Behind Closed Doors (6 page)

Chris woke up Friday drenched in sweat, just has he had for the last three mornings. Elizabeth was haunting him, truly haunting him. He couldn’t get away from her.

Every morning when she’d answer the door, he’d hold his breath to see what outfit she had on. Yesterday it had been a pencil skirt and blouse. Again, everything was completely work appropriate. Her skirt came down to her knees with only a small slit in the back. It wasn’t her fault the slit showed off just enough skin to drive him nuts. Her blouse was beyond conservative, but it couldn’t hide what was underneath. Every time she moved, it seemed, his body reacted.

He wanted to peel those layers of clothes from her body to see what lay hidden, and that wasn’t good at all. He was her boss. As if that wasn’t enough, she was a woman. Okay, that was a given otherwise he wouldn’t be having issues below his belt. That didn’t change the facts. She was torturing him. Women were nothing but trouble and to be avoided. Life was much simpler without them.

His brain broadcasted that message loud and clear. Now, if he could only get the rest of him to get with the program.

Turning on the shower, he tried to push the thoughts of Elizabeth out of his mind. He had a meeting today with the Beckmans, a couple who wanted to construct a home on their own lot. It seemed straightforward, but you never knew in this business. It was good to expect the unexpected.

The drive to work had been another quiet one. Elizabeth rarely spoke, but then again, neither did he. It was almost as if the confined space of his truck was too much, too close.

At ten, the Beckmans walked through the doors of the small office. Elizabeth greeted them, and he was, once again, amazed. He could tell the couple was nervous by the way each were shifting from one foot to the other as they waited, however, Elizabeth managed to put them at ease. By the time he’d picked up his notes and walked back out to greet them, they were both smiling.

Elizabeth sat in on the meeting, taking notes and offering advice when the couple openly included her in their discussion. He found himself fascinated by her smile, something she rarely did around him. A yearning to see more of it gripped his chest before he forced his attention back to the paper in front of him. In the end, the couple signed the contract. He had a new client. And if he were honest with himself, Elizabeth played just as big a role in that as all the marketing brochures on his company had.

Elizabeth tucked her purse under her arm before exiting the vehicle. The cemetery was empty as far as she could tell, but she never felt comfortable leaving her belongings unattended in a public place.

The walk to her parents’ grave was short. Their tombstone was only about twenty feet from the small drive. She stopped once she reached them and knelt down, running her fingers over the engraved letters.
Marshall. Gary and Bethany.

She could feel the tears well up in her eyes as she felt the cool granite. It happened every time she saw their names.

“Hi, Mom and Dad. I miss you.”

The wind carried her words away, but that was okay. She knew her parents had heard her anyway.

“I moved. You’d like the house. Only the second floor is mine, but it’s really nice. And I got a job. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. I like the job, but Chris . . . my boss . . . well, he’s a little confusing.” She paused not sure she wanted to go there even with her dead parents. Instead, she took a deep breath and whispered, “I really wish you two were here.”

She lay down on the soft grass and continued to talk to her parents. They’d been close once. Before she’d married Jared. She had many regrets in her life, but letting her relationship with her parents slip, that was perhaps the biggest. So for the next hour, she gazed up at the sky and told them all about her new life. She only wished they were able to respond.

Over the next two weeks, Elizabeth found herself looking forward to work. Chris still didn’t talk to her much and overwhelmed her with his presence, but he didn’t use his size to gain a situational advantage. He also hadn’t snapped at her since she’d started working for him. She’d observed him interacting with Terry, his foreman, and some of the other guys on the crew, and they all seemed to like and respect him. She was beginning to relax. A little.

He also hadn’t brought up replacing her. Although he’d insisted that her job was temporary, he hadn’t asked her to schedule one interview, and except for his employees, nobody else had come through the office.

Then one day a woman showed up. Her long, blond hair looked as if it had taken hours to style, and her dress revealed a little too much.

As the woman marched past, Elizabeth asked, trying to be polite, “May I help you?”

The woman stopped, turned, and glared. “Who are you?” Her voice had a nasty sneer.

Elizabeth’s eyes widen with shock. “I’m Mr. Daniels’s assistant. Did you need to see him for something?”

“What happened to Tara?”

Something about this woman bothered Elizabeth. She didn’t like her one bit. In fact, the woman reminded her of the ladies she’d met at the parties Jared used to drag her to—gold diggers who chased after men who could spend the most money on them.

“Tara no longer works here,” she said, delivering the standardized answer.

The woman snorted as she turned toward Chris’s door and barreled her way through without knocking.

