Taming Tessa Read online

  TAMING TESSA

  Betty Womack

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

  TAMING TESSA

  Copyright © 2010 by Betty Womack

  E-book ISBN: 1-60601-795-0

  First E-book Publication: April 2010

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2010 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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  TAMING TESSA

  BETTY WOMACK

  Copyright © 2010

  Chapter One

  Jack Savage had plans, none of which included driving from downtown Kansas City through the Plaza in rush hour traffic during a snowstorm.

  An attorney should never be friends with a client. There were too many drawbacks, like playing chauffer to their brat sister, Teresa Duval.

  Damn it. He had plans.

  While he sat in the stalled traffic and waited for the snarl to unwind, he became more pissed off. Why would she need him to drive her anywhere? She had money and half a dozen cars.

  Hell yes, he knew the answer. The chick just felt like having a servant that day. And he got the call.

  Jack pulled up next to a Lamborghini in front of the address Duval gave him on the phone. Like every place on the Plaza, parking spaces were at a premium.

  He glanced up at the windows of the building, groaning at the thought of going inside. The Walnuts on the Plaza was the hottest address in Kansas City to live for people with money to burn.

  He’d probably get a ticket for double parking. Drake Duval could pay this one. Jack pulled the keys from the ignition of his sedan and got out. He trudged through the snow and ran up the steps to the front entrance of the building.

  The doorman scowled at him long and hard before opening the heavy glass door.

  “Ms. Duval is expecting me.” Jack brushed snow from the shoulders of his black wool overcoat.

  “Shall I announce you, sir?”

  What the hell did he look like to the snooty bastard? Some kind of derelict? “No need. She probably knows her ride is here, been looking out the window at all the sliding cars in the pretty snow.” The doorman’s eyes rounded at Jack’s flip reply. “I’ll just be going on up and getting Ms. Duval if you’ll tell me the apartment number.”

  Jack was positive that the stone-faced little man sniffed with indignation.

  “Mr. Link Griffin owns the apartment. I’m not sure he’d approve of Ms. Duval inviting company in.”

  What made people want to be such hard asses? Especially today when he had a couple dozen things to accomplish in the next two hours.

  “The number, please.”

  “Six sixty-nine. The only unit on the floor.”

  That fucking figured. Griffin needed lots of room for his women and trust fund money. “Thanks, friend. Maybe we can have a beer after work tonight.”

  “I hardly think we would have anything in common, sir.”

  Jack laughed at the man’s answer. He probably thought he’d lift his wallet.

  He got off the slowest elevator in history to find himself in a fancy outer hallway on the sixth floor. The ritzy apartments were off limits unless you were invited in. The place smelled of money—lots of it.

  Okay, now see if the little lady is ready for her taxi.

  His moment of levity vanished when he saw the door to six sixty-nine slightly ajar. Son of a bitch. Blood.

  The blood spatters began at the door and continued on to the service exit door at the end of the curving hallway. The door to the stairway yawned wide open.

  A stab of cold worry hit his gut.

  Tessa!

  He rapped hard on the door, waiting for someone to say something.

  Shit.

  He looked down at the drying blood on the sand-colored carpet. Hell with waiting any longer. He shouldered the door open and went inside the quiet entry hall.

  Big and void of any sign of life. A sea horse fountain splashed uselessly in the center of the entry hall. Another damned receiving area. All that empty space sure made a guy feel welcome.

  “Tessa.” He didn’t like the eerie silence. Anywhere Tessa happened to be, noise followed. Right now he’d give anything to hear that cultured voice.

  The double doors to the formal living room stood wide open. That didn’t mean a thing. The woman probably never closed a door or drawer after herself.

  “Tessa!”

  He wasn’t ticked now. His hair prickled at the back of his neck. A pile of white towels on the floor were stained a dark plum color, releasing the scent of fresh blood as warm air circulated in the room.

  Band-aids and small, bloody gauze were scattered around the fancy décor. Cotton swabs had been tossed in an ashtray. Someone had something bleeding.

  “Tessa!”

  No time to be cautious. He rushed from room to room, opening closets and looking under beds. He would have bypassed it, but the drapes on the terrace doors fluttered slightly.

  Jack picked up a heavy brass figurine of a naked chick and slowly pulled the drapes apart. He wasn’t quite six feet, weighing one eighty, and dreaded a fight with Griffin’s goons.

  He clenched his teeth, prepared to defend Tessa from whoever hurt
her.

