Love Under Two Jessops (16 page)

Now Rebecca’s face paled, just slightly. “Sorry, did I say ‘him’? Of course, I meant ‘one.’ No one in particular. I’m single, heading to spinsterhood. Remember?”

“I do that all the time,” Chloe assured her easily. “It’s what happens when my mind goes one way and my mouth goes another.”

“Exactly.” Rebecca Jessop looked down at her bowl. “Kelsey makes really good soup, doesn’t she?”

“She does.” Chloe had no trouble letting the subject drop. But she did appreciate a bit of a puzzle now and then. She’d have to wait and see if she got any more clues from the reclusive young—and very lonely—woman.

* * * *

Chloe reached her hand out to greet her first interviewee and thought that she had never met a more exotic-looking woman in all her life.

Tasha Garwood of the sleek, skull-molding short black hair and eyes of an almost translucent green also had a voice that Chloe thought might drive some men wild. Sultry and smoky, she thought the woman might be able to mesmerize with her words, alone.

Then Tasha smiled, and the sexy-siren image was replaced by what struck Chloe as the all-American girl next door. Chloe blinked because the contrast startled her. Tasha laughed.

“I have that effect on people. Seriously, I don’t know how to change that. I’m adopted, and my parents tell me the authorities warned them that my forebears were of Romany extraction.” Her shrug let Chloe know she really didn’t care one way or another. “I worked one summer with a traveling carnival. I was
Madam Mysterious
, the fortune-teller who knew all. It was a
really
good summer for tips.”

Chloe grinned. She’d never met a person with so many facets hanging right out there for everyone to see. Tasha—short for Natasha—was twenty-seven years old, single, and currently employed at the Damien Aldus Day Spa in Austin. All of her references checked out, of course. Chloe had been surprised when, during the telephone interview, Tasha had given her current employment references, and invited her to call her boss.

The man—a man named Davy, not Damien—said he really hated to see her go, but understood her desire to move to a smaller town.

Tasha had been very up front about being more than tired of big-city living. She’d let him know what she’d wanted to do before she began to actively look for another job. That spoke to Chloe of not only Tasha’s honesty and integrity. It said that she’d built a good relationship with her boss, and had cherished it enough not to damage it even in the face of finding other employment.

Tasha had said the fact that
Lusty Glow
was in a very small town was the major reason she’d answered Chloe’s ad in the first place.

If Tasha had been younger, say, twenty or twenty-one, Chloe might be concerned about her professed desire to get away from big-city living. But she was a woman old enough to surely know her own mind.

“Why did you choose to be an esthetician?” Chloe asked.

Tasha grinned. “I like people, and it’s interesting work. You take time one-on-one, and serve people. You give them a facial, or a wax, a mani or a pedi, whatever they need. They’re busy, have busy lives, and they come to you to do something very personal for them. It’s a kind of pampering because, even when it’s waxing, the client feels that you have pampered them, given them something that’s
just
for them.”

“I guess you understand that working with the public can have its drawbacks. Some people can be real pills.” Chloe crinkled her nose. “There seems to be one in every spa you ever work at, you know what I mean?”

Tasha shrugged. “Of course they can. A bit of bitchiness I can handle. Just as the client needs that manicure or pedicure or the facial, maybe they need to bitch a little at someone—someone who really doesn’t, at the end of the day, matter to them personally. I can provide that service, too.” Her look sobered. “I do, however, have a bottom line. You might as well know that I don’t let people slide from being bitchy to being abusive, just because they’re paying for spa services.”

Chloe nodded her head. She knew of some employers—she’d had one herself in Dallas—who expected their staff to take abuse with a smile. To Tasha she said, “Good. The customer is always right, but only to a point.” She wanted to say that she would be completely shocked if Tasha encountered
anyone
here with that kind of an attitude. But the truth was, there was nothing stopping someone from outside of town from indulging themselves at the
Lusty Glow Day Spa
.

Chloe asked a couple of procedural questions, but she’d already decided to offer Tasha Garwood a position as a general esthetician.

“Do you have any questions for me?” Chloe asked.

“I do have one. Do you know if there are any apartments or houses to let in town? I’m obviously going to have to move, and I’d rather not live in another large city like Waco—but of course, I will if I have to.”

Chloe nodded. “As a matter of fact, there are a couple of places available.” She handed Tasha Jake’s card. “Mr. Kendall handles all the properties in town. He knew I was interviewing today. He said to go on over and see him.”

Tasha read the card and raised one eyebrow. “A lawyer who doesn’t require an appointment?” Her grin came quick and overflowed with fun. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing.”

“You’re going to discover that Lusty isn’t like any town you’ve ever known before.”

Tasha tilted her head to the side. “Does that mean I get the job?”

“If you want it, it’s yours.”

Chloe had a good feeling about Tasha. The woman said she’d go see Jake right away. Chloe called him then and there to let him know she was on her way.

Chloe hoped she got as good a vibe from the other interview she had scheduled for today. Checking her watch she saw that it was only about one fifteen, and her next applicant—Arianna Stein—wasn’t due until two thirty.

She made her way out to the main room. Her eyes were drawn to her magnificent brass waterfall that was still, for the moment. She couldn’t help but chuckle when she thought of the way her men had reacted to the sound of trickling water. And not just her men, either. Both Peter
and
Jordan had suggested they keep the decoration turned off while they finished up their work—Jordan had said there were only a few hours of fine detail work left to do, anyway.

They were chatting amiably now, the Alvarez-Kendalls, as they worked together on those fine details. Baseboard and trim, switch and receptacle plates, and putting up the few pieces of art she’d found during her trip to the flea markets last Sunday.

