Unconventional Read online

“I uh… oh. Sorry.”

  He continued past me on his two giant legs, to his current work area. Bending at the knees, he set the tremendous blocks of limestone on the ground and turned to face me.

  “Yes?”

  He was covered in dust. And dirt. And sweat. Especially sweat. It glistened off every square inch of his magnificent body, accenting every cut, every ridge and ripple of his smooth, sun-bronzed skin.

  “Did you want something?”

  I was still enthralled. Still caught in a trance, staring at his incredible physique. His tattoos were visually stunning — all roses and birds and scrollwork. But they were the most masculine, gorgeous black-and-grey roses and birds I’d ever seen inked on skin.

  “I… ummm…”

  God, this was so hard!

  “I’m afraid I have to let you go.”

  Julian’s face was absolutely expressionless. He reached up to rub at the back of his neck, his massive bicep flexing into a beautiful, skin-covered boulder.

  “You’re firing me?”

  “No,” I said quickly. “I mean… yes. I mean—”

  “I’ve never been fired. Not ever.”

  His expression changed, and I felt a sharp pain in my heart. Damn, why was I so bad at this?

  “You’re not being fired then,” I said awkwardly. “More like… laid off.”

  “Laid off?”

  Julian shifted his weight from one leg to the other. His arms crossed, showing off the sexiest of all anchor tattoos on his forearm.

  “Is there a problem with the quality of my work?”

  My eyes drifted down the castle’s curtain wall, which he’d personally rebuilt with his own two hands. Julian had taken the barrier from a crumbling, shattered ruin back to its strong, well-defined origins. His work was exemplary. Total magic.

  “Never,” I said. “Not once.”

  “Then I’ll continue,” he said, dusting himself off. “I’ve never been laid off before either, and I’ve never abandoned a job before it was—”

  “Are you listening to me?” I jumped in. It sounded harsh, but I had to stay strong. “I have no money left. I can’t pay you.”

  “So?”

  “So?” I repeated, with a sardonic laugh. “So I can’t let you work for free!”

  The big man grunted dismissively. “Who said anything about working for free?”

  Julian turned and picked up one of the stones he’d set down. With a heave that sent every muscle along his great body rippling, he hoisted it onto one big shoulder.

  “I’ll come see you later tonight,” he said, “when I’m done for the day. We’ll talk then.”

  I was caught between not knowing what to do… and staring endlessly at his hulk-like physique. The stone on his shoulder had to weigh close to a hundred pounds. His muscles were tight, his pectorals flexed… but he didn’t even look uncomfortable.

  “O—Okay,” was all I said.

  Julian nodded firmly and turned away, heading in the direction of one of his makeshift ramps. It left me standing there alone. Totally confused as to what just happened.

  I wandered my way across the grounds, thinking again about last night. Wondering who might’ve been standing at the edge of the field, and what they could have possibly wanted. It might’ve been my imagination, sure. I was very tired. My eyes could’ve easily been playing tricks on me.

  Then again…

  So what happens next?

  I’d spent the morning going over my limited options. The first included skipping out entirely. Calling the whole thing a wash, packing my stuff, and heading back to California. As far as choices go, it wasn’t a bad one. It took everything off my shoulders at once, and freed me up to move forward without looking back.

  On the other hand, it also came with a heavy price: guilt. A sense of having failed my uncle as well as myself, and the haunting specter of two years’ worth of work done for absolutely nothing.

  I’d sacrificed everything after my uncle’s death. My time, my money, my entire personal life. I’d come to Scotland with visions of travel and fun, and the idea of maybe meeting a cute Scottish guy or two. There would be European charm. Dark beards and sexy accents. Everything I’d seen on television and movies.

  Instead, I hadn’t been out on a single, solitary date.

  I continued crossing the field, which looked so much less sinister during the day. When I arrived at roughly the spot where I’d seen the intruder, I turned around.

