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As he joined her in the cab, she  was amazed to hear herself say breathlessly, “You know I don’t mind at all if we just skip dinner and head home to my place .  .  .”  She’d never even contemplated saying anything like that to any man she’d known, let alone say it out loud.

Sean appeared to seriously consider her offer; for a moment she had her hopes up.  He leaned back into the corner at the end of the wide bench seat, giving her an assessing gaze that she wasn’t at all sure she liked.  He sure knew how to make her squirm!

But then he leaned forward and turned the key to start the truck, saying, “No, that wouldn’t be right.  I don’t want to rush things between us.  I want to get to know you a lot more before we take that step, so we’re going to take this at the pace I set, which is slow.”

“Kind of like you drive?” She couldn’t resist getting that jab in there, because the man did drive like the famous little old lady from Pasadena.  One sharp look from him and she knew she’d better not push it.  She certainly didn’t want a repeat of what had happened last night .  .  .  or did she?

Annoyed with herself and her conflicting reactions she was having to him, as well as with the man himself, Tessa sighed in frustration, buckled her seat belt and resigned herself to Lord-knew-how-long without the thundering sexual release that her body instinctively knew he could provide.

And then had come that question about whether she’d let her fingers do the walking last night after he left, or if she’d obeyed him.  “I decided to wait,” she replied airily, as if it was her idea.  Sean chuckled.  This woman was going to give him a run for his money, but he was finding that he was more than up to the challenge.

And he did keep things very slow between them, although that did not mean that he kept his distance from her.  Exactly the opposite was true.  He’d taken to stopping by her shop every morning, delivering either her usual coffee – plus or minus the doughnut, depending on how well he thought she was eating that week – or some other small treat.  Sometimes he surprised her with a lunch that he intended to share with her.  Of course, it was killing two birds with one stone, since his place didn’t have a refrigerator, and he knew she could stick whatever he’d brought into one of her fridges in the back.

They saw each other almost every day for the first month since they’d met, mostly at his insistence.  Tess never got much of a chance to take the lead – which was fine with her, since that wasn’t her bent anyway.  It always seemed as if he were several steps ahead of her, and had everything planned down to a T. He even invited her down to his shop to eat lunch with him in the tiny break room - really more of a closet.  The close quarters further fostered the blossoming intimacy between them.  When not engaging in the occasional burst of conversation, they ate in a companionable silence, neither feeling the need to fill the air with inane chatter.  She was practically in his lap, their legs and feet touching under the table as they ate.

Not that his crew allowed them much privacy; just the opposite.  They were a loud and rowdy bunch, most of whom he had grown up with, who saw him first as their friend, and then as their boss, although he never allowed that attitude to get in the way of everyone’s – including his – getting their work done.  They were a curious bunch, wanting to know who had finally grabbed Sean’s attention away from the shop after a very long – if understandable – dry spell.

“Boss, I hate to drag you away from your ladyfriend, there,” Matt, his assistant manager began, his expression and tone letting everyone know that he meant the exact opposite of what he was saying, “but I have something you need to come look at.”

Sean was up and out the door in a second with no apologies to Tess.  She knew what running a small business was like, and had no problem being left behind  until his other employee, Red, entered the room and slid into the chair that Sean had left, saying, “Hey, do you mind if I talk to you for a moment?”

After moving her chair a bit away from him, Tess answered a bit warily, “No.”

Red, who was so named because of his naturally-rusty hair color, smiled, chuckling a bit.  “No, I’m not going to hit on you, believe me.” At her raised eyebrow, he stammered to recover himself, not realizing at first just how that statement might be received by her. “Not that I wouldn’t want to, you understand, but Sean would take me apart piece by piece .  .  .”  He felt like he was only digging himself deeper with every word, and if her broad grin was anything to go on, Tess was enjoying every minute of him trying to tap dance out.  Suddenly he stopped and just looked at her.  “You’re not going to let me off the hook on this, are you?”

Tessa wore a broad smile.  “Not on a bet!”

“Well, I really didn’t come here to insult you.  I just wanted to say that I’ve known Sean since we were kids playing in our backyards together.”

“I bet you got into a ton of trouble.”

“You have no idea.”  Red’s genuine smile faded quickly as he said what he had come to say.  “But I wanted to tell you something.  Did you know Sean was married?”

Tessa stood up so quickly her chair nearly tipped over onto the floor.  “He’s married?”  She wanted to shriek the question, but couldn’t quite seem get enough breath to do it.  It came out like a shattered whisper.

“No, no, not now.  He was married – in the past.  He’s not married now.”  Red knew he was making a mess of this, but he’d known Sean long enough – knew how close to the vest he played things - and he wanted to make sure that Tess knew the score.

But Tessa wasn’t sitting down.  She continued to regard him suspiciously, as if she thought he was going tell her something else horribly alarming about Sean.

“What happened to his wife?”

The big man tugged her back down into the chair she’d vacated so violently a few minutes ago.  “She died quite a while ago, more than nine years.  They were childhood sweethearts, went together all through high school.  He never once looked at another woman, and he really hasn’t since, either.”

Tessa’s heart clenched for Sean, who lost the woman he loved much too quickly.  “What are you saying?”

Red sighed.  “Look, you’re the first woman – hell, the first thing besides this damned shop – that Sean’s had any interest in in a very long time.  I just wanted you to know how special you must be.  He’s no Romeo.  He’s a one-woman man.  If he’s after you, it’s because he wants you, wants a future with you, whether or not he’s told you that.”

“He hasn’t.”

“Yet.”  Tessa looked up at Red as if she doubted his confidence in what his friend was likely to do.  “I’m not kidding, Tessa.  He’s been like a monk forever, and for the first time in a long time he seems happy.”

