Man Seeks Woman 2, Man Seeks Wife (13 page)

My lip curled
upwards as I crossed my arms over my chest, giving him the meanest
glare I could muster. “Yes.”

He sighed; a
long put on sigh that was so fucking fake it wasn’t even funny. He
raised his hands in surrender and blinked innocently down at me.
“Even though I would buy you all the food in the world to make you
happy, I promise. Is that better?”

I pursed my
lips and studied him for a good minute before nodding once. “Mmmm,
but not much,”

Sebastian
reached out and snagged my wrists, pulling me to him and pressed
his lips against mine. I let him give me one kiss before I swatted
his face away when he tried to get the kiss to go deeper.

“Haven’t you
got work to do or something?” he was bugging me now. It didn’t
matter that he had pledged his undying love for me or not, he was
officially getting on my nerves now.

He shrugged
his shoulders and went to grab me again but I moved out of the way,
avoiding those intense long fingers. “I do but I’m the boss, so I
call the shots.”

I snorted and
shook my head as I reached past him for a piece of bread so I could
have some toast. “You sound so fucking arrogant.”

“
Victoria.”
My name was shouted down the phone making me
nearly drop the thing.

“What?” I
snapped pressing it to my ear.

“Was that
Sebastian I heard?” Conrad asked suspiciously.

“Yes,
why,”

“No reason.”
He said a little too quickly for my liking. “You’ve got an hour to
get your arse to work before I come round there and put you over my
knee and spank that fucking arse of yours and,” he lowered his
voice until it was a growled whisper. “Don’t tempt me, woman.” With
that he ended the call.

I made a face
at the phone and threw bloody thing down on the kitchen counter,
watching it bounce around, sliding towards the edge of the counter
ready to fall off—Sebastian caught it and handed it back to me with
a raised brow.

“Thank you.” I
muttered, ignoring his look and pushing past him to get to the
toaster. I popped the toast in the slot and pressed the lever down.
I closed my eyes after a minute inhaling the smell of the little
burnt crumbs at the bottom of the toaster being heated. The smell
was one of the best, ever.

“I’m going
now.” Sebastian said from behind me.

“Bye.” I waved
and smiled when he growled and yanked on my arm until I was in his
arms. “What are you doing?”

“I want a
goodbye kiss and a deep, good one too.” he murmured against my
lips. My mouth opened to tell him to dream on when his tongue
swiped inside, stealing my breath. I stood on my tiptoes and
wrapped my arms around his neck and tilted my head to the side to
get better access to his mouth.

All of those
times I’d wanted his lips on me before, all those times that I’d
imagined what they would feel like, I could never have imagined it
felt this good. His lips were heavy but soft, thick but pouty and
determined but giving all at the same time.

“Hmmm,” He
whispered as he pulled back. “I like kisses.”

I stared up
into his light blue eyes knowing that if I stared at them long
enough, I’d get lost in them, too lost in them. I blinked and
licked my lips, revelling in his manly taste coating them. “You
didn’t like kisses before?”

Sebastian
shrugged and rubbed his nose against mine. “It wasn’t the
same.”

My brows
pulled together. “I don’t understand.”

“Kisses with
you are...” he lolled his head back and fourth. “Different, there’s
something there, something in the deepness, the passion. I don’t
know but it’s different and really good.” He smiled and pressed his
lips to mine again. I couldn’t help but open my mouth and lick at
his lips, taking and stealing his taste one more time. “enough.” he
growled, pushing his hips against me, making me feel his steely
erection before pulling away and grabbing his coat and gym bag from
the floor.

Since he had
refused to leave on Friday night, Ralph had bought a bag over with
the food that Sebastian had ordered. Seeing Ralph again was
emotional. The big man was truly something and I’d missed him like
crazy in the past months. Rosa too but I had yet to see her.

I walked
Sebastian to the door. He turned and gave me one last kiss and a
squeeze before muttering those famous three words in my ear.

Part of me
still didn’t believe him even though I think I felt it from him
now.