  For all its size, at this distance Westgate Castle was small and insignificant. From right here, it seemed a thousand miles away.

  I scanned the arched stone openings, tracing my way up to the top floor. I could barely make out my bedroom window. I couldn’t even see the curtains on either side, much less a person if they happened to be standing there.

  Whoever it was, they certainly weren’t looking at me. That fact alone should’ve given me some relief.

  Then why do you still feel like this?

  I walked around, still uneasy. Still shaken from lack of sleep, still feeling badly about having to fire Julian.

  No, not fire. More like lay off.

  Whatever.

  I was about to turn around and go back when I saw it. Right there, at the edge of the treeline… a branch, lying in the grass.

  I picked it up and turned it over in my hands a few times. Then, glancing upward, I located the exact tree it had snapped off from. I checked the break point, and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

  The broken branch was still green and fresh…

  As fresh as last night.

  Four

  MADISON

  It was just past dusk when the knock came at my door. I opened it warily and saw Julian standing there, covered in a full day’s worth of sweat and grime and lime-dust.

  “Hey…” I said, ushering him in.

  I’d envisioned him crossing that threshold a thousand times. Entering my house, my kitchen… maybe even a lot more. But never like this. Never under circumstances this grim.

  “I’m so sorry, Julian,” I said, with genuine sadness. “I—”

  My sentence died as our eyes locked, blue on cerulean blue. I saw Julian’s jaw flex. The muscles of his shoulders go tight, as he raised his arms…

  Then all of a sudden he was kissing me. Pulling my body tightly against his.

  Oh my God…

  It was hard and fast and full of passion, his two big arms enveloping me in a sea of strength and tattoos and muscle. But at the same time, it was also slow. Thunderous. Full of intensity and sensuality and all magnificent things, as his perfectly supple lips rotated slowly against mine.

  I felt his tongue probe forward insistently, capturing my own. Forcing it to submit as I kissed him back, devouring the sweet, manly taste of him as we made out, shamelessly, in my ancient foyer.

  Fuck…

  In those few precious moments, my whole world exploded. I was limp in his arms. A puddle of nothing, as the big stonemason crushed me helplessly against his chest, taking me to places I’d only dreamed of.

  Best of all he smelled like a man — all sweaty and dirty and coated with the remains of the day. In no time my head was spinning. Every last ounce of me felt alive and on fire, as I continued kissing and tasting and inhaling him.

  By the time he finally set me back on my feet, my legs were absolute jelly. I could’ve dropped right there. Fallen straight to the floor, like every bone had been somehow vacuumed from my body.

  Instead he held me steady, until I got my bearings. One hand resting delicately against my face… the other, planted firmly behind me, somewhere dangerously close to the curve of my ass.

  “I—”

  I was at a total loss for words. For several long seconds, I couldn’t say anything at all.

  “I… was going to pay you… for the week…”

  Feebly, my arm swept forward. Between my fingers was an envelope — almost the last of my cash.

  Julian squeezed me with a delicious
possessiveness before letting me go. As our faces parted, and our bodies drifted apart, he shook his head slowly.

  “That was payment enough.” He pushed the hand holding the envelope away. “For now.”

  I was left standing there in my post-kiss euphoria, totally beyond stunned. Covered from head to toe in goosebumps, my whole body trembling.

  “See you tomorrow,” Julian said, as he pulled the door closed behind him. “Bright and early.”

  Five

  NOAH

  She was the best part of every day. A stream of cool, crystal clear water — or lemonade, or whatever — running down our parched, eager throats.

  It didn’t hurt that she was absolutely gorgeous. Blonde haired. Blue-eyed. Pretty in that oh-so-cliche’ girl-next-door sort of way, where she may or may not know it.

  Even her name was attractive. Madison. I couldn’t get tired of saying it in my head. It just was so… her.

  “Thank you, honey.”

