Chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

E mmerleigh

"Savannah!" I hollered into the backyard where the woman was supposed to be cutting a full-sized sheet of drywall to the exact specs I gave her. "Hang on a sec!"

I'd missed the fact that we also needed a cutout for an electrical outlet, a rookie error that wouldn't have happened if I had my brain focused on work and not on every little detail of what Warrick had done to my body. Hopefully I'd caught her before she started hauling the huge sheet back to the house. She came jogging back over, not at all irritated like I was. I showed her the plans and the freaking electrical outlet cutout. She nodded and walked outside, whistling a tune I didn't recognize.

Pip stood up from where she'd been crouched, screwing in a piece of drywall on the far wall of the bedroom addition. "Got the big man on the brain, boss?" She waggled her eyebrows, revving the drill bit and pulsing it in the air in a lewd way.

I rolled my eyes. "No."

Her cackle of laughter told me she didn't believe me for one second. Speaking of the devil, Warrick stuck his head in the door and his gaze found me instantly. My cheeks warmed along with his eyes as they took in the full length of me. I'm sure I was a sight, covered in construction dust and sweat dotting my forehead.

"Time for lunch, Slaywright."

God, just his low-pitched drawl was enough to make my insides wobble. I kept replaying all the dirty things he'd whispered to me last night in that voice. The man had perfected dirty talking to that of an art form. Prior encounters of the bedroom variety had been mostly quiet affairs for me, punctuated by an occasional grunt or two before Cayden started snoring.

"No time to waste right now," I said, careful to keep my voice even. Pip was watching our exchange with an avid smile on her face. "Gotta finish this bedroom."

Warrick stepped into the room, a challenge in his eyes that meant we were probably going to fight about something. I opened my mouth to beat him to it—after all, this was a work-related thing and he had promised not to interfere—but he lunged for me and the words died in my throat. He ducked at the last minute and suddenly I was being lifted in the air. The world tilted and Warrick's shoulder knocked the wind right out of my lungs as he bodily carried me out of the room. My tools, the ones hanging from my waist, whacked him in the chest and I didn't feel sorry for him at all. He deserved it for manhandling me.

Pip cheered, even as I kicked my feet. "We got it from here, boss! You enjoy the wiener schnitzel!"

My jaw dropped open and the rest of me froze with embarrassment. Sadly, that gave Warrick a window to clamp his hand down on my ankles to restrain the kicking. I was left with beating my fists on his gorgeous ass, or remain still and unleash hell when he finally set me down. I chose to bottle up my ire after the first punch to his backside ended with my hand opening against my will and smoothing along his ass cheek, like some kind of lust-addled woman who couldn't keep her hands to herself.

Warrick chuckled as he marched us through the house and out the front door. "Already grabbing my ass, wife? Wait until we get to the barn at least before you grope me."

I growled my displeasure at his teasing and he howled with laughter. He finally stopped and put me back on my feet, his hands staying on my hips. "Have lunch with me. Please?"

Well, crap. I couldn't yell at him now, not when he used please. When I'd said the word last night, he hadn't messed around. He'd given me exactly what I'd asked for, and I owed him the same level of respect.

And there was a part of me, buried under the betrayal and general disappointment in life, that was swooning at the blanket he'd laid out under an oak tree. A picnic basket waited for us.

I shrugged. "I do need to eat lunch."

He grinned and let go of my hips now that I wasn't a flight risk. "Exactly."

I took my tool belt off and laid it down on the corner of the blanket. We both sat down, him in his fancy jeans and boots, me in work clothes that were already dirty and sweaty. Warrick pulled out five sub sandwiches and eight bags of chips, all a different variety, from the picnic basket.

"I didn't know what you'd like, so I got a bunch," he said sheepishly.

My heart, the one I'd kept carefully behind plexiglass so thick not even my circular saw could get through, squeezed. "Thank you. I'm not picky like Georgia though."

Warrick bit into one of the sandwiches I didn't choose, his gaze settled on the tree line out back. I took a bite of the roast beef on rye and had to admit—to myself only—that this gesture was sweet. He'd tied me up and rocked my world last night and now he'd bought out the sandwich shop to make sure I stayed fed while I worked.

My cell phone buzzed and I took it out of my pocket to make sure it wasn't the preschool. It was Anton. I clicked the side button to send it to voicemail. I looked up and saw Warrick watching me.

"Your brother?"

I nodded and looked away.

"You should answer it," Warrick said lightly.

The phone buzzed again, but I instantly silenced it. "No, I'll call him later. He just wants to know about the case and I haven't gotten any of those lawyers to call me back." I picked a piece of grass off the blanket and flicked it aside. That was another thing I was failing at. How could I protect my daughter if I couldn't even get a lawyer to represent me?

