Even angrier than before, she folded her arms over her chest. “And where have you been?”
He leaned back against the fireplace mantel and smiled slowly. “I didn’t know you wanted me.”
What he said and the way he said it sent her pulse into overdrive. It wasn’t fair. The man had a sexy physique, he was handsome as all outdoors, and on top of everything else he had a sexy voice that could rival Barry White’s any day.
“Did you want me, Jocelyn?”
Sighing deeply, she set her jaw, determined not to say anything. She thought better of it and opened her mouth to tell him a thing or two, but he was quick and placed a finger to her lips. “Remember our truce.”
She glared. She didn’t care one iota about their so-called truce. Her main concern was tile, namely marble. If Marcella got wind that she would have to wait six weeks for her foyer to be completed, all hell would break loose. A thought suddenly came into Jocelyn’s head. Bas was supposed to be the expert troubleshooter, the fixer-upper, the problem solver. So let him deal with it and see if he made more progress than she did.
“We got the wrong tile,” she snapped.
He gave her a carefree look. “Then return it.”
As if she hadn’t been trying to do that for the past half hour. “It’ll be another six weeks before the distributor can replace it.”
“Tough. We’ll go to the manufacturer.”
Did he think she hadn’t tried that already, too? “I did that,” she all but spat out. “And I got nowhere.”
“What’s the name of the distributor?”
Jocelyn blew out a sharp breath. “Arnett Distributors.”
“Arnett Distributors?” He almost laughed. “Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”
He sounded so convinced she couldn’t help but ask, “And why shouldn’t there be a problem?”
He smiled again as he met her gaze while pulling out his cell phone and punching in numbers he evidently knew by heart. “Because the Steele Corporation is one of their biggest clients.”
Jocelyn nervously chewed the insides of her cheeks. Could it be possible that Bas had enough clout with Arnett to rectify a major screw-up? She couldn’t help remembering the last house they’d done for Marcella Jones and how she claimed the kitchen fixtures hadn’t been the ones she’d ordered. She’d pitched such a fit that Jim had taken the six-hour drive to Birmingham and back to pick up the ones Marcella claimed she was supposed to have. Jocelyn didn’t relish the thought of having to tell her about the tile.
“Mark Arnett, please.”
Bas’s words intruded into her thoughts and she wondered how he’d gotten past the auto prompts. She wondered too if he’d gotten any more sleep last night than she had. He didn’t seem tired and grouchy this morning. Evidently he hadn’t had a restless night remembering how they had indulged in such a mind-blowing kiss. Maybe it had been mind-blowing just to her. Maybe for him it was just so-so.
“Mark? How are you? This is Sebastian Steele. Yes, I’m fine.” Then cutting to the chase he said, “Look, I need your help and I want you to put it to the top of your list.” He nodded. “Good. There’s been a mix-up with a supplier of one of our subsidiary companies and I need it straightened out. I need a particular style of marble tile sent to me right away.” There was a pause. “How soon? Overnight if you can.” Another pause. “Here’s the style number,” he said and began reading the information off the invoice.
“Think you can handle that?” he asked without missing a beat. “Great. Here’s the address I want it sent to.”
Five minutes later Bas was hanging up the phone, smiling. “Any other fires you want me to put out?”
Not unless he wanted to drop a gallon of water on her head, Jocelyn thought as intense heat ran through every part of her body. While he’d been on the phone with Mark Arnett, trying to save her company from Marcella Jones’s wrath, she’d been studying him like a teenager in lust. Every time he moved his body, she got the full effect of seeing him in his tight-fitting jeans and saw how they contoured to his muscular thighs. And if that wasn’t bad enough, that Pittsburgh Steelers T-shirt was clearly emphasizing muscular arms, a firm flat chest and nice wide shoulders. Display Bas on a poster and she would buy whatever he was advertising.