The Schemer (Harbor City 3)

Don’t stare at her mouth. She stopped within arm’s reach. He kept his hands to himself and…looked right at her mouth. His cock approved. His brain did not. “Just the woman I was looking for.”

“Lucky me,” Everly said, sarcasm dripping from each syllable like bitter honey.

“Well,” Helene said, stifling what sounded suspiciously close to a chuckle, looking from Everly to Tyler and back again. “I’ll see you two Saturday at Alberto’s.”

Tyler managed—just barely—not to let his relief show. He was getting a case of this wine for Helene as a thank-you.

“That’s great,” Everly said. “I didn’t realize he’d invited you, too.”

Helene picked up her purse from the table and gave Everly a knowing look. “I’ve never had a problem getting invitations to anything.”

Now that he could believe. He, on the other hand, spent years fighting for a place at the table.

The Carlyles’ longtime driver, Linus, obviously using some kind of ninja magic, appeared at the gallery door right as Helene neared it. Tyler watched her leave—the other

stragglers right after her—while he sipped his wine, determined to draw out the silence until Everly broke it. She wasn’t the sit-around type any more than he was, but he’d had longer to perfect the facade.

She narrowed her dark-brown eyes at him and jutted out a hip, planting her hand on it in a full-on bad girl, somebody-hold-my-earrings kinda way. The girls he’d grown up with had a similar stance. It always meant things were about to get exciting. Of course, that kind of woman was the last thing he needed in his life. He needed someone with the ice-cold reserve that came with being born into Harbor City money, which was exactly why the next step of his plan after landing the Ferranti deal was to find the right kind of woman who would help him cement his legacy as far away from working-class as possible. Then, he’d finally prove the doubters—including his own parents—wrong.

Everly snatched the wineglass from his hand and set it down on the table next to a half-eaten toast triangle in a partially crumpled napkin. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged as if he wasn’t at least partially holding his tongue to make her nuts. “Staying quiet so you can think.”

She tossed her head back and groaned. The sound shouldn’t have been a turn on. It was.

“You.” She pointed a long finger at him. “Are a giant pain in my ass.”

The staff break room door swung open and a tall woman with enough curly long hair to make a mermaid jealous strolled out. She got a few steps into the gallery and stopped. “Need some help, Evs?” she asked as she flipped a dish towel over her shoulder and glared at him.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the two women were close and that the other woman was ready to go to the mattresses for her friend. She didn’t have the same tough-girl-from-the-streets body language as Everly, but the clues were there—feet hip-width apart, hands loose but ready at her sides, and the come-at-me-douchebag, pissed-off-Amazon-warrior-level glare that actually had him ready to take a step back.

“It’s okay, Kiki,” Everly said, waving off the other woman. “You’re sure you’re okay with finishing up?”

“The team and I will have everything squared in just a few,” she said, continuing to give Tyler the evil eye. “Go on home, Ev. How you walked around as long as you did in those shoes, I have no idea.”

Everly’s shoulders dropped a few inches and the tired lines around her eyes softened. “Thanks, I owe you.”

Obviously deciding that she’d delivered her warning to him, Kiki turned her attention back to Everly and chuckled. “I’ll add it to your tab. You sure you’re okay?”

“Oh, him?” Everly gave a dismissive wave with her hand. “This is 2B.”

“This is Mr. Burn the Joint Down?” Kiki’s glare disappeared, and she gave him an assessing up and down. “Huh.”

He had no idea what to do with that. “You ladies know I’m right here, yes?”

“Yeah,” they responded at the same time in the same totally unimpressed tone.

Then, Kiki turned her attention back to Everly. “Go on up. We’ve got everything down here.”

“Thanks again.” She hustled over and gave the other woman a quick hug, and then strolled over to the door leading upstairs to the apartments. She paused with her hand on the knob and looked over her shoulder at him. “You coming?”

It was an invitation he wasn’t expecting but he sure as hell wasn’t gonna turn down. He needed to get this lunch at Alberto’s settled.

They were halfway up the first flight of stairs, their steps echoing through the stairwell, when she pivoted to look down at him two steps behind. “I don’t know what you’re up to or what you told Helene, but I don’t like it.”

So suspicious, rightly so, but still it turned him on that she wasn’t the type to just accept the easy answer and had the instincts to know when something was off. Add to that the way her ass looked in that black sheath dress going up the stairs and he was starting to lose brainpower. She was just the type of woman he didn’t need—the kind that made him think about sheets twisted around their naked limbs instead of his latest scheme. He’d learned his lesson the hard way with another sexy, dark-haired firebrand who’d sent him back to Waterbury defeated and humiliated. That wasn’t ever going to happen again. If he didn’t need Everly’s connection to Alberto so badly, he’d treat Everly like the kryptonite she was. That, of course, wasn’t going to happen, though. This deal meant everything.

“Helene and I were just talking about Alberto’s lunch,” he said, deciding it was time to push his luck before he broke and kissed her—again—because he couldn’t stop his gaze from dipping down to her lush mouth that he wanted on his and locations much lower. “So what time do you want to leave for Alberto’s place in Seaside?”