Page 19 of Daddy By Design

“First, I was yelling at him for using a sledgehammer like a kid with a sword—shitty form, by the way.”

TJ shook her head. “Girl.”

“I know. But if he’d done it more carefully, we probably could have saved some of the stone. Now it’s just freaking dust.”

“We?” Shelby paused as she was dabbing at my forearm.

“Not time for that part yet.”

Shelby pressed her lips together and dabbed a little harder.

“Ow.”

She just kept working.

I sighed. “So, it all came down and he tackled me. So, I guess he saved me from further damage. Not that you can tell.” I hissed as Shelby spread a large gauze pad over the underside of my forearm.

“You’re lucky you weren’t more hurt.”

“I know. I just wasn’t expecting him to be there. And if you can believe it, the story gets even more crazy.”

“Oh, I can believe it.” TJ propped her chin on her hand. “Go on.”

“Don’t encourage her.” Shelby squirted triple antibacterial ointment on another square of gauze. “Turn.”

I sighed and turned in my seat. My upper arm was more of a scrape, but Shelby was in full on mom mode. She would not be deterred. “After I got six feet whatever of him flying at me, we...”

TJ smirked. “Did you have a moment?”

“No.” I cleared my throat. “Not exactly. He’s a freaking beast.”

“Beasts have their uses.” TJ winked.

I couldn’t remember what that was like. While my last boyfriend had managed to have a few interesting tricks under his belt, I wasn’t exactly shattering the sound barrier with my shouts of pleasure. Not that a girl had to be vocal to enjoy herself, but that kind of girl was not me.

“You try having two-hundred-and-something pounds of guy land on you.”

“Been there. Had a few enjoyable moments. Remember Ray?” TJ gave a gusty sigh. “He may have looked like Idris Elba, but he didn’t have his panache in the end.”

Shelby tossed a wrapper at her. “What did I say about encouraging her?”

“What?” TJ laughed. “Sorry, go on with your story.”

“I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting him to actually try to save me. We haven’t had the best track record so far.” And he’d certainly seemed worried about me for a moment.

At least before he’d gotten off me and left me in the dust. Jackass.

TJ snickered. “Starting off your romance with gouging Little Dick into his truck isn’t going to do it.”

“There’s no romance. I just want his house.”

This time, Shelby’s lips twitched with humor.

“After we screamed at each other for a few more minutes, I convinced him to give me a chance to work up a quote for him.”

“You what?” Shelby dropped the tube of antiseptic.

“I know, I know. But this man is loaded. At least he says he’s loaded. I have to look him up to be sure.”

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