naughty like that sometimes,” Deck said with a so-what shrug. “Now get lost.” Ron didn’t argue. He took off. Nell leaned against the marble wall, her arms crossed over her chest, as Deck turned her way again. “Good,” he said. “You’re still here.”
Where to even start with him? “You’ve got to leave me alone, Deck.”
He came toward her, so big and solid, all lazy male grace, in jeans that hugged his hard legs and an olive green shirt that made his hazel eyes gleam so damn bright—chameleon eyes, she used to call them. They seemed different colors depending on his mood and the light. He’d rolled his sleeves to his elbows, showing off strong forearms, all muscled and veiny, dusted with sandy-colored hair.
It just wasn’t fair. No man should be allowed to look that amazing. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself to keep her grabby hands from reaching out and squeezing those rock-hard muscles of his.
Because, she bleakly reminded herself, squeezing Deck’s muscles—or any other part of him, for that matter—was a big, fat never-again.
He kept on coming. She had to put up a hand. “That’s close enough.”
“I love that red dress. You should wear red all the time.”
“I know, I know. Goes with my hair, blah, blah, blah. Did you tell Ron we’re married?”
He smirked. “Worked, didn’t it?”
“Except, well, doesn’t that make me the kind of woman who takes off her wedding ring and goes trolling for a hot date with a stranger?”
Deck snorted. “Ron? Hot?”
“Well, theoretically speaking—and Ron’s hotness or lack thereof? Totally not the issue here.”
“Sparky,” he chided. “You would never cheat, I know that. The thing with Ron was only to make me jealous.”
Two elevators opened at the same time. People got off and others got on.
She waited till the doors slid shut to say, “There was no thing with Ron. And what do you mean, make you jealous? I had no idea you were in Vegas, and even if I’d known you’d followed me here, I would have zero desire to make you jealous.”
“But you did make me jealous. And I forgive you. You’re a high-spirited woman, always have been. You’ve got to have your fun.”
Where was this going? Somehow, once again with him, she was failing to make the point that he should give up chasing after her because she was never getting caught—not by him. No way. “I think it’s just possible that you’ve finally completely lost your mind.”
He slapped both big hands against his chest. “Go ahead. Hurt me. Call me names. I can take it.”
More elevator doors opened. If she ducked into one, he would probably just follow her. Dropping her key card into her clutch, she drew away from the wall and started walking backward. Deck came after her. They ended up facing off by a potted ficus plant around the corner from the constant flow of people going up and down floors.
“What now, Nellie?” he asked, his voice so gentle suddenly, the intimate sound tugging on a tender place inside her, a place she used to be so certain he had killed stone dead all those years ago.
Why wouldn’t it die? This...feeling she had for him, this stupid, impossible yearning for a man who had turned his back on her twice after promising she would always be the only one for him?
He just stood there now, close enough to reach out and touch, waiting for her to make her next move. Oh, she just ached to open her mouth and yell at him to leave her alone, get the hell away from her. But yelling would not only bring security running, it would be admitting that he was actually getting to her.
Which he was. And which he knew already. She could see that in his gleaming, watchful eyes.
It was bad enough that he knew. Losing her temper over it would only prove how powerfully he affected her. “Who told you I would be here?”
“Have dinner with me and we can talk about that.” He took a step closer.
“Forget dinner.” She stepped back. The ficus tree was right behind her. A trailing branch brushed her shoulder. “And I already know the answer to my question. Garrett told you I was here, am I right?” Her brother and partner in Bravo Construction liked Deck, damn it. Plus, there was the big, high-end house Deck had hired BC to build. Generally speaking, it was good business for Garrett to help an important client get what he wanted—but not when what he wanted was another chance with Nell. Garrett had no right to take a customer’s side against his business partner, who also happened to be his own flesh and blood. “I’m going to kill Garrett.”
Deck stuck his hands in his pockets. She read the move as an attempt to look easygoing and harmless. As if. “It wasn’t Garrett,” he said.
“Then who?”
“Your mother told me.”
Now Nell really wanted to start yelling. Willow Bravo had turned into a matchmaking nightmare over the past couple of years. She’d become obsessed with seeing her children married and settled down. At least until now Willow had shown the good sense to leave Nell out of all that crap.
But, one by one, Willow’s other four grown children had found marital bliss. That meant only Nell remained single and Willow just couldn’t let well enough alone.
“You pumped my mother for information about me?” Nell kept her voice low, but barely.
“Whoa. Settle down.”
“That’s just plain wrong.”
“True,” he said with zero remorse. “When it comes to you, I’ll do whatever I have to do. But I didn’t go to your mother. She called me. She said she hasn’t forgotten how much you loved me once.”
Nell pressed her lips together and expelled an outraged breath through her nose. “Admit it. She called you after you let her know that you’ve been trying to get something going with me.”
“Think about it, Nellie.” He looked way too pleased with himself. “How could she not know that I’ve been chasing you?”
He had a point.
In recent months, Deck had made himself famous in their hometown of Justice Creek with his relentless pursuit of her. He’d started his campaign to get her attention by going to the places she went—her brother Quinn’s fitness center, her half sister Elise’s bakery for coffee early in the morning and her friend Rye McKellan’s pub. His constant presence at McKellan’s had really annoyed her. She not only liked to hang out there—she lived above the pub in the loft next door to Rye’s.
After a month or so of turning up just about everywhere she went, he’d called her and asked her straight out for a date.
She’d said, “Absolutely not and do not call me again.”
He hadn’t called again. But he had shown up at Bravo Construction to ask her to build his new house. She’d handed him over to Garrett.
Then
