Love by Design (Crystal Falls Book 1) (9 page)

“Can I help you?” Christina asked Lily with a glare.

“I’m just here to finish up the room. Don’t mind me.”

She shot Noah a cold look. How could she have thought so much into what he had said the other night? He wasn’t sorry. Hell, it looked like he was right back at it, flirting with other women. It was obvious that he and Mrs. Upton were a little too friendly with one another. She couldn’t believe she’d actually started feeling something for him. She wondered quickly if he’d already slept with her. She gritted her teeth.

Christina waved her away. “We’ll be done here soon. You can come back later.”

Just then two burly men came through the door with a headboard. Christina rolled her eyes.

“Take it back, come on, out of here.” She shooed at the men, who turned to Lily for direction.

“Don’t look at her. I’m in charge here. You need to come back later,” she told them. The men flinched and backed out of the door as she came toward them.

“No wait a minute. Wait just a minute,” Christina called after them. The men froze where they were, confusion obvious on their faces.

Christina stepped out of the room and touched the headboard, a gray fabric that Lily thought worked perfectly with the stone of the fireplace.

“Is this,
fabric
? On my headboard?” She looked at the men and waited for an answer. One of them finally shrugged. She turned on Lily.

“You’re the decorator, right?” Christina crossed the room again. Lily stood her ground but her cheeks flushed. She had no idea what was going on.

“Yes?” she replied.

“Obviously I’ve made a mistake. This isn’t going to work. Absolutely not.”

Lily bit her tongue.
Not going to work?
She so badly wanted to point out that the woman could have filled her in on her design preferences at any time.

“I’m sorry. I’ll take it back,” Lily said instead, but Upton cut her off.

“No. Not good enough. How can I trust you now? Who knows what ungodly thing you’ll to bring into my home next. This isn’t going to work. I’ll need to replace you.”

“Christina, for God’s sake, it’s only a headboard. She can get a different one,” Noah crossed the room and stood between the two women.

Christina fumed and paced along the plush carpet, the carpet that Lily had so carefully picked out for her. Obviously the effort was lost on the hateful woman.

The delivery men stood confused with the heavy headboard between them, too afraid of Christina to move.

Lily stepped in front of Noah. There was no way she was going to let him run interference for her. This was her job and she was going to make it work. She didn’t need any help.

“Mrs. Upton, I’m so sorry for the mistake.” She clenched her fist so hard that her nails dug into the skin. Part of her wanted to defend herself, but she knew better. Right now she needed this job more than she needed her pride. Despite what Noah thought, she knew how to suck up to a client, even if she didn’t like it. Clearly that’s what was required of her now.

Noah began to step forward again but she glared at him and gave him a quick shake of the head. He shrugged and leaned back against the wall, obviously not willing to leave in the midst of this juicy battle.

Lily took a step toward the woman, who had stopped pacing and now stared out the French doors.

“I truly apologize. I’ll take the headboard back right now,” Lily turned back to look at the room. “I see it now. You are exactly right. I don’t know how I could have been so careless.”

Christina turned to watch Lily pacing the room out of the corner of her eye. Lily thought a minute, looking from the wood to the fireplace, and glancing quickly at Christina. What could this horrible woman possibly want from her?

She hadn’t gone with a wood bed frame because she had thought there was already too much of the stuff between the cabin walls and refinished floors. She jogged her memory for other options, ones that were neither wood nor fabric. Antiques certainly weren’t appropriate, not for Mrs. Uptight.

Grasping at tiny threads for anything that might satisfy her ridiculous client, Lily finally remembered an artist she’d seen at a craft fair a few months before. He’d made massive stone wall hangings out of every kind of rock imaginable. Maybe the answer was not to use a headboard at all.

“I know of an artist who makes some pretty incredible hangings out of stone. Why not skip the bed frame completely? Use a piece of art instead.”

Christina stared at Lily a moment, and then turned her eyes to where the bed would sit.

She sighed, clearly exasperated by the whole ordeal. “Fine, fine.” She flicked her hand as if shooing her away. “Leave us now.”

Lily looked quickly to Noah. She thought she saw sympathy in his eyes. She hesitated, just a second, but it was enough to catch Upton’s attention.

“I said leave us!” she nearly screamed. Lily felt her heart race. She’d never been treated so poorly by a client, not even when she’d worked for Blackwood. She bit her tongue and left the room.

She kept it together long enough to tell the furniture guys to take the bed back to the truck and wait until she gave them the okay to bring the rest of the furniture in. She would make sure Mrs. Uptight was well on her way before bringing another thing into the house. With any luck she could avoid her for the rest of the job. Surely Lydia could run interference for her.

Lily followed a pine needle path back behind the house as she tried to calm down. A bluebird flitted through the trees and landed in a birdbath at the end of the trail. She followed it, hugging herself lightly, trying to push the anger down. She had never felt so humiliated, being yelled at as if she were a child. She’d only been doing her job. And all of it while Noah just stood there watching the whole thing.

She was angry at him for trying to interfere and angry at him for not doing enough. It was irrational, sure, but she’d expected more from him and he’d let her down.
Again
. Not to mention catching him with Upton’s claws around his neck. Who knows what they’d been about to do. Tears sprung into her eyes and she stamped her foot. There was no way she was going to act like a baby about this. She told herself she wasn’t going to cry, she couldn’t. She kicked at a rock and scuffed her shoe. Despite her attempts at control the tears started to fall as she replayed the embarrassing scene feeling the fresh burn of being scolded and not just in front of Noah but in front of the furniture crew too. And probably others - who knew who else was within earshot of the screeching?

