Cherished (McKenzie Brothers, #5)

Unease fills me as I glance around the site. I’m not sure if anything will happen but I can’t help but worry about the guys on the site. One of them may have a problem with Ramon…well…more of a problem than before.

During Ramon’s announcement, I’d been standing at the back of the others as I watched for anything unusual. Nothing untold happened and everyone listened to Ramon. A few shuffled around when they didn’t like what they heard, but other than that, nothing.

“Are you going to stand around all day daydreaming or are you going to let me get past to work on that wall over there?” Chris asks.

I get the feeling he’s trying to be polite but would prefer to just shove me out of the way.

“Fine. Where’s Rick?”

He passes me, mumbling, and drops his toolbox when he reaches the wall that he is apparently going to be working on.

Not sure I believe that.

Nothing is going to get done by me this morning.

I’m not usually so distracted but the thought of Ramon down in his office is playing hell with my concentration. I’m probably acting like a five year old with the way I am today. It’s as though I have an itch that needs scratching and knowing that it can’t be scratched is making it itch more.

I grin because that’s damn accurate, and that itch is Ramon.

“Fuck this!” I drop the hammer back into my tool belt and use the stairs to make my way down. There is an elevator but that thing is enough to give me nightmares. Elevators on construction sites are temperamental at the best of times.

Just clearing the last set of stairs, someone yells, “Look out.” We all look up and, in a split second, I tackle a kid out of the way as two steel girders crash to the floor.

That was too fucking close for comfort. I also have no idea about where the fuck they came from. All the steel girders for the higher floors were taken up there by crane two days ago. They’re too fucking heavy for one or even two men to maneuver without the support of a rig or something similar.

“What the fuck just happened?” Ramon yells as he rushes through the gathering crowd.

Then his eyes focus on me sitting with my ass on the floor and my foot about six inches from one of the girders. He looks momentarily stunned before he quickly dashes over, and hauls me to my feet.

I turn and help the shell-shocked kid up, but Ramon’s brief touch of my hand has me turning back to him.

“Are you okay?”

I nod. “Yeah. Wouldn’t have been but for the shouted warning.”

His jaw tightens with anger and stress. “The site is closed for today. Everyone will get paid, but for now, grab your personal things and clock out. Be back here tomorrow morning unless you hear otherwise. And you will be paid tomorrow if you aren’t called back. That means everyone.” He runs his hands through his hair and the slight shake that I see tugs at my heart. Without looking at me, and with the noise of everyone leaving, he whispers, “Follow me to my office. Now.” Ramon turns and heads out of the construction mess expecting me to follow.

I do. I’d follow him anywhere, and I hope he realizes that.

My stomach is still upside down about what nearly happened. Seconds. That’s all we had to get out of the way.

After I’ve held on to my guy, I’m planning on going back up there to find out how the fuck they managed to fly through the fucking air.

Ramon

Hearing the commotion from my office, I’d jumped up and raced to the entrance of the building with my heart in my throat.

My first thought had been for Noah, but I’d also been worried in case one of my crew had been injured or worse.

It had shocked the life out of me to find Noah sitting on his ass next to the kid who I presume he’d pushed out of the way. Noah’s foot was mere inches from the girders.

Even now, as I ignore Jackie and enter my office, my hands are still shaking. The fear of losing Noah is tearing my insides apart. To the point that I want to tear off our clothes and claim him…I need to feel him to know he’s alive. Or even have him claim me so that I feel him hard and solid in my ass.

“Ramon, talk to me.” Noah closes the door to give us privacy and seconds after hearing his tool belt drop and the deadbolt slip into place, I can’t hold back anymore.

It takes two paces to reach him and then I’m pulling him into my arms. His arms wrap about my waist and he holds me as tightly as I’m holding him.

Slowly moving my hands from behind his neck, I cup his face and, while I caress his cheeks with my thumbs, I let my lips hover above his before I kiss him. It isn’t the hard kiss of lust that we usually exchange. It’s a soft kiss of love. I nearly lost him and I need to be tender now. I want to show him how much he means to me. Which is why I’m frustrated that we’re in my office, but perhaps, we need a new memory of being in here.