TWO
Caleb leaned back against the door and watched the finest ass in the state walk away from him and he had to shake his head. “Shit.” It had been far too long since he had seen Pru and the effect she was having on him was way to fucking early in the game. Rubbing a hand over his face he sighed and turned back into his office.
His Office.
That’s what it was now, right? Looking at the plate on the door that said Manager, he snorted and pulled it down before walking around to the desk. He had lots of changes in mind for WAC, most of which were long over due. Looking at the plate in his hand, he tapped it against his other palm.
“Lots of changes coming, Pru. Lots of changes.”
An hour later he stood in the conference room and felt the eyes of every single staff member burning a whole into him. Hell of a fucking welcome, he thought. They were all sitting around whispering about what happened earlier. No surprise the whole place already knew Jack was long gone. Scanning the room he found Prudence right away and let his eyes linger on her while she talked to the woman that looked like a young version of Diane Lane.
She had colored her hair brown; he wondered why she would want to cover her fire red hair. Sunset on fire, he had called it once. That’s what he thought of when he looked at her hair. She was still lanky but had added some curves and muscle to her body. Pru had always reminded him of one of the pin up girls from the fifties; the ones that would wear military outfits and pose against things—teasing and toying with you with their little grins.
Yep, that was Pru. He met her gaze and tried not to smirk as she narrowed her eyes at him and quickly looked away. Oh yeah, teasing and toying. Clearing his throat before speaking, he waited until everyone had stopped whispering and focused back on him.
“Afternoon. For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Caleb Finnigan. As I’m sure most of you are aware, Jack Wellington has left and is no longer the manager or owner of WAC.”
“No shit, Sherlock…”
He raised his eyebrow and looked over at Diane Lane, Jr. and tried not to smirk.
“Good to see it was noticed. First off, Jack Wellington is not allowed on the property and if he is seen, it’s to be reported immediately to security and to me. Several changes are going to happen but, so everyone is aware and the rumors and gossip will stop, no one will be getting fired.” He heard the loud sigh of relief and this time he did smirk.
“Listen, I’m not coming in here to throw shit around and mark this as mine. WAC is a place I’ve loved for a long time, just as I’m sure many of you have. I believe that together we can make this place into what it once was. No, better than what it once was.”
People started to clap around him and he noticed the happiness and relief on their faces as what he’d said sank in. Looking around the room he smiled, pleased they were all happy as well. He turned his head and glanced over to where Pru sat next to Diane Lane.
When she looked up at him he felt the tightening in his chest that always seemed to appear whenever she was around or thoughts of her ran through his brain. The look of distrust on her face cut into him. Caleb didn’t have to prove himself to anybody in this room….except the one that really mattered.
Prudence listened to the people laughing and clapping all around her and all she wanted to do was stomp out of the room and go into an office to cry. Damn him for swooping in like a god damn hero and saving the day. Caleb Finnigan was far from a hero. He ripped out hearts and crushed them under his cowboy boots.
Standing up, she shook her head at Charlene, when her friend gave her the do we need to go and talk about this, look.
“Later.” Patting her friend on the shoulder she turned and headed out of the conference room and down the hallway toward her office.
“Pru. Prudence…”
Stopping and closing her eyes, she let out a breath before turning around to face Caleb. “What do you want Caleb?”
“Are you okay? You just left.”
“Jesus Christ, Caleb. You can’t come out here and act like you give a shit about me. You’re not allowed to do that.” Moving closer to him she poked him in the chest and glared up at the man who had caused her nothing but grief and pain. “Don’t you dare try to play the god damned hero with me.”
Caleb stood there listening to her yelling at him and going on about why he couldn’t ask how she was and do this but all he saw was her mouth moving and hell if his brain didn’t shut down.
“Pru, shut up.”
Pulling her close to him he didn’t give her a chance to react before covering her mouth with his. Swallowing her cry, he rubbed his tongue over her lips until she parted them and he was finally able to sink into the kiss.
She still fit up against his body like they were custom made for each other. It took all the strength he had to pull back and looked down at her beautifully dazed face.
“I do give a shit about you. I have always given a shit about you. I’m going to do whatever is needed to prove to you that I never stopped caring about you. You’re just going to have to find a way to deal with that.”
Letting her go, he turned around and headed back down the hallway to his office. Caled didn’t want to wait around for the reaction he knew would come.
“ASSHOLE!” She shouted out after him and he chuckled.
“Welcome back Pru. Welcome back.”