  She returned my smile as I took the glass of ice-cold liquid from her tray. I’d flirted with her a hundred times, and so had Chase. She’d always flirted back. It had become somewhat of a game for us, who could make her laugh the hardest, or get the widest grin. Chase usually won the laughing part. I was always better at eliciting the biggest smile.

  The key to that was in the eye contact. And Madison had some of the deepest, most sapphire blue eyes I’d ever seen on a woman.

  It was almost inconceivable that she lived here alone, in a big old place like this. A girl this desirable without a boyfriend or husband or anyone at all. She should be surrounded by suitors. Hunted down by dozens of guys nowhere near good enough for her.

  But in other ways, it was totally believable. Madison was strong, inside and out. Made even stronger by what happened with her poor uncle. Chase and I had watched, sadly, as our employer’s niece sacrificed so much to keep him healthy. And then after his passing, how tirelessly she’d worked to bring his place back to life.

  Her tenacity and refusal to give up was one of the things we admired most about her. It was the main reason we worked so hard.

  I set down the empty glass and took the second one, as always. She could’ve just brought bigger glasses, and left them with us. But why ruin a good thing? I think she enjoyed watching us. Spending those few flirtatious moments together, talking about nothing and—

  “Here.”

  I stopped mid-gulp, realizing Madison was still holding out the tray. On it, next to the lemonade, were two sealed envelopes.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s two weeks’ pay,” Madison said calmly. She was trying to keep her voice strong, but it wasn’t working.

  “What the hell for?”

  She held her composure for another moment or two, then her whole demeanor changed. Her shoulders slumped. The breath she’d been holding came out in a long sigh. Most of all, her smile — which had been exceptionally wide all week — abruptly faded.

  “I… I have to let you go.”

  Chase and I looked at each other with bitter, knowing glances. We’d been here before.

  “I mean, you’re not being fired,” she said quickly. “It’s more of a temporary layoff.”

  “How temporary?”

  Madison set the tray down, then reached up and combed her fingers through her hair. It was something she did whenever she was nervous.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted.

  I looked down at the two plain envelopes, still resting on the tray. They represented a grim finality. The end of something good.

  And looking back at our beautiful ex-employer, maybe even a missed opportunity.

  “And what about him?” asked Chase, pointing with one arm. Across the courtyard, the big stonemason was busy slitting open a fresh bag of cement. Getting ready to mix his latest batch of mortar.

  “Julian?”

  She sounded nervous. More nervous than ever.

  “Yeah. Julian.”

  “He’s… just gonna finish up that section of the wall,” Madison replied hesitantly. “When he’s done, I’ll call for a last inspection. Hopefully, with a little luck…”

  “You’ll squeak by?” I asked. “Uh-uh. No way.”

  Chase rubbed his arm across his lemonade-covered mouth and nodded in agreement. “The inspector’s gonna piss all over that idea,” he said matter-of-factly. “Every time he comes here he finds something wrong with what needs to be done. And you haven’t finished half the projects on his last ‘to-do’ list.”

  For a moment she opened her mouth to protest, but the three of us knew better. I watched her pretty little face draw deeper into worry. Lines began to form on her perfect, porcelain forehead.

  “Listen,” I said. “Madison…”

  She shook her head, as if she already knew what I was going to say. Maybe she did.

  “Keep us on,” I told her. “A few weeks more, anyway. We can finish the stairwell, maybe get the rest of the framing done on the mill tower. We’re nearly done there. It would be a shame not to finish up.”

  Chase put his glass down. As he did, he used two fingers to push the envelopes away. “Yeah. What he said.”

  Madison’s expression still hadn’t changed. “But I can’t pay you.”

  “Pay us whatever you can,” I offered. “Or pay us later on down the line, when you can pay us.”

  Her eyes went glassy, and I could see she was on the edge. It could go either way, and I didn’t want that.

  “Listen,” I said, placing my hands on her shoulders. “It’s okay. Your uncle… he was always good to us. And then you, when you took over? Even better.”

