Mine to Steal (Mine to Love) (29 page)

“I guess we should get started,” she says while taking her plate to the sink and grabbing two more beers.

Fortunately, the small dinner table is cleared off, so we set out everything we need and get to work coming up with ideas for the other three departments. I’ve never hunted, but Faith said her uncle used to go all the time. So she has some knowledge, at least enough for us to get through that one. It only takes us an hour and half. At this rate, we won’t be finished until midnight.

“How does it look?” She holds it up to show me the completed sketch and waves her hand in front to model it.

“I think he’s going to love it.” I nod in approval.

“So where is Jett, anyway,” she asks as she sets the sketch down.

“Did he finally wear you down? Do you actually miss hearing my brother?”

Her laugh bubbles out of her and she shakes her head. “Wear me down. Never. But I can tolerate him.”

“Sorry you missed him,” I lie. “He’s at Cheyenne’s tonight.”

“Wow, is he getting serious?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. He introduced her as his girlfriend last week, so maybe.”

“I need a break,” she announces walking to the couch and throwing herself into the cushions. The remote is on the seat next to her
, and she starts flipping through the channels. “Anything good on?”

“There’s probably a Rockies game on,” I remind her.

“There’s gotta be something funny on.” She flips through the guide and finds some Adam Sandler flick. She might truly be the girl of my dreams. “I love this one.” Her face is split with a huge grin as she settles in to watch the rest of the movie.

“You’re kidding right?” She accepts the challenge and starts
repeating the lines verbatim from the movie. “That’s a little sick, Faith.”

“You think that’s ba
d, I know the entire ‘Grow Old with You’ song from
The Wedding Singer
,” she admits proudly.

Reaching over to grab the remote from her, I mute it and wait for her to start. Her eyes are wide with shock
, but she clears her throat and starts singing. She really has a terrible voice, but I think it’s funny she goes on, until she sings the wrong line.

“Nope,” I put my hand up to stop her, and sing
the correct words. She appears shocked that I do, in fact, know the lyrics and joins in to finish the last part of the song.

“Show off,” she says as she
wrinkles her nose at me.

“Break over?” I ask as I start to get up.

“Yeah, I suppose. Good thing I don’t work for you, you’re insane.” She reaches out her hand so I can help her up.

Tugging Faith with such force lands her with a thud against my chest. Her hands grip my
arms, similar to the way they did when she ran into me as a kid. I try to step aside but she tightens her hold, keeping me in place.

Her eyes are fixed on my
collarbone, or maybe it’s the shirt, but she’s not moving at all.

“Faith, you okay?”

I try to move away, the proximity of her is too tempting, but she reaches up on her toes and tugs my face to hers. Our lips touch in a fleeting brush, before she deepens the kiss and pushes me back to the couch, laying on top of me. Her legs are straddling my waist, and my hands are clasped to the back of her thighs holding her to me. I sit forward, and my hand is at the nape of her neck as we continue to kiss.

“Which room is yours?”
she pants between kisses.

“You tell me,” I demand because
I know she knows.

Faith jumps to her feet and heads toward my room and I follow kissing the back of her neck as we go.
She slams the door shut behind her, and I pin her against it crashing my lips to hers again. She tugs at the hem of my t-shirt, and we break the kiss for a moment to remove the shirt as she peels off her own shirt.

The sounds of our breaths are the only thing I can hear as we stare into each other’s eyes. Faith closes her eyes and inhales deeply; I expect the fire to be doused, but
she thrusts herself into my arms and I have no choice but to hold her close.

She invades every one of my senses and when s
he tilts her head to give me access to her neck, I take full advantage. My lips trail from her jaw to her neck and back up to meet her lips once more.

Her small frame fits so perfectly in my arms and when I
lift her up, she wraps her legs around my waist letting me know exactly what she wants. I carry her to my bed and gently lay her down before slowly kissing a path from her waist, moving to her chest, and finally landing on her mouth.

She drags her hands along my biceps before moving them to my back and pulls me to her so there is nothing between us. This time, the moment her skin touches mine, I realize I want this more than anything, but I stop to catch my breath.

“Trey?” she whispers before planting another kiss to my mouth.

I rest my forehead against hers
and ask the question I want to ignore but we can’t go any further until I know.

“
We’ve done this once and God help me, I want it again. But I want you to be
with
me.”

“I am with you,” she murmurs kissing the corner of my mouth.

“But I don’t have all of you. Do I?”

She exhales loudly
, and it’s all the answer I need.

When I roll my body off hers, I try to catch my breath and mentally berate myself for trying to be the good guy.
She rolls over and throws her arm over my waist, and I fold her into my arms, knowing in this moment, this is where she belongs. She belongs with me, but I can’t have her.

I
want to keep her in my arms for as long as possible, but if she stays in my bed any longer, I might not be such a good guy anymore.

“You’re making it impossible to be friends. Do you know that?”
I ask before I kiss the top of her head.

“I’m sorry,” she says in a whisper.

“Don’t be sorry. I think about you all the time. Ever since the kiss in the bar, hell that’s a lie, ever since I saw you in Chicago. You are frustrating and stubborn and yet I can’t stop thinking about you. But I’ve told you, until you figure out what you want, we’re going to have to be friends.”

