Deeper Than Need (14 page)

“Hi there,” he said, his breaths coming a little heavy.

Reflexively she looked up just in time to see him flash a smile at her. It was an absent sort of smile, and then he shifted his attention to Micah. “You out running wild on the town there, kid?”

“Mom wants your job.”

*   *   *

She looked so pretty and cool and sophisticated standing there. Noah wanted, more than anything, to grab her and see if he couldn’t muss her up. He’d managed to unload the majority of his frustrations on the bag, but now they were mounting up again—of course, these were a different
manner
of frustrations.

He hadn’t dealt with anything like this since … Lana. It had been twenty years and it was getting harder and harder to turn away from it, but the nervous look on Trinity’s face, the soft pink blush and the way she kept darting glances at him out of the corner of her eye were doing a number on his already faulty control.

His problem was about to become very obvious, especially if she was paying any sort of attention. To make sure that didn’t happen, he tore his gaze away from her and focused on the boy. What had Micah just said …
she wants my job?

Reaching up, he swiped his forearm over his brow and resisted the urge to chuckle. The kid made his head hurt sometimes with the questions and comments he threw out.

Jimmy was wrong about one thing.

Noah wasn’t stuck in a half-life.

At least, he hadn’t been the past month or so.

Ever since Trinity had arrived in Madison, Noah had
too
much life going on. There was too much emotion, too much sensation … too much color. Too much of everything. Although it was sheer chaos trying to deal with it sometimes, it was a sweet respite after living in a grey cloud for so many years.

Everything was viciously bright and vibrant and being near Trinity and Micah made it that much more … intense. They also made Noah acutely aware of just how empty he’d been, just how lonely he’d been. Being near them had him walking on a razor’s edge, dealing with keen emotions he hadn’t felt in far too long.

The humor, though … the humor he could handle.

“My job,” he murmured, turning away and grabbing a towel. He wiped the sweat from his face and chest, taking more time than he needed to so he could level out a bit more.

From the corner of his eye he saw Micah bouncing around on his feet the way he always did, and despite himself, he laughed. “Kid, where do you hide them?”

“Hide what?” Micah asked, his eyes big and wide.

“The rockets on your feet.”

“I don’t have rockets on my feet.” Micah lifted one small foot, like he just had to check to make sure. Then he showed his shoe to Noah. “See?”

“I think they are invisible,” Noah told him, tossing the towel around his neck. “It’s the only thing that makes sense … the rockets are why you can’t ever be still. They keep you moving nonstop.”

Trinity chuckled. “Rockets on his feet. Here I thought he had ants in his pants. I think rockets make more sense. What about you, Rocketboy?”

“Rocketboy!” Micah made a sound that Noah assumed was supposed to be a rocket, high-pitched and whirling.

“Now he’ll want a cape,” she said, shaking her head.

“Don’t all boys?”

She lifted a brow at him. “Did you?”

“Yep. Red. Like Superman’s. I had one, for a while, along with a T-shirt that had a big red
S
on it.” Her gaze dipped to his chest and the heat rippling through him jacked up a few hundred—thousand—degrees. Even though it only lasted a minute, he felt that brief glance as keenly as if she’d reached out and stroked a hand across his skin, down his chest, down to cup him through the shorts that were all too thin to restrain the hard-on he’d developed.

Blowing out a careful breath, he grabbed his shirt and pulled it on, keeping the worktable between them. “So, just what is this about a job…? I think I’ll be able to get to work on the floor later tonight. I was going to call you about it later.”

Micah cut his mom off before she could say anything. “Mama wants your job,” he said again.

Trinity sighed. “Micah, please be quiet.”

“You want my job, huh?” Noah asked, trying to figure out just where this conversation was going. The kid made his head hurt—confusion had a way of doing that. Micah made his head hurt, made his heart ache and made Noah laugh more than he could recall laughing in years.

He still got tickled every time he thought about how the boy started talking about cussing and showers and penises. Leave it to a four-year-old boy. Sweat dripped into Noah’s eyes and he swiped it away before glancing from child to mother again.

