Page 110 of Get Undressed With Me

“Yup, sure thing, you’re totally right.”

She grabbed Brittany in a hug, the diamond on her ring finger glinting in the light.

“I’m really, really sorry.”

“Just for that, I’m not going to show you the lingerie I’ve been sketching for you.”

Min gasped and pulled away, excited.

“Really?! A Brittany original just for me?”

“Always. Although now it’s going to be made out of itchy fabric. Ever had a wool teddy?”

Min laughed. “Knowing you, it’d still be sexy as fuck.”

Gus, meanwhile, went to the front door and opened it, revealing Brittany’s mom. She looked exactly the same, how Brittany knew she would look when she was older—same stick straight blonde hair, same disdainful expression on her face.Min nervously glanced back and forth between them all before grabbing Hayden’s hand and pulling him toward the door.

“SogoodtoseeyouagainMsJenssen,” she got out in a rush, the door shutting behind her before anyone could have replied. Kathleen ignored her to level Brittany with a look.

“It seems I should’ve hired a better security company for you.”

Gus stiffened, and Brittany immediately went to his defense.

“Mom, chill. Gus was the one that saved me. I’d say you picked pretty damn well.”

Kathleen sniffed, clearly unimpressed.

“The point of security was to prevent you from being attacked in the first place.”

Brittany opened her mouth to probably say something rude, but Gus stepped in, a hand on her arm to stop her.

“Ms. Jenssen, I get that you’re upset. You hired us to protect your daughter and she was attacked in my home, where she was presumably safe. But trust me when I say if it hadn’t been here, it would’ve been somewhere else, somewhere she was alone and unprotected in a way that her security couldn’t get to her, which possibly could’ve ended much, much worse. Now we have the guy in custody, your daughter will press charges, and we’ll get him off the streets where he can’t hurt anyone ever again. Brittany is safe now. This clearly isn’t the way I wanted it to go down, but the outcome is still positive.”

Brittany’s mom eyed Gus, not used to being contradicted or spoken to in such a way. Brittany tensed, not sure what her mom would do. In the past, Kathleen had treated Brittany’s boyfriends as speed bumps on the road to her real life, never more important than a quick dinner to meet before she promptly forgot their name. When Brittany had brought Robbie home, Kathleen had given him the once over and then proceeded to ignore him for the night, which was rude but still not the worstthing she had done. One time in high school, she had drilled so hard into Brittany’s prom date about his plans after graduation that he had left crying. Kathleen could sense weakness, and once she did, she wouldn’t stop until the threat was destroyed.

And now her shark eyes were focused on Gus, who waited patiently for her to respond, not appearing intimidated.

“By the way, feel free to ask your daughter how she’s feeling after being attacked,” Gus said in a mild tone of voice.

Whoa, that was some sass, which Brittany wasn’t expecting but in retrospect shouldn’t be surprised about. Kathleen’s eyes narrowed, and then she looked to Brittany.

“You are okay?” It was almost a statement but had enough of a lilt at the end to disguise itself as a question. Brittany nodded.

“I am. A little sore, but grateful Gus got to me when he did.” Her tone was pointed, but she was tired of her mom blaming the attack on Gus. After all, the asshole in jail was the one who had actually attacked her.

“Have you done any work on the Champagne sketches?”

Brittany rolled her eyes. Of course that was all her mom cared about—the damn deal with Champagne. She felt Gus stiffen next to her, and she put a hand on his arm.

“I did, but I went in a different direction from what we had talked about.”

“Different than high end?”

Without answering, Brittany grabbed her nearby sketchbook and handed it over to her mom. Kathleen flipped through, silent, the sounds of the thick pages turning filling the room, and Brittany started to fidget.

Finally, Kathleen closed the book and looked up.

“Underwear?”

---