Getting His Way: Sapphire Falls Book Seven (8 page)

That was why he could be with Tessa
now
. She had always been too sweet, too kind-hearted, too…well, frankly, too in love with him before. He would have broken her heart. But now he was more mature, still confident but less cocky. Now he could appreciate her and her quieter, softer ways.

But that didn’t mean the moments of sassy from her didn’t stir him.

“You made this into a lingerie show today for rehearsal to try to get me to quit,” he reiterated.

“Yes, but somehow, I stupidly forgot about the part where you can’t be pushed out of your comfort zone because
everything
is in your comfort zone,” she said, clearly irritated. “You took this situation and not only went along with it and were charming and kind, but you even gave the women a pep talk about modeling lingerie in front of the whole town.”

“Well, to be fair, they were more excited about their
pets
modeling,” he said.

“You took a situation that was supposed to be uncomfortable for you and turned it into something fun and happy and upbeat.” She frowned at him. “You’re impossible.”

Impossible? Was that really the adjective she wanted to use there?

“You do know that impossible is not a synonym for charming, right?” he asked.

She crossed her arms. “Yes, Bryan, I do know that.”

“Just making sure.”

In spite of her obvious ire, Bryan couldn’t help grinning. She was riled up because he’d made the best of the situation? That didn’t make sense, but she was cute when she was riled up.

His gaze dropped to her chest, where a flush of pink was climbing up her throat. Then, because he was a
guy
, his attention went lower. Over her beautiful breasts, down the front of her dress to where her hips flared, then down the expanse of her legs to her pretty feet with the pink toenail polish and the white sandals. She was curvy in all the right places and soft and feminine. He loved every inch.

His reaction to her was the strangest response he’d ever had to a woman. He wanted his hands and mouth on every single part of her. He wanted to feel her moving against him, feel her body heating and tightening around his, hear her moans and gasps as he made her feel every ounce of the heat and need he felt.

That wasn’t the strange part.

It was all the other stuff he was feeling that was weird. At the same time he wanted to ravish her, he also wanted to take care of her. He didn’t even know what that really entailed. Chocolate-covered strawberries? Love notes? Silk sheets? Marvin Gaye? What he did know was it didn’t involve vibrators, doggie position or words like “suck me”.

When his gaze returned to her face, the words “suck me” in Tessa’s voice still echoing in his head, she was looking at him with both eyebrows up.

Dammit.

She didn’t say anything. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something.

“I—” he started. But he couldn’t make himself add that he wanted to bend her over and flip that sweet skirt with the pink flowers up over her back while he took her from behind. Nope, definitely not something he could say to Tess. “I’m sorry,” he said instead.

Her eyebrows actually went higher with that. “You’re sorry?

“Yeah. I got…distracted there for a second.”

“By looking at my breasts?”

Bryan felt his own eyebrows shoot up. “Um…”

She tipped her head and gave him a look that clearly said she couldn’t believe he was going to try and deny it.

“Okay,” he said. “Yes. I shouldn’t have…checked you out like that.”

“Because you were thinking insulting things while you did it?”

“Um…” Was bending a girl over a chair
insulting
? Not in his world. The girls he knew would have all been quite pleased with it. But he wasn’t used to dating girls who had collected teddy bears well into their teen years or who didn’t have a favorite color, but instead preferred a rainbow of colors, from the covers they put on their textbooks to the clothes they wore. He definitely wasn’t used to dating girls who thought he hung the moon.

Women liked him. The ones he dated
really
liked him. He’d even had a couple who claimed to love him. But none of them thought he was without fault.
That
, actually, was another reason why he could only now date Tess. She’d had very high expectations of him all along. He was only now capable of actually measuring up to them.

“No,” he finally answered. “Not insulting.” He thought she was amazing and beautiful. And the bending-over-a-chair thing was just one of the manifestations of those feelings. But he was going to have to work on some missionary-position fantasies. And maybe figure out what you said in bed to a nice girl. “Put your leg over my shoulder” probably wasn’t on the list. For sure “you feel so fucking good around my cock” wasn’t.

“Good. I don’t consider you liking my breasts an insult either. So no need to be sorry.”

That was the second time Tessa had said the word breasts to him, and he couldn’t figure out why he felt turned on and discomfited by that at the same time.

“You look really nice,” he said. He sounded like an idiot.

“Nice?” she repeated.

“Yes. You’re beautiful and that dress looks great on you.”

“Okay, well thanks.”

“Sure. And I’m sorry that I—” He waved his hand up and down, mimicking how his eyes had gone up and down her body.

“And you want to be my boyfriend.” Suddenly, she turned on her heel and headed out of the room.

“Wait.
What
?”

But she kept walking.

“Tess! Hey, Tess, hang on!”

He started after her, but after about six paces, she stopped and swung back. “What?”

He stopped, surprised. “I just—” Shit, he just wanted to be with her. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For whatever is making you leave.”

“You being you is making me leave, Bryan,” she said. “You’re sorry for being you?”

“I…” He really didn’t know what to say to that either. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. You’re gorgeous. And you have…”

“Breasts,” she said with a sigh when he trailed off. “They’re called breasts, Bryan. And they’re not exactly new.”

“I know. I just haven’t let myself look at
yours
.”

She nodded. “Thanks for clarifying that. Thing is, if you feel bad just looking at my breasts, banging me on your desk at the bar would be really difficult.”

She turned and started to walk away again.

Bryan was so overwhelmed by her words—and the vivid pictures they created in his imagination—that she got to the doorway before he recovered.

“What are you talking about?”

