Savin' Me (3 page)

Her words had been directed at Seth, but
they’d settled in Kat’s gut like a heavy weight. The night she met
Erik, she’d suspected one-night stands were a way of life for him.
That had been part of the reason she’d left while he was still
sleeping. However, knowing it intuitively was a lot different than
hearing about his sexcapades first hand.

Cut the crap, Kat.

Jealousy was ridiculous and immature. She’d
been lucky enough to have one night with Erik, and the memories
were hers forever. Tonight, however, was not the time to stroll
down memory lane. The situation was surreal and like bad déjà vu.
What would happen to her job if anyone found out she’d slept with
Erik?

It was before you took this job—relax.

Easy to think, but hard to do with the past
rushing at her like an out of control freight train destined for a
horrible, fiery crash. She refused to let another promotion slip
away because of a lapse in judgment. He’d been pissed off by her
presence, so maybe he’d be happy to keep their fling quiet.

Tightness filled her chest at the thought of
asking him to treat their night together as a dirty little secret.
She was sure to him it had just been another one-night stand, but
to her it had been more. Much more.

“His nickname is ‘The Full Monty,’” Cara
said, interrupting Kat’s thoughts. “No one works harder than Erik,
but he plays equally hard. He’s wild and untamed. Many have tried,
but most believe he’ll never settle down.”

Kat studied Cara as she absently stroked her
arm and glanced around the room, obviously searching for the object
of their discussion. Kat didn’t know if she was being warned off
Erik for her protection, or because Cara had designs on Erik and
wanted one less competitor in the field. Either way, it didn’t
matter. Erik was off-limits to Kat regardless of his settling-down
tendencies.

“You said the name of his company is
Monteague Boats?” Kat asked.

Maggie confirmed with a shake of her head,
and Kat ran a quick mental scan of the client list Rusty had passed
on to her. She’d known Erik’s last name and that he lived somewhere
along the North Carolina coast. Although his name hadn’t been the
main focus of her memories, she felt certain if she’d stumbled
across it on her client list, she would’ve noticed.

At least she could take small consolation in
knowing that, even though he was a client of the agency, he wasn’t
one of her personal clients. Therefore, she wouldn’t have to see
him on a regular basis. He might even be a client who preferred
doing everything via email and fax, and she wouldn’t have to see
him at all.

Feeling slightly better about the situation,
she thanked the trio for their information and excused herself.
After that near freak-out, she needed to slip into the backyard
garden for some fresh air and a moment of solitude before diving
back into the fray.

Chapter
Two

The old Victorian’s backyard garden was
spectacular. The massive branches of the ancient oak trees were
like giant arms, wrapping themselves protectively around the
Victorian and all who resided within. Three magnolias stood sentry,
protecting the side and back, while a climbing rose hung
tenaciously to a trellis at the corner of the house. The fact that
renovations had been completed without disturbing or destroying the
rosebush, was a testament to the care and commitment Rusty had to
restoring the old house to its original splendor.

Gardenias, azaleas, and jasmine wore the last
few fading blooms of spring, while other plants were just beginning
to stick their heads through the soil and wake from their winter
slumber.

In the three days she’d been with SMG, she’d
found the garden to be a peaceful refuge where she could grab a
quick breath of fresh air or eat a quiet, leisurely lunch. The
warm, homey atmosphere of the old Victorian, overlooking the
Pamlico River from the front and surrounded by the peaceful gardens
in the back, was the polar opposite to the chrome and glass
environment of her old office. Everything about SMG implied the
dog-eat-dog world of advertising might be a little gentler and
friendlier in this small town.

She wound her way along the path, moving
deeper into the garden oasis until she reached her favorite spot,
the gazebo and Koi pond. She climbed the steps and stared into the
water, watching the colorful gold, white, and brown spots flit back
and forth while she tried to make sense of the past half hour.

Compartmentalizing had always been the key to
maintaining her sanity, but as she sorted the information she’d
just gathered into two separate compartments, personal and
business, it kept collapsing back into one large debris pile:
Erik.

