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“The produce people called me today,” he finally told her. “Manager was screaming something about an abusive foreigner cursing at him over celery. Said he lost the restaurant account. ”
Janey leaned back in her chair now. “So?”
He shrugged again. “The manager’s a friend of mine. I just wondered what happened. ”
“You don’t want to know anything about the restaurant unless it finally burns to the ground, remember?”
she reminded him. “So why are you here about this?”
His eyes narrowed. “I just told you why. ”
“Tell your friendly manager to remember me the next time he decides to send out inferior produce. ” She crossed her arms on her desk and leaned forward. “It was crap, Natches. I was getting the worst of the deliveries, deliberately, because of Dayle. They haven’t figured out yet that the perfect Mackay princess was just as much a pawn in Dayle’s games as anyone else was. I don’t care about the comments, but I won’t serve my customers crap. ”
Natches was still, silent for long moments. His expression never changed, but she watched his eyes, watched the slow burn of his temper.
“Look, I can take care of the business,” she told him. “Desmond arranged a new supplier out of Louisville. We’ll get produce later in the day, but we’ll have it on time and we’ll get it fresh. No big deal. ”
“The suppliers in Louisville charge more,” he reminded her.
“I’m sure we can weather the small jump in cost,” she breathed out roughly. “I’m not going back to your buddy for supplies, Natches. ”
“I wouldn’t ask you to,” he told her. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”
“Why don’t you tell me every time Chaya chews your ass for being arrogant and full of testosterone?”
she asked mockingly.
“But you’re my business, too, and the problems you have here because of suppliers that I know is my business,” he informed her, his voice a hard, lazy drawl. A dangerous sound. “Especially when I arranged with someone I called a friend to make certain you were given exactly what you needed. ”
“Maybe he didn’t believe I needed anything better,” she remarked, before pushing her fingers through her hair in irritation. “Look, it doesn’t matter. It’s business, nothing more. I wasn’t satisfied with their product so I went somewhere else. ”
He nodded abruptly, before rising to his feet once again and heading for the door. As he opened it, he turned back to them, leveling a look at Alex.
“I’m going to cut your fucking hands off if I keep catching them on her,” he growled. “Damn, find someone your own age. ”
He slammed the door before either of them could retaliate.
“One of these days, I’m going to cut his tongue out,” Alex mused behind her.
“Better do it before he cuts your hands off. ” She almost laughed, before turning back to the piles of papers on her desk.
God, she wanted his hands on her. But it was do this now or it wouldn’t get done at all.
“One hour,” he told her, moving back to the couch.
She stared back at him questioningly.
“One hour for paperwork, then I’m dragging you upstairs. ” He picked up his magazine and stretched back out on the couch. “Better get used to it, sweetheart. Time’s counting down. ”
Unfortunately, she spent more of that hour staring at his sexy body and that hard ridge under his jeans than she did focusing on her paperwork.
At this rate, Natches wasn’t going to have to worry about burning the place down. She was going to end up destroying it herself from lack of paperwork completion and an overload of fascination for the man who seemed determined to drive her completely and totally insane.
SIX
Rule number one: He was too damned old for her.
Rule number two: He was too damned hard for a virgin, because nothing in his life had ever been as difficult as taking her nipples with slow precision.
