Her Sexiest Mistake

prickly, grumpy, beautiful.

Still, Mia had hurt him, letting him feel he was nothing more than a good lay.

Or a bad one, as she'd tried to convince him so many times.

For every step they took forward, she pushed them back two. In fact, unless they were in bed-or on his foyer floor-lost in their odd and wonderful chemical attraction, she was doing her damnedest to pretend their connection didn't exist.

And if the way Hope looked at the world-that is to say suspiciously and very, very carefully-was any indication of how Mia had been as a kid, then she had been doing it for a long time.

She probably had reasons, too. Good reasons.

Not that he'd know, because she didn't talk about herself.

Well, that was the first thing that was going to change. He'd been patient; he'd been easy.

But if she wanted more, then so did he.

And he figured she owed him. Big. He was going to make her pay up, and it wouldn't be in her favored way. It would be with talking. And then and only then would he let her distract him with that gorgeous body.

The thought of it amused him.

And aroused him.

Hope was looking at him strangely. 'So you really like her, huh?'

Hell if that wasn't the unfortunate truth. 'Is that a problem?'

'Not for me. But for you, it might be.'

Yeah. Truer words had never been spoken.

Chapter 18

Work made Mia's head spin. First Ted nosed his way into another Anderson account meeting, and right there on the spot made some creative adjustments with the wording of the ad that had taken her and Dillon and Janice all week to come up with.

And because the Anderson people loved the adjustments, Mia couldn't say a word.

But it burned.

Sure, she was aggressive when it came to her work, but she never, never, horned in on others.

Then Dickhead himself couldn't find the gold pen he'd gotten for ten years of 'exemplary' service, and had the nerve to ask her if Hope might have lifted it over the weekend.

Mia had to keep checking to make sure her head was still on her shoulders, that it hadn't blown off.

Without Tess handling the front desk and with no assistant yet to replace her, the phones went crazy and Mia forgot an appointment with a client.

Forgot. An. Appointment.

Oh, and her plant's leaves had stopped sagging. Now they were just falling right off. In desperation, she put the plant on her desk and pointed at the thing. 'Stop dying, damn it!'

Then she went into her own files to get the artwork and ad mock-ups for tomorrow's meetings, and she found everything all jumbled up and out of order, as if someone had recently gone through and shuffled everything.

Someone with fat, nosy fingers.

Ted?

Hard to tell, but she missed Tess with all her might. Tess who would have cut off the fingers of anyone who tried to mess with her.

She realized her head hurt. Work, always her life, her joy, had given her a headache. She couldn't believe it.

Early in the afternoon, Tess called to check on her, and just her voice lifted Mia's spirits. At least until her words sank in.

'Bad news.'

'Perfect, because I'm way too happy,' Mia said wryly.

'Okay, let's do this another way. Good news. You get to take a weeklong vacation from your house, which has termites.'

'Um… what?'

'The place has to be tented,' Tess said apologetically. 'You have to get out and stay out for five days.'

'Oh, my God.'

'Buddy's working you in, his schedule is crazed. If you get out by six tonight, he can do you. No pun intended.' -

'Oh, my God,' Mia repeated.

'Is that a yes?'

'And if I say no?'

'Termites eat you out of house and home.'

'Shit.'

'I'll take that as a yes.'

'Shit.'

'Honey, you're beginning to sound like a parrot. Why don't you and Hope stay with me?'

Tess had an apartment the size of a postage stamp. Plus Mia didn't want to impose, but mostly she liked to be on her own. 'Thanks, but we'll rough it at a hotel.'

'You never lean on me.'

'Of course I do.'

'Name the time.'

'Um…'

'Uh huh. And why did I have to find out from Mike that you were born and raised in Tennessee like Hope? I mean, I've heard the accent, which I matched to Hope's the first day I saw her, but, damn it, I wanted to hear about you from you.'

So she'd fooled exactly no one.

'Honey, honestly. What is wrong with growing up from humble roots?'

Mia sighed. 'Do we have to do this now?'

'As opposed to never, right? You'd prefer that.'

'Look, I'm a different person now. I like people to know me as I am now.'

'But who you were factors in. You're a smart woman. You know that.'

Maybe. But she'd been running for so many years because she didn't want to face the fact that, looking around at her life right now, right this minute, she might have to admit she was far more her momma's daughter than she'd ever wanted to be. Sure, she had money and a good job, but she hadn't ever kept a man, or even a friend, for longer than it took to sneeze.

Tess being the exception somehow, but mostly that was a tribute to Tess's tenacity rather than anything Mia had done. 'Look,' she said. 'I don't lean easily, I don't share easily, you know that. But I do both with you more than anyone else.'

Tess sniffed, sounding slightly appeased. 'Well, that counts for something, I suppose.'

'I have to go. You wouldn't believe the crap here. So are we okay?'

'Yeah. I love you, Mia.'

Mia sighed. Lots of people were throwing that word around lately. But there was leaning, and there was truth.