“So can she have your job, Mr. Noah?” Micah piped up. “That’s why she’s here. She wants to do your job.”

“Micah, would you hush?” Trinity said, her voice exasperated.

Noah chuckled. “Rocketboy, I’ll be honest with you. I like your mom. She seems to be pretty cool and I already know she’s wicked smart. But your mom doesn’t want my job. She gets mad if she so much as has to deal with a picture—I saw her.”

Not to mention the way he’d seen her trying to use a chair to hang the picture instead of a ladder. The five-minute safety lecture hadn’t much impressed her.

“Mom…” Micah’s little face puckered in a scowl. “I thought you said ’puter stuff.”

Realization dawned.
Ah, no. Not this.
Noah had thought the kid was off on one of his tangents. Micah had a lot of them.

“Ah, computer stuff?” Noah asked. He snagged a bottle of water, keeping his distance even though he felt kind of stupid talking to her from ten feet away. He didn’t need to get any closer to Trinity Ewing when all he could think about was how amazing her legs looked in that pretty skirt and how very badly he wanted to stroke a hand down the firm length of her thigh, her calf, close it around her ankle—

“I saw that you needed part-time office work,” Trinity said quietly. Her voice was cool and soft, so very poised, so very polished. Her eyes were … not.

Noah almost dropped the water bottle he held as he looked into those eyes.

Grey eyes that burned like molten silver. Then she blinked and looked away, glancing around his supply and storeroom like it held the answers to the universe. When she looked back at him, her gaze was just as polished and cool as her voice.

It didn’t matter. He was going to carry the memory of that burning gaze into his dreams, which wasn’t going to help much. He was already waking up almost every morning in need of a cold shower and some self-service just to deal with the fantasies that haunted him just about every time he closed his eyes.

“I could use some help, yeah. Been needing it for a while, but nothing ever works out.” Now why did his voice have to come out like that? All gruff like he was already thinking about covering that pretty mouth, tasting that mouth, over and over again?

Trinity shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know much about construction or what a general contractor does, but I’m pretty decent on computers.”

“You wouldn’t need to know anything about construction or general contracting,” he said even before his brain processed what he was saying.
No, Noah. Bad idea. Get her out. Get her away from here. If she needs a job, you can help her find one, but not here—

What in the hell was he doing?

Noah didn’t know. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to keep debating it.

“I need somebody who can help with ordering, who can make heads and tails out of spreadsheets and send out invoices, who can answer the phone when I’m not here, set up appointments and that sort of thing. Basically administrative stuff.”

Trinity inclined her head. “I can do all of that.”

Again, that small voice of common sense tried to edge in.
This isn’t smart
 …
be careful. Be safe.

Noah had spent too many years being safe, keeping himself closed off. He didn’t want to be
safe
anymore. He wanted to be alive.

“I can’t hire anybody full-time. I just don’t have it in my budget right now,” he said bluntly. “That’s not likely to change any time in the near future. Possibly ever. If you’re needing full-time, I’m a bad bet.”

“I’d rather not
have
full-time,” she said. Her gaze was still cool, blank as polished silver.

“My filing cabinets are a mess. I can’t pay you anything like what you’re probably used to being paid.”

She arched a golden brow at him. “How would you know what I’m used to being paid?”

“Those aren’t rags you picked up at the Dollar General, angel,” he said dryly. He didn’t know designers, but he knew the look of money and everything about her screamed,
High-class!
“I don’t think it’s something you picked up at the JCPenney in Louisville or Lexington, either.”

“New York,” Micah said helpfully. “We lived in New York and Mama used to shop at Saks and Neima Marks.”

Trinity sighed. “Neiman Marcus, and that’s beside the point. I’m not expecting a six-figure salary, Noah. I’ve … got side projects, but it will be a while before they are a reliable source of income. It’s something I hope to get going more steadily, but that will take time—years, probably. I’d rather not raid the money I have in the bank any more than I have to while I wait for things to shape up.”

He ran his tongue over his teeth, staring at her.

