Maid to Crave (Man Maid #2) (17 page)

He only hoped his plans didn’t come back to bite him in the ass and cause him even more pain than he was in right now.

Opening his eyes, he slid his hand into her hair and gripped the back of her neck. “We will
always
be friends, Tori. As long as you want me to be. And you
can
ask me for
anything
…anything at all.”

Her soft pink lips fell open and her eyes glazed over with a look similar to the one she’d worn when she’d come for him.
Control.
This was his last chance.… If he blew it this time then he didn’t deserve her. She’d asked for him once; she would ask for him again. This time, though, she would admit her feelings for him if he had to drag the confession out of her one orgasm at a time.

“Okay,” she said breathlessly.

Rubbing his thumb across her full bottom lip, he said, “Anything specific that you need me to do today?”

“Um, no.” Then shaking her head as though to clear her thoughts, she added, “I do need you to pick up Zach from school this week. I am trying to get in my hours so I can make cupcakes and take them in for his class party at the end of the week.”

“I can make the cupcakes if that would help,” he offered, watching her lips move as she spoke. They were the epitome of sexy…soft, pink and full.

“No, I want to,” she whispered. Forcing himself to look away from her mouth and into her eyes, he was instantly inflamed with desire. Her eyes were shining with need. Why hadn’t he realized months ago, when he’d had a better chance than he had now, that beneath her reserved personality, her over-sized glasses, and her formerly frumpy outfits was a sexy siren?

Stepping closer, he tilted his head as though he meant to kiss her. As much as he wanted to, he restrained himself. “I offered. So if you change your mind, just let me know. Friends, remember?”

He wanted to put a single mark on a blank piece of paper because right now it was him one and her none. Releasing her, he stepped back slowly, staring at her. God, she was hot when she was turned on like she was right now.
Ask, Tori, just ask.
He watched as the fog of sexual awareness lifted slowly. She took a deep breath, walked back into her office and closed the door. Yes, his game face was definitely on now.

The pool maintenance company showed up right before lunch. He’d been busy with them and missed her coming out to the kitchen. Well, she couldn’t hide in her office forever. His cell phone rang and showed Rusty’s number. He’d asked Rusty to look into Tori’s boss as soon as he found out she had something going on with the guy. Seth’s gut told him that he would soon find out what a perfect guy Tori was about to marry.

“You are not going to like this,” Rusty said. “Hell, I don’t like it and I don’t even know her that well.
Mr. Tim Silver
was picked up twice in the past six months for soliciting prostitutes. The more recent charge was just two weeks ago.”

An image of himself tearing the man limb from limb filtered through Seth’s mind.

“I want to kill him…” he finally breathed into the phone through clenched teeth.

“I can appreciate that, but it gets worse. Seems he makes specific requests of the girls he picks up, which might explain why he’s paying for it rather than…” Rusty stopped. “Let’s just say he has some pretty strange fantasies, which would put off most women. He pays pretty well, though. I managed to catch up with one of the girls he was busted with, a woman named Vanessa, who informed me he had taken her on a shopping spree in addition to paying her.”

Now the game had changed. He could no longer afford to lose—for more reasons than his own personal desire for Tori. Above all else, she was his friend, and just as he wouldn’t let Ronnie, Ian or Rusty walk into a dangerous situation, he wouldn’t allow Tori to walk into one either. Why couldn’t Rusty have found out this information before she’d gone and gotten engaged to the ass-hat? If Seth went to her now and told her what the guy did when she wasn’t around, would she even believe him?

Even if she did a background check on Tim on her own, it would only show that he had been arrested. Tim could say it had been a moment of weakness and that he hadn’t actually slept with the prostitute. There would also be no indicator of the perverse things her fiancé was requesting of these women. Some people lashed out when they were hurt or angry. Tori could end up mad at
him
instead of being mad at Tim and think Seth was just trying to ruin her future marriage because of what had happened between them.

He needed to give Tori irrefutable proof that Tim Silver was an asshole of epic proportions, that he didn’t deserve her as an employee…let alone as a wife. She needed to see his true nature with her own eyes. Even though Seth hated the thought of her being hurt, he was in this game to win. The prize was Tori and he wasn’t taking any chances.
None.