He wasn’t only a potential threat to her
career; he was lethal to her emotional wellbeing. The universe had
an incredibly warped sense of humor, and right now, it had to be
getting one hell of a belly laugh at her expense. After the wildly
tempestuous night she’d spent with him, no other man could turn her
head. Now, when she needed to be fully focused on her job, who
should appear but the physical incarnation of wild abandon
himself?

“He’s not Superman. He’s just a normal,
ordinary guy.” Convincing the fish seemed easy enough. But the
second she closed her eyes, memories from their night together
crashed down on her, reminding her there was nothing ordinary about
Erik Monteague.

She’d loved the feel of his long, muscular
legs, covered by course, dark hair rubbing against her smooth ones.
Then there was his butt… perfect for sinking her fingers into with
each thrust. And that wasn’t even his best feature. She groaned.
He’d been nothing short of glorious stepping out of his boxers,
stroking his—

“Here. You look like you could use this.”

At the sound of Erik’s voice, Kat’s heart
slammed into the front wall of her chest. She whipped around to
face him, feeling like a child caught with her hand in the cookie
jar—or her mind in his pants, as the case may be. As sweat popped
out on her lip and the back of her neck, she prayed the
accompanying blush couldn’t be seen in the evening's dim light.

She flicked her gaze to his outstretched hand
and the full-to-the-brim shot glass he offered. Needing to be a
consummate professional, she’d kept her distance from the bar. But
on the verge of snapping, that shot glass might be the only thing
that kept her from swimming with the fish… so to speak.

“What is it?” she asked, reaching for the
glass, silently cursing the shake that sent the liquid sloshing
onto her hand.

“Southern Comfort with lime. Isn’t that your
preferred poison?” The ferocious scowl was gone and an intimate
smile softened his face.

He remembered her drink preference?

She almost preferred the scowl because this
look caused a warm, mushy feeling to stir low in her belly, which
in turn, caused red flashing lights and warning bells to fire in
her brain. Her life had no room for warm fuzzies right now,
especially where he was concerned.

She closed her eyes and tossed the shot back
like a pro. The heat sliding down her throat swirled with the
warmth already building in her gut. She looked at the glass and
considered the merits of rolling her tongue around the inside,
hoping to maximize the benefits of every last drop.

However, being the mature adult she was, she
settled for licking the remnants from her lips… a move Erik
noticed.

She pulled her gaze away from his face and
the heat in his eyes and began a quick body scan. Topsiders covered
his sockless feet, which were braced shoulder width apart as if
prepared for battle. Khaki pants did a good job of hiding the
goods, but they didn’t prevent her mind’s eye from envisioning the
thick cock and heavy sac that lay beneath the cotton fabric. A
casual knit T-shirt stretched snugly across his stomach, broad
chest, and shoulders.

His hand was tucked casually in his pocket
and an amused smiled played on his lips, but his blue eyes weren’t
twinkling like they had the night they’d met. Instead, they were
guarded, and his overall posture was stiff and cautious.

“Thanks,” she said, holding up the shot glass
before setting it on the gazebo railing. As if she hadn’t already
gotten the scoop on Erik and his association with SMG, she said,
“What are you doing here?”

“Bringing you a drink. I recognized the signs
of distress. Wide eyes, choking”—he glanced to her hand—“shaking
hands. All good indicators of someone who needs a drink.” He
slipped his free hand into his pocket and shrugged. “I
obliged.”

Kat laughed nervously and crossed her arms
over her stomach, trying to establish a barrier, even an
inconsequential one, between them. “I meant what are you doing at
SMG’s open house.”

“Rusty helps me handle the marketing for our
company.” Erik shifted his stance and in the process, moved a step
closer. “What are you doing here?”

She straightened her shoulders and stood
taller against his penetrating gaze, which seemed to search her
face for more than just an answer to his question. “I’m working
here as an account executive.”

