WLUV Box Set: Ignited, Consumed, Burned (7 page)

So she snuck out. Out of bed, into the shower, and out of
the room; she’d never been so quiet in her life. She finished getting ready in
the front seat of her car, using the car heater vents to dry her hair before she
piled it on top of her head in a messy ponytail, then she put on her glasses.
She definitely wore pants that day—she was done with stockings for this
assignment. Though the futility of it all was not lost on her, she was
attempting to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

She’d have to see Wes at WLUV, but at least there she had a
chance to be cold and distant. She needed to be cold and distant or she’d be
melted syrup in his hands. She enjoyed what he did to her too much not to get
wrecked by it in the end.

On the dark drive into work she played out the speech she
would give. Too tipsy, a little reckless; it was fun, but that’s it.

But part of her hoped that Wes wouldn’t buy one bit of it.
She wanted him to kiss her brainless again. She planned to surround herself
with news people all day so as not to be in the position to give in.

“I’m so screwed.” Macy said under her breath as she used her
brand new gate card to park in the secure lot. All she could think about was
Wes, and his hands, and his mouth and his….

“So screwed,” she whispered again as she stepped into the
newsroom. WLUV was already a joke in this town, now the woman charged with
turning it around couldn’t keep her panties on around the owner. No one could
find out and it could never happen again. Just as her resolve strengthened she
imagined him behind her, sliding open her blouse.

“Screwed.”

Wes rolled over and reached for Macy, thoughts of the night
they had together stirred him and he shook off sleep just in time to see her sneaking
out the door. Unless he wanted to chase her down the hall wearing only a towel,
he’d have to let her win this round.

She was for him and he was for her. That was the cosmic
explanation for what had happened last night. The life he’d had up to now –
work, meaningless sex, world travel, even marriage – it was all a preamble.
Somehow the universe placed him in this town, at this time, with this problem
station, and then sent him this woman as the solution.

Or his dad did. Either way, she was here for him or he was
here for her… she just wasn’t quite convinced yet.

She was too controlling to let fate or passion take over for
long. The connection was heady; he had a fair amount of control freak in his
makeup and he could admit that this felt out of control. But he also knew this
kind of connection was a rare gem, one he’d been looking for it his entire life
without knowing it. Assessing and acquiring exquisite things was one of his
jobs at Thompson Hathaway, and Macy Green was a find.

He was pretty sure she felt the way he did. The problem was
that Macy had a past too, one that prevented her from simply enjoying the
mind-blowing sex and the amazing way their personalities meshed. Hell, they
even sparked. It was time to find out what the big mystery was about her and
then break her resistance down.

Wes swung by his condo, showered, changed, and knew all the
while Macy was likely hard at work, earnestly doing what she was hired to do.

He really didn’t care about the damn station at all anymore.
It was a nuisance to begin with. If only he could get rid of it so he could
concentrate on wearing down Miss Green, kissing every bit of her sweet skin,
getting her to laugh, and getting her to make that little mewing sound.
Remembering that sound she made was enough to make the drive to work rather
uncomfortable. Damned inconvenient that she slipped out of bed this morning.

He pulled into the station and sure enough, her rented car was
there. Wes walked through the newsroom to get to his office each morning. He
never looked forward to it as much as he did today. He anticipated catching
Macy’s scent and seeing her command the troops. The idea of watching her flip
out over some mistake in a broadcast had him stifling a smile.

When he walked in this morning, he found the newsroom
humming along, something that didn’t happen before Macy.

Bernie was on the phone, “Listen, we’re going to be live
there.” Bernie looked over at Macy for confirmation.

“Yes!” Macy shouted.

“No. I don’t know what part of this you’re not
understanding, we are
not
putting all our resources on this storm, we
are not sending this, this
co-ed
live, and just because you’ve got a
sweet little ass, big tits, and a network pedigree doesn’t mean you can come in
here and run my newsroom!”

Pat Walters flung the ugly words deliberately to contradict
and belittle Macy in front of the entire staff.  He slurred a few of the “s”
sounds and Wes thought he caught the scent of stale whiskey from across the
room. Wes also spied Gordon snickering at Pat’s base insult.

Seconds before the room had been a dull roar of activity but
after Pat lashed out at Macy, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone’s focus was
on Pat Walters and Macy Green. Clearly no one had realized the station owner
was in the newsroom because their heads whipped around when he growled, “You’re
fired, Walters.” His voice was low and steady, and it was all he could do not
to punch the news director in his bloated face. No one was going to treat Macy
that way, no one.

“What?” Walters turned to him, shocked, perhaps only just
now realizing that he’d acted like an ass in front of the station owner. He was
the type to bully underlings and then suck up to management.

“I said you’re fired,” Wes calmly restated the obvious. “We
do not speak to co-workers this way and this is the second time this week that
I smell alcohol on your breath at 9 in the morning.”

Alcohol, embarrassment, and the overall bad judgment that
Pat Walters had made his trademark, led him to do the most stupid thing he
could possibly do at this point. He blustered towards Macy and shoved her
against the support beam that stood in the center of the newsroom.

It was shocking, violent, and totally unexpected in an
office setting. It was more like the behavior you’d see in a bar at closing
time—of course, for Walters the world was a bar at closing time.

Wes’s eyes flashed red. He launched himself at Walters and
grabbed him by the collar. Pat Walters had bullied his last employee.

“Bernie, I’ll be escorting Mr. Walters out of the building.
I’d like you to call the police.” Wes was manhandling Pat out of the newsroom
and into the lobby when he heard the clicking of heels on the floor behind him.

“Wes,
Wes
! Ugh.” She stopped in the doorway and
called back to Bernie, who was completely confused by the conflicting orders,
“Bernie, put the phone down. We don’t want to be on the police scanner for
god’s sake.”

“He just committed assault in my newsroom. There will be a
police report.” Wes was struggling not to pulverize Walters.

“So what, sticking up for your little con
slut
ant now?”
Walters didn’t know when to quit. “Did you ask her why she wasn’t at network?
Just ask her!”

This time, Wes pulled his fist back and wound up and only
Macy yanking his arm back stopped him. The force of his forward motion
practically pulled her off her feet.

“I will not press charges against Pat. He can leave quietly
now.” Macy scurried to get between the two men. What was the deal with this
woman?

Bernie showed up in the lobby with Pat’s coat and bag. Macy
grabbed the things and pressed them to the former news director’s chest, “Here.
Now get out of here before—”      

“Before what? Your boyfriend over here tries to hit me
again?” Walters was right in Macy’s face, sneering, “I wouldn’t stay at this
third-rate, piece of crap, backwater, fucked-up excuse for a television station
one minute more if you paid me!”

Wes felt himself take another step toward Walters, but Macy
stood her ground between them. It was a quiet but tense moment before Pat
Walters finally saw the reality of the situation and turned on his heel. He
used his bag to slam the glass window in the reception area, which shattered,
and as a grand exit he kicked open the front door.

Bernie, Macy, and Wes stood together silently, watching the
man huff and puff and curse out to the parking lot.

“You may not want to press charges, but look at him! He’s
drunk and roaming the streets! If he even figures out where his car is, he’ll
just get into an accident, and if he wanders around out there on foot, God
knows what,” Wes realized he was shouting.

“I’m NOT pressing charges! He’s ridiculous and not worth my
energy. Besides, I have work to do” Macy was yelling, too, and squaring off
against.

What the hell? He’d just watched her get assaulted,
displayed a ridiculous amount of restraint in not eviscerating Pat Walters, and
she was yelling at
him
?

At this point Bernie piped up and interrupted Macy’s
gathering tirade, “You know, I’ve got a few friends in the department. I’m sure
they’ll be able to pick him up and drive him home…that way no one gets hurt and
none of the other stations hear about this drama.” He paused for a moment.
Something about the current situation had Bernie amused. “And perhaps you two
could have this – uh – meeting – up in your office boss?”

“Two excellent suggestions, thank you, Bernie. I’ll be down
in a second. Please continue with snow preps.” Macy ran her hand over her hair,
a few tendrils having escaped from her adorable ponytail, and Wes watched her. 
He was sure ‘adorable’ was not what she was aiming for but tough. That’s what
it was.

“After you.” Wes gestured to the stairs and his office. As
furious as he was at Pat Walters, he had to appreciate the view of Macy as she
ran up the stairs. She took them at a clip and it put a wiggle in her hips that
she didn’t have when she walked. God, it was all he could think about. Fighting
with her apparently did not make her less attractive to him, unlike with other
women, where fighting just made him tired.

As they walked to the office and shut the door, he wasn’t
sure what was sexier: a slightly tipsy Macy, half-undressed in his hands, or a
livid Macy with fire glinting in her green eyes. He’d let her yell a bit to
see. He shut the door in case she was a screamer.

“What was that about?” Macy’s normally contained tension was
firing out straight at him. She was a screamer.