“I’m glad.”

Red put his hand on her arm.  “I just don’t want to see him hurt, but after meeting you I don’t think he’s going to be -”

Of course, Sean came back at just that moment, but he said absolutely nothing, just stared at the younger man’s hand where it lay on Tessa’s arm, a muscle in his jaw saying everything he didn’t.

Red snatched his hand back as if it had been scalded and quickly exited the room, not meeting Sean’s eyes as he did so, as if Sean was a rabid dog he was trying to avoid getting bitten by.

“What was he in here for?” Sean asked, reclaiming the chair that Tuck had vacated.

Tessa looked him straight in the eye.  “He came in here to molest me right under his best friend’s nose.”

Sean’s head snapped up from his plate.  “He what?!”

Tess rolled her eyes at him.  “Well, when you came in here you looked at him as if you thought that’s what he – what we – were doing.”

Sean scowled.  “Of course not!”

“Well, then why did he run out of here like a frightened rabbit?”

He waited a long beat before answering her, meeting her inquisitive gaze head on.  “Because he knew I wanted to rip his arm off for touching you.”

Tess’s eyebrow rose.  “Caveman much?”

“I don’t like other men touching my woman.”  He wasn’t going to apologize for his behavior, if his tone was anything to go by.

“Well, if you’d found his hand in my crotch, then you’d have something to be concerned about.  But since I wouldn’t allow him to do that anyway without flattening him myself, then you have nothing to worry about, do you?”

The mental picture of Tessa cold cocking Red who outweighed her by a good hundred pounds or so was so funny he couldn’t help snickering, even when she smacked him a good one for his impudence.

Chapter Four

Although that scene between them had her a bit wary – she didn’t intend to get involved with any man who had violent tendencies, no matter how hot his possessiveness made her – Sean gave her no other cause for concern while they dated.  Well, except for the fact that he seemed to take any possible excuse to spank her.  He was particularly assiduous about reddening her bottom after having borrowed her car and discovering it was a rolling deathtrap.

It was the morning of the first time they were going to sleep together; she just didn’t know it yet.  The telephone rang at  6:30, just as she was stepping out of the shower.

“Yeah, what?”

Sean just laughed.  She was usually so cheerful and pleasant – granted, more to her customers than to him, but still, overall she was pretty laid-back and easy-going.  He appreciated that more than he could tell her - not that she hadn’t warned him about what she was like before a civilized hour.  “Wow, you really are little Mary Sunshine in the mornings, aren’t you?”

“Bite me.  What do you want, and you’d better make it good, Maddox; I’m standing here dripping onto my carpet.”

Sean’s entire body clenched.  “You mean you just got out of the shower?”

“Yes,” Tessa replied distractedly, trying to simultaneously talk on the phone contorting herself into an acrobatic position as she attempted to wrap her long hair with a towel.

“And you’re standing there naked right now?”  He didn’t know why he was asking these questions.  They were only driving him crazy, and with his truck out of commission he couldn’t do a thing about it.

“Yes .  .  .”

“Totally naked?”

Sometimes – especially first thing in the morning – she could be a little dense.  It took her a bit to catch onto why he was dwelling on what was essentially the same question rephrased five different ways.  Laughing softly, she let her voice get all throaty and low.  “And what might you be wearing at this moment in time, Mr. Maddox?”

“I’m dressed, dammit, but I can be undressed in a matter of seconds.” he offered eagerly, “Really I can.”

That sounded about as close to pleading as she’d ever heard from him.  “Well, unfortunately neither of us has time to indulge in phone sex, not that I’m opposed to such things as a rule. But I don’t want to be late for work.”

She heard his frustrated sigh, but was working on one of her own so she had little sympathy for him.  After waiting for several long beats, she said, “Did you have a purpose for calling me at such an ungodly hour, or was it just to find out whether or not I was dressed?”

“Mmmmmmm,” he groaned, then forcibly brought himself back to the reason he was calling.  “My truck died.  Can you give me a ride to work?”

“Of course.  I’ll be there in about a half-hour.”

“Will you be wearing what you’re wearing now, please?”

She leaned back a bit to see the thermometer through the sliding glass doors to the deck, “Sean, it’s three below zero out there.  Any parts of me that you might have any interest in will have frozen solid and fallen off by then.”

Tessa liked the sound of his laugh, more so for its rarity.  It was warm and full and very deep, and it went right to her clit, somehow - like most of what he said or did, she was realizing.

“I gotta ask you another favor, though.”

“Yes?”

“Can I keep the car for the morning?  I have to go into Portsmouth to get some special parts for a customer and I need transportation to do that this morning.”

“Sure – I’m just going to be at the shop all day, as always.  You can keep it for as long as you need to, as far as I’m concerned.  Just pick me up tonight.  We were going out to dinner anyway, right?”

“Yes.  Thank you.  You’re an angel.”

Tessa flushed at the compliment.  “Just remember that the next time you decide to spank me .  .  .”

Of course, it sounded easier than it worked out to be, especially for her.

She didn’t hear from him at all during the day, which was a bit unusual.  They usually chatted at least once, usually more.  He called her or she called him, or he stopped by about the time she went to lunch and took her out, or brought her coffee.  But that day, nothing.  She saw neither hide nor hair of him from the time he dropped her off until he walked through the door just before eight o’clock that night.

Since there was no one in the store, she had already done all the little things that she usually did once the store had officially closed, and she had been on the way to the front to lock i[.  Spying Sean, instead she threw herself into his arms and hugged him, and, although he did hug her back, she sensed that he was holding back.