Made For Us (10 page)

Liar.

Okay, maybe he had
some
thoughts on the subject. In most of them, she hadn’t argued with him—she’d thanked him like a hero and then begged him to kiss her. He shook his head in disgust.
These
are
not
the
thoughts
of
a
rational
man
, he chided himself. There was no way out of this situation, at least not until the storm was over. But she was safe, and they’d get through it.

Maybe.

Zoe let out a big sigh and finally allowed herself to move into the space. “So…now what?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it seems to me like we’ve trekked far enough away from the actual coast that you feel safe, but really…is this it? So far this is just a rainstorm to me.”

“Haven’t you been watching the news?” he asked. “The storm cell is huge.”

“Of course. Nothing else has been on the TV all weekend long. There was even a documentary on hurricanes.”

“So you must be an expert now, huh?” he said with a smirk.

“Obviously.” She smirked back and plopped down on the couch. “Now let me see… A hurricane is a powerful storm system with a large low-pressure center that produces intense winds and heavy rainfall.” Looking at him, she smiled when he gave her a thumbs-up.

“Anything else?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Well, I learned that hurricanes form over a large mass of warm ocean water during the warmer months.” She smiled. “How’s that for expert?”

“Very good. You can be the new channel five weather girl,” he teased and went to grab them both something to drink. This was what he wanted, the easiness between them, the camaraderie they’d had that first night at dinner.

“Laugh if you will, but this is all brand-spanking-new to me. I’ve never lived anywhere but Arizona, and we don’t have hurricanes there.” Pausing, she thought for a minute and then shrugged. “For the most part, the worst thing we ever had to deal with weather-wise was the heat. We’d get some storms with heavy lightning, but other than that, the weather was fairly tame. I’m fascinated by this. I had hoped to watch it all unfold on the beach, but you went and ruined that for me.” The pout couldn’t be helped.

Aidan thought it was adorable. “My apologies for ruining your death wish.” He sat down beside her and dared to take one of her hands in his. “How about this…if the storm weakens and it turns out there was no reason to evacuate, you get to tell me ‘I told you so.’”

First she had to ignore the feeling of her hand surrounded by his, which was no easy feat. It had her entire body tingling. Then she decided to have a little fun with him. She shook her head. “Not good enough.”

“Not good enough?” he repeated. “Come on, everyone likes to be able to tell someone ‘I told you so.’ I know from experience that you’ve been dying to say that to me about several things at the model home.”

“Oh, and I will when the entire project is complete. I’m keeping a running tally of all of them.”

“Hey, come on, there aren’t that many,” he said in mock self-defense.

“By the time this project is over there will be.”

“Okay. Fine. Whatever. So you want something more than an ‘I told you so.’” He considered some possibilities but didn’t think that sharing the ones he had in mind would help the situation at all. “What if—”

“Wait! I got it!” she interrupted and pulled her hand from his. Baron let out a playful bark at her loud tone. “If, when this is all over, there is no damage to the area and it’s obvious that it was pointless for me to leave, I get to do the next model home completely on my own with no input from you.”

“Hmm…uncertainty over your safety, or you running amok in my models… No way. That is not a fair trade,” he said, but he was actually having fun with this.

“It is too a fair trade!” she said with a laugh. “You just came and swooped in and demanded that I do what you say like you usually do. I should get to do the same thing to you!”

“Not on an entire house!” he argued good-naturedly and reached out to scratch Baron’s head when he barked again.

“Okay, then a room,” she countered.

“Fine. A bathroom.”

“Really? A bathroom? Why not give me the hall closet to work with?” Rolling her eyes, she continued. “I get to have free rein to do…the master bedroom.”

Aidan almost groaned. He was already fighting some pretty serious attraction to her and just hearing the word
bedroom
come from her mouth was wreaking havoc on his senses. The thought of carrying her into the bedroom only a few feet away and kissing her for the first time…running his hands through that glorious mane of red curls… He felt himself breaking out in a sweat.

