Page 80 of His Own Heaven

“Nineteen.”

“And the woman?”

“Thirty-four,” he said, remembering. “Her name was Christine. She made me feel special.” He huffed a sardonic laugh. “She made me feel a lot of things.”

“Love?”

“I thought so at the time, so when I discovered I wasn’t the only bloke she was screwing, I didn’t handle it well.”

“What did you do?”

“I made an absolute arse of myself,” he said, grimacing at the memory. “I got shit-face drunk and serenaded her from outside her apartment building at two in the morning. By the time the cops showed up to tell me off I’d already broken out in the worst case of hives I’ve ever had in my life and had to be taken to hospital.” When he glanced at Lucy she had both hands clamped over her mouth and her eyes were as big as saucers. Toby chuckled and shook his head. “It’s okay. You can laugh.”

Loud peels of laughter erupted out her, filling the cab of his truck, and she clutched her sides as though trying to stop them from splitting open. It would have been demoralising if she hadn’t sounded so free and easy and open.

And if he didn’t have eight siblings who took great delight in reminding him of his folly from time to time. He hoped introducing them to Lucy would put those times to rest for good, but knowing his luck it would all blow up in his face.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Well, I guess that explains where your rule about sleeping with your employees comes from,” she said, her laughter dying down to little more than a giggle.

Which reminded him… “And what about your rule about sleeping with the boss? You never did say why you left your old job.”

Her giggle died and she made a weird face—half disgusted, half bemused—and Toby had a hunch he wasn’t going to like whatever she had to tell him.

“Sure I did,” Lucy said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, avoiding his gaze. “In the interview.”

Toby narrowed his eyes but kept them on the road. “No, you spun me a line of bullshit about wanting a change of pace and a new challenge. Out of all the questions I asked, that was the only one you dodged.”

He heard her sigh and when he glanced at her, she was staring at him, her gaze shrewd. “If you knew I was lying, why did you hire me?”

“Because you were the best person for the job.” A fact he was even more certain of now he’d seen what she could achieve in just one week. “I figured you’d tell me in your own time, and even if you didn’t… well, your references all checked out so I wasn’t overly concerned. Everyone has secrets, Lucy.”

She was quiet for a long moment, then shook her head and said, “I don’t want to keep secrets from you.”

Warmth flooded through him, settled comfortably in his chest. “I’d kiss you for that but I can’t without taking my eyes off the road for an unhealthy period of time.” The sound of her seat belt unbuckling made his adrenaline spike. “What the hell are you doing?”

But then she slid across the bench seat to the middle and fastened the seat belt she found there—right beside him—and rested her head on his shoulder, her hand on his thigh.

Lucy poked at the small rip in Toby’s jeans, and even though her voice was soft it was underscored with the strength of steel. “I left because my boss—a man I’d considered my friend, and not just the kind with benefits—used me in the worst way possible.”

A quick glance down revealed a deep frown cutting grooves across Lucy’s forehead, and Toby was damned if he could tell what she was feeling. Perhaps she didn’t want to talk about it, perhaps she wasn’t ready. And that was okay. He wasn’t going anywhere.

“You don’t have to tell me right now if you don’t want to,” he said. “We have all the time in the world to learn about each other.”

But Lucy shook her head. “No, I want to tell you. I think we need to be open with each other from the start, otherwise, what’s the point? I’m just not sure how to put it in words without wanting to hit something. Or someone.”

Toby wasn’t sure how to respond to that so he reverted to his default setting and said nothing at all.

Thankfully, Lucy filled the void. “My boss was a man named Steven Rossi. I’d worked for the company for almost ten years when Steven bought it out and renamed it VIP Solutions. He was energetic and clever and sexy. Not in the ripped-for-her-pleasure cover model way, but there was just something about him, even if it wasn’t obvious at first.” She snorted. “He was over fifty, a little soft around the middle and shaved his head because he was balding, but,”—she sighed—“he was so tall.”

Toby chuckled. “And you do like tall men.”

“Ilovetall men.” When Toby laughed again, she grinned up at him. “Hey, you try being an almost six foot tall woman. I’m as tall as if not taller than most men, and I’ve been told that makes me ‘intimidating’ and ‘aggressive’ and ‘scary as fuck’.”

“And yet you wore five inch stilettos to speed dating last Friday night,” Toby said, one brow raised.

Lucy shrugged and flashed an impish grin. “Sometimes being intimidating works in my favour.” She dragged her fingernail over Toby’s bicep and sighed appreciatively, so of course he had to flex the muscle and show off for his woman. He smirked when her eyes glazed over and she pinched her bottom lip between her teeth. “Helps weed out the weak from the strong,” she said.

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