He followed the sound of voices, a man’s deep laughter and the steady rumble of a lighter female one. Careful not to give away his presence, Spence leaned against the outer hall wall and peeked into what he guessed used to be the student dining hall. Paint peeled off the stucco walls. Old posters were half ripped down and half hanging by old tape. Rows of luncheon tables and benches had been replaced with one folding table and a couple of chairs that didn’t look sturdy enough to hold an adult.
A woman stood there—the woman. She wore a sleek navy suit with a skirt that stopped just above the knee. She embodied the perfect mix of professionalism and sexiness. The flash of bare long legs brought back memories. He could see her only from behind right now but that angle looked really good to him.
Just as he remembered.
Her brown hair reached past her shoulders and ended in a gentle curl. Where it used to be darker, it now had light brown highlights. Strands shifted over her shoulder as she bent down to show the man standing next to her—almost on top of her—something in a file.
Not that the other man was paying attention to whatever she said. His gaze traveled over her. As she talked and pointed, he leaned back slightly and stared at her legs then up higher.
Spence couldn’t exactly blame him, but nothing about that look was professional or appropriate. The lack of respect was not okay. The guy’s joking charm gave way to something much more territorial and heated. As far as Spence was concerned, the other man was begging for a punch in the face.
As if he sensed his behavior was under a microscope, the man glanced up and turned. Spence got a full-on view of him. He looked like every blond-haired, blue-eyed guy in his midthirties who hung out in bars around the city looking for young Capitol Hill interns to date. Good-looking in a still-brags-about-his-college-days kind of way. That sort of thing was big in this town, as if where you went to school defined you a decade or so later.
Point was, Spence knew the type. Charming, resourceful and looking for an easy lay. He knew because he’d been that guy. He just grew out of it well before he hit thirty.
The other man’s eyebrows rose and he hesitated for a second before hitting Spence with a big flashy smile. “Good afternoon.”
At the intrusion, Abby spun around. Her expression switched from surprised to flat-mouthed anger in the span of two seconds. “Spencer.”
It was not exactly a loving welcome, but for a second he couldn’t breathe. The air stammered in his lungs. Seeing her now hit him like a body blow. He had to fight off the urge to rub a hand over his stomach.
They’d worked together for months, every day with him wanting to break the office conduct rules and ask her out. He got close but backed off, sensing he was crossing a line. Then she made a move. A stolen touch here. A kiss there. He’d battled with his control and waited because he needed to be careful. But he’d wanted her from the first moment he saw her. Now, months later, the attraction still lingered...which ticked him off.
Her ultimate betrayal hadn’t killed his interest in her, no matter how much he wanted it to.
“Spencer Jameson?” The guy walked toward Spence with his arm extended. “Excellent to meet you.”
“Is it?” Spencer shook the guy’s hand as he stared at Abby. He wasn’t sure what was going on. Abby was supposed to be here with her team. Working. This felt like something else.
“I didn’t realize you’d be joining us.” Her deep voice stayed even, almost monotone.
If she was happy to see him, she sure hid it well. Frustration pounded off her and filled the room. The tension ratcheted up to a suffocating degree even though none of them moved.
Spence tried not to let his gaze linger on her. Tried not to show how seeing her again affected him. “Where are the others?”
The man did a quick look around the empty room. “Excuse me?”
“Derrick told me—”
“Rylan Stamford is the environmental engineer who is performing the site assessment.” She even managed to make that sentence sound angry and clipped.
The job title didn’t really explain why Rylan looked ready to jump on Abby a second ago. Spence sensed Rylan’s mind wasn’t only on the job. “Our assessment?”
“The city’s,” Abby said. “Rylan isn’t employed by us.”
Rylan’s smile grew wider. “But I’ve been working very closely with Abby.”
Yeah, Spence kind of hated this guy. “I’m sure.”
Abby exhaled loud enough to bring the conversation to a halt. She turned back to the table and started piling the paperwork in a neat stack. “Did you need something, Spence?”
She clearly wanted to be in control of the conversation and them seeing each other again. Unfortunately for her, so did he. And that started now. “We have a meeting.”
She slowly turned around again. “We do?”
“Just the two of us.” The idea was risky and maybe a little stupid, but he needed to stay in town until his soon-to-be sister-in-law gave birth. Derrick’s fiancée’s pregnancy was high-risk and Spence promised to help, to take some of the pressure off Derrick.
“Oh, I see.”
That tone... Abby may as well have threatened to hit him with her car. She definitely was not happy to see him. Spence got that. “No, you don’t.”
She sighed. “Oh, really?”
If words had the force of a knife, he’d be sliced to pieces. She’d treated him to a prickly, unwelcome greeting and, if anything, the coolness had turned even icier since then.
The reaction struck him as interesting, infuriating even, since he was the injured party here. She cheated on him. Well, not technically, since they weren’t officially going out back then, but she’d done the one thing he could not stand—she used him to climb the ladder to get to a stronger, more powerful Jameson: his father.
Spence glanced at Rylan. He stood there in his perfectly pressed gray suit and purple tie. He had the right watch. The right haircut. He’d shined his shoes and combed his hair. Nothing—not one damn thing—was out of place on this guy.
Clearly Rylan hoped this was a date or the prelude to a date and not an informal afternoon business meeting.
Well, that was enough of that.
“Are you done here?” Spence asked Rylan, making sure his tone suggested the answer should be yes.
“Absolutely.” Rylan’s sunny disposition didn’t dim one bit. He put a hand on Abby’s arm and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll call you tomorrow so we can go over the list of concerns.” His hand dropped as he faced Spence again and nodded. “Mr. Jameson.”
Yeah, whatever. “Rylan.”
Spence watched the engineer leave. He’d never had such a sudden negative reaction to a person in his life. Rylan could have said anything and Spence would have disliked him.
Abby leaned back with her hands resting on the table on either side of her hips. “Heavy-handed as always, I see.”
Facing her head-on, without a buffer, tested the defenses he’d thrown up against her. He shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t mean anything. If only his brain and his body would listen to that order.
Despite standing ten feet apart, Spence felt a familiar sensation spark inside him. Desire mixed with lust and a bit of confusion. The intensity