Page 26 of Xactly What She Needs

Bri stands at my office door and turns bright red. “I am never drinking again,”shemumbles before giving Jax and I a sharp look. “And can you please tell the other guys to knock it off with that damn song?" shegrowls like an angry puppy.

“Come on Bri.” I give her my best puppy dog eyes. “Where’s your sense of maintaining employee morale.”

“It does make them all happy,” Jax chimes in helpfully for once.

Bri storms into my office and stands in the middle of the room with her arms crossed. “It doesn’t make me happy. Not one bit.”

“Well, obviously not, but you really should think about the greater good here, Darlin’. I mean, it’s kind of selfish of you to take their happiness away,” I say while grinning widely. I should stop, but she looks fucking hot as hell all riled upandI’ve never claimed to be a good man.

“Xander,” the way she growls my name has my dick stirring, thinking she’s growling it for a better reason, “I swear to God, if you don’t make them stop, I’ll take a page out of Kealy’s playbook and destroy all of your games.”

“Uh-oh,” Jax chuckles, as he watches my eyes narrow on the feisty brunette causing me long, cold showers.

I lean forward on my desk, my hands flat on the top. “You don’t want to start this shit with me baby." Iget satisfaction when I hear her sharply inhale. “I’ll make sure that the only thing that plays over our speakers all day is that song. All day long, on repeat.”

She gives me a glare and taps her foot. “You wouldn’t do that,”shehuffs, obviously thinking that I’m bluffing. Spoiler, I’m not. “It would drive everyone insane.”

I lean back into my chair and give her a nonchalant shrug. “A small price to pay for vengeance.” I can practically see steam coming out of her ears. I glance at Jax and enjoy his smirk.

“But I will say that it would make our date pretty awkward if you were pissed at me the whole time,” I reply.

She blinks and then shakes her head. “We’re not going on a date.”

I nod my head slowly. “Yes, we are. I told you on Sunday.”

“You said that and then revved your engine and drove away,”shescoffs. “That is not the way to plan a date.” She glares at me a little more. “Plus, if you hadn’t driven away like a bat out of hell, I would’ve told you that us going to dinner is not going to happen.” She purses her lips. “Especially, considering the lack of actual asking.”

“Well, no shit, Bri.” I roll my eyes. “Why the hell do you think I didn’t ask and drove away?”

“Are you insane?”she hisses harshly.

“Depends on who you ask,” I say, as Jaxspouts out a ‘yes’.I give my brother a glare before looking back at the annoyed, okay, pissed off woman in front of me. “Itreally just depends on who you ask," I shrug.

I watch her pinch the bridge of her cute little nose.Cute little nose?What the fuck is wrong with me? This woman is bad news for me, and I really wish I had it in me to care.

“Xander, we are not going out on a date,”shehisses again. “First and foremost, you are my boss.” She raises her eyes to the ceiling before slowlybringingthem back down. “Trust me,I've beenthere, done that, andregrettedit immensely.” I’m just going to file away that tidbit of information. “Second, you cannot just tell a woman that she is having dinner with you. I’m pretty sure that there are some laws that highly frown upon that.” I mean…maybe, but I doubt it. “And finally, has it occurred to you that I may have decided to never date anyone….ever again?”

“Okay, so first off, we don’t have any rules about employees dating each other.” No need to tell her it’s because we’ve only ever had men and Jenny working here. “And I’m nothing like that asshole you dated. You know that deep down which is why you don’t shy away from me and Jax like I’ve seen you do to other men.” Okay, that was a bitof a lowerblow than I was going for. “And third, I can guarantee that after me, you won’t be dating anyone ever again.” Hmm, I probably shouldn’t have let my inner Edge come out like that.

“What in the actual hell is wrong with you?”shescreeches loudly enough to damageeardrums.

“There’s not enough time in the day to explain,” Jax drawls while looking way too excited about this whole conversation. Well, excited for him anyway.

“I’m really feelin’ unloved right about now,” I frown.

“You sound like fuckin’ JT,” Jax snorts and shakes his head.

I glare at my brother and growl, “Say that shit again and I’ll stab you in the kidney so that you’re pissin’ blood for a month.”

“I’m bigger than you,huffs.

I give him a vicious grin. “It also means that you’re slower. You better remember that.”

“I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t want to go out with a man who just threatened to stab his brother in front of me,” Bri statesdryly.

“I don’t either, especially since I only said stab and not kill.” I put my hands on my chest. “I’m obviously an amazingly lovingbrother.”

“You’re somethin’,” Jax muttersunder his breath.

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