Beauty and the Blitz Read Online Free Page B

lovely scent. Something soft and bright. Orange blossoms? Not a smell I normally associated with a locker room, but it wouldn’t distract me, no matter how much my mouth watered.
    “You want to find my weakness?” I dropped too close, too near her. The heat of her body radiated through me. I sweated again, without the beating sun or the suffocating pads. “You don’t know how dangerous I can be.”
    “I’m not afraid of you,” she said. Her eyes lingered on my tattoos.
    “You should be.”
    “Why? Because you’re the beast ?”
    “It’s more than a nickname.”
    “You’re just a man.”
    I wasn’t so sure anymore, but damn if she wasn’t heating me in ways I’d long forgotten.
    “How bad do you want me?” I whispered.
    She flinched. “ Excuse me?”
    I hadn’t dropped the towel yet. “As a client .”
    “I’m not going to beg.”
    No. A woman like her wouldn’t. She’d have me beg. Make me fall to my knees and surrender to those base instincts that turned me into a raging, half-animal.
    “I won’t leave the agency.” My eyes lowered, drawing over every inch of her curves. “But I’m not dealing with Maddy anymore.”
    “Then who--”
    “You, beautiful. You want me that badly, you can have me. I’m all yours.”
    “I work in the office, but I’m not officially an agent.”
    “Looks like Daddy’s giving you a promotion today.”
    “Cole—”
    “You want me; I’m only dealing with you. Take it or leave it.”
    She exhaled. “If you think you’re gonna push me around like I’m—”
    “You better run to Daddy and give him the good news.” I glanced to the doorway leading into the showers. “Unless this agency would like to become full-service ?”
    Piper glowered. Insulted, of course, but also shocked . Like no one had ever propositioned her before. I found it hard to believe a woman as beautiful as Piper hadn’t taken her fill from some lucky son of a bitch.
    “If I take you as a client, we’re doing this my way,” she said.
    I unknotted the towel. “Sure, we will.”
    “No inappropriate behavior.”
    I dropped it to the floor. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
    Piper’s gaze glued to the ceiling. “No innuendos.”
    “Don’t even know the meaning of the word.”
    “And you will be signing that waiver because you know a trade is the best choice for you.”
    I did like a challenge. “I’ve never done anything in my best interests.”
    “Yes, you have, Mr. Hawthorne.”
    “And what’s that?”
    She stalked before me, kneeling down to pick up the towel so very near my hard cock. She said nothing as she folded the terrycloth and pushed it into my chest.
    “You hired me.”

Piper
    M y day started at six in the morning with a dirty diaper and agitated toddler. Still, the shit at work was much worse, all slung by coworkers crankier than my baby.
    Rose was an angel compared to the other agents in the sports-bro office. I’d been harassed, hit on, berated, and blamed for the mishandling of one of our biggest clients…all before lunch.
    For so long, I’d imagined myself working and studying and living in a world of academia and literature. My accidental pregnancy closed that particular chapter of my life. Still, a new dream took its place.
    So many people spent their lives wishing for their own Once Upon A Time . They chased godmothers and princes and searched for that magical moment when all their problems melted away. Well, as far as I was concerned, I already had my happily ever after .
    Rose was sixteen months of feisty energy, twenty pounds of squirmy love, eight teeth of a goofy smile, and ten fingers that waved to me when I finally got to pick her up after a long day at work.
    My baby was every bit the fairy tale remedy I needed.
    Sleeping Beauty slept for a hundred years—with Rose, I only had to worry about four to six hours at a time. Snow White choked on an apple—Rose preferred bananas. Cinderella lost her slipper—who could keep shoes on a toddler without