  “Totally,” Chase jumped in. “No offense to the old man, but he never brought us lemonade.”

  She chuckled briefly, and I knew I had her. I tilted her chin gently in my direction and smiled, forcing her to do the same.

  “Seriously,” I said. “Keep us around a little while, and don’t sweat the money.” I nodded toward Julian, who was still mixing. “If anything, give it to him. When an inspector comes, you’ll need that outer wall finished for sure.”

  “But he—”

  She stopped herself, mid-sentence, and I knew there was something more.

  “He what?”

  Madison looked down at the ground. “He’s not taking money either,” she said guiltily. “I tried to fire him, just like you guys. But he told me he’d work for free.”

  “That little bastard,” Chase swore.

  I knew he was kidding. but also, on some levels he wasn’t. Julian had been our main competition in trying to woo Madison. We’d been fighting him for her lemonade affections for months now.

  “Imagine the balls on that guy!” Chase continued. “Trying to outbid us all the way down to zero. Stealing our thunder. Taking our—”

  “He’s just helping her out,” I said, in defense of the giant mason. “Same as we are.”

  The fire in Chase’s eyes died down a little, and I was left staring back at our former employer. Or current employer. Or whatever she was at the moment.

  “Look,” I said simply. “We know you need this place finished. That without passing these upcoming inspections, everything we’ve done here will be for someone else.”

  Chase folded his arms across his chest in solidarity. Madison just blinked.

  “And there’s no way we’re gonna be upstaged by that guy,” I chuckled, nodding toward Julian. “Especially not when it comes to you.”

  Now she did cry, but the tears were joyous ones. Madison flung herself into my arms and hugged me with all her might. She smelled incredible! I lifted her from the ground, and her body felt every bit as amazing as I always imagined it would.

  “Uhh… I’m gonna need one of those too,” Chase quipped.

  She laughed, dabbed at her tears, then did the same to my partner and friend. Chase’s big arms slid around her, crushing her against his body. His face slid alongside her face, his nose buried in her hair.

  “Stop,” I admonishe
d him. “You’re getting our girl all dirty!”

  Chase threw me a wink, then kissed her briefly on the cheek before letting go. Sure enough, the side of her face came back streaked with soot and grime.

  But damn, it sure felt good to call her ‘our girl.’

  “Sorry,” I apologized, reaching out to clean her cheek. “He’s a barbarian.”

  Madison didn’t seem to care in the slightest. She was practically vibrating with happiness.

  “You guys are the best,” she said exuberantly. “And I’ll pay you back. I’m making that promise that to the both of you, right now! I swear, I’ll—”

  “Just keep bringing us lemonade,” I smiled, reaching for my hammer. “We’ll do the rest.”

  Six

  MADISON

  The next week was a total blur. I ran back and forth into town a lot, to set up deliveries. Stopped at various county offices, to make sure my permits were still on track. I barely had time for anything other than coffee, and nothing good on that account. Each night I came home well after dark, usually hungry and always exhausted.

  My evenings however, were a lot more exciting.

  Every night before he left, Julian would knock on my door, sweep me into his arms, and smash his lips against mine. It always happened wordlessly, and in super-slow motion. We’d kiss with a voracious, insatiable hunger, for what seemed like hours on end instead of mere minutes. As our tongues would dance hotly in one another’s mouths, our fingers would move even more tentatively, exploring each others’ bodies…

  Each time it happened, things would progress a tiny bit further. Julian would cup my ass with an impossibly big palm, or drag the backs of his fingers high up along the inside of my thigh. At one point he slid a hand under my shirt and beneath my bra, his fingers just barely teasing one pert nipple before tracing slow, wonderful circles around my areola.

  He always stopped short though. Always left me on trembling legs in my own vaulted foyer, panting and breathless and dripping wet.

  “See you tomorrow,” he’d say each time. Then he’d spin from my home and close the door.