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Without warning, Aidan stopped beside her and yanked her up against the hard plane of his chest. His mouth was on hers before she could even form her next thought, hot and hungry, his tongue dragging across her lower lip.
He tasted like chocolate and sin as he nipped her bottom lip with his teeth, and she very nearly dropped the bakery box she was holding so she could wrap her arms around his neck and explore his mouth a little more. But then he released her, and she sucked in a sharp breath, instantly annoyed at the smug look on his face.
“What the hell was that for?”
He reached up to grip her chin, dragging his thumb over her bottom lip. “Had a little frosting right there.”
“So you licked it off?" she hissed, following him outside.
“You didn’t seem to be complaining. And besides, now your friend behind the counter is staring for an entirely different reason.”
She turned back to see the woman watching them with a pinched expression, barely swallowing a grin as the door swung shut. “You have a weird sense of humor.”
He studied her for a long moment before pushing his sunglasses up his nose and hiding his eyes. “Is that what you think that was? Humor?”
“Sorry, I forgot. You’re not very funny.”
He huffed out a laugh, and they walked to the car in silence. From the moment he poisoned her hope for a partnership under the sharp sting of his cold indifference, she figured she knew exactly what to expect from him. It hardly seemed fair that the man continued to surprise her. She hated surprises. Especially ones that looked like Aidan Callahan.
ChapterTwelve
“What the hell are you still doing here?”
Aidan looked up from his study of the document he was holding to stare at his brother framed in the doorway to the conference room. He’d commandeered the big, oblong table they kept in the sparsely furnished meeting room underneath the nightclub to better understand what Finn had been responsible for.
It was a lot, but Aidan finally felt like he was getting a handle on it. If he’d been impressed by the ease with which Finn negotiated deals, he found himself floored by the obscene number of details his brother had somehow carried around in his brain, because he hadn’t committed much of it to paper.
“I think I found a better way to catalog shipments for faster delivery.” Aidan reached for a paper he’d set on top of a stack to his left. “Right now, Sean earmarks different types of weapons for specific warehouses and then goes around to each one, tallies inventory, and creates shipments. A process that takes days.”
He held the paper out to Declan. “But we could cut that in half at least if we ran inventory at a main warehouse and then farmed it out. Do all of it in a single day instead of over multiple. Plus, less traffic to the smaller warehouses. I’d maybe put on more security at the main hub, but we’d be able to turn product over much faster.”
Declan read through Aidan’s hastily scribbled notes, eyebrows raised. “This is good. We’ll definitely talk more about this later, but right now you need to go.”
“What? Why? Go where?”
“Home. You have your interview today. With Viv. For the paper.”
Aidan’s sigh was instantaneous; he couldn’t stop it even though he knew it would cause Declan’s disapproving frown. “Is that interview really necessary? Can’t we just put an announcement in the paper or something?”
“Yes, and no.”
“Is it, or do you just enjoy watching me squirm under all this?”
Declan tossed the paper on the edge of the table and slid his hands into his pockets. “Maybe a little bit of that too. Hurry up, or you’ll be late.”
He left without a word, and Aidan shoved a hand through his hair. He had a million things still to catch up on. He wanted to look into some of their buyers and see which ones had contacts outside Philadelphia. Then there was the list of open deals Finn hadn’t been able to close that he wanted to take another pass at.
“Now, Aidan!” Declan shouted from down the hall.
With an irritated grunt, he grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and slammed the door to the conference room behind him. He checked his watch as he climbed into his truck. He wouldn’t be that late. If he hurried.
Frankly, he didn’t see the need to parade this whole thing in front of the entire city. It should have been a quick ceremony in front of family and then back to life as normal. Instead he’d gotten himself stuck trailing behind a woman whose ass was made for staring at and lugging the occasional box. Like an idiot.
It didn’t help that he wanted to kiss her every time she wielded her quick wit like a dagger. Which is why he’d acted on impulse at the bakery the other day. The way she’d been pushing his buttons like someone had given her a manual. It was nice to know he could push hers back.
He technically wasn’t late when he pulled into the driveway. He still had three minutes to spare, but all three women were waiting for him like a firing squad when he let himself into the living room.
“There you are.” Viv stood in the center of the room next to a woman Aidan assumed would be doing the interview. Irritation was evident in the way she fiddled with the bracelet she wore. “Meeting go okay?”
