Searching, she lifted her face to the building. Her lips puckered in confusion as she changed directions. She started toward the row of bays that ran the opposite side that were currently all locked up tight.
When she disappeared from view of the lobby windows, I pushed out from behind the counter and moved for the main door. Pushing it open, I stepped out into the warmth of the breaking day.
I looked to the right in the direction she’d gone, and the girl was strutting in those heels down the row of garage doors.
“You lost?” I leaned an arm against the wall, grinning that way as she whirled around on a sharp gasp, her face curdled in surprise before she blew out in relief.
Thunderbolt eyes narrowed.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on someone like that?” Her voice was doing that low, seductive thing, and need was grappling around for a place to take root in my belly.
Growling for a fill.
Rough laughter scraped free. “Sneak up on you? I’m fifty feet away. Would hardly call that sneaking up. I saw you out here rambling around and figured I’d come put you out of your misery.”
“I was looking for your door.” She waved a flustered hand at the massive building.
I quirked a brow. “To my loft?”
Reluctantly, she nodded, like standing there she was rethinking her purpose. “Yeah.”
I angled my head. “Around to the side of the building. There’s a separate exterior entrance. For next time.”
I let the smirk take hold, as clear as the suggestion.
She huffed with a slight tug at the edges of her delicious mouth, and she started my way. “Right. Okay.”
She moved closer.
Each step sent a shockwave of that electricity vibrating the ground.
Zinging my flesh and stoking my senses.
“Listen, I know it’s early, and I figured you’d still be upstairs which was why I was looking for another door, and I’m sorry I showed up here without an appointment so long before opening, but I needed to use Darius’ truck before he needs it for work and I—”
She clipped off the avalanche of words that had started rolling from her mouth, her lips thinning as if she’d just realized she’d been rambling faster than one of those old-school auctioneers.
Could feel the amusement twitching through my expression, and she stumbled to a stop ten feet away.
She blew out a sigh, then turned her phone to me with a hint of desperation tinting her voice. “Is this you?”
I pushed from the wall, squinting as I took a step forward to see what was on her screen.
An ad.
An ad that I’d been running but had been ignoring the calls for interviews for over the last four weeks because I just didn’t have time to see it through. Not exactly the most prudent of business decisions, but it was what it was.
“Yeah?” I answered it like a question.
Her head bounced at the confirmation, and she was looking out to the forest that hugged the lot before she was returning that gorgeous face to me. “Let me help…temporarily…until I pay off the car.”
Could feel the frown curling my brow. “Told you not to worry about it.”
“And I told you I would find a way to pay you back.”
Tension stretched between us.
Taut and tight.
“Please, Jud. I can’t just accept a handout from you.”
Air wheezed from my nose.
This girl definitely didn’t want to accept help.
Truth was, her car was so old, it was hardly worth fixing.
Thing was a pile.
Unsafe and unreliable.
What she needed was a new one. But I doubted much that was an option considering she was standing there begging me to let her work to pay off the repairs.
“Are you asking me for an interview, Salem?”
Her brows spiked. “You want me to interview?”
“You wanna work here…temporarily…？” I let the question hang.
“Ugh.” She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead, peeking at me around it. “Fine.”
A low chuckle flooded the air, and I shifted so I could open the lobby door. “Come on in, darlin’。”
Salem blew out the strain, and she straightened her shoulders and waltzed that fine ass past me and through the door.
It wasn’t like I was going to turn her away. Hell, I didn’t need her to repay me at all, but since she was insisting, figured I at least needed to know what she could do. Truth be told, I needed the help.
It didn’t hurt that I kind of relished the idea of her strutting around here in those heels all day long, either.
I stepped in behind her, and she stood there in the foyer of my lobby.
A storm.
Sweet, sweet ferocity.
There was something about her that was so compelling.
The girl was a fucking cocktail of toasted coconut and sultry sin.
Wanted to take a long, satisfying drink.
A smirk kept tugging at the corner of my mouth as I edged by her and rounded the counter. I started shuffling through paperwork again.
“So, tell me, gorgeous,” I mumbled as I foraged around, “why do you want to work here?”
From where she stood five feet away, she sighed out in defiance. “To repay a debt, Mr. Lawson. Obviously. And I’m pretty sure you should probably stop calling me gorgeous if I’m going to work here.”
I tossed a glance at her from over the high counter. “Impossible. Not when it’s true.”
Thunderbolt eyes struck.
A lash of lust.
A stroke of greed.
I slowed, pressed my hands to the counter as I looked her up and down.
I should lock it up.
Stop this fall before I hit rock bottom.
But there I went, tossing my ass right over the side. “You didn’t text me back.”
Her cheeks flamed.
Yup.
The girl was affected.
Could feel it thicken the atmosphere.
Tighten the cord.
The connection keened in the space between us.
Air suddenly shot from her nose, a burst of reservation and determination. “Because that would be inappropriate.”
“If you think that’s inappropriate, I think we should rethink our boundaries.”
Her head shook. “This can’t happen.”
“What’s that?”
She frantically gestured between us. “This.”
Her rebuttal didn’t even feel like an obstacle to hold us back. Not when it was clear she wanted it every bit as much as me.
I let the feigned confusion climb into the twist of my brow, unable to stop from teasing her. Not when she was so damned hot when she got all feisty. “This?”
“This,” she hissed in frustration.
A roll of low laughter tumbled out, and I was leaning closer. “You’re going to have to be clearer, darlin’。”
Frustration shot from her mouth, and the girl sauntered the rest of the way over to me.
The ripple of her hitched the air in my throat.
“Don’t toy with me, Jud. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I get it. I’m sure you’re more than accustomed to getting what you want, and I’m sure women jump into your bed whenever you flash them that smile. You’re charming and handsome and—” She bit down on the word she was about to let go. “But I’m here because I want to do what’s right, not because I find you attractive. When I saw the listing, it felt like a sign…a way to repay a debt. So please, if I can help, let me help.”