Page 19 of The Alpha's Assistant & The Dom Next Door
She lifted her hand, displaying a prominent engagementring.
For a moment, Brock just stared at it, before look back at Angie’s face. “Jackproposed?”
She nodded. “Maybe I’m going to end up with him where I did with you. Maybe not. But I’m going to take the risk that I won’t. Say it, Brock.” It was her turn to put her hand on his shoulder, as he tried to come to terms with how he’d tuned the world out so completely that even his best friend’s very serious relationship had escaped him. “Just say the words about Erica, and I’ll tell you where sheis.”
“I love her,” he blurted out, the words that he’d so feared, for so long, falling out so naturally that when they did, they seemed to hang in mid-air. “Angie, I fucking love the woman. I need her like I need to breathe, dammit. I broke her heart, and then she carved my own out with a fuckingspoon.”
Angie smiled. “Think you can tell her that without all the four-letter embellishments? Girls think it’s more romantic without. Justsayin’.”
“Yes! Tellme!”
When she did, Brock lingered only long enough to hug her hard, apologized for being a total ass time and time again, and then booked it out of the office, calling out to Adam as he ran past, “Cancel everything fortoday.”
He had an appointment that mattered more than anything else on the agenda. In fact, he had a totally new agenda. It involved telling the woman of his dreams that she was hiseverything.
Chapter15
“Erica …”
She sighed and looked up from the pan she was scouring to a shine, seeing the sympathy etched on Gabby’s face. “I don’t think I want toknow.”
“Lardo’s back. Alone this time. And he’s asking specifically foryou.”
“Shit,” Erica yelled, dropping the clean pan back into the sink with a loud clang. “He’s been here six days in a row. I’m going to run him through, Gabs. Iswear.”
“Murdering customers is inadvisable,” Cornwall said dryly, and Erica jumped and spun, not having realized her boss was in thekitchen.
“Sir! I’m sorry,” she stammered, blushing to the roots of herhair.
“Just get out there and show that man as a good a time as is legally possible,” her boss ordered, stalking away to harangue the chef about something orother.
“You said you have an interview this Friday, right?” Gabby said, as Erica fought the urge to scream and simultaneouslycry.
“Yeah. This is the last one at the accounting firm. I don’t know why they’d have any interest in me, with no practical experience, but I guess the internships and the few months at Brock’s office count for something.” Saying his name hurt as always, but Erica didn’t let it stop her. She scrubbed her hands clean, put a clean uniform blouse on, from the stash she kept in the breakroom—not that she ever got a break—and headed out to dobattle.
Lardo’s enormous face split into a huge grin as she walked over to him and stood with her pen poised over her pad, keeping as much of a distance as possible betweenthem.
“Ain’t you going to say hello, sugartits?”
She gritted her teeth. “Hello, sugar tits.” His tits were definitely way bigger thanhers.
Lardo laughed so hard his fat rolls jiggled. “You’re so feisty. I betcha you’ll taste better than those pancakes you keep making me order so I can stay here night afternight.”
“More of the same?” she askedtersely.
“How about a kiss?” he countered. “Just one little peck … maybe on thepecker…”
Erica broke. Without a word, she turned, grabbed the remains of a pot of coffee on another table, one which she knew had been cooling for at least 20 minutes, and upended it over Lardo so abruptly that it took him a second to process the lukewarm fluid dousing him from head tocrotch.
“Put your pecker in that, you sick, disgusting excuse for a human being,” she snarled as he started to howl in rage. “Iquit!”
She walked straight out the diner door and stood there for a second, fists clenched, breathing in the cold night air before turning in the direction of the bus station. As she did, she sawhim.
Brock stood a few feet away, his suit so crisply pressed that Erica briefly wondered if it was 9:00 a.m. instead of 4:00 a.m. He looked exactly like he had the day she left the office, with several additional pounds of muscle added to his frame, and a slightly shorter haircut, both with only served to make him even more masculine. The man was sex on legs, damnit.
“Why are you here?” she cried, trying not to stare into his incredible eyes or notice how soft the slight smile on his lips was. “How did you findme?”
“I watched that whole scene go down,” Brock said quietly, not making a move toward her. “Just stood here and watched through the window as that fat ass put you throughhell.”