“I just fired the abusive, lazy, unprofessional news
director that we both agreed needed to be fired.” Wes was trying not to yell
back but he realized he was, in fact, yelling, but he was nowhere near as good
at it as Macy.

“You just came to my rescue in the newsroom in front of the
entire staff! How in the hell are they going to think I am credible,
responsible, tough – the things I
am
– when you stomp in there trying to
fight my battles?” Wes knew he was supposed to look at her flailing hand
gestures and not her panting breasts, but he wanted to look at the breasts.

“My eyes are up here, asshole!” Macy looked like
she
might throw a punch. “I’m sorry that we did what we did last night. That has
clearly given you the idea that I’m some sort of damsel in distress, which I
most certainly am not.

“Asshole, eh? Let’s keep these issues separate.”

“They
aren’t
separate. You’re going to tell me you
would have stepped in and come to Gordon’s rescue?” Macy retorted.

“Well, I’m not sure about Gordon, but for sure Bernie. No
one insults Bernie on my watch.” Wes was in a no-win position at this point and
was beginning to suspect that he was the only reasonable person in the world.
Except for Bernie, maybe. Bernie seemed to have his head on straight.

“You are
not
funny. You are--ugh!” Macy began to
sputter, not unlike the recently fired news director.

“Macy, calm down. I am committed to a safe workplace no
matter who is being threatened, and I will not have an abusive person under my
employ.”

A red mark was starting to rise on Macy’s cheek. She must
have hit the beam in the newsroom pretty good when Walters shoved her. “You’re
going to have a bruise there, G.” Instinctively he walked forward toward her.
He wanted to sooth it, but Macy stepped back.

“No.” She put up her hand. “Don’t call me that.”

“You’re hurt. It’s going to swell. At least let me get you
some ice.”

“I do not want you do anything other than be the owner of
this station. I want you to let me handle the staff, and I want you to stay
away from me.” Wes felt like she’d put a knife in his chest. All her fire
turned stone-cold in an instant. Something had shifted.

“I don’t think I can,” Wes answered honestly. He didn’t just
want Macy in his bed; he wanted her in his life. And right now that looked
about as far away from happening as could be.

“Here’s the deal. I need this job with ANCR. I like this
job. I do not want to get fired from it because I am banging a client. From now
on, we won’t be banging. Got it?”

“I think you know it was different than that, quite a bit
different. Then again, if that’s what you’re into, Gorgeous, it’s an option.”
Wes took a huge step forward, practically lunging at Macy. He grabbed her by
the arms and drove his tongue into her mouth.

There it was, the sound—that moan of hers that had him
wanting to hear it again and again. No other woman responded to him like she
did, fast, hot; it was like a collision. Macy kissed him back, hard, as if they
were still fighting, but this was oh-so-much better than verbal sparring. The
kiss was filled with anger, lust, and a struggle for dominance. He was probing
her mouth and she didn’t yield, she attacked.

 Their tongues swirled together as he moved her backward
towards his desk. He pushed into her pelvis and she matched his heat with her
own. Both of her legs came up around him and he could feel her ready, that
fast. It made him so hard it was almost painful. He slid his hands under her
turtleneck sweater and there they were, hot, pebbled, her nipples straining
against the fabric of her bra. 

 Wes knew she was already on the edge just from his touch.
Relentless, he nipped at her lower lip, and felt her buck against him, moving
with rhythm, with purpose. She was searching for release and would get it. He
was probing and pushing, but she was the one taking what she wanted. She turned
the tables, proving she was no one’s victim.

 Then she groaned. It was unbridled, even a little unhinged.
“Yes, yes,
yes
.” Macy panted. She was there in seconds, on the desk,
fully clothed. The pressure of their bodies was enough to get her there, even
if she was spitting nails at him just moments before. He had her body, no
doubt, and she had his.

He pulled her hips to him as hard as he could and for a
moment they were still, Macy staring into his eyes. God, she was so stunning
this way, flushed and out of breath, swollen. It was the opposite of her controlled,
professional self.

But it only lasted a second. When Wes put his hand up softly
to stroke her face, she pushed him away, “Wes, no. Oh god. No, no,
no
!”
She wriggled out of his arms. She smoothed her clothes; put a panicked hand to
her lips. “We’re done with this. Even though I wanted – still want – I
like
…Ugh,
we’re just done.”

Wes and Macy circled each other in the office. “If that’s
the way you want it, Gorgeous, I won’t touch you again until you ask me to.”
Macy wanted to be in charge and her loss of self-control was clearly scaring
her. Maybe she didn’t know she had it in her. Wes knew she did, in spades, and
it drove him nuts.