Page 20 of Handle Me

“Where are the racks?” Anders asked, looking around the room.

“This is the showroom,” Ralph explained. “Let me show you to your private dressing chamber.”

“But I haven’t picked out anything to try on yet,” he said, pushing a wayward strand of hair from his eyes.

“I saw to it already,” I jumped in before Ralph said something that sent Anders running for cover.

“You picked out my clothes. You really are bossy,” he said through gritted teeth. But it wasn’t annoyance straining his tone, it was something else. Whatever it was lit a fire inside me.

“They pulled the clothes, but I will choose what you buy,” I said sweetly, shrugging. Let him think I was bossy. Maybe it would be easier to help him fall in line. “What did your brother say?”

“Nothing. As usual. I told him to have Clara call you,” he added.

It was an oddly thoughtful gesture, especially since he must know I was calling her to complain about him. “Thanks.”

The showroom Barnaby’s had set up for us had three racks of clothing waiting near the dressing room’s door. Two olive-green velvet chairs sat opposite a three-way mirror, and on a coffee table, there were a number of magazines and a bottle of champagne on ice. Around the ceiling a faint glow of neon pink light illuminated the dark, velvet-flocked wallpaper. A number of glass display shelves boasted footwear from Prada to Nike and everything in between.

“You’ll find this season’s best pieces along with a number of pieces from the fall collections,” Ralph told us and we stepped inside.

Anders fell silent as Ralph showed off everything the room had to offer, down to a fridge and snack bar stocked for us in case we got peckish.

“Is there anything else we can do for you?” Ralph asked.

“I’ve got it from here,” I told him, adding a whispered, “for now.”

I waited until he left before I turned to Anders, who was already raiding the bar for crisps.

“You’re not really going to eat those?” I asked even as he took the first one out and popped it into his mouth.

“I’m hungry,” he said with a devilish grin.

“You’re going to get oil all over the clothes.”

“In that case…” He drew his hand out of the bag and took his time sucking the salt from the tops of each of his fingers.

I hadn’t noticed how wide his mouth was before. Now I couldn’t think of anything else but how it would feel to have those lips claiming me as his.

I swallowed, determined to stay on target. “I’ll get you something to eat later.”

“What did you have in mind?” His gaze wandered from my face down until it stopped hungrily between my legs.

“Chicken!” I blurted out the first answer that came to mind. It was hard for me to keep a clear head when he was planting ideas inside it.

“Not exactly what I was hoping for.” He licked his lower lip slowly. “Maybe you can hook me up with dessert?”

My eyebrows shot up so fast, I swore they could have flown off my face. Anders was determined to unseat me in every way possible.

He followed me as I made my way across the dressing room. I stopped in front of the racks of designer clothing they had pulled for him to try on and started dutifully flipping through the hangers.

Anderson stepped behind me and reached to do the same, putting his rock-hard body into achingly close contact with my backside.

“I’m just in the mood for something sweet,” he murmured as I drew a blue blazer off its hanger.

I didn’t dare to look back at him. “And what makes you think that’s me?”

“Call it a hunch,” he said. “There’s only one way to find out.”

My eyes shuttered for a moment as I willed myself to overcome his tempting offer. I was not going to give in to Anders or his indecent suggestions, and I certainly wasn’t going to let him see that I’d even considered it. Opening my eyes, I spun and shoved the blazer into his arms. I plucked matching pants from the rack and thrust those at him, too.