Page 33 of Accidentally in Bloom

He shrugged. “I just like to fire up the ice princess.” He took a deep gulp of his coffee. “How about twenty-five thousand and six months of my flowers at cost.”

She volleyed back quickly, her pulse jumping. “Are your flowers made of gold? A year and forty thousand.”

His chest rose and fell faster. Hell, to be fair, she was probably doing the same.

He stepped closer to her. “Forty thousand,” he paused, “and ten percent ownership in the store.”

“What?” Rose shook her head, completely thrown. “I don’t have time for games.” Rose turned and walked behind the counter. She was done with today. Done with him. If he couldn’t be reasonable, she had other things to do.

He followed her around the counter, eyes narrowed. “You don’t have time for money? For building a business? Only have time for shoe shopping?”

She spun on him. “I have time for serious conversations with people who know what they’re doing.”

Gray laughed. “You are such a snob. Called it from day one. You’re a little,” he boxed her into the back counter behind the register, “big-city, spoiled, bossy, know-it-all who thinks she’s better than everyone else.”

Rose seethed at him and his fucking wall of muscles. Just like a man to underestimate her. “Spoiled? How dare you.”

Her toes hit his as she pushed back on his chest. She stuck her chin out and tried to ignore his lips inches from her face. “I’ve worked for everything I’ve ever gotten, you mule-headed beefcake. You wouldn’t know a P&L from a W2 if it hit you in the head with a protein shake.”

“Snob.” His chest heaved in front of her, and his hips pressed her into the counter, eyes searing into her.

Lust overtook her sanity, and she pressed back against him.

“Hayseed.” She gasped for breath and couldn’t stop staring at his goddamn mouth as he scowled down at her. He smelled like spice and sawdust, and she wanted to bury her head against his shirt and inhale it shamelessly.

“Condescending man-eater.” His voice was a low growl that vibrated through her as he hovered over her mouth.

“Oaf—”

And his hand claimed her jaw, and he captured her mouth with his.

Chapter

Nine

ROSE

Rose kissed him back with everything she had; her iron will breaking.

Just this once.

His lips devastated hers, hot, needy, and forceful. The heat from his palm against her cheek shot straight down between her thighs, and her knees were stupidly close to buckling.

Her hand fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer. She melted into him, as everything she fantasized about in the last week had come true. A warm, sinful wave of pleasure and wanting washed over her as he wrapped his arms tight around her.

She craved more. Would kill for more.

He opened her mouth with his, taking more of what he wanted. And that possessiveness went straight to her pussy.

His tongue licked her bottom lip as he sucked it in his mouth. Rose raked her teeth along his lip, biting down. Her hands gripped his shirt like a lifeline, needing more and more and more of him.

He released a low moan, and her stomach flipped. He kissed her as if she was his next breath.

Gray ripped his mouth from hers, and his hands found her waist. Her feet left the ground as he sat her on the counter. He stepped between her legs, driving them apart, and he yanked her hips toward him. His jeans brushed against the crotch of her leggings, and she thought she might melt from the pleasure of the friction. He gripped her hip, fingers digging into her ass.

“What are you doing?” she panted, her hands still fisted in his shirt.

His hand wound into the back of her hair, and yanked her head back to stare into his eyes.

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