Elizabeth immediately followed her, ready to apologize to Chris for the woman’s intrusion, but when she entered the office, she found a very different woman than the one she’d just encountered. Gone was the holier-than-thou attitude. In its place was the picture of an attentive and flirty female. The woman leaned seductively against Chris’s desk, showing more of her leg than was decent.

He looked up at the new arrival with an irritated expression on his face. “It’s okay, Elizabeth.”

“Do you want me to—”

“No. Please, stay. Carol won’t be here long.”

The woman glared at Elizabeth over her shoulder before turning flirty eyes back to Chris.

Who was this woman? Carol made her interest in him clear with the open flirting. That thought brought with it an unpleasant feeling in the pit of Elizabeth’s stomach.

“What do you want, Carol? I have work to do.”

Carol feigned offense. “Can’t I just
want
to see you, Chris?” she said seductively.

Ugh!
This woman was making her sick. Elizabeth had seen this game played many times and by women who had skill.

He frowned as he pushed away from his desk and away from her. “No,” he said. “You can’t. You gave up that right three years ago.”

She pouted, but his determined expression didn’t change. Then she sighed, pushed away from the table, and leaned on the arm of his chair, showing more of her physical attributes. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered. “I thought maybe—”

“You thought what?” he said in a hard voice.

“I thought maybe you’d like to take a
long
lunch.” She ran her finger in a seductive line from his shoulder down to his arm.

He caught it and pushed her away from him. “Leave.”

She tried pouting again, but he wasn’t swayed. “Okay. I get it. You’re busy right now,” Carol said, strolling to the door and shooting daggers at Elizabeth the entire time. “Another time, then.” She walked out with her nose literally up in the air.

“Not likely,” Chris said under his breath.

They both remained silent until Carol opened the front door and left. “I’m sorry about that,” they said at the same time, causing them both to chuckle. It was the most comfortable she’d ever felt with him.

He sighed. “That was my ex-wife, Carol. I should have warned you about her, but she hasn’t showed up in a while. I thought she’d given up.”

“You’re ex-wife?” Her voice broke.

He smiled wearily. “Yes, unfortunately, she’s a force of nature when she wants something.”

“I can tell.” Her dislike for the woman was growing by the second. Then, thinking she should probably change the subject, she said, “I guess I’ll get back to it. There’s still a lot to do.”

Chris seemed relieved. “Okay then, thank you.”

Aside from the difficulty Chris had keeping his hands to himself, things were going remarkably well. Elizabeth was good at her job. She kept things in order and stayed out of his way. She also got along great with the guys. Too well, in his opinion. He’d started to notice it last week.

There was rarely a reason for any of his crew besides Terry to come into the office, but they did anyway. First it was Mark wanting to know if she had some extra pencils, then Chad saying he was going to pick up some lunch for the guys and wanted to know if she’d like some. Yes, it was nice, but he’d never done that for Tara. None of them had. And it didn’t escape his notice that it was all of the single men on his crew.

He didn’t like it. He knew there was no logical reason, but it didn’t change the facts. Every time he heard one of his guys at her desk, he wanted to punch them. Not exactly the best reaction for a boss to have, but there it was.

He contemplated what was happening to him. Elizabeth was beautiful, but beyond that, he realized she was nothing like Carol. When he’d offered to have them drive separately to work since he’d be putting in long nights, he hadn’t expected her to offer to stay and help. They’d even had a few pleasant conversations during their late nights. It had surprised him.

Carol had been all about what was most convenient for her. It was one of the many reasons his business hadn’t picked up until she was out of his life. Every time he would need to stay late, she’d find some way to make him leave. It was a never ending fight, and one he always lost. She was a master at getting what she wanted, one way or another.

Elizabeth was different; so much so that he found himself letting his guard down with her, and that wasn’t good at all. Even if she was different, and even if she was the sexiest thing on legs he’d ever seen—

There was a soft knock on his door and Elizabeth came in. “I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s a Mr. Jacobs on the phone. Says it’s urgent.”

Bryan Jacobs was the lead architect on a project they were about to start. The plans had been finalized months ago. He’d also been one of Chris’s best friends in high school. They’d kept in touch over the years and sent jobs each other’s way when they could.

“Hello, Bryan. What can I do for you?”

“I just found out something and wanted to call you right away since I knew you were starting construction on the Tanner project.”

“We marked the foundation today and if the weather holds, we’ll start digging tomorrow.”

“Oh, good. I caught you in time then.”

“Caught me in time for what?” Chris asked with dread. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this.

“Mr. and Mrs. Tanner came tearing through my office about an hour ago with a designer they hired, insisting that all the plans had to be redrawn because the current ones didn’t provide the correct
flow
,” Bryan said in a way that told Chris that Bryan was rolling his eyes.

This had to be more extensive than just an addendum to the plans. “How much do they want changed exactly?”