Sweet Rivalry (1001 Dark Nights)(14)

“Never.” His grin is fast and the gleam in his eyes tells me he’s more than ready.

Needing to break that magnetic hold he seems to have on me, I glance toward the window––to the daylight outside. “Time to get to work,” I mutter and when he doesn’t respond, I glance back to him to see if he heard me. And his eyes are still on mine but his hands are starting to roll up the cuff of one of his shirtsleeves. “Better roll them up really high. It’s about to get real hot for you with me back in town.”

“I can take the heat just fine, Denton.” His laugh is loud and pulls on my own smile to widen. “Thank you for your concern but it’s not needed. I happen to be working double duty today. Superhero and badass estimator all in one.”

“Oh, please.” I roll my eyes as his fingers turn up his cuff. “As if.”

“I’m dead serious. As a matter of fact, I happened to have the buttons of my sleeve pulled right off when I caught a damsel in distress earlier today. She debuttoned it when I saved her from a certain fall to her death.”

“A fall to her death?” I laugh. Damn him for making me want to keep talking.

“It was perilous. Dirt and high heels are a treacherous combination. It says so right here in my superhero manual. There’s a whole chapter on it. ‘Damsels in Heels’ I think is its title.”

“I’m not a damsel, I don’t need…” My voice fades off when my eyes flash down to where his fingers are folding back the cuff on his right arm. Because holy shit, I see ink.

A lot of colorful ink.

For the love of God, he has tattoos.

And not just a simple, one-off tattoo, but rather ink from his wrist on up to his flexing forearm and beyond where I can’t see.

How did I not notice the shadow of ink beneath his dress shirt?

And when in the hell did preppy-boy Ryder Rodgers transform into that mythical guy who hits every single one of my buttons?

For a moment, I’m rendered incoherent. It’s like I know him but know nothing about him…and now with this new discovery, he just became ten times hotter. Superficial? Yes. My reality? Definitely. And then of course I realize I was midsentence and can’t even remember the comeback that was on my tongue.

Shit. That’s twice in a single conversation he’s done that to me.

But there were tattoos. I’m ink-struck. Can you blame me?

“You don’t need what?” he prompts as his hands falter on his shirt cuff and bring me back to the present.

My gaze slowly lifts to meet the humor swimming in his. He’s caught me looking. First at his beard and now at his tattoos. So much for being inconspicuous and acting unaffected.

I open my mouth and then close it, not sure how to respond because I sure as hell am not a damsel in distress but I’m definitely acting like the helpless heroine right now.

The door to the office sounds off and voices follow, alerting us some of the others are back from lunch.

I straighten my shoulders and stiffen my spine. “I am not a damsel,” I repeat with a little less conviction than before. “I don’t need to be saved, by you or anyone else.”

“So I’ve learned.” He starts to walk toward his desk and then stops and looks back at me. “A princess may not need to be saved, but she sure as shit needs to take a ride on that unicorn she’s found every once in a while. He’ll remind her she needs to live instead of staying locked up tight in that tower of hers.”

And with that, he turns his back to me again and walks out of the room while I’m left staring after him, pretending to the others like there’s nothing between Ryder and me, all the while wondering what in the hell he meant by it.





Chapter Seven



Harper




“From the information we’ve been given, most of us are assuming it’s some type of government facility. FBI headquarters. West Coast operations hub. Definitely something to do with the government and quite possibly Homeland Security.”

“Hence the need for the secrecy,” my boss concludes in that resonating tone of his.

“It’s only a theory.” I walk toward the window of the extended-stay room in the hotel we’ve all been placed in and watch the people on the street below hustling to wherever they are going. It hits me how much I miss my home. Well, my home, but no longer my city.

“No, it makes complete sense. There were rumors late last year that the land had been acquired for the Department of Defense.” He pauses as I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Tell me you’ll win this job, Harper.”

I nod my head knowing he can’t me see through the line but hate that for the first time in what feels like forever, I’m not one hundred percent certain when I give him my answer. Ryder’s affected me when I can’t let him affect me. “That’s the plan.”

“You’re a woman who’s made some huge promises, and I’m counting on you to deliver on them.”

I close my eyes for a moment and cringe at the deal I made with him. My assurance I could get him this project in turn for the job. A Hail Mary on my part to get my feet back in the water again.

“I’ll deliver, Wade. No worries there.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

But when I hang up a few minutes later, I feel no more at ease with my promise than the first time I said it.