She wondered if she should just leave or if she should wait until Upton left and get the furniture placed. She could always have the furniture guys come back tomorrow. Sighing, she leaned against a tree, wishing not for the first time since this job had begun that she could just quit and go work retail.

After Lily left the room, Noah struggled not to say anything to Christina about the headboard debacle. He knew if he interfered he would probably just make the situation worse. But he was steaming inside. He’d hated to see Lily so cruelly mistreated and it had taken all his strength to keep his mouth shut and his hands to himself while she was being attacked. It made him want to fight and to protect her all at once. In that moment, when all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and protect her from every unkind word and painful feeling forever, he knew he wanted her back. And that he’d do anything to make it happen.

When Upton finally walked out the door after what felt like hours of him coddling her, he let out a quick sigh and immediately looked out the front window to see that Lily’s car was still there. He saw it parked behind his own truck and waited at the window until Christina pulled out of the parking area and down the main drive.

The construction crew had stopped to watch him and the silence finally caught his attention.

“What are you looking at?” he asked. “Get back to work,” he said in mock anger then gave them all a smile before heading to the back door. If he knew Lily, she would be outside trying to work through her feelings.

He found her a few minutes later, kicking at the gravel along the path in the back.

“Sorry about that,” Noah said as he stopped near the head of the path. He could tell from her tensed back and shoulders that she needed space even though all he wanted to do was wrap her small body up in his and never let anyone hurt her again. He thought he saw her sniffle and he clinched his fists.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”

“I should have helped you out more with Christina.”

“I didn’t ask for your help.” She brought her hands to her face and he knew she was crying.

“I know. I’m sorry,” he replied.

“What a bitch,” Lily said quietly, anger and hurt so clear in her voice.

“The way she treated you was terrible,” he agreed. “I shouldn’t have let it happen.”

He hesitated a moment, unsure if he should touch her. But he wanted so badly to hold her, to make her feel better, he couldn’t resist. He reached out and brushed her arm gently.

She shook him off. “Don’t act all sweet and innocent with me,” she told him, turning to face him. Fresh tears fell from her eyes and broke his heart. “I saw the way you two were together. She’s obviously got you wrapped around her little finger. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were screwing her.” She spat the last words out and all the soft feelings he’d had just seconds before started boiling into anger at the accusation.

“That’s ridiculous,” he replied.

“Ha. I know how you are.”

He stepped quickly closer and grabbed her arms in his tight grip. She tried to shrug him off but he was much too strong for her. He kept her arms pinned to her sides and pulled her even closer. She flinched from the look in his eyes and he eased up his grip although he kept his eyes intensely on her.

“You obviously don’t know a
thing
about how I am. I’ve never slept with a client. I’ve never even thought about it. It would be insanely unprofessional. Not only that, but I never slept with anyone else when we were together. I don’t know where you get these ridiculous ideas.” He punctuated the words by tightening his grip on her again, slowly inching her closer so that when he finished speaking her chest pressed into his. His blood was pumping hard in his ears, whether from anger or excitement he wasn’t sure.

She began to shake her head at him but he cut her off by pulling her in closer and pressing his lips to hers.

She pushed at his chest, trying to break away from his grip but he held her firm against his chest. His body tightened with need as he gently pried her lips apart, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. She fought him another instant but he could tell she’d lost the desire to deny him as she finally quit struggling and closed her eyes.

The passion was there still, hotter and more demanding than ever.

Her tongue met his, eagerly exploring his mouth as if it were the first time she’d ever tasted it. A moan escaped her lips and she grasped his shirt.

He felt the desire radiating from her and it was all he could do to keep his hands from exploring her the way he really wanted. She tasted like sugar and he couldn’t keep his lips away from hers. But he knew it wasn’t the right time for this, certainly not the right place. He wanted to know that she was kissing him because she wanted to, not because she was hurt and needy and he was there.

He let his arms fall from her hips, giving her one final long kiss on the lips before easing his body away. Her eyes flew open and she stared up at him, her face flushed, her heavy breathing moving those pert little breasts up and down in the most seductive way.

A bird chirped in the trees above them and to Noah it felt like time was standing still. If he could just hold onto her a few minutes more. Instead he shoved his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t be tempted to grab her again.

Her hand came up to her mouth and her eyes grew wide. She took a step back and tripped over the path. He moved quickly to catch her but she shook him off.

She had that innocent deer-in-the-headlights look again. He was tempted to grab her and kiss her once more, just to see the panic in her eyes, but instead he took a step back and gave her a lazy smile.

“God, you’re adorable,” he told her. Her eyes grew even wider and with her hand still covering those oh-so-kissable lips, she took off past him down the path.

The smile was still plastered to his face when she turned the corner of the house and disappeared. He leaned against the trunk of a big pine and crossed his arms, feeling like he’d managed to accomplish something after all on this otherwise wasted day.

What the hell had gotten into her? She sat in the driver’s seat of her car, staring out at nothing. She looked down to find her hands gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were turning white. Why had she let him kiss her? What had she been thinking?

But, oh, what a kiss. Her body hummed with desire for him. She felt his moist lips back on her, that rigid body of his pressed tight against her own, and she let out a sigh. She had missed him, if only physically. She could admit that much. She felt too hot all of a sudden and peeled the blazer she’d been wearing off her shoulders. It still wasn’t enough and she rolled down the windows, letting the cool afternoon breeze blow into the car and over her bare shoulders. Despite the heat of her body, she shivered. Fall was coming, she realized, hard as it was to believe with the sun shining so warmly on her. The skirt of her sundress billowed around her as she sat trying to sort through what had just happened.