She turned back. “You said you want to be my boyfriend, but I can promise you that if I’m not getting some on top of your desk at the Come Again, I’m
definitely
not interested.”

There was that extremely graphic image of her on his desk again. It wasn’t his fault that it took him nearly five seconds to think of something
other
than that. It was biology’s fault.

“Where are you going?” he called after her.

They could go to the bar. Derek might be there, but Bryan could get rid of him easily. The lunch crowd wouldn’t trickle in until about eleven. They had almost an hour…

“Want to head over to the Come Again?” he called louder. Jokingly. Kind of.

She stopped abruptly and swung around. “That’s not funny.”

Yeah, it probably wasn’t. “Sorry.”

“And for the love of God, stop saying you’re sorry!”

“Okay. Sor—right. Got it. No saying sorry and no joking about sex on my desk.”

She looked as if she wanted to say more, but she pressed her lips together.

“For the record,” he added. “It wasn’t the idea of looking at your breasts that made me feel bad.”

Again, she opened her mouth, then shut it without saying anything and shook her head. She pivoted toward the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

She paused with her hand on the door. “For a r—out. To do…some stuff. That’s not here. With you.”

Yep, she was cute when she was riled up. And not making sense.

“Hey, Tess?”

She sighed and didn’t move. “
Definitely
somewhere you are
not
,” she more or less muttered. Loud enough for him to hear. She also didn’t turn around. “What, Bryan?”

“Good luck with the avoiding me thing.”

She didn’t say anything, but he thought maybe he could hear her grinding her teeth.

* * *

Stupidly, Bryan was still grinning when he walked into the Come Again ten minutes later. He was riling her up. That wasn’t the same thing as kissing her or dancing with her or taking her out on a date. But it was actually more fun in some ways. Well, maybe not more fun than kissing. But fun in a different way. Now riling her up
by
kissing her…yeah, he could go for that.

But this was Tess.
Could
he go for that? She was the type of girl that made a guy think of flowers and chocolates and moonlight strolls. None of that said
riled up
.

And wow, Bryan liked riled up.

“What’s with you?”

Bryan realized he’d been whistling as he looked up to find Derek watching him with an eyebrow arched.

“Nothing. A guy can’t be happy?”

“You’re always happy. But you’re usually grinning-and-giving-away-drinks happy. This is whistling happy. So…you won the lottery or you got laid.”

Bryan round the bar. “Ha. Neither.”

Derek narrowed his eyes. “Right. You’ve got money and you’ve had girls since I’ve known you and you didn’t whistle.” Derek continued to study him.

“What are you doing?” Bryan asked as he moved down the length of the bar. Suddenly, he was uncomfortable with the whole having-girls thing. It had been a while. Well, it had been a few months. Like three. But now his full focus was on Tess.

“Trying to figure out what could happen that would make the most optimistic guy I know even happier than usual.”

Bryan thought about lying or putting Derek off or just ignoring him. But then he turned to the other guy and said, “It is a girl.”

“Ah-ha!” Then Derek frowned. “But you having a girl isn’t new.”

“Me having
this
one is new.”

Derek shook his head. “Thought you had a thing for Tess.”

“Yep.”

Derek’s eyes widened. “
Tess
is the reason you’re whistling?”

“Yep.”

“So she changed her mind.”

“No.” Now Bryan frowned.

“So what’s with the whistling?”

Bryan thought about that. It was because he was feeling hopeful.

Why was he feeling hopeful?

It seemed that he should be less encouraged since she’d tried to get him to quit the committee and had needed to get away from him after it was all over. But damn, he did feel happier.

Feisty. She’d been a little feisty.

And if he was
totally
honest with himself, feisty was more in his wheelhouse than sweet. He’d mellowed, for sure. He knew what was important. He had made some major life changes and was ready to make more. But there had been brief, fleeting moments he’d been trying to completely wipe from his mind where he’d wondered if he really could hang out with a sweet girl long-term.

There was a glimmer of hope now that Tess wasn’t
too
sweet.

Hell, she’d used the word breasts and had talked about him
banging
her on his desk. In fact, she’d laid that down as a
requirement
.

He was
definitely
hopeful.

“Tess is coming around,” he finally told Derek.

“So you haven’t…” Derek trailed off meaningfully.

Bryan frowned at him. “No.” And why did
that
question annoy him? He wanted to…with Tess, and this was exactly the kind of conversation he had with his friends. But now, talking like this about things he wanted to do with Tessa, seemed wrong. “And this is
Tess
, Derek. We’re not talking about her like she’s some hookup from last call, got it?”

Derek actually looked relieved. “Yeah. Got it. Good. I was hoping you felt that way about her.”

Bryan turned fully to face his bartender. “What do you mean? Tess is the girl I intend to spend the rest of my life with. You know that.” Everyone knew that. Bryan wasn’t a shy, private kind of guy. He’d grown up in Sapphire Falls. Being shy and private was pretty much a losing battle around here anyway, and the sooner a guy accepted that, the less stress he had in his life. It also worked for his general nature. He shared. Sometimes overly. But he wasn’t embarrassed by his feelings, his thoughts, his dreams, and he was very open about them all.

“Yeah, I know,” Derek said, turning back to the cleaning he was doing behind the bar. “It’s just that Tess is different than your usual girls. And you’ve been gone for a while. I just wanted to be sure you realized that.”

Bryan felt a stupid surge of jealousy. Was Derek insinuating he knew Tess better than Bryan did? Why did Derek feel protective of her? “I’ve known Tess all my life. And on some level I’ve loved her as long as I’ve known her. She’s loved me too.”