had been burned a long time ago, and there was no use rehashing what went wrong. Marcus knew there was no going back to what was, but at least they could work together. He would just have to be happy with that.

And, if he lusted after her in his dreams, he would deal with it. At some point, he would

simply have to move on.

* * *

“Dammit,”Tamilya muttered. She poked herself in the eye for the second time that morning while applying her makeup. Blinking, she grabbed a tissue and dabbed at the marks beneath her eye. Normally, it took her just a few minutes to slap on her makeup and run out the door, but today was different.

She knew the reason.Marcus Floyd.

They were the two who had been off last night, so more than likely, they would handle any calls that would come in to TFH today. Most people would think she was insane to work with her ex, but they seemed to handle it better than most. Sure, every time he said her name, she had to fight a shiver. He had one of those deep baritones that tumbled over the syllables of her name. And that made her an idiot because she had been there and done that and had been left with a broken heart when he ran out the door.

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