My mouth
opened to tell him the same, even as a whisper but he climbed down
the steps before I could say anything. He headed to the shiny
silver BMW X6 parked along the curb. I couldn’t help but shake my
head as I watched the lights flash and Sebastian open the door and
climb in. He turned the ignition on and wound down the driver side
window. “I’ll see you tonight.” He called out before blowing me a
kiss.

I rolled my
eyes but nodded knowing that if I didn’t turn up at his apartment,
there’d be murders.

From my steps,
I watched as Sebastian drove off, giving him a wave until he turned
at the end of the turning. With a sigh and a shiver because it was
fucking freezing outside, I ran back inside my flat and closed the
door, going straight to my bedroom where I rummaged through my
wardrobe for clothing warm enough for this weather.

****

I walked into
the office and froze. My eyes were clearly deceiving me. Was this
the same office that I’d been working in?

The space was
filled to the brim with men and women dressed in the black and
white Brewster brother’s security uniform. They all looked damn
right pissed too.

As the door
closed, one by one, they turned from the conversations they were
having with each other to scowl at me. Some even glowered and some
out right glared directly at me.

“What?” I
snapped, pulling my handbag up further on my shoulder and placed my
hands on my hips.

“You,” Ron an
older security officer that worked for the local council offices
pointed his meaty finger at me. “This is your entire fault.”

My brows rose
so high, I was worried that they just might pop off my head. “Come
again?”

“This.” He
waved his big arms around, signalling everyone. “Without you here
to do our timetables and arrange for us to be paid, none of us have
anything. Even though we would normally go and do our normal
duties, some of our contracts needed renewing or adjusting on
Friday, something that you didn’t do.” Then he took a breath and he
seriously looked like he needed it too, if going by the intense
redness of his face. He looked like he was going to have a heart
attack or something. Not good.

My mouth
opened to tell him that it wasn’t exactly my fault when I heard the
stampede of feet, heavy feet at that. I knew those steps anywhere.
Conrad. Then the voice came. “Victoria.” He blared.

I rolled my
eyes and edged my way through the throng of security guards,
nodding when they voiced their worries and protestations. By the
time I got through them, I had a headache coming on and wasn’t in
the mood to deal with Conrad or Ben for that matter.

“I’m here.” I
called, stopping next to me desk where there was piles and piles of
paperwork that came from where exactly?

What
the...

Letting my bag
slide from my shoulder, I heard it drop to the floor as my mouth
dropped open in pure and utter shock and astonishment. All the
filing cabinets that had been religiously sorted through by me,
that had taken a painstakingly long time to file and sort out had
been pulled out and emptied onto my desk and the floor surrounding
said desk. The office, my office looked like a tornado had ripped
through it, disturbing everything in its wake.

There was only
one person responsible for this...Conrad.

“It’s about
fucking time you turned up.” Conrad groused, coming out of his
office with a cup full of that strawberry shit.

I glared at
the muscle building substance over my shoulder then at him. I held
my arms out wide and shook my head. “What the hell have you
done?”

Conrad’s brown
eyes blazed, turning darker if possible. “What have I done?” he
yelled. “You waltzed out of here like Shirley fucking Temple,
leaving all the contracts that needed sorting on your desk then
when I call you, you ignore me. So I thought I’d have a go of your
job seeing as you think you didn’t need it anymore and realised
once I’d booted up your computer that you’d changed the password
and for the fucking life of me, I couldn’t get into the systems.”
He continued to yell, his voice rising with every other word.
“Then,” He pitched. “I called you again, which you ignored, then,”
He yelled in my face, his strawberry breath wafting over me, “I
thought I’d do it by hand as in paper and pen then, I realised that
you’ve moved everything from where it was originally and you’ve
listed things differently to how we had our systems. Effectively,
you’ve fucked everything up.”

How frigging
dare he?

That’s it; I’d
had enough of his fucking shouting and his fruit flavoured breath.
“Listen, buster.” I ground out, jabbing my finger in his chest,
getting back in his face. “You’ve got ten seconds to get your snout
out of my face before I grab your nut sack and twist... What’s it
going to be?”

