"Have you been burgled before?" His jaw hardens.
"None of your business."
"Have you?" He takes a step forward. I scoot back. My leg brushes something warm, which moves. A scream spills from my lips, then, for the second time in ten minutes, the world tilts, and I find myself falling… Falling. The spatula slips from my grasp. I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for my butt to connect with the hard ground, only I’m yanked upright. Heat envelops me and my breasts flatten against something unyielding. I don’t need to open my eyelids to know it’s his chest, the one with the cut planes, the eight pack abs. I slap my palm against that wall of muscles which coil, move, and writhe under my fingertips. I gulp and my legs threaten to give way under me, but his hold around my shoulders tightens. I spot the smoldering smoke stick of his on the ground.
"Your…cigar," I stutter.
"Fuck that." His breath feathers over my hair and liquid lust shoots up my veins. The scent of cherries and cloves mixes with that edgy darkness that is purely Weston. Speaking of—something hard stabs into my waist. A groan boils up my throat. Not fair—this crazy attraction to someone I’d barely met a couple of times. Why does he have to smell so delicious? Bet if I licked his chest, he’d taste more decadent that the chocolate mud pie cake recipe I’ve been wanting to bake. I'll lick the frosting off his cupcake any time. Nooooo. Not again. Enough with comparing his unmentionables with my favorited stuffed goodies. OMG, how would it feel to have him stuff his goodies in my cannoli? Wait, did that even make sense?
His voice dips, “You haven’t answered my question."
"What?" I blink.
"Did he hurt you?" He enunciates his words at a slow pace as if I am slow of mind… Which, I admit, at the moment, I seem to be. His larger-than-life charisma has turned my brain cells to mush. "Tell me," he coaxes. Is he using the same tone he used with the puppy to make him obey? Well, hell, if it isn’t working on me as well.
My stomach stutters. "Once…." I force out the word.
His muscles coil; tension radiates off of his body. "You were burgled before?" he snaps.
"Yeah," I hunch my shoulders, "it happened a week ago… No biggie." I swallow as my heart begins to race. It hadn’t been pleasant, that almost encounter. I had been alone in the kitchen of my bakery at 4 am… Hell, it had been horrible, actually. The guy had thrown a fright into me and I had thrown this spatula at him. " I chased off the guy."
His grip tightens, "Did he hurt you?" His jaw tics.
I stare up into his tight features. You’d think Mr. Jerkass here is all concerned about my safety.
"Did he?" his voice snaps through the noise in my head.
"N…no," I shake my head.
"No, what?"
No, I will not give in to this insane chemistry between us. I didn’t come all this way to run slap-bang into a man who is, surely, far worse than the one who recently broke my heart. "No, he didn’t do any harm." I tip up my chin. "Though I can’t promise the same to you."
He chuckles, "I love a good fight, don’t you?"
Jackass.
A whine sounds behind me.
I shoot a sideways glance to spot a puppy plant his behind on the ground…exactly the kind of position I’d have been, if ‘Mr. Overbearing Brute’ here hadn’t grabbed me first. Oh, so that's what I’d brushed against earlier and almost fallen over.
"Max," Weston talks to the dog, "you hungry, buddy?"
The puppy whines again.
"I’ll be right there, little man." His voice takes on a cajoling tone, and damn him, but my ovaries seem to spasm. The hell is he doing to me? Before this, I’ve never thought about kids… Hell, I’ve barely managed to embark on a halfway decent career, and I’ve never thought of myself as someone who’d want a family. But Weston, with his smoldering glare, his hard face, his harder—um—body, and that coaxing manner with which he talks to Max… I can see him with a child tucked under one arm, and me under his other… Heck, I can see me under him, period. My mouth waters. My panties dampen further. Get your mind out of the gutter, you slut.
"Isn’t he Sinclair and Summer’s pet?" I frown. My friend Summer had married Sinclair Sterling, one of the seven billionaire co-owners of 7A investments, not long ago. She’d found the love of her life, that lucky bitch. Not that I begrudge her her happiness. What I wouldn't give for some of that moon and stars glitter to rub off on me as well...
"They’re away on an extended honeymoon," Weston grunts.
"Aww. So you decided to puppy-sit?" I breathe. A warm glowing ball lights up inside of me.
He glowers, "Don’t gush any sweet icky stuff now—uh, what’s your name again?"
Poof—that warm feeling I mentioned? Forget about it. The hell is wrong with this man? "You know my name all right, you ass." I stab my finger in his chest, "So why are you pretending otherwise?"
"Me?" He blinks, "Do I?" He tilts his head, pretending to think, "Is it Lily?"
A slow burn starts up my spine.
"No… No." He cracks his neck, "It will come to me, it will… It’s Malia, right?"
Anger laces the edges of my vision. I draw in a breath, then another. Stay calm, he can only get so much more obnoxious, right?
"Wait, let me try, one more time…" He pats his temple with the palm of his injured hand. "It’s…something French, isn’t it? Like… Valerie, Malory, maybe? No, I have it." He snaps his fingers, "It’s Celine. I got that right, didn’t I?" He chuckles.
I clench my fists, then raise my hand toward his face.
He catches my wrist. "Tsk, tsk," he clicks his tongue. "What a temper you have, little one."
"Don’t ‘little one’ me… You… You wanker."
"Finally,"