  The doors were open only a crack, but cold air poured in the room. He shoved the doors open wide and stepped outside, squinting against the wind-driven sleet.

  He flinched when he saw crimson stains on the skiff of snow covering the brick terrace floor, but that wasn’t what held Jack’s attention.

  Teresa Duval pressed her body to the icy wall, staring at him with suspicion-filled eyes.

  “Tessa.” He spoke softly, moving toward her. “Come inside.”

  For one agonizing second, she appeared ready to run for the rail. Instead, she lifted her hand and pointed to the terrace door, still hugging the damn wall.

  She whispered, obviously afraid of being overheard. “Is he dead?”

  “Should he be?”

  “I tried to kill him.”

  Jack relaxed a little, figuring there hadn’t been a murder committed yet. “You caused all this mess? What in the hell did you hit him with?”

  “My fist.” She looked ready to cry, and her chin quivered while she spoke. “I told him he was getting drunk and he slapped me. I hit him in the mouth because it hurt.” She trembled, obviously frightened. “I ran and he chased me, screaming that I was a cheap whore. He caught me and started beating me. That’s when I hit him in the nose.”

  Jack couldn’t help it. The low chuckle wouldn’t stay quiet. That explained all the blood.

  “Tessa, I’m calling the cops just to be on the safe side. Griffin may press charges against you.” The roll of her eyes triggered his disgust again. “It always helps if the assailant feels compassion for her victim.”

  She bit her lip and grimaced. “I don’t feel compassion.”

  “I know that, but you can pretend for once, can’t you?” He held the phone up to drive his point home. “To keep your ass out of a cell downtown?”

  She went pale with fright at the thought, looking ready to bolt again, while he punched in the numbers to the downtown precinct. The operator connected him to Detective Dave Dresslehouse’s desk.

  “Yeah, hey, Dresslehouse, Savage here.” Jack glanced at Tessa, making sure she stayed put. “I’m removing a young woman from an apartment where an altercation took place.”

  Jack could hear his friend laughing. “You involved in it, Savage?”

  “No. Just taking the lady home. There were a few punches thrown and some blood drawn. Nobody for the morgue, but the bastard that got hit is bleeding. From what I hear, he probably has a broken nose.” He moved away from Tessa while he finished his call. “She stood up for herself. There was no attack. Just self defense.”

  He lowered his voice and finished his conversation. “Her family wouldn’t want this to get out. I’d appreciate it if you contacted me if there is a follow up investigation.”

  After giving the detective all the details he could furnish, Jack closed his phone and looked at Tessa.

  He wanted to shake her when signs of regret set in. She looked contrite and beautiful.

  “Are you sure I didn’t kill him?”

  “Griffin isn’t dead. No bleeding corpses have been turned in.” Her look of fear made him soften his tone. “The detective said he’d check it out for me. He said the bastard is probably being patched up at Research Hospital right now and will be out carousing around by tomorrow night.”

  Jack couldn’t work up any sympathy for the son of a bitch in question. Hearing the news that her latest boyfriend had survived didn’t seem to reassure the beauty hugging the wall.

  What an opening for him to ask why the hell she put up with the woman-beating party boy. Jack wouldn’t say what he thought out loud. He had to get her out of the apartment fast.

  His gaze fell to the stains on her coat. “None of this blood came from you, did it?”

  She shook her head and barely glanced at her ruined ermine. “I have to go see how he is, or he’ll…”

  “Or he’ll beat the hell out of you?”

  Keep your mouth shut, Savage. What she does is none of your business, God damn it.

  Something changed in her attitude after his personal dig.

  Her long, pale-blonde hair lifted in a blustering gust of wind and moved about her chapped face. With the grace of a pampered chick, she pulled her ermine coat closer about her slender body and lifted her chin.

  Such a beautiful woman and so damn messed up. Why the hell did he care? He’d gotten tired of stepping around the truth about her lifestyle, ignoring her split lips and bruised cheeks. He wanted to pull her close and tell her how deep his feelings ran for her. He was in love with her and didn’t know exactly when it happened. Maybe the first time she really looked at him. His life had changed in that moment and Tessa owned him, lock, stock, and bleeding heart.

  Tessa spoke at last. “That’s none of your business, Savage.”

  What did it matter to him if she left with him or not? He knew one thing for sure. Her bullshit made him tired and really cranky.

