Page 71 of Bragg's Love

“If you steal my man, I will tell everyone what happened in ninth grade.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” she hisses.

I try to rush past Miller but he wraps an arm around my waist and throws me over his shoulder.

I pound on his back. “Let me down. I’m going to teach her a lesson. Try to steal my man, will she?”

“Who had Miller dragging Eden out of the bar?” Sage asks from the stage where she’s commandeered the microphone.

Ashlyn raises her hand. “Me! I did!”

I wave my fist at her. “I will get you back, Ashlyn Dream West.”

“It’s Hansley now. Why does everyone forget my married name?”

Miller opens the door to the supply closet.

“Why is it always the supply closet? I actually need the supplies in there,” Cassandra, the owner of the bar, hollers.

“We won’t be more than a minute,” Miller says before shutting us inside and setting me down on my feet.

I immediately try to escape, but he maneuvers me until my back is up against the wall and frames my face with his hands.

He smiles. “You called me your man.”

Wait. What? “I thought you were mad at me.”

He punches his hips and his hard length hits my belly.

“Does this feel like I’m mad?” His hands slide into my hair and I push up on my tiptoes. Before I can mold my lips to his, he repeats his earlier words, “You called me your man.”

I freeze. Did I? I think back to my angry shouts and I groan when I realize I did.

“It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Darling, it means everything.”

I rock back on my heels. “Are we doing this here and now?”

“We don’t have to do this here. But we have to do this now.” He palms my neck and places his forehead against mine. “Are you ready to give us a chance?”

“I don’t know.”

I’m not being coy. I don’t know. Did his explanation of why he wanted to expand the brewery put him in a different light? Yes, it did. But I still don’t know if I’m ready to leap into a relationship. I’ve seen how a relationship destroyed my mother.

“I guess I’ll have to convince you.”

“Oh, yeah? How?”

He kisses my nose. “By giving you so many orgasms you forget all about your asshole father let alone how to walk.”

“Promises. Promises.”

“Are you saying yes?”

“No.”

He frowns and backs away. I grab his hand before he can get too far.

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