Page 28 of Twice the Rivalry

She glared at him. “Well, if his father wasn’t a damn giant,” she griped.

Code moved back to his chair and told her, “Compared to you, everyone is giant, short stuff.”

“Everyone loves to pick on my height,” she grumbled as she started to click away at her keyboard.

“What, all that money you have couldn’t buy any kind of stretching surgery?” he teased. “Oh, wait, I guess not, since you didn’t take care of your small breasts either. Harley’s probably annoyed that he’s laying against something flat instead of something soft.”

“You know, I think you’re the one with the complex,” she responded drily. “Going after traits that are genetic and can’t be helped. Says a lot about the kind of man you are, body shaming a woman.”

He rounded on her. “I’m not body shaming you,” he argued.

“You sent me a damn push-up bra, and you’ve made constant remarks about my boobs ever since. If that’s not body shaming, what would you call it?”

He was silent for a moment as recognition dawned on him. Damn it, he really was an asshole, he thought to himself. This woman got under his skin in a way that made him a downright jerk to her. He huffed out a sigh. “Sorry, you’re right,” he admitted. “I won’t comment on your body that way anymore.”

She turned and looked at him with an arched brow. “That almost sounded like a sincere apology,” she remarked.

He scowled at her. “Of course it was. I know better than that, but when it comes to you, apparently I lose all sense.”

Her lips pulled up into a smug grin. “It’s your obsession with me. I understand. After all, most men wouldn’t know how to handle a woman like me.”

He gave her a cool look. “You’re baiting me, but I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of answering you. Now, I have work to do, so how about we stop talking and get back to it.”

“Work? You mean your inferior system that you still haven’t figured out how to close all the holes in?” she taunted.

He glared at her. “There is nothing wrong with my system,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “And there are no more holes.”

“Really?” she asked innocently. “Well, never mind me then.” She turned around and went back to her computer.

He stared at her back for a moment, unsure of what that abrupt change of tune was about, then shook his head and turned back to his own machine.Damn women and their mind games,he thought irritably. He opened up his screen, and then cursed when he saw the message waiting for him.

Glitch: All fixed, huh?

“Stay out of my damn system,” he barked at her, moving quickly to boot her out again.

She snickered. “Maybe if you were more focused on your work instead of your obsession with me, you would be further along,” she suggested.

He didn’t reply, instead trying to figure out how she got in in the first place. He stewed in silence as he patched it, infuriated that she had once again pointed out another failure. He really was going to have to talk to Savage about this whole arrangement. She had been here less than twenty-four hours, and he was already getting distracted and sloppy. He couldn’t allow that to keep happening.

Once he was sure he had it sorted, he told himself he needed to focus on something else and move on to his actual work. Namely, checking on the businesses that the club ran to make sure there were no problems, and also to make sure that the security for those businesses remained in place with no issues. It was something he loved doing, mostly because he had designed the systems himself, and as much as Glitch liked to mess with him here, he wouldn’t allow her to undermine him there.

He worked for a few more minutes, but he had to stop when he heard Harley getting fussy again, and Glitch trying to soothe him. “What’s wrong?” Code asked her, turning.

“I’m thinking he must have some gas again,” she answered after a moment, standing and putting her arm under his body to help bounce and rock him a little. “That was the problem last time.”

“Here, give him back to me. I learned a trick with my nieces and nephews that usually helps,” he said, standing and moving toward her, hands outstretched.

She glared at him. “What, you think I’m not capable of figuring it out? I got him to stop last time all by myself.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not saying you can’t, but this will be faster, and keep him from waking his mother, who is hopefully sleeping by now. Hand him over.”

She looked like she wanted to argue, but then Harley let out a loud cry and she winced. He bit back a smirk. She sighed. “Fine.” Then she moved toward him and tried to carefully remove him from the sling, which wasn’t as easy as she figured and she had to stop. Harley’s cries got louder and she started to look slightly panicked. He snorted and reached for her.

“Here, I’ll just grab him out of it,” he told her, already reaching for the baby. The only thing he hadn’t taken into account was that by doing so, the back of his hand would come in contact with her chest and upper torso. He froze for a second, feeling the heat of her body through her tiny top and the sling, and it made him feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time. The fact that her breasts, though not very large, were indeed soft, was not lost on him. He had to force himself to ignore it as he pulled Harley from the sling.

Only, Harley had other ideas. The moment he cleared the sling was the exact moment the explosion happened.

Code wasn’t sure how, but the little baby let out the loudest fart, and the accompanying smell and feel of liquid coating his hands and arms were enough to set him gagging. “Oh fuck,” he gasped, staring down at the now smiling baby. He heard more gagging, and when he lifted his head, he saw that Harley had also managed to drench the sling in shit. But, because they were so close and it was dripping everywhere, shit was now on the front of Glitch’s top, and smeared across her skin as it dripped down her stomach. Her face was positively green, and the gagging sounds coming out of her mouth weren’t helping his queasiness. He looked at Harley again. “Dude, you’re an asshole,” he sighed. “I’m telling your father that you take after him.”

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