Page 19 of All I Need (Hearts of the South)
And, damn it all, he needed another shower.
In the bathroom, he tossed his clothes in the hamper with more force than necessary. He stripped off the condom and dropped it in the waste can, then stared at himself in the mirror while the shower heated. None of it made sense.
He ducked under the steaming spray and let the hot water work on the tension in his neck and shoulders. Maybe if he’d taken the time to touch her the way he’d really wanted, to discover the curves of her breasts, the indention of her waist, the smooth skin of her thighs and the secrets between them. He passed a hand over his head. Maybe if he’d had a chance to touch her the way she’d touched him—
She hadn’t wanted him to touch her.
He scowled. Did that add up, when her hands had been all over him in the kitchen? She’d been touching him from the time she arrived, right up until she’d taken him. He’d thought the caresses had been about wanting him, but hell, maybe it was really about wanting the act.
Which completely explained the cold, clinical feel.
The frustrated desire and confusion flared into a spurt of hot anger. He didn’t like being used. Being friends and planning to sleep together was one thing. This was something else entirely.
Chapter Four
Oh, that had ended well.
Savannah fought off an urge to slam her door and made herself close it as carefully as she had Emmett’s. She dropped her keys and phone on the bench by the door and strode through to her bedroom, straight to the closet. She stripped off her dress and dropped it on the closet floor. Her panties followed, tossed toward the hamper along the bedroom wall. Anxiety fluttered in her chest and throat, and her stomach twisted.
She pulled on her red tank suit and snatched a towel from the stack on a shelf in the bathroom. Thankfully, when she stepped outside, his door and blinds remained closed, the Adirondack empty. She really didn’t want to face him.
Rough asphalt under her bare feet held on to some of the day’s warmth, and the gate to the swimming pool clanked in the quiet night. She went to the deep end and dove in. The cold water closed over her head, and she fell into strong, rhythmic strokes that didn’t match her tangled thoughts.
What had gone wrong? The whole evening had proceeded as planned. Cooking had provided multiple opportunities to touch him, and he’d been receptive to her. Ultimately, he’d been eager for her. At the shallow end, she touched the wall and turned. She’d kept herself under total control, emotions locked down. Without the emotional intimacy she didn’t want anyway, her physical desire had been muted, sure, but sinking onto him had felt good and surely that pleasure would have led to some release for both of them.
Only somehow, she hadn’t been enough.
He was the first man to ever make her feel that way. Despite the cool water enveloping her, mortification burned her neck and face. He’d rejected her, cold, in themiddle.
Of course, he’d wanted to talk, and maybe she should have stayed to hash it out, but all she’d wanted was to retreat. Failure had never existed in her vocabulary with men, but that had damn sure changed tonight.
And it still didn’t make any sense. He’d wanted her, or at least to sleep with her. They’d established that up front, and he’d been aroused by her touch. She knew that, could still feel how hard he’d gotten under her hand, how hard he’d been inside her. Then she hadn’t been good enough? What the hell?
Whatever. She did not like the effect he had on her emotions, and she refused to give in to any more of this. So he didn’t want her, after all. Fine. She didn’t want to care, either.
* * * * *
“You already posted the schedule for next month?” Calvert’s voice pulled Emmett’s attention from the training-hours spreadsheet he was compiling.
“Yeah.” Emmett frowned. Had he missed a protocol about when to post it? “Is that a problem?”
“No, but…” Calvert shook his head. “You’ve been here three days, and it usually takes me a week to get that done. How’d you pull that off so fast?”
Emmett shrugged. “I found an extension that lets me enter the shifts, who needs time off when, and where we need extra coverage. Then it runs the schedule for me. I can link names to a calendar with holidays, so like we know Khalil Williams needs the Islamic holy days off, right? It automatically schedules him off. I think it can interface with payroll too, but I haven’t had time to play with it yet.”
Calvert grinned. “I should have hired you a year ago.”
“A year ago, I was laid up in a hospital bed, hoping they didn’t have to amputate my leg. Probably wouldn’t have been much use to you then.”
“You’ve come a long way since then.” Calvert rapped on the doorframe. “I like what I see so far, Beck. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Yes, sir.”
Calvert disappeared down the hall, and Emmett returned to entering hours. He hadn’t been sure about the administrative tasks at first, but there was a lot to do and busy was good. Busy made him feel productive, like he wasn’t in a hole somewhere anymore.
Besides, busy meant he didn’t have time to think about Savannah.
Not during the day, anyway.