Tossing the water bottle from one hand to another, he closed the distance between them, watching as her lashes flickered. Just a little. The delicate flutter of her pulse jumped in her neck.

Bad idea, Noah
 …

“I can pay you a five-figure salary,” he said, naming the exact figure, and he watched, waiting for a reaction. Disappointment, disgust … waited to see her turn and walk out the door.

All she did was wait.

“We’re looking at twenty to twenty-five hours a week,” he said after a few seconds ticked by.

“I read the ad,” she said mildly. “I know what you’re looking for.”

Do you?… What if I tell you I’m looking for this?

He had the most insane desire to reach out and hook his hand around her neck, haul her against him. Muss her up completely and just keep on doing it. He couldn’t do what he wanted—and not just because the kid was there but because … of him. Noah himself was the biggest impediment, but he still wanted to to touch her. All over, everywhere. It was a need that had gone past sexual, a need that was becoming everything, and he didn’t even know when that had happened.

Her pupils spiked, flared. He wondered if maybe she’d be okay with everything burning inside him.

All in all, it was yet
another
reason why this job thing might not be a good idea.

But instead of finding a way to say that, he went with his gut.

“If you can do the job, I’ll readjust the estimate I gave you—look things over again and see if there aren’t a few more things I can take care of on my own. It will take a little longer—anything that’s crucial is going to be done first, but if there is stuff that can wait and you’re willing to let it wait, I’ll take it on, do it at my cost, save you some money. I’d have to do the work on weekends and evenings, but it would save you a decent sum.”
Now you’re going to be spending even more time around her … are you trying to torture yourself?

As her clear grey gaze held his, the obvious answer was,
Yes.

“I’ll get the floor fixed right away. I’ve already got some people lined up who are going to help me.”

Trinity remained silent.

He just rambled on like a fool. “There’s a lot of work I just can’t do—things that have to be subcontracted out—and I can’t help you with that, but I can still do enough to save you a chunk of change. If you can do the job.”

Okay, shut your mouth now, Noah.
He managed it. Barely.

“I can do the job.” A ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. Then she rested a hand on Micah’s shoulder. “There’s only one thing. I don’t have any place for Micah. In a few weeks, I’ll reconsider, but…”

He saw the tension in her eyes. Things she didn’t want to say. “Not a problem. Give it a few weeks. Preschool will be starting up soon. You can always wait until then and see what happens. For now, bring him with you. I grew up here. There’s a spare room where he can watch TV and play. Sometimes customers bring their kids to meetings and the kids play in there while we talk.” Noah watched as something that might have been relief bloomed in her eyes. “I need to shower and get cleaned up. Why don’t you go inside and take a trial run. Make a dent in the disaster, and if today goes well you’re hired.”

“Just like that?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t you need to do a background check or whatever?”

“A background check?” He grinned at her. “You going to tell me there’s something I should worry about?”

She shifted from one foot to the other. “No, but I…” She blew out a breath. “You haven’t even looked at my résumé.”

“To be honest, I wouldn’t really know
what
to look for. If you can do the work, I’ll know that. If you can’t, I’ll figure that out pretty fast and it’s not going to leave me in much worse shape that I am now.” He shrugged. He could have mentioned that he had a decent feel for people and he knew when something was going to work out. More than once, he’d gone against those instincts, hoping for the best. Even though he already knew in some ways this was a
bad, bad, bad
idea, in other ways it was probably the best solution to come along since … well. Ever.

Besides, Noah already knew the things he needed to know. Trinity had a heart of gold and she adored her son. She knew how to work—she’d been busting her tail around the house, even though she took on jobs she absolutely hated. He’d seen that with his own eyes. She had courage. She hadn’t panicked when most people probably would have.

A good heart, the ability to work and courage … that said a lot about
her.
If she could do the job he needed done, he didn’t need to know anything else.

Her eyes narrowed as she continued to watch him.

“Okay, so I’m going to go shower and then head out. I’ve got to get out of here in the next twenty minutes or so.” He glanced down at his sweaty clothes. “I’d offer to shake your hand, but you look so nice and clean and I’m a mess.”