[B.S. #1] Tied Up in Knotts (8 page)

Avery tried again to regain her dignity and get off the bed and out of James’s arms. Finally with her small push at his chest, James let her leave the bed. He wanted to comfort her. He didn’t want to let her go, but looking at her staring up at him, he pulled his emotions back. He had to remember that she didn’t know him that well yet. If he made any move toward her now, she looked like she would run and never trust him.

“Don’t tell me that, James. I doubt that you cry when thing get too much for you. You look like you could handle anything thrown your way.” Avery looked at James with her green eyes still swimming with tears.

James got up and stood stiffly beside the bed, not letting himself reach for her. “You’re right, I usually throw something.”

“You don’t look like you throw things around. Tell me another one.” The doubt was heavy in Avery’s voice now.

James passed his hand through his hair, a habit he had when he didn’t know what to say. James knew he had to think of something to say to get her to trust him. After all, he had technically broken into her apartment and she would soon be coming to that conclusion.

“No, you’re right. I usually take it out at the gym when I can’t reach a conclusion that settles my brain. I take it out on a punching bag or take a round out of one of the guys that’s stupid enough to stick around when I’m in a mood. But crying is not a sign of weakness, it’s just another way of dealing with problems in your life.” James took a step closer to Avery.

Avery stepped back and grabbed her housecoat that she had thrown on the end of the bed. James took the minute to switch on a light. Their talk had been in the dark and while he could see her fine, he thought she might like the same courtesy. Avery blinked at the sudden light and looked around the bedroom. James could see that it suddenly dawned on her that he was in her bedroom in the middle of the night. Avery tied the housecoat tightly around herself.

“What are you doing up here? How did you get in?” Avery now had an accusing look on her face, the tears forgotten for the moment. “Clay told me there were no strings attached to this job, other than guarding the place. Well, why are you here, and how did you know I was crying? I’m sure I didn’t make that much noise.”

James stared back at an outraged Avery. “I was downstairs just making myself a cup of coffee and thought I heard something. So naturally I assume that you must be in trouble. I needed to check. As we are all new to this building, until we know what it sounds like in the middle of the night, every sound has to be checked. I’ll admit I was worried…” James let off. Shaking his head at himself, he started to back up out of the bedroom. He didn’t want to let her know too much of what he was starting to feel about her.

“Don’t you dare leave without answering my questions. How did you get in here?” Avery was now following James out of the bedroom, her green eyes flashing.

He walked backward into the living room, while trying to still keep an eye on Avery in the darkened room. James had just enough time to grab her arm and stop her from falling over the boxes still piled in the middle. Avery pulled back and James couldn’t keep the grip on her satiny housecoat. James just watched in amazement as a spitting Avery landed on her ass. She didn’t stay down long and was back on her feet the next minute and shaking a finger in James direction. James looked at the finger pointing in his direction and grinned at the spitting kitten before him. This just riled her up more.

Avery stamped her foot. Turning from James she took a big breath. She looked like she was struggling within herself to know what to do. Pulling herself up to her full height, she rewrapped her housecoat that had become loose when James grabbed her. Walking past him, her head held high, she reached for her purse on the living room table. Taking her cell phone out, she swung back around, while dialing.

“We’ll just see what Clay has to say about this?” Putting the phone to her ear James could hear Clay’s loud voice on the other end

“Clay here, what’s the emergency and there better be one at this time of the morning.” Clay’s sleep-roughened, harsh voice came over the other end.

Avery cleared her throat. “It’s me,” she spoke into the phone, almost taking it from her ear at Clay’s voice.

“Avery, Avery is that you?” James could tell that Clay was now alert and probably grabbing his pants ready to come to her rescue.

“Yes it’s me. I have a bit of a problem.”

“I’ll be there right away.”

“No, no, listen just a moment.” Avery managed to get a word in.

Clay on the other end of town sat down on his bed, his pants forgotten at his feet. “OK, Avery. What’s wrong? I thought James was still at the office. If you need him, he’s just below you working. In fact if you want, I can call him and get him up there right away.”