The risk that Tim could convince Tori to forgive him made the situation desperate enough that Seth would pull out all the stops to show her the truth. Losing was not an option. Regardless of whether or not she ever gave him another chance with her, he would make sure Tim Silver was caught red-handed. Seth just had to figure out how.

“Thanks, Rusty. I owe you one,” he replied.

“Jake said to call him if you decide you want to go into the academy. The pay for being a cop isn’t much better than the military, but it’s an option,” Rusty said.

“I’ll think about it…but right now I need a way to make sure Tim Silver is out of Tori’s life for good. Some way to ensure he has no explanation for his actions, or at least none that she could possibly forgive him for. Have you told Ronnie yet?”

“No, and I won’t. Not unless you want me to.
You
asked for the information, not Ronnie,” Rusty explained.

“Don’t say anything for now. He will tell Kayla, and she’ll say something to Tori and I’m not sure just hearing about it will be enough. She’s engaged to the bastard now. Give me a few days to think it over and figure out a way to prove it to her,” he said.

“Let me know if you need anything,” Rusty said.

Thursday morning, Seth went down to his mailbox after getting home from the gym and showering. He had put it off long enough. He had bills to pay and letting them sit wasn’t going to help his case. The past few days had been hell on him. He could barely sleep and was stretched tight enough to snap. He had no idea how he could make Tori aware of what a scumbag her future husband was. Finding the one bill he hoped he had enough money to pay off completely, he tore open the envelope and unfolded the paper.

He must have read it three or four times before it made sense to him. The balance was zero. He dug through his accordion file to look at the statement from the last month and compared the two. Something was wrong.
Great
. Now he would have to call the billing department, which was never fun. Setting that bill aside, he opened another one. Something was definitely wrong. This bill was Caleb’s biggest and it showed a zero balance, as well. He quickly tore open the other bills and they all showed a zero balance.
What the hell?

Gathering up the bills, he left the apartment. He would have to start making calls once he made it to Tori’s house. He put a few boxes of his things for the basement into the car and got in the driver’s seat just as Ian and Jess came jogging down the sidewalk.

Jess Reynolds was a tall, thin, very pretty woman, and unfortunately for Ian, a lesbian. Theirs had been an unlikely friendship, if there ever was one, but they were pretty tight now. It was humorous that it had taken a woman to give the giant man a personality adjustment.… Most
men
were too afraid of him. Jess, however, was woman enough to bring Ian into check. He seemed to respect her for it and their close friendship was proof.

Ian started working for Jess around the same time that Ronnie started working for Kayla. Now Jess even came to the gym with the guys sometimes. Her kickboxing skills were phenomenal. After Ian figured out that she was cool and could help him with his fight training, even though their opinions differed greatly on a few subjects, they had become nearly inseparable.

Ronnie, Rusty and Seth had already chosen who they thought would win if Ian and Jess were to ever actually fight. Ian had her as far as height and overall size was concerned, but her roundhouse kick was something to witness.

Ian motioned for Seth to wait and he rolled down the window as the two of them approached. They both jogged in place beside his car.

“I’ve got a fight this weekend in Cincinnati, on Saturday afternoon. You coming?” Ian asked.

“I wish I could, but I can’t this weekend,” Seth replied. He needed to be close by so that he could keep an eye on Tori, to try and keep her from going out with Tim until Seth could figure out a way to expose the man.

“I thought you weren’t working for Tori this weekend? The fight is early.…”

“I’m not. It’s just, Tori got—”
Engaged,
he started to say, but Ian didn’t give him a chance.

“Invite her, too. Jess is going,” Ian said, pointing his thumb at his boss.

“Yeah, okay,” Seth said.

With that settled, Ian and Jess continued on their way.

It might work to invite Tori to go with him. It would be a way to keep her away from Tim and allow Seth some time with her. Tori seemed to have developed an adoration for Ian that almost equaled Kayla’s admiration of the man. Ian was like the younger brother neither one of them had. Kayla even pinched Ian’s cheeks sometimes as a way of bringing him down to size.