  “Tessa.” He stepped toward her. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what’s going on in your crazy life. Your brother’s the one concerned about you. Not me.”

  She gave him a dubious once over. “Then why are you here?”

  “I’m being paid.”

  “You’re a flunky.”

  “That’s a compliment coming from a trick like you.”

  Aw, hell. Why had he said that? Trading verbal punches with a chick wasn’t his style. He had to question his own sanity, standing out in the bitter December weather with an aggravating broad. He had to catch a flight home to Sedona, not stand around, freezing his ass off in Kansas City.

  Sudden movement from her area of the terrace indicated she’d gotten cold enough to seek shelter. Her shoulders moved in a shudder as she spoke.

  “I want to go home.”

  Jack pointed to the open doors. “Your servant, ma’am.”

  If he read the message in her glower correctly, she considered him scum beneath her feet and he’d better step aside while her majesty made an exit from the frigid cold terrace.

  She went back into the lavish apartment and grabbed her small handbag from the floor. Walking behind her, Jack checked her out like he always did. She had the sweetest ass he’d ever seen.

  They took the slow elevator down to the lobby and escaped the doorman’s notice. Jack thought he might have rushed Tessa a little too hard when she lost her shoes.

  He groaned, gathering them up and kneeling down for her to stick her small feet back into the ridiculous slides.

  “Great winter shoes there, lady.”

  Outside in the crackling cold air, her tawny eyes lingered on him longer than usual.

  Oh no, man. Don’t get carried away by one look of pity from this one. Not unless she begs you.

  “Savage.”

  He stopped mentally taking off her clothes.

  “Yeah, Tessa.”

  He expected trouble when she looked up at Griffin’s windows.

  “I can call a taxi.” She covered the lower half of her face with the collar of her plush coat. “I know you hate being around me. Drake shouldn’t have bothered you.”

  Jack weighed the honesty of her words against her true personality. She loved screwing with his mind.

  “No trouble, Tessa.” He took her arm and led her to his car. The windshield had disappeared under a blanket of snow. He opened the door for her, hoping she found the sedan worthy of her supreme highness. “Get in.”

  She didn’t have to say anything. Her cat eyes spoke clearly. She resented doing anything he suggested. Damn, what a gorgeous woman. Too bad all that silky skin covered a scheming, hell-bent-for-trouble witch. He couldn’t be too pissed after noticing the spray of blood on her sleeve.

  Griffin had better walk easy from now on.

  They rode in silence for several blocks, the episode in the apartment sticking in Jack’s mind. He hated dead silence, and hell yes, he felt protective toward her.

  He had to say something to her. She paled and glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. Man, she co
uldn’t be scared of him, could she?

  “Are you worried? About what Griffin will do?”

  She shook her head and stared out the window, making small circles on the fogged up glass. After what seemed like hours to him, she hit him with a bombshell.

  “Will you take me home with you?”

  She sat placid as a cherub now, sweet and soft looking, while TNT exploded under his ass. “What?”

  He thought he’d misunderstood her.

  Her frown said she saw him as a little slow. “Home. With you.” Her dainty shoulders lifted while she waited for his numb tongue to flap. “Well?”

  Chapter Two

  Could she be so repulsive to him? His shell-shocked expression had been proof enough that he’d rather drive off a bridge. She didn’t ask again until he stopped the car in front of her townhouse.

  “So, Savage?”

  “So, Tessa?”

  Damn him. He’d forced her to beg. She didn’t like him that much. “Okay, I’ll say it again just to see that scared rabbit look on your face.” She turned to meet his steady gaze. “Me, staying at your place for a few days.”

  He stared at her as if she’d turned green and grown a horn on her forehead.

  “Did it ever occur to you, lady, that I might have something to do?” He flicked his hand toward her in open impatience. “You’ll be fine. If you’re scared of Griffin, tell security to keep him off the premises.”

  “He said he would kill me.” As luck would have it, her voice broke on the last word. Maybe he would feel sorry for her.

  He remained resolute, leaning over to open the door for her. “Stay with Drake. Its two days until Christmas. He’s your brother, for Christ’s sake.”

  His suggestion would have been good for anyone but Tessa. Constant war raged between her and her brother. He’d controlled her life and her money until her twenty-second birthday. Until that time, she relied on him for everything, and he routinely invaded her privacy. Now, she had no idea how many millions she had and enjoyed spending it on everything and anything she wanted. That included men she liked.