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“Rory, what are you up to?” She turned to her brother-in-law as Grandpop pulled into traffic.
Rory’s expression was too innocent, and reminded her too much of when Nathan had hidden things from her. Same expression, the same set of his broad body.
“You’re too suspicious, Belle,” he sighed.
“You’re not hiring that Viking,” she told him.
Rory’s jaw clenched and his blue eyes fired. “Should I leave, Belle?” he asked.
That hint of anger in his voice had her eyes narrowing.
“No, you shouldn’t leave.” She frowned back. “You should discuss hirings with me.”
“Like you’ve discussed with me?” He rolled his eyes. “Three years, Belle. You walked in and took over three years after Nathan died, and I let you, because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. But I know more now. It’s time I pulled my weight. And the mechanics we have now aren’t efficient.”
She couldn’t argue that, but she hated him pointing it out.
“I don’t like Noah Blake. Fire him and hire the Viking. Then we’ll discuss the others.”
“Come on, Belle.” Frustration filled his voice now. “You don’t like him because he knows what he’s doing and because he doesn’t mind telling you that. No one’s done that since Nathan and you can’t handle it,” he accused her.
Sabella flinched. She could feel the ache she kept hidden, buried beneath the reality of Nathan’s death, snap hot and sharp inside her chest.
“Nathan didn’t arbitrarily argue with me,” she bit out.
“No he didn’t,” he said roughly. “Because you never let him know who you were or how much that damned garage meant to you. Well, someone knows now. Give him hell instead of me.”
With that, he stomped off, his hands buried in the pockets of his work pants, as Noah stepped outside the garage bay doors.
Those dark, dark blue eyes were locked on her. Lean, hungry, powerful. His body drew her gaze whenever he was around whether she liked it or not. And dammit, she didn’t like it. She didn’t want another dangerous man. But she also didn’t want a man who agreed with her, and she didn’t want a man who was safe. For the first time in the three years since she had taken her wedding band off she admitted in her head what her heart already knew. Safe wasn’t going to do it. Duncan didn’t do it for her. Unfortunately, though, Noah Blake did do it for her. “It” being that sexual curiosity, that pounding heart, that surge of excitement. Something she had never felt with another man—only her husband. And that fact had the power to make the hurt, the anger, and the animosity toward this one man run deeper.
Right now, she hated Noah Blake clear to the bottom of her soul. Because he was forcing something no one else had ever been able to do. He was forcing her to feel things she had only ever felt for her husband.
And to Sabella, that betrayal to Nathan’s memory was worse than any other she could have committed.
She couldn’t forget that. As the day went on, she dealt with vehicle computers that didn’t want to cooperate, and the mechanic from hell that didn’t seem to be able to do anything but draw her eye.
At one point she lifted her head from the interior of the pickup she was working on to watch, fascinated, as he glared into the guts of another vehicle, slowly twirling a wrench between his fingers.
There was an oddly familiar frown on his face. A way he had of glaring at the engine as he flipped that tool, finger to finger, and considered whatever it was he was considering.
It was sexy. Impossibly sexy. Dressed in dark gray work pants and a matching short-sleeved shirt, he conveyed an image of raw, powerful male that she couldn’t help but notice.
“Hey, Noah,” Rory called, interrupting her musings. Noah turned and frowned back at Rory in the office. “I need you in here.”
“In a minute,” Noah called before turning back to the engine.
“Now!” Rory’s voice held a snap.
Noah’s expression became still, dangerous, but he shoved the wrench in his back pocket and walked to the office. Prowled to the office maybe. There was something dangerously predatory and pissed off about him now.
The door closed quietly behind him as Rory lowered the shades to the windows that looked out to the garage. Sabella’s eyes narrowed. She dragged the oily rag from her back pocket and wiped her hands before moving to the office. Gripping the doorknob, she tried to turn it, only to find it locked.
Locked out of her own office? My, how interesting. She could feel her face flushing with anger as she jerked the keys out of her pocket. She was set to unlock it as the door jerked open.
“Guy talk.” Rory’s grin was stiff, his blue eyes brighter, though more with concern than anger.
“Guy talk, your ass!” She smiled tightly as she stepped into the office to see Noah standing by her desk, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at Rory with a flat, hard gaze. “What did he do?”
