She eyed her overcrowded desk and sighed. She and Cruz switched off months being in charge of the paperwork that they both hated: the receivables, the payables, the calendar, the promotion and publicity work that had to be done to keep new business flowing. Switching off kept them sane, but more important, it kept them from killing each other. But she wished it were Cruz’s turn now.
Or that her life was light and carefree enough that she could say screw it to the work and go seek her pleasure. Her phone rang, interrupting the thought.
“I’m starving,” Jade said. “And I need to get out of here before I kill any penis-carrying humans. Lunch?”
“Yes, if it has broccoli in it.”
“You eat something bad again? You need some self-control, Lilah. What did you get into?”
Lilah sighed. “Everything.”
“Be there in ten.”
Brady surfaced after two hours inside the engine compartment of the Bell 47 and realized Twinkles wasn’t in his usual sunspot. He walked around the Bell, the building, searching the entire area, but couldn’t find him. Gut tight, he entered Belle Haven and found Dell behind the receptionist’s desk looking hassled.
“Can’t figure out her stupid system,” Dell complained. “The woman runs this place tighter than a frigging ship, but no one else knows a damn thing-”
“The dog,” Brady said. “You see him?”
Dell lifted his head, eyes dazed. “Man, I’ve seen fifty today alone. Maybe a hundred million and fifty.”
Brady shook his head. “My dog. Twinkles,” he corrected, saying the name out loud for the first time with a grimace. “He was outside with me while I was working and now he’s gone. Have you seen him?”
Dell had gone brows up when Brady said “my dog,” but without another word, he came out from behind Jade’s desk. “Let’s look outside.”
“I did.”
But Dell went outside anyway and started walking the areas that Brady already had, calling for the dog.
Brady did the same, moving around the building. He was at the horse pens, half afraid to look inside in case he found a squished dog, when he heard Dell yelling for him. He ran toward Dell’s voice and ended up once again in front of the Bell 47.
“In here,” Dell called out from inside the chopper.
Twinkles was on the pilot seat.
Which he’d chewed to shreds.
When he saw Brady, he thumped his tail happily and gave one loud “arf!”
“Are you kidding me?” Brady asked him, not wanting to analyze the relief making his legs weak. “You can’t jump up onto the couch or get up on the bed without using the chest as a ladder, but you can get onto that chair and chew the hell out of it?”
Twinkles hopped down and sat on his left boot, gazing up at him adoringly.
“Cute,” Dell said.
“Not cute. He just ate five hundred bucks’ worth of leather.”
“Shouldn’t have let him be alone in here,” Dell pointed out.
“Let him? I don’t ‘let’ him do anything. He’s utterly untrainable.”
Dell grinned. “You know what Adam would say, right? He’d say it’s you, that you’re untrainable. And why are you always so on edge about the little guy, anyway? He’s a dog. A damn good one, too.” He ruffled Twinkles’s head fondly. “You just have to be the boss of him, that’s all. Be firm.” He put a finger in Twinkles’s face. “No more chewing.”
Twinkles slid to the floor and exposed his belly to be scratched.
Brady shook his head.
“Oh, like you wouldn’t do the same if you could.” Dell crouched down and obligingly scratched Twinkles’s belly.
“And why hasn’t Lilah found him a home yet?” Brady wanted to know, staring grimly at the destroyed seat.
“Probably because she’s having fun messing with you.” Dell let out a laugh at the look on Brady’s face. “Guess you don’t find this as funny as I do.”
“Not so much, no. Though why I care when it’s your dime, I have no idea.”
Still chuckling, Dell pulled out his cell phone, speed-dialed a number, and put the phone on speaker. A woman answered with a professionally irritated tone: “What do you need now?”
“Jade,” Dell said.
“Nope, it’s the Easter Bunny. And your keys are on your desk.”
Dell shook his head. “Now darlin’, I don’t always call you just because I’ve lost my keys.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right. You wallet’s on your desk, too. As for your little black book, you’re on your own with that one, Dr. Flirt. I’m at lunch.”
Dell sighed. “What did we say about you and the whole power-play thing?”
“That it’s good for your ego to have at least one woman in your life that you can’t flash a smile at and have them drop their panties?”
Dell grinned. “I really like it when you say ‘panties.’ And for the record, I knew where my keys and wallet were.”
“No you didn’t.”
“Okay, I didn’t, but that’s not why I’m calling. Can you bring burgers and fries for me and Brady? Oh, and Adam, too, or he’ll bitch like a little girl.”
“You mean ‘Jade, will you pretty please bring us burgers and fries?’”
“Yes,” Dell said, nodding. “That. And Cokes.” He looked at Brady, who nodded. “And don’t forget the ketchup.”
“You forgot the nice words.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Dell said. “You look fantastic today, I especially love the attitude and sarcasm you’re wearing.”
Jade’s voice went saccharine sweet. “So some low-fat chicken salads, no dressing, and ice water to go, then?”
“Fine,” Dell said, and sighed. “Can we please have burgers and fries?”
“You forgot the ‘Thank you, Goddess Jade,’ but we’ll work on that. Later, boss.”
Brady looked at him. “How is food going to help with the dumbass dog and the shredded pilot seat?”
“I can’t think on an empty stomach.”
As promised, a week later, Brady had worked his ass off and had the Bell 47 ready to fly. He’d had it towed over to Smitty’s, where it now sat on the tarmac. He’d just filed his virgin flight plan when Lilah appeared, a soft just-for-him smile on her mouth. If he’d been Twinkles, he’d have rolled over and exposed his belly. Instead, he brushed his hands off on his jeans and watched her walk toward him.
Just sex…
That’s what she’d been looking for. Fun and easy. So he had no idea what the fuck was wrong with him that it had been bugging him for days.
Maybe because it felt like more. Which meant he was screwed.
“How’s your baby today?” she asked.
“My baby?”
She ran a hand over the helicopter. “You think I don’t see that even a big tough guy like you could have a weakness?”
“More than one,” he murmured.
That seemed to fluster her, and liking that he could do that, he reached for her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers, bringing her hand to his mouth to kiss the palm. “You are my weakness, Lilah. The prettiest one I’ve ever had.”
She bit her lower lip and stared up at him, definitely dazed. Call him sick, but he liked that, too. He’d been watching her twist the men in her life around her little pinkie for two weeks now-Dell, Adam, hell half the guys in Sunshine-and not a single one of them flustered her.
But he did.
He knew she thought he was tough, but the truth was, he thought the same about her. She handled her world and all it threw at her, no complaints, no whining.
And yet she didn’t know how to take a compliment. It was adorable and charming, a devastating combination he discovered.
“I’m surprised you tolerate any weakness in yourself,” she said.
“I usually don’t.”
She stared up at him, eyes sparkling with a heat and something more, something he couldn’t even begin to pretend to read.
He ran a finger over her jaw and then slid his hand into her hair, which felt like silk over his skin. Tightening his grip, he drew her in a little closer.