I hear her whisper, “friends,” as if it’s a four-letter word.
And I find myself repeating it in the same fashion and it tastes like ass.

“Faith
.” I wait for a response, but none comes. “If you don’t get out of my bed, I’m going to make love to you, and I don’t think you know what you want yet.”

“Is that a promise?”
she whispers before getting up. She makes her way to the door and puts her shirt on. But when she turns to me, I see something in Faith and it shakes me.

I see a future, and I want it with her.

I follow behind and somehow we are able to go back to how things were minutes before as we begin working on the board for Cave’s grilling department.

Six days have gone since Faith was at my place.

She hasn’t texted.

She hasn’t
emailed.

She hasn’t called
.

There is nothing but a
bsolute silence on her end, and I hate it. I’ve been a moody asshole for all six of them, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

After day
two
, Jett stormed into my office and shut the door. He sat down and waited until I gave him my attention, which I did to get him out as quick as he came in. Apparently my cheerful demeanor hadn’t gone ignored.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Jett, get to work. I’ve got a ton of shit to take care of.”

“That’s fine, but you’re being a dick to everyone. Hell, Hattie is scared of setting you off. You need to chill out.

“I’m fine,” I lied while keeping my eyes trained on the contract in front of me.

“Did Cavette not like the new things you and Faith came up with?”

“No, I got an email from him this morning, and he was happy. But he wants to run it by a few others before he makes any decisions.”

“Did you tell Faith?”

“I haven’t talked to her since we finished everything.”

He leaned back and crossed his arms with a smug grin on his face, “So that’s what it is. She’s avoiding you.”

“I think we’re avoiding each other.”

“You need to call her and let her know. Stop being a little bitch and do something already.”

He got up and left the office with that little nugget of advice, and I’ve done little to change my attitude since. We keep things casual around here, doors are always open, everyone is on a first name basis and as long as everyone stays on task, I don’t give anyone grief about leaving a little early.

But for
all six days, my door has remained shut while I hide away from everyone.

I think it’s better for the staff if I stick to working on my things in seclusion so I don’t go off on someone for no reason. Hattie has kept communication via intercom and the occasional interoffice call.

“Trey,” Hattie’s voice announces through the speaker, “Cal is on hold for you.”

“Thank you.”

There’s brief silence before the call rings through and Cavette starts talking the moment I answer.

“I’ve gotten feedback from Grayson and a few others
, and we are all very impressed.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m happy to hear that.”

“When will the first campaign go live?”

The office calendar has
clients listed as well as their schedules. I’ve been looking it over all morning to determine the best time. “That depends,” I start with a sigh. “I have some suggestions based on which one you want to be the first.”

“I really like the latest one, of the couple outside grilling.”

“That was one Faith and I came up with,” I say proudly.

“
Faith helped with these?”

“Yes, she did.”

“You two make a good team,” he says easily with a chuckle “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to hire her away from Rock Solid.”

Laughing at his suggestion, I dismiss it. “I probably couldn’t afford her, Cal.”

“You could do worse.”

“That
’s for sure,” I agree before getting us back on track. “Since it’s the one you want to go with, I think it would be best to launch in two weeks. Take advantage of football season and tailgating.”

“I like that. Okay, well, keep me posted and let me know if you need anything from me.”

“Will do, Cal. Have a good day.”

I hang up the phone and breathe a sigh of relief. Everything with the Cave project is coming together, and the client is happy. Can’t ask for much more than that. Cavette and I figured out which one to run first, but we have eight more waiting in the wings.

“Hattie, please have Jett come to my office. Thank you.”

Since
we have direction for when the first campaign will launch, I have to organize the others so everything will run without issue.

Jett blazes through the door and shuts it behind him
. “What’s up?”

“I need your input, come over here
.” I wave him to the conference table so he can see all of the boards laid out. “We’re running with this one first, but I need to figure out which one will go next. Suggestions.”

He looks at all of them and shrugs
. “I’m not sure what to tell ya.”

We start moving the boards around and debating how best to run them against what’s going on
with the dates we want to use. He’s got some great insight, and I’m happy he’s giving me this feedback.

“This one is going to look great,” he says, about a boating one Faith and I came up with together.

“Yeah, I agree.”

“Have you talked to her?”

I shake my head, keeping my eyes fixed on the image in front of me.

“Have you tried calling her?”

“What’s the point?”

“Well, you’re going to have to call her to tell her Cal liked everything. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“These really turned out good. You two worked well together.”

“Funny you say that, Cal made a comment - he wasn’t serious - but he claimed he was surprised I haven’t tried to steal her from Rock Solid,” I finish with a laugh.

“Why is that funny? You should try to hire her,” he says with a matter-of-fact tone.

“Are you kidding me?”

His
expression is completely straight when he answers. “Why would I kid? Hell, maybe if you hired her, you’d get out of this shitty mood you’ve been in all week.”

“You don’t hire someone to get out of a bad mood, Jett.”

“No, but you do hire them because they are good at what they do, and they would be an asset to your business. And if you are able to get them from a competitor, all the better reason to do it.”