Seth was halfway to Tori’s house when it hit him—maybe Jess could help him. She was a tough woman. She could handle herself in any situation. If he told her that someone was in trouble, maybe she could help him set up Tim. Seth wasn’t looking to get the man arrested again or even fired from his job. He only wanted Tim to walk away from Tori.

Entering Tori’s house, Seth could hear her on her phone in the office, so he headed to the kitchen to start calling about Caleb’s medical bills. The first place told him an anonymous donor had paid off the remaining balance. When the second place essentially told him the same thing, he became curious and asked who it was that had paid the bill. The customer service representative refused to tell him, as did the third billing department he called. By the time he called the hospital’s billing department and confirmed that Caleb’s balance with them had also been paid, he was beyond curious.

Wanting to know if it was a company or a person, he changed his strategy. In a last ditch effort to find out who he could thank for saving him more than a year’s worth of wages, he said, “I can’t believe she did this. I just don’t know how to thank her.”

“I shouldn’t tell you this, but since you already know who it is… I’ve known Tori for about five years. She worked here in the patient billing area before she got her new position. She is like that, just very sweet. I can also tell you that she loves raspberries and a cream cheese dip that I make,” the woman said with a giggle.

After sweet talking the woman out of the recipe for the dip, he hung up. He could only stand at the counter and soak in what he had spent the last couple of hours uncovering. Tori Stewart had paid off every one of Caleb’s medical bills. Why would she do that?
How
could she do that? It was a lot of money to pay out for a virtual stranger…
a lot of money.
She had some explaining to do.

When she emerged from her office for lunch, he was ready for her. Having rinsed the raspberries, softened the cream cheese and thawed the whipped cream, he put most of the dip ingredients into the large mixer on the counter. Turning on the mixer, he removed the lid for the tub of whipped cream just as she entered the kitchen. She stopped and looked at him. Knowing he had captured her attention, he set the container aside and held the lid out to her.

“Want to lick the lid?” he asked.

“What are you making?” she asked, looking him in the eye before looking past him to where the raspberries sat in a bowl.

“It’s a dip for fruit. I’ve heard it’s fantastic,” he answered, swiping his finger down the lid before sticking his finger in his mouth. Her eyes followed his movements and then once again her gaze shifted to the bowl of berries behind him. She was going to give him some answers first.

He added the whipped cream to the mixer and then said, “Wow, that even
smells
good.”

He could feel her as she approached. “Is that for me? I mean for us…for dinner?” she asked.

“Actually, Ian has a fight in Cincinnati this weekend. I was making this up for Saturday night, having a little party with the guys after the fight. Want to go?” he asked innocently.

“No, but I do want some of
that
,” she replied, pointing to the berries.

“I’ll let you have some of that on one condition. For every raspberry you eat, you have to answer a question I ask you…
truthfully
,” he said with a grin.

Her eyes met his. How she could look so innocent while hiding a secret so big was a mystery. The question was…
would
she tell him the truth? Would she tell him why she would do that for Caleb
…for him?

She hefted herself up to sit on the counter near the mixer and even closer to the raspberries. She watched as he turned off the mixer and used a spatula to clean off the beater. When he turned to place the beater in the sink, she reached into the mixer and swiped some of the dip with her finger. He tossed the beater in the sink and grabbed her wrist before she could get her finger to her mouth.

“Hey! You didn’t say anything about the dip. You just said I had to answer questions for a berry.” She laughed.

He laughed, as well. She leaned forward as if to bring her mouth to her finger, since she couldn’t break his hold to stick her finger in her mouth, but he quickly sucked her finger into his own mouth instead. What had moments before been teasing amongst friends instantly became something sexual. Her smile faded and she whimpered…just like she had done when…
Control.

Picking up a raspberry, he dipped it into the cream cheese mixture inside the mixer. Holding the raspberry out like an offering, he said, “You’ll never guess—someone paid off Caleb’s medical bills.
All
of them.”