In the front corner, by the plate glass window, the shelving unit that she’d scrounged and Jordan had refinished stood empty, the final coat of varnish on it drying.

“The woman who just walked out of here? She looks like a Gypsy,” Peter said. “And she has a nice smile. Did you hire her?”

Chloe nodded. “I did. She comes highly recommended from her current boss who sounded darn near despondent that she was leaving him.”

“Well, that’s always a good sign,” Jordan said.

“I sent her over to see your brother. Tasha had asked if there’s an apartment available in town. Jake said there were a couple.”

“Another good sign,” Peter said. “I’ve never been a boss but I would have to guess that if an employee is willing to move to be close to work, it means she’s likely to be reliable.”

“My thinking as well.” She grinned. “The next candidate may be quite a contrast. We’ll have to wait see.”

Chloe had some paperwork to do, and since the men pretty much had what was left of the construction end covered, she figured she might as well get to it.

She really hated paperwork. She’d rather just do what she loved to do, and that was take care of clients. But this part of being a business owner was necessary, and new, and she was very grateful to Jake Kendall and his fathers for steering her through all the compulsory forms and reports and filings necessary to open a business in the State of Texas.

Her gaze slid to her cell phone, all nicely charged up, just sitting there, doing nothing. Chloe’s thoughts winged across Main Street, and over a couple of blocks to a certain two-story house with a couple of firemen inside.

They were likely both awake by now, or just about to be.

She thought of them, two lonely men, each in his own very lonely, empty bed. Naked skin surrounded by those crisp, white sheets.

Chloe clenched her inner muscles as a ripple of arousal shivered through her, making her cunt wet. An idea came to her, a sexy, saucy idea that made her grin.
I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t.

Chloe reached for her phone. She never had before, and she probably really shouldn’t, but she was going to.

* * * *

Grant lay quietly as his body continued to come awake, as the last twenty-four hours washed over him. He flicked a look at the clock and realized it was after one, which meant he’d only managed about five hours’ sleep. Enough to take a chunk out of the exhaustion he’d felt as they’d cleaned their gear and stowed it.

There was no way he’d get back to sleep now. He’d get up and have another shower in a few moments. But for right this moment he decided to wallow in the warmth of his bed.

He knew it was only his imagination that had Chloe’s scent playing on his mind, clinging to his body and the sheets. She’d never been in this bed, what he almost wanted to call his
bachelor
bed.

He listened, but could only hear the rhythmic ticking of the clock that hung in the hall, between his room and his brother’s. Andrew likely still slept on. He’d have to be careful not to wake him when he got up to shower and dress.

Time to get my lazy ass out of bed.

Grant reached for the sheet, and his cell phone came awake, too, playing Emerson Drive’s “She’s My Kind Of Crazy.”

Grant grinned as he reached for the phone. “Hey, there, baby girl. Do you miss me?”

“Hey there, darlin’, I didn’t wake you did I?”

“No, I’ve been lying here trying to talk myself into getting up.”

“Hmm, maybe I can do that for you. Talk you into getting up, I mean.”

Her voice, soft and sexy, already had his cock responding. Her words fired not only his imagination, but his libido.

“Why, Chloe Rhodes, are you proposing to have phone sex with me?”

“Mmhmm, I am indeed, Mr. Jessop. Unless, of course, you’re not interested.”

Grant could hear the grin in her voice. “Oh, hell, yes, I’m interested. Of course, I’d much rather have sex with you right here, in person.”

“Well now, we can’t always get what we want, sweetheart, can we? I wish I could be there, too. Are you still in bed?”

“Yeah.” Grant sighed, putting as much drama into the sound as he could. “In my bed, all alone, and horny as hell.”

“Mmm, I can close my eyes and picture that beautiful cock of yours, so hot and hard. Did you know that when I close my eyes and inhale deeply, I can tell the difference between your cock and Andrew’s?”

“Is that right?”

“It is. And when I bury my nose so close to where that delicious cock of yours emerges from your body, your particular aroma gets
me
horny as hell.”

Grant felt his cock harden, and it was all he could do not to groan. “I like the sound of that. Tell me more.”

“The scent of you, right there at the base of your cock makes my nipples go hard and my cunt drip, wanting you.”

Holy shit
. Grant’s cock pulsed. “Lord Almighty, woman, you know how to get me hard.”

“Will you do me a favor, lover?”

“Mmm, you know I will.”

“Will you reach down, and stroke your cock for me? Wrap your hand around that hot piece of wonderful and stroke it the way I would if I was there.”

Her voice compelled him, and his hand responded before his mind even gave the command.

“Mmm, I’m closing my eyes and just imagining having my hand on you. Does it feel good?”

“Yeah, my cock is hot and hungry, and needing you, baby girl.”

“I’d lick my way down your chest until I could nuzzle my face right there, right where your cock rises so straight and hard from your body. I’d breathe you in and know this is the aroma I need. This is a man I crave. My mouth would water, and I wouldn’t be able to resist sliding my tongue up along your shaft. All the way up, slowly, as if I had all day to do just that, to taste you and savor you and then drink you down.”

“
Baby
.”

“Do you have a drop of honey for me? A clear little drop at the end of your cock, a tiny taste of what’s to come? Mmm, I’m sitting back in my chair, right here in my office. My panties are so wet. Maybe I’ll slide my skirt up and my thong down. Do you want me to do that? Do you want me to stroke my pussy for you?”

Grant closed his eyes and swallowed hard. His left hand held the phone to his ear while his right hand began to stroke his cock, long, steady strokes as he imagined her doing just that.

“I want you to play with your pussy, baby girl. I want you to push your fingers inside your cunt, and imagine I’m teasing you with the tip of my cock. Oh baby, your cunt feels so damn good when my cock is nestled inside it.”