His expression softened. “I guess things
didn’t work out at your old job.”

“It was for the best,” she said, waving a
hand in the air while trying to summon a nonchalant shrug. “I knew
it wasn’t going to change, so I started looking for another job
pretty much right away. My non-compete agreement made things
difficult.” She laughed. “As it was designed to do, so it took me a
while to find something I could accept.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had
the awareness she should feel some kind of embarrassment standing
here talking to him like this. She’d done things with this man she
couldn’t conceive of doing with anyone else, and yet she wasn’t the
slightest bit uncomfortable. The only thing she felt was an
overwhelming desire to do it all again.

He moved another step closer.

She inched backwards and gripped the railing
of the gazebo.

“When did you move here?”

“Last weekend. It’s been a real whirlwind
couple of weeks. I wanted to be here for the open house so I could
meet as many clients as possible. I found a place to live, packed,
and moved in a week’s time.” Dammit, she was rambling. Wide open
silences always made her tense, so she tended to fill them with
yammering. Which then made her more uptight.

And that was without him taking another step
closer. “Where are you staying?”

She’d moved as far away as the railing would
allow, so she tried her best not to breathe. When she inhaled she
drew in the scent of his spicy cologne, one that perfectly
complemented his spicy personality. But his scent, along with his
looming presence and the heat radiating from his body, sizzled her
brain.

“Uhhh… ” She forced herself to focus on his
question. “A few blocks from here. I’ve moved into an apartment
over the old fire station. It has an incredible view of the river
and town. I was lucky to find it.”

“I saw a U-Haul and two guys moving furniture
in last weekend.”

“That was me.”

His eyes narrowed. “Did someone come with
you, or did you move alone?”

His tone carried the tiniest hint of
jealousy, and she pressed her lips together to keep from smiling.
She was being petty and childish, especially since a relationship
with him was out of the question. But she could live with her
juvenile joy. “Just me. A couple friends from Charlotte
helped.”

Taking one last step toward her, he stood so
close they might be breaking public decency laws. In a low,
menacing voice, he asked, “How good a friend?”

She managed to hold back her laughter, but a
huge smile broke through. “A friend’s fiancé and his brother.”

He rested one forearm on the column above her
head, placed his other hand on the railing next to her hip, and
shifted his body so he effectively trapped her. “Why did you leave
me like that?”

She gasped and her stomach tightened at his
angry tone. She knew from their night together he was abrupt and
direct, but she hadn’t expected him to make the jump to something
this personal so quickly.

His eyes were cold, his facial muscles tense,
and the uncertainty she’d sensed in him earlier was back.

She chewed on her bottom lip and looked into
his eyes. Much like the night they met, he compelled her in such a
way she found it impossible to deny him anything, especially the
truth. “I had no experience with one-night stands.”

She swallowed the ugly taste in her mouth as
she acknowledged what they’d shared as nothing more than
inconsequential, meaningless sex. “I didn’t know proper protocol. I
thought I was doing the right thing by leaving and avoiding the
awkward morning-after thing I’ve always heard about.” Especially
since she’d fallen head over heels for him in the span of twelve
hours.

Erik’s eyes flashed with what appeared to be
anger, and he leaned down close to her ear. In a low, bone-melting
drawl, he asked, “What made you so sure it was only gonna be one
night?”

Her heart stopped momentarily, then picked up
a pounding rhythm. “Wouldn’t it have been?”

“Not as far as I was concerned. But since I
had no way of finding you, you took that option away from me.” He
drew back slightly and shifted his gaze away. “I’ve gone back to
that bar every time I’ve been in Charlotte, hoping to run into you
again.”

He stood too close, making it difficult to
think clearly. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times,
but no words came out. He made it sound as if they might have had
something more, if only she’d stuck around and given them a chance.
But everything he said that night led her to believe he didn’t do
relationships. And what she heard tonight confirmed it.

But how many nights over the past thirteen
months had she lain in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering
what if?