Avery looked down at her bare feet. Now she felt foolish as she answered Clay back. “James is the problem. He is standing in the middle of my living room and I didn’t invite him here. I thought this was my apartment and expected some courtesy. This is not part of the office. This is my home,” Avery told Clay in a small voice

Clay was silent for a moment. “James is in your place right now? Let me speak to him. I’ll set him straight. I’ll make sure you have no problems with him.”

Keeping her head down, Avery passed the phone to a now angry James.

“Clay…”

“James.” Clay growled the return greeting.

“Can you tell me what you’re doing up in Avery’s apartment at this time of night. Can’t you keep your motor cooled and at least let her settle in?”

“I heard a noise and came up to investigate, nothing more.” James said in a deadpan voice. He was pissed. He knew his friend was just protecting Avery, but God he just wanted to hit something.

“Are you sure that’s all you were doing, James?” Clay now had a smile in his voice. He loved having James on the other end of the string hanging and having to explain his actions. Usually it was the other way around. James had been the commander of their unit and was usually the one asking the question and demanding answers.

“OK, OK, don’t rub it in. I’m just leaving.” Handing back the phone to Avery, James made his way to the door. He didn’t see anything funny in the situation. Clay had a funny sense of humor.

“You just wait a minute.” Avery clutched the phone in one hand and put her other hand out, palm up, in James’s direction. “I want the keys.” James took one look at the outstretched hand and said, “No,” and closed the door behind him.

“Clay,” Avery whined into the phone. “He wouldn’t give me his keys back.” She sounded like a brat, but damn she wanted her keys. This was her place.

“We all have keys to the apartment. It’s for your protection. Now look at it this way. If there had been an intruder in the apartment and James had to take time to knock down the door, you could be dead. It only takes a second and I for one don’t want to take that chance,” Clay tried to reason with her.

Avery though for a minute. “But there wasn’t any intruder. James should have left as soon as he saw the way was clear.” Avery knew she was arguing for the sake of arguing now, but couldn’t seem to stop. She was still pissed at James

“I’ll talk to him in the morning and clear this all up.”

At Clay’s words, Avery stopped. She didn’t want to create bad feelings between the friends.

“I don’t want him to get fired. He probably doesn’t know all the rules. We are all new to the situation.”

Clay agreed, scratching his head. Maybe that’s the problem. James didn’t know the rules. Clay laughed at the thought. “I’ll make sure that this doesn’t happen again, unless it’s an emergency. Now go back to bed and get some sleep. Oh by the way, did you hear the same noise that James did?” Clay asked.

“No, I didn’t, sorry to bother you.” Avery bit her lip. James had helped her out of her pity fest and hadn’t harmed her in any way. He had been trying to be nice and now he was mad at her. Calling the boss on him was just a bit of an overreaction. What if it had been an intruder? It was nice knowing she wasn’t all alone in the building that she was supposed to protect.

Clay had better teach her how to shoot or at least some self-defense moves if she was going to do this job properly. Oh God, she would have to apologize to James in the morning and talk to Clay, telling him she had overreacted.

Avery closed the phone after saying bye to Clay and made her way back to her solitary bed. The way she was going, it would remain that way. Everyone was going to think she was crazy or too much work to handle. She crawled into her bed and pulled the covers over her head. How had a great day turned out so bad? With a big sigh, Avery plumped her pillow and tried to get some sleep.

Chapter Nine

The next morning found Avery showered, dressed, and walking down the hall and into the small office kitchen before 8:00 a.m. She knew she was early, but after last night, she might have to do some groveling and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. Curving her head, she peeked around the door, looking to see if anyone was up and around. She hoped to run into Clay first. Instead she spotted James pouring himself a cup of coffee, the last person she wanted to see first.

James’s blue eyes assessed her. “I see you there. You don’t have to skulk around.” Raising his cup, James asked her if she would like some coffee.

Avery looked at James who still looked sleep ruffled. “Didn’t you go home last night?”

“No, I had a lot of work to catch up on and it was easier to sleep here then go back to my apartment for a few hours.” James poured Avery some coffee and put it on the table between them.

