Page 5 of Highest Bidder
“Didn’t think I’d be running into you here.” His familiar voice sends chills down my arms. He’s got me tight in his grip, but then shakes his head and steps back. His body was so warm I still feel the faint memory of it against mine. It makes me want to be pressed up against him again, but then I remember who it is standing in front of me.No way in hell. Keep this one away from me.
“Myles. I figured I’d see you, but I didn’t expect you to try to take me out.” I glare up at him and cross my arms over my chest. His body is still too close for me to think clearly.
He smirks. “You know, I just had to get myhandson the new girl.”
His eyes rake down my body before meeting my eyes again. It sends my blood boiling. I don’t know what it is about this guy, but he’s so frustrating. Especially that stupid little smirk. Crap, don’t look at his lips. I quickly flick my eyes up to meet his, and his deep blues draw me in. Forcing myself to look down, my eyeszero in on his lips when his tongue slips out to wet them, and I can’t seem to pry them away.
Remember. Him: asshole. Me: not interested.
I leer up at him. “You couldn’thandlethis new girl even if you tried.”
He encroaches toward me, making us less than an inch apart. He leans down so we are sharing the same air. “Just let me know when,sweetheart.” Is he flirting with me? It feels like his eyes are drawing me in, but it ends too quickly when Myles straightens and clears his throat. Making me question whether it happened at all. He steps back. “So you’re here to steal my job again?” I give him a puzzling look. “Do you think the great Conrad Smith will be able to continue getting you jobs?”
Unfolding my arms and clenching my fists at my sides, my mouth falls open, “Excuse me?” I swear steam is going to come out of my ears.
“When someone like myself has been working hard, proving themselves for years for a position only to have it ripped out from beneath them after one phone call from Daddy? Yeah, I have a hard time respecting what wasn’t earned,” he says, towering over me.
Wow, low blow.
Standing at his full height, he continues, “Now, I don’t want you calling dear old dad, trying to get me fired, so”—he sticks his hand out—“since it looks like we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other, why don’t we play nice and get along?”
As he takes his hand back, the scowl he was wearing slowly melts from his face, and a fake-ass smile takes its place. “Fake it ‘til we make it, right? Have a great day.” He tips his hat, then swings his arms toward the lanes, dismissing me.
This guy is unbelievable. I roll my eyes, but before I can make it past him, he steps back in front of me and lowers his lips until they’re hovering above my face. My eyes go wide.What the hell?
He pauses and moves his mouth to the side of my head. Whenhis lips brush the shell of my ear, I stop breathing as my eyes flutter shut.
“Good luck out there,sweetheart.”
When his condescending tone rumbles through my ear, my elbow is moving before I can stop it, landing directly in his stomach.
“Umph.” He lets out a few coughs.
Jerk.
“Oh, sorry. I tripped,” I say, giving him a smirk as I walk on by. Should I have elbowed him? No, but man, he irks me. Now I gotta get into the right headspace to talk to the GM. Ugh, that man. How can someone annoy me so much, but draw me in so fast? I don’t even want to think about how hard his stomach was when I elbowed him.Focus, Hunter.
5
MYLES
Standing here slack jawed,I can’t believe that girl elbowed me. I know I wasn’t exactly friendly, but I also couldn’t stop myself from getting closer to her. She’s like a damn magnet. I could have sworn her breathing hitched when I grazed her ear. But then out of left field, right in the stomach. Damn, she smelled good, like flowers and vanilla. It’s like the scent was designed to put me under a damn spell so I don’t try to get her fired.
I don’t necessarily want her to lose the job. I just don’t want her takingmine.I can’t wait any more years to take over my mama’s bills. I make decent money, but I can’t send her as much as I would like. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out to look at the screen. Speaking of the angel.
Unable to stop the smile from taking over my face, I answer. “Hey, Mama! You okay?”
“Miney, I’m sorry to call you between your jobs.”
I inwardly groan at the nickname she gave me when I was little. My father left us before I was born. I have never met or heard from him. I think she was afraid I would feel unloved or unwanted. So every day before leaving for work, she would wrapme up in a tight hug and say, “I love you. You are mine, Myles. You’ll always be all Mine-y.” She would wake me up after she would get home from her second job at night, saying the same thing. I haven’t been able to get her to stop calling me Miney since. She uses it more than my real name, which only falls from her mouth when I’m in trouble.
“Mama, you know I don’t like you calling me that,” I grumble. “What’s going on?”
“Myles Alexander Johnson.”Here we go.“I brought you into this world after twenty-five hours of labor because your big head decided to block the path out. I’ll call you whatever I want.” I can only imagine the glare she is giving the phone.
“Okay, okay, Mama.” I sigh, rubbing the back of my neck. “Is everything okay?” We could go round and round all day, but I have a lane that starts in a little less than an hour. She would have no problem explaining to me for hours all the reasons she has for calling me Miney, and I don’t have time for that.
“Oh yes, right. My faucet in the kitchen is leaking under the sink. I put a bowl down and dried out the cabinet, but I’m not sure what to do. You told me I’m not allowed to call any fixer people. So do you want to call a fixer person, or can I do something to make it stop?”
