Page 10 of Bedroom Rodeo

Oh gawd…all those tight, toned muscles on full display had her squirming in her seat.

Then she scrolled down and landed on Ash’s photo first. Peering closer at the screen, she counted the ripples on his abs—again. After all, a woman had to be sure she was getting all two, four, six…yes, an eight-pack.

She had a few ideas about what Ash had done to earn those muscles. She imagined him doing the old bump and grind on the dance floor in the gymnasium. He always had the moves to rock the girls’ worlds and fill their adolescent brains with fantasies.

Scrolling down, her gaze just touched on the photo of Piers’s handsome face when her office door opened.

Sylvee’s spine stiffened to iron and she quickly closed the website to shoot Charlie a glare over her monitor. “Why can’t you ever learn to knock?”

He waved a hand, dismissing her complaint. In slow strides, he reached the front of her desk and sank to one of the empty chairs.

Sylvee forced herself to look at her ex. His blue shirt matched his eyes, and when he crossed his legs, she saw that his trousers were creased crisply from the dry cleaner. Not a blond hair was out of place. Even the silver strands at his temples only made him look more sophisticated.

She leveled a look at him. “Can I help you?”

“I had a few minutes between appointments and I thought it was a good time to discuss our settlement.”

She leaned back in her seat and eyed him. “What’s to discuss? We’ve been over it all so many times. It comes down to you not budging on anything.”

He cocked a brow. “I’m pretty sure you’re the obstinate party.”

Months ago, she started off these dealings with a lot of patience. Those days were long gone.

“I don’t know why you can’t just give me the business, Sylvee. I gave you the house.”

She bounced her foot, out of sight, unwilling to show him how much he pushed her buttons. “You hated the house. That means you gave up nothing. This law firm is my livelihood.”

He’d walked away from the beautiful, traditional home they’d shared. As far as she knew, their former secretary stayed at his new condo with him every night of the week.

“You really didn’t give anything up, Charlie.”

His eyelids drooped. “I gave you up.”

Her teeth grazed her tongue as she bit off a tirade of fury. “Again, you made choices.”

Silence beat heavily between them like the wings of some bulky prehistoric beast that, if it landed, would devour them.

She pushed out a breath. “I don’t know why we’re even arguing. We have a prenup. Fifty-fifty split. We’ll sell it all off and split the money. But you’re not taking half of the business unless you buy me out.”

The firm was established, with a good reputation and a high rating on Google. She wasn’t about to rebuild if she didn’t need to.

When he didn’t respond, she met his stare. “Let me reiterate. We have a prenup.”

“Right. Because you never strayed from the plan.”

That cold, hard anger that lay dormant in her core most of the time exploded like a fiery wellspring. “I planned to be a mom at thirty-three. I didn’t get that.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re holding it against me that I have a medical condition that keeps me from having children.”

“You can have children, Charlie. The doctor said that we’d have a much better chance with intervention. There was also the option of using a sperm bank or adopting. But you refused to try any of those.”

A challenge throbbed between them.

“I saw a charge on your credit card statement.”

His statement blindsided her as much as a smack alongside the head.

She gasped. “Why are you still looking at my statement?”

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