remember?”
Olivia gaped at him.
Maria didn’t know what to say.
“Well?” He put his hands on his trim hips, and his biceps looked
like fleshy boulders.
Olivia turned to her with a huge grin on her face. “Did he?”
“Oh my God. No, he did not.” She turned and snapped at Mike,
“Not that it’s any of your business. What the hell is your problem?”
All the tension seemed to deflate from him. “Oh. Good.”
“ Good? ” She didn’t
know what to think. “Where the hell do you get off asking me about my sex life?
I’m twenty-four years old, not twelve. Besides, I don’t ask you how many bimbos
suck you off on a daily basis.”
“Whoa.” Olivia looked from her to him and held up her hands
in surrender. “Easy, guys.”
“You want to know, just ask me.” This Mike she’d never before seen. And wow, she wanted to get to
know this angry, sexy, forceful man like nobody’s business.
“Well, I don’t
want to know. I’ll be in the back room.” Olivia escaped to the office and
closed the door behind her, leaving Maria and Mike alone together.
“Go ahead. Ask.” Mike crossed his arms over his chest.
“I don’t want to know,” she said primly. “But if I want
Bobby to eat me out, I’ll ask him. And fuck you very much if you don’t like
it.”
He just stared at her. After a moment, he said, “Nice mouth,
princess.”
“Whatever. Mike, get out.”
“Wait. What?”
“Buy something or get out. I’m running a business, not a
charity. Seriously though, my love life is not your concern.” Not that it had
been in middle or high school either, yet he’d still taken it upon himself to
look out for her.
“It is.”
“Excuse me?”
An older lady took a step inside the store.
Mike turned around to see who’d entered, still glaring, and
the woman turned around and left. He looked at Maria again and scowled. “You’re
like my little sister.”
“I am not your
sister. At. All. And you know, I’m glad.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re an asshole.” She let her festering anger
free. “I can date or fuck whoever I please. You don’t like it, too bad.”
He stomped three steps to the counter and loomed over her.
“I care about my sister. I care about you.”
Not the way I wish you
would. “I’ve been living without you for a long time, Mike. My little-kid
crush disappeared years ago. I have sex. I like sex. And I like men. There. Now
you have the deets about my love life. Buy something or get out.”
He grabbed a ball of yarn and set it before him. “There.
Look. I didn’t mean to piss you off. I’m just not used to you—”
“Not following you around like a puppy dog? Lapping up any
stray form of affection? God, I was pathetic. But no more. I deserve a guy who
wants me for me. Besides, you’re too old. You’re what, thirty-four?”
“Thirty-one,” he bit out.
“I’m twenty-four and in the prime of my life. I need to live
a little, you know? Hell, you can barely handle me saying the word ‘fuck.’
Imagine me doing it.” She wiggled her brows, pleased beyond measure when his
expression darkened and his gaze traveled from her mouth to her breasts and
back up to her eyes.
Holy shit. Mike
Cava had just given her the proverbial eye-fuck!
“Imagine, hmm?”
Excited but not willing to be drawn into a conversation that
would inevitably backfire and have him scurrying away, she shrugged off the
discussion. “That’ll be four-nineteen.”
“Huh?”
“For the yarn.”
He reached into his pocket and slapped a five on the
counter. “Keep the change.” He leaned closer still, until she could feel his
breath on her lips. “Honey, you want to play footsie with your guy friends,
fine. But keep that shit away from my sister.”
“Because she’s all virginal and pure? Please.” She laughed
at him, knowing Olivia would find that funny as hell. The girl acted all
prudish, but she liked sex as much as Maria did.
His eyes looked so dark she’d swear they were