Those dark, dark blue eyes were locked on her. Lean, hungry, powerful. His body drew her gaze whenever he was around whether she liked it or not. And dammit, she didn't like it. She didn't want another dangerous man. But she also didn't want a man who agreed with her, and she didn't want a man who was safe. For the first time in the three years since she had taken her wedding band off she admitted in her head what her heart already knew. Safe wasn't going to do it. Duncan didn't do it for her. Unfortunately, though, Noah Blake did do it for her. "It" being that sexual curiosity, that pounding heart, that surge of excitement. Something she had never felt with another man— only her husband. And that fact had the power to make the hurt, the anger, and the animosity toward this one man run deeper.
Right now, she hated Noah Blake clear to the bottom of her soul. Because he was forcing something no one else had ever been able to do. He was forcing her to feel things she had only ever felt for her husband.
And to Sabella, that betrayal to Nathan's memory was worse than any other she could have committed.
She couldn't forget that. As the day went on, she dealt with vehicle computers that didn't want to cooperate, and the mechanic from hell that didn't seem to be able to do anything but draw her eye.
At one point she lifted her head from the interior of the pickup she was working on to watch, fascinated, as he glared into the guts of another vehicle, slowly twirling a wrench between his fingers.
There was an oddly familiar frown on his face. A way he had of glaring at the engine as he flipped that tool, finger to finger, and considered whatever it was he was considering.
It was sexy. Impossibly sexy. Dressed in dark gray work pants and a matching short-sleeved shirt, he conveyed an image of raw, powerful male that she couldn't help but notice.
"Hey, Noah," Rory called, interrupting her musings. Noah turned and frowned back at Rory in the office. "I need you in here."
"In a minute," Noah called before turning back to the engine.
"Now!" Rory's voice held a snap.
Noah's expression became still, dangerous, but he shoved the wrench in his back pocket and walked to the office. Prowled to the office maybe. There was something dangerously predatory and pissed off about him now.
The door closed quietly behind him as Rory lowered the shades to the windows that looked out to the garage. Sabella's eyes narrowed. She dragged the oily rag from her back pocket and wiped her hands before moving to the office. Gripping the doorknob, she tried to turn it, only to find it locked.
Locked out of her own office? My, how interesting. She could feel her face flushing with anger as she jerked the keys out of her pocket. She was set to unlock it as the door jerked open.
"Guy talk." Rory's grin was stiff, his blue eyes brighter, though more with concern than anger.
"Guy talk, your ass!" She smiled tightly as she stepped into the office to see Noah standing by her desk, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at Rory with a flat, hard gaze. "What did he do?"
"Sabella, can you please let me handle this one little thing?" he said impatiently. "Really. I promise. I can manage some stuff on my own."
Rory sounded a shade put out. Okay, so she was a little territorial with the garage, maybe too much so. But over the years she had let it become her husband and her baby and everything in between. Rory knew that. So why was he becoming so angry now?
"I was just curious." She shoved her hands into her pockets and gave Noah what she hoped was a sweet smile. "Just tell me what he did and I'll leave. Are you going to fire him? Can I watch?"
"Fine." Rory didn't look happy, that was odd enough. He looked angry at her, and he was never angry with her. And his smile. It was tight. All teeth. When had he turned into a full-grown man on her? He wasn't a kid brother any longer. "He was staring at your ass! Now you deal with it."
He turned and slammed out of the office, leaving her to stare at him in shock before she turned to meet Noah's amused gaze.
"He was lying to me," she said.
He grinned. Noah was absolutely entranced. Once again, he had to ask, though, what had happened to the Sabella he had known six years before. The one who never chipped a nail, and would have never, under any circumstances, butted into a male/male confrontation.
"You have a fine ass," he stated, and knew she wasn't buying it.
Her eyes narrowed. "And you're not going to tell me what he was chewing your ass over?"
Noah had to chuckle. "It was more in the way of a warning."
He was treading a fine line. Nathan wasn't as dead as Noah might wish; he still had habits that had once been ingrained. One of those habits? Twirling that damned wrench as he tried to figure out a particular problem beneath the hood of a vehicle.
She sniffed at his response. "Piss him off too far and I'll convince him to finally fire you."
He had to grin at that one as he sauntered to the door. Before passing her, he stopped, lowered his head, and whispered, "And I caught you looking at my ass too. Maybe I should tell Rory on you."
She caught his arm as he moved to open the door, staring up at him soberly. "You're messing up my life," she told him quietly. "And I don't like it."
Noah sobered. He could see an edge of pain, of knowledge, in her eyes. For the past three days they had been circling each other like combatants, edging forward and back, trying to make the other force the confrontation they both knew was coming.
"How am I messing up your life, Sabella?" Once, long ago, he would have known. He would have known the woman standing before him and could have sworn he could anticipate her every thought and move. He was learning, though, and hated it, but he was learning there had been so little that he had known about her.
Nathan's wife would have never barged into the office. Hell, she would have never been working on a car or staring him down now. The woman that had belonged to Nathan had hidden from him, just as Nathan had hidden from her.
But this woman was going to belong to Noah.
"You think you can take over, don't you?" she asked him softly. "Walk right in here, and everything you want is going to fall into place."
He narrowed his eyes on her. He'd had that thought, maybe. She was disabusing him of that notion quickly.
"I just needed a job." He forced a grin and watched as her gaze examined his face.