Page 1 of Cementing Her Love

1

SHAYLA

As I stepped outside of All In Bloom where I worked as a floral designer, I collided into a man who hadn’t been there point two seconds ago when I flipped open the deadbolt and pushed open the glass door to begin the day.

“What the—,” the rest of my sentence was muffled as my face smashed into a chest which can only be described as a hunk of cement encased in soft cotton and scented with a musk I wasn’t entirely sure was from a bottle or the real thing.

Pheromones.

The kind you read about but don’t really believe in. The ones that cause a woman’s insides to melt, turning into fluttery pulses in her nether regions, which instantly lowers all her, okay mine, inhibitions as she, me, continues to inhale them, him, in a oh so unladylike manner.

Yeah, those pheromones.

But that declaration wasn’t even the most embarrassing part. What’s worse than snuffling a complete stranger? How about wobbling like a baby deer and turning instantly into the klutz that I am before almost pulling us both off balance onto our asses?

I clenched onto his forearms, that even I, in my hyper aware and panicked state, could tell were densely roped in muscle. I prayed that I hadn’t somehow managed to dig my short nails deep enough to have drawn blood.

But every fear I had of ending up on my ass was soon forgotten when he then let out the sexiest sound as his head dipped close to the side of my face and tickled my ear with a breathy “Oof,” from our impact. That sound threw my jumbled-up hormones into a tailspin. It was then followed by an equally deadly and raspy chuckle. And in that split second, it was as if my fate was sealed.

My body recognized his body, and it wanted closer and possibly forever.

But that was insane.

Get a grip Shay.

The entire moment felt like forever, but in reality, was probably not more than four seconds. Before I could come up with an intelligent response, let alone an apology for not looking up as I stepped through the shop’s threshold, I read the words that shattered my short-lived excitement.

Emblazoned across the man’s breath-stealing chest was the logo of his business. And as my gaze traveled higher, I locked onto a pair of eyes the darkest brown I’d only ever seen once in my life. On my best friend and business partner, Brenley.

Dammit. She told me he was showing up today to discuss the remodel.

I’d just managed to fall into the arms of her brother, the one man I had no business falling for or silently lusting after.

As he stared back at me, I was struck dumb by his deep laugh lines, silver-dusted hairline and the sexiest grin ever to be aimed at me. What was is it about a man with silver threads sprinkled in his hair that had me on the verge of giggling like a schoolgirl?

Again, get it together, Shay. I hadn’t been a schoolgirl for more years than I cared to admit. And wouldn’t you know the first man to stir my…er…petals was the one man who needed to be off limits.

Brenley hadn’t actually warned me off him, but her tales of his dedicated bachelorhood and numerous girlfriends that never seemed to last more than a month or two had.

There was no way I was going to let Colton Lynch know just how much he affected me because one disastrous relationship with a known heartbreaker was enough to last me a lifetime.

“Shayla, I forgot to tell you that my brother is stopping by this morning, and oh, well, guess you’ve figured that out.” Brenley’s words filtered through my brain. I dropped my hands and ran them down my jeans, took in a steadying breath and turned to greet my business partner, thinking her timing really sucked.

If she’d been here just five minutes ago, this entire mortifying situation could have been avoided. But no, she and her hubby, Hayden, had probably been arguing about who was going to miss the other more or something equally cutesy and unobtainable for the majority of Pineville’s almost forty and perpetually single population.

I mean, I loved them both, but their constant PDAs and declarations of love for one another tended to make me feel like a pre-pubescent teen having to suffer from the embarrassment of parents deeply in love.

Yeah, sometimes I sucked as a friend but instead of focusing on the reason Brenley hadn’t saved me from ending up in her brother’s muscular arms, I needed to cool down the furnace blasting my insides because more likely my cheeks had bloomed apple red alerting everyone to how I really felt.

“Yup. Here he is.” I waved a hand in Colton’s general direction without actually looking at him. Was he staring at me? Feeling just as awkward or turned on as I was? Most likely, he was trying to widen the distance between us. Lord, I hope I hadn’t drooled on his chest when my face had been plastered against it. Even worse, had he heard me sniff him?

Dammit, if my face wasn’t red before, it had to be now from just the memory of being smooshed up against all that hard steel and unconsciously huffing his manly scent. I didn’t dare touch my face to verify the heat I felt, and I didn’t dare look at Brenley, either. She could read my expressions better than most. And as much as I tried to maintain a poker face when I was feeling my feelings, my face could be read like a spicy bestseller: fast and ready for book two.

Blowing a strand of hair that had escaped my ponytail, the breeze seemed to lower my temperature, so I did it a couple more times as I managed to walk back into the shop without making eye contact with either one.

“Hey sis. Sorry for running over Shayla. I guess I was, uh, thinking about the condition of the sidewalk and how I could re-do it for you before we start work on pouring the cement at the new place next week.”

Brenley had followed me inside, then stood across from me as I turned on the register and tidied the already tidy display of blank cards on the counter. I could feel her gaze on me and I caved. When I looked into her face, she wore this odd expression, her brow furrowed and her lips pursed. Which could be interpreted as anything from she’d noticed how I’d reacted to Colton to the baby was kicking her again like a champion soccer player.

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