Zoe couldn’t figure out what was happening. One minute they were joking and laughing and now Aidan looked…off. “Hey,” she said, trying to snap him out of his stupor. “Are you all right?”

He shook his head to clear it. They were stuck here together, and even though he wanted Zoe—craved her—he still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. Despite everything he felt, at the end of the day, he and Zoe worked together and he really didn’t want to do anything that would interfere with his business. He’d worked so long and so hard to make it what it was.

Why
does
it
have
to
interfere?
a little voice inside of him asked. Good question. He supposed if they were to agree to…whatever it was they had between them, and wanted to explore it, they could agree to keep work and their private relationship separate. He didn’t think Zoe was the kind of person who would make crazy demands on his time or do anything harmful to his business. He respected her as a designer and decorator; heck, he’d signed her on to handle the decorating of six of his model homes. That said something, didn’t it?

“Aidan?” she said again.

“What? Oh, yeah. Sorry. My mind wandered for a minute.”

“Are you sure? You looked kinda weird there for a second.”

Weird? That certainly wasn’t what a guy wanted to hear when he was thinking about potentially seducing someone.

“No, really. I’m fine. I just started thinking about the job site. We’ve got houses in various stages of construction and, like you said before, wind and rain can cause a lot of damage. We’ve secured all of the supplies as best as we can but…you just never know.”

His mind had wandered, of that there was no doubt, but Zoe didn’t think it had anything to do with the security of the job site. Bottom line was, he didn’t trust her enough to let her do what she was daring him to.

“I think you were trying to think of a way to get out of letting me have control over that room.”

“No. Seriously, I—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She waved him off. “The rain could stop right now, the sun could start shining, and the storm could blow back out to sea and you would still hope to get by with just an ‘I told you so.’” She shrugged and stood. “Whatever. No big deal.” Walking into the kitchen, she started pulling open cabinets. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but it was. She wanted Aidan to trust her, and not just because of some silly game or bet, but because he recognized her talent and ability.

And maybe because he liked her as more than just a decorator.

That he liked her as a woman.

Now it sucked because she was essentially stuck with him until the storm was through and she was going to have deal with the fact that it was all one-sided. She admired Aidan as a businessman. She was in awe of his skills as a craftsman.

And she was totally attracted to him as a man.

Well…crap.

“Where are the Oreos?” she muttered as she continued to search for her snacks.

She never heard him approach, but suddenly Aidan was right behind her—so close she could feel the heat of his body—as he reached up above her, opened the cabinet, and pulled the cookies down from the top shelf.

Zoe looked over her shoulder and glared. “Seriously? You were hiding my own cookies on me? That’s just wrong.”

Realizing how close they were, Aidan took a step back and gave her a lopsided grin. “I forgot to buy any.” He shrugged. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t miss them.”

“Did you not notice that I bought the double-stuffed ones? And a gallon of milk?” Zoe couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that they were even having this conversation. “Believe me, I know the importance of junk food during a storm.”

“I thought you said you’ve never been through a hurricane?” Distracting Zoe with the question, Aidan opened the package and took a stack of the cookies for himself.

“There are other storms besides hurricanes and…
hey!
” Doing her best to snatch the cookies back, she lunged for him but Aidan quickly sidestepped out of her way. “Okay, fine. You want to play it that way? I bet you’ve got some stuff here that you’re territorial over.” She began furiously scanning the contents of the cabinets and pantry when she hit the jackpot. Crinkling the bag in her hands, Zoe watched as Aidan’s eyes went wide.

“You wouldn’t,” he said carefully, taking slow, measured steps toward her.

Zoe crinkled the bag a bit more.

“Okay, I was wrong to try to hide the cookies,” he said.

“And then start eating them without asking?”

He nodded. “And for eating them without asking.” Aidan continued to stalk her as Zoe walked around the apartment. For a minute he wasn’t sure who was stalking whom. “I promise I won’t eat any more of them. Just…put the bag down.”