Boss or no
boss, I did not take too bloody kindly to being ranted at or
to.

Conrad closed
his mouth then opened it again, looking much like a fish. His eyes
were wide; I think he was in shock. Then as if realising that he
looked like an exposed fish, he smiled, a smile full of white teeth
and accompanied with the raised brow and the swirling brown eyes,
he was quite a catch. Eh, but not for me. “There’s the Victoria we
all know and love.”

Spit it out,
Ralph.

My head bopped
to Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” thumping in my ear, the bass
pounding through my drums. I knew I was probably doing damage to my
lugholes but good music needed to be appreciated and that meant
loud and abusive. I plucked my headphones out of my ears as I
closed the front door to Sebastian’s flat behind me. He’d left me a
lone spare key this morning with instructions to be here after I
finished work. Here I was.

I bent down
and pulled my furry boots off and kicked them to the side then
shuffled my coat off and hung it on one of those fancy hat stand
things he had next to the door. My orange scarf came next. I
shivered at the small chill that slithered around my neck.

“Hello.” I
called out to what seemed like silence. This was a nice welcome,
not.

Rosa popped
her head around the side of the door, a frown marring her face
until recognition lit her features. She bustled out of the kitchen
with her red apron fixed in place and a tea towel in her hands.

“Victoria.”
She gushed, rushing to me.

I gasped and
squeaked a little when the smaller woman pulled me into her arms
and squeezed me like it was going out of fashion. “Rosa.” I said
once I could breathe again. “How are you?”

She pulled
back, her hands on my shoulders as she stared at me through
narrowed eyes. “About time you come back.” She then waved a hand
around after removing it from me. “Sido malo aqui,”

Uh....

I knew some
Spanish but not much. I squeezed an eye shut and bit my lip as I
went through translations in my head but...I just couldn’t figure
it out.

“English,” I
asked, hopeful.

“Ah.” Rosa
chuckled and slipped her arm in the crook of mine and began to pull
me down the passage. My eyes followed the pictures on the walls,
seeing them exactly the same except for one. “Been bad here,”

I stopped and
stepped up to the magnificent picture. It was of a woman who looked
really familiar to me. I was sure I’d seen her somewhere before but
for the life of me, couldn’t place her. Actually, the main part of
the picture focused on the side of her face. In the partial shadow
that covered her face, the streaks of tears running down her cheek
shown bright and tense against the darkness. They looked like
silver strands instead of clear liquid.

“You like
picture?” Rosa asked as she stepped up beside me.

I swallowed
past the lump forming in my throat, the picture was striking and so
emotional all at the same time. “I do.” It was a work of art.

“
Si
is
you.” Rosa nodded and pointed at the picture. “Senor Sebastian had
made it.”

My eyes bugged
at her. She couldn’t be serious. What the hell?

“What?” I
screeched.

She turned and
blinked at the sound then those brows of hers pulled together and
her small hands landed on her ample hips. Then she was ranting off
in Spanish so quick I could barely make out what she was
saying.

I closed my
eyes and blew out a breath then opened them. “Rosa, calm down.” So
much for missing the fiery woman,

Rosa flapped
her lips and waved a hand again. “You not here,” She seethed. “You
not see Senor Sebastian everyday.” Her hands fluttered against her
chest, her face burning red but not from embarrassment or anything
but from anger. And it looked like it was towards me. “Bad thing to
see, man like that, down on floor,”

I had no
fucking clue what she was talking about, I really didn’t.

“Uh,”

Her mouth
opened to no doubt rant at me again but the front door chose that
minute to open and Ralph walked on through. His face was contoured
into intense concentration until he noticed me and Rosa.

“Victoria.” He
smiled but it wasn’t his usual, brilliant smile that made you,
yourself smile even when you felt like shit.

“What’s up,
Ralph,”

His eyes
darted to the space above my head for a spilt second before coming
back to mine. “Nothing you,”

Hmmm, there
was something going on. This wasn’t usual Ralph.