Page 24 of Bragg's Love

“Another one bites the dust.”

She bumps my hip. “Don’t you want to meet a man and fall in love and get married and have babies?”

“Blech!” I feign retching. “Have you not met me? No commitments for this girl. I’m all about free love.”

“Gotcha!” She winks. “So lots and lots of sex.”

I frown. I haven’t been having much sex lately. Running the business your mother spent her life building into the ground has caused my inner hussy to escape on an extended vacation.

“Let’s get the beamer set up before Miller arrives.”

“You weren’t joking about the beamer?”

“I never joke about PowerPoint presentations.”

“Noted.” She scans the studio. It’s not exactly the best place to do a presentation. Two walls are windows, one wall is mirrors, and the remaining wall is covered in plants.

“You’re living wall is doing well.”

“Thanks to you. I wouldn’t know how to begin tending for such a thing.”

Peace asked me to create a living wall for Olivia’s studio as her engagement present. Thank Flora he did because the money from the job is what’s keeping me afloat. Not afloat as in I’m sailing on blue waters, but afloat as in I have a life raft and I’m holding on for dear life.

“Can we set up in your office?”

As much as I’d love to stand here and discuss plants for hours, I don’t have time. I need to have the presentation ready to go before Miller arrives. I know better than to think he’ll give me a chance to set up while he’s here. He’s made his opinion of my PowerPoint presentations perfectly clear.

At eight p.m. on the dot, the door bangs open, and Miller strides in. I don’t notice how well his jeans hug his thighs or how his Henley clings to his chest muscles. And I most certainly don’t wonder how those muscles look underneath his clothes.

“I don’t have much time. Let’s get this over with.”

I cross my arms and stare him down. Or, rather, I try to stare him down. He’s a good foot taller than me making the whole ‘stare him down’ thing pretty difficult. I should wear six-inch heels when he’s around.

I snort. Yeah, right. I’d probably fall and break my neck.

“Are you laughing at me?” Miller asks.

Oops. Did I snort out loud? I clear my throat. “No, sorry.”

He crosses his arms over his chest causing his biceps to pop out. I wonder if I can circle his bicep with my hand. Probably not. Maybe with two hands.

“Ahem. My face is up here.”

I tear my gaze away from his biceps. “I’m going to get a crick in my neck if I have to look up at you the entire time.”

He smirks. “I can’t help it if you’re tiny, flower girl.”

“I’m not tiny. You’re a giant.”

“I am a big guy.”

Is he big all over?

“I think this is the moment for me to make myself scarce,” Olivia says, and I drag my gaze away from Miller’s crotch. It appears my inner hussy has returned from her vacation.

“I don’t know. Maybe Eden would prefer to have a chaperone,” Miller says.

“A chaperone? What am I? Ten years old and on a field trip to the museum?”

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