“I bet there’s dip somewhere too,” she said with a mischievous grin. “Like some really good onion dip.”

“Zoe…” he warned.

“Because you cannot have these ridged potato chips without dip.” Making her way back to the refrigerator, she opened the door while keeping one eye on Aidan. Reaching in, she pulled out the container. “Extra large. Hmm…probably the perfect amount for this family-sized bag.”

“There’s plenty enough for us to share. You’ve had your fun and I’ve apologized.”

“It was lacking sincerity,” she said sweetly as she closed the refrigerator door. “I think that in order to balance things out here, I should get the chips and dip for myself.”

“But I only took six cookies!”

“
Six?
I thought you only took three!”

Uh-oh
. “Then I should get points for honesty.” Flashing her a boyish grin, he took a step closer and his grin broadened when she didn’t take a step away. “I don’t see why we can’t share.”

“I’m not the one who was hiding the cookies,” she said with her own grin and waited to see if he’d come any closer.

He did.

“Well then, let’s agree to share. But you can help yourself to the chips first. Deal?”

Before he knew it, Zoe’s hand was in his and he was pulling her up against him. Her green eyes went wide and her lips parted in surprise. It would have been so easy to just lean down and touch her, kiss her, claim her. Zoe moved just that last inch and she was pressed up against him and Aidan felt everything in him harden.

Everything.

“Zoe,” he whispered.

A sudden crack from outside the house made them jump apart.

“What was that?” she said, rushing to the window to see where the sound had come from.

Aidan moved to another window and took a look around. It was hard to tell with such a limited view. “It was probably a tree limb.”

“Oh. Well, that’s not so bad, right?”

Stepping away from the window, he looked at her and shook his head. “That just tells me that the winds are picking up. The trees are all far enough away from the house and the garage that they shouldn’t have hit anything. If that’s what made that sound, then not only have the winds snapped a tree, but also things are moving and becoming projectiles.” His voice was solemn.

“Should we board the windows or tape them or something?” Zoe asked nervously, stepping away from her spot. This was all suddenly becoming very real. Watching things on the news or talking about it was very different from the reality of being in the middle of it. She was no meteorologist, but projectile objects were definitely not a good sign. Without conscious thought, Zoe stepped into the middle of the room—away from the windows—and began twisting her hands nervously.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to with the way things are going. I didn’t plan for that, so I don’t have enough plywood; plus there’s no way for me to safely be up on a ladder in this.”

“Is this normal? You know, things flying around like that?”

Distractedly, Aidan was looking out the window as he said, “It can be an indication of a tornado.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he could have kicked himself. Scrambling to recover, he turned to Zoe and said, “We’ll just have to hope for the best.”

“Hope for the best?
Hope
for
the
best?
You pulled me out of my home to go to a safer spot, Aidan! How is this safer? Now there’s the possibility of tornados and trees crashing on top of us! There weren’t any trees on the beach or anything that could become airborne like that! And now I’m stuck here having to worry about tree limbs flying through the windows or the roof!” Zoe was seriously freaking out at this point, and she didn’t even know why. Something about the tension between her and Aidan was making her even more jittery than the storm. And at this moment, the storm was making her pretty anxious.

“Zoe, you need to calm down. One limb falling doesn’t mean they’re all going to come through the windows or the walls.” He tried to sound calm and soothing, but it didn’t appear to be working. He felt as keyed up as she seemed. He didn’t know whether he was coming or going with this woman.

“But you can’t be sure, can you? You can’t stand there and tell me with any amount of certainty that we’re any safer here than I was at my house! Dammit, Aidan, I at least felt more at ease at home. Why couldn’t you have just left me alone?” Zoe could feel herself losing it—it was all just too much at the moment. She should have stayed in her rental house after they found Baron. She should have insisted that Aidan leave without her. Then he could have been with his family. This was just a mess.