Anton, being a stubborn ass, called a third time. Except before I could send him to voicemail, Warrick swiped my phone up and answered it, pressing it to his ear. I lunged for him, but he twisted out of the way, and hopped to his feet. The man was very nimble for his height and age.

"Em's phone, Warrick Wolfe speaking."

I could hear my brother's voice answering after a moment of shocked silence.

"Yeah, she's eating lunch. I forced her to finally take a break. The woman is a work horse and doesn't seem to know her limits."

My brother said something back and Warrick chuckled. I buried my face in my hands. This was not going to go over well. I hadn't even told Anton about Warrick, or this marriage, or that we were living here.

"She's doing just fine and her lawyers say she has a slam-dunk case." There was a pause. "Oh, yeah, I'm her husband. Warrick Wolfe, nice to meet you."

"Fuck," I muttered, wishing I could dig a hole and jump in it.

My brother's voice carried, but I couldn't tell what he was saying exactly. Warrick let him go on, making funny faces at me, like this whole thing was funny .

"Why don't you come out here and we can tell you the whole story?" Warrick was finally able to say when Anton wound down.

I shook my head no, but Warrick ignored me.

"Great! I can't wait to meet you. See ya tomorrow."

Warrick handed the phone back to me. "Anton's going to drive in tomorrow and visit."

I gaped at him. "Yeah, I fucking heard that." I whacked him on the arm. "What the hell, Dick?"

Warrick's shoulders slumped. "Back to Dick?"

I stared at him incredulously. "Yeah. When you answer my phone and talk to my brother about my personal business, you most certainly will be called a dick."

Warrick stuffed my phone in the front pocket of my jeans and backed me up against the tree trunk behind me. "You said I could only intervene with family stuff, remember? Your brother is family, is he not?"

I thumped his chest with my palms, but he didn't budge. "I meant family stuff like you, me, and Georgia!"

Warrick suddenly grinned, looking quite pleased with himself. "Ah, so you admit we're a family. I love hearing that, Em."

"Argh!" I blew out a frustrated breath. "You know what I mean. I didn't want Anton to find out about our marriage that way."

Warrick shrugged, his hands coming to my hips. "He's worried about you, Em. He needs to see with his own eyes how well you're doing."

Part of me wanted to curl up against his chest and let those words soak in like a warm drizzle of honey on freshly baked bread on a cold night. Then I remembered everything I had to do in the next two days and that warm and fuzzy feeling was dashed.

"I don't have time for a visit! I have exactly two days to get the bedroom done before your mother is here."

Warrick huffed, his hands coming up to cup my face, pinning me in. "Make time for your family, Em. I didn't always give my father the attention he deserved because of my work schedule and now I'm paying for that." His thumb swiped across my cheek so gently, pain visible in his eyes when he was usually so careful to mask it. "Forget the bonus. It's yours anyway, whether you finish in two days or not."

My spine stiffened. "No. I won't take that bonus if I haven't earned it." When he looked like he'd argue, I interrupted him. "But I will visit with Anton. Because you're right. Family is important."

He dipped his head to kiss my forehead. "Thank you," he murmured against my skin. Like my agreeing to see my family helped him somehow. But maybe it did. The man took care of every little detail for me when he didn't have to. Maybe he really did care that I remained close to my brothers. Which was opposite of Cayden. My ex had tried to keep me away from them as much as possible, one of many red flags I'd ignored.

"Warrick," I moaned, the onslaught of all his sweet gestures hitting me harder than they should.

He kissed his way down my cheek and across my chin. "I love it when you groan my name, baby."

And then his mouth was on mine, reminding me of every delicious moment last night that I'd tried to forget about this morning. His thick thigh pushed between my legs and suddenly my hands weren't pushing him away anymore. I was gripping his shirt in my fists, like I was afraid the sweet, caring man I'd come to know would disappear in front of my eyes. We stayed there long enough for me to consider letting him lay me out naked on that blanket and do unspeakable things to me while my crew was nearby, but he pulled his mouth from me, his lungs pumping.

"I better let you get back to work," he said hoarsely. Then he pushed away and let his hands drop. His jeans looked painfully tight. We stood there staring at each other, both of us obviously turned on and breathing hard, but unable to do anything about it in the middle of the day .

I turned to grab my tool belt off the blanket. "Thank you for lunch."

Warrick had a twinkle in his eye when I straightened, fastening the belt around my waist. "Don't want to disappoint Pip. I'll have to give you the wiener schnitzel later."

Walking away, I couldn't help but laugh.

As I walked back to the house to keep working, I wondered if I'd ever laughed this much with Cayden. The answer was an easy, absolute no.