“I’m sorry about last night.”

James looked at her. “Don’t let it bother you. I wasn’t thinking either, barging into your apartment.” He sat wearily down at the table and took a long drink of his coffee.

“So, it’s OK between us? Clay wasn’t mad at you? I didn’t mean to cause trouble,” Avery said in a small voice. She didn’t want to step in it again.

James set his cup down and really looked at Avery now that the coffee had woken up his brain. He took in the long skirt that almost touched her ankles, the buttoned-up blouse to her chin, and the long blonde hair now captured in a bun at the back of her head. “What are you dressed up for?”

“Is there something wrong with the way I’ve dressed? I’m trying to present a proper look for the office.” Avery’s voice had now risen as she took in James’s words.

“If we were in a retirement home, you would be dressed properly. As we are an investment firm, I think we can do without the old lady clothes. We want people to think we are on top of our game and the best there is to have. Not that we have stalled in the last century.” James knew the moment the words left his mouth, that she was going to take offense, but couldn’t retract them.

Looking at Avery’s angry expression, James could tell that he really put his foot in it this time. The old lady at the door became a spitting kitten again. As he watched her, her over-powdered face turned a bright red. “You think I look like an old lady? Well thanks for your opinion. It’s a good thing you’re not the boss. I would be on my ass out on the sidewalk by now,” Avery spat back at him.

Grabbing her coffee cup off the table, she gave James her back and walked toward the door of the kitchen.

“We’ll just see what Clay thinks. After all, only his opinion matters, he is the boss.” Avery held her head high, her back stiff, and left the kitchen and headed for the front reception desk.

“Clay won’t be able to protect you all the time,” James replied to her back.

Sitting down at her desk, she plopped her coffee cup down, spilling it with the force she used. She had to get her temper under control before Clay got here. Grabbing a tissue, she was mopping up the mess when Clay walked in the front door.

God, this day was going downhill and it wasn’t even the start of the work day yet.

Clay walked up to the front desk and watched as Avery mopped up her mess.

“Did you and James make nice this morning? Or am I seeing the end of the argument and the coffee lost?” Clay asked with a smile in his voice.

“Well we started out OK, but James seems to think he is the fashion police. He thought I looked like an old lady from a retirement home,” Avery said, pointing at the clothes she wore.

“Clay, give me your opinion. I think I look professional.”

Clay held both hands up. “Don’t get me between the two of you. I think you look nice, but a bit starchy for this office. After all, the people we will be dealing with will want to feel comfortable. The more comfortable they are, the longer they’ll stay. So yes, I think you look professional, but a nice pair of slacks and a top would do.

Avery sputtered up at him. “I’ll just go change them.”

Clay grabbed her elbow as she started to head down the hall and the stairs to her apartment. “Look we are all a bit edgy. It’s the first day, so why don’t you sit and calm down and just take a minute,” Clay said in his most calming voice. He didn’t want to add to the tension between her and James.

Avery sat down and considered her behavior. She was letting James get to her again. She just had to get her mind set that she had to ignore him. Not that it would be easy for her to do. Her body betrayed her every time he was near. He was a beautiful man, but his personality could do with some work. Nodding at Clay, she went about setting up her desk.

Clay left Avery thinking things over and walked down the hall and into the kitchen. He found James was still sitting at the table, drinking coffee and staring into space.

“I know, don’t say it. I woke the kitten up again with my remarks. But Clay you have to admit that her outfit is a bit much.” James watched his friend pour himself coffee and return to the table where he sat.

Clay sat down across from James. “I agree. It must have been your sparkling presentation that did it. Did you even go home last night? You didn’t have to stay. We have a security system installed now and Angel is always lurking around. He would have kept an eye on her.”

James stood and took his cup back to the sink and rinsed it. He glared over his shoulder at Clay. “Am I already fucking this up? I can’t seem to stop wanting to control her. This morning she looked like a little old bag lady with that getup. I know if I had picked her clothes out she would have looked like the woman I know she can be.”