Page 35 of Unexpected Trouble

Chapter Thirteen

Gregory

Are you afraid you might feel something for me? The words echoed through my mind, bouncing from one side to the other until my head was a jumbled mess.

“It doesn’t matter if there is a spark there, Maggie. It will never be anything. I can’t give you what you want.”

She snorted. “What I want? You have no idea what I want, Greg!” The anger exploded from her. The frustration she had buried all those years ago, mixed with the stress of yesterday and the need to know, tumbled out in her words. She was right. I wanted to know too; I was dying to know.

Since the moment I had seen her yesterday, the thought had been like a hammer banging in my mind. I’d forced myself not to consider what it would be like—it wouldn’t be fair. But she brought it up; Maggie was pushing the issue, and damn if that didn’t turn me the hell on.

I consumed her. I pulled her breath into my lungs to sustain me. Tasted her lips to feed my soul. Memorized the feel of her body against mine in those few brief moments so I wouldn’t ever forget. Something in my chest cracked—was it the ice around my heart? No, it couldn’t be.

When we were interrupted, my common sense crashed back over me. So hard that I almost stumbled as I moved away from her. I put her behind me to protect her from whatever threat had just walked upon us.

But it wasn’t a threat; it was only her mother. The real danger to Maggie was me—it would always be me.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Valor; I was just saying goodbye to Maggie and got a little carried away.” I stepped further away from Maggie, turning slightly to speak over my shoulder. “I’ll talk to you later; thanks again for dinner, Mags.”

Maggie didn’t say anything as I began to leave, and at the last second, I glanced back and found her staring at me, her lips swollen, her hair sexily mussed, her eyes wide in astonishment. It took every ounce of trained restraint to pick up my foot and take that next step forward—away from her—and then the next. By the time I got out to my truck, I was ready to hyperventilate.

I started the truck and pulled out of the driveway, changing direction quickly like the hounds of hell were nipping at my heels. That wasn’t a fucking spark. That was a damn atomic bomb, and that woman had just blown up my entire nervous system. “Fuck!” I slammed my hand on the steering wheel as my hard-on ached like a mother.

I drove home, nixing the idea to go back a dozen times. Why had I done that? Why had I allowed her to get under my skin? Jesus, I’d need an exorcism to get her back out. When I parked at my house, I retrieved the mail and went inside, tossing it to the table without even looking at it and made a beeline for the fridge.

I cracked open a beer, guzzled half of it, and then slammed the bottle on the counter and went to my room, stripping my clothes off as I went. Two minutes later, I was under the stream of my shower; my hand wrapped tightly around my cock as I leaned back against the shower wall and recalled every fucking second of that kiss. The eruption was almost painful, and my knees shook as I finished. I bounced my head off the tile wall for a moment and then washed off. Maybe that would get her out of my system—or perhaps I would never get her out now—fuck!

* * *

Iwas at my desk the next day after lunch when Jake yelled into the main office section that we were having a meeting in the conference room in five. I leaned back and glanced at Trevor, who was seated at his desk, his fingers floating over his keyboard as he’d stopped typing and lifted his head.

“Think that is about that crap from yesterday?” Trevor asked.

“Probably. What else could it be?”

“Maybe another contract came through,” Mike added as he paused by our cubicles. Mike was our technology consultant, a fucking whiz when it came to technology of any kind, but a bit twisted when it came to matters of the heart.

Trevor frowned. “I didn’t know that we had another contract getting close to execution. Maybe we have a new potential client.”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Alex said as he joined us from his office beside my cubicle. “Hey, Blaire, you want to go grab us coffee real quick?”

“Kiss my ass, Miller. You can get your own coffee from now on.”

Alex lowered his voice, glancing down the hall. “Alice ordered a different coffeemaker yesterday. Should be here tomorrow.”

“Thank god!” Mike commented as Harvey walked past and chuckled.

“You guys and your caffeine addictions.”

I stood, staring after Harvey. “Hey, watch it, Harv. You’re a little outnumbered here.”

“I’ll take my green drink any day.”

Trevor gagged. “That shit is nasty. He made me one once on a bet. I almost barfed after the first sip, but he made me drink the whole damn thing. I felt sick for hours.”

We all laughed as we gathered our notebooks and made our way to the conference room. Inside, we got seated around the table as we debated the merits of coffee versus green juice. There was no way Harv was going to win this one.

I heard Alice speaking to someone in the lobby, and then Jake passed the door. A few minutes later, Jake stepped in, Alice behind him, and trailing the group was Maggie.

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