Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2)(31)



Nice going, Tess.

“Did you know a fifteen-year French study showed that women who skipped wearing a bra had a yearly seven-millimeter lift in their nipples?” The words rolled out without her even considering them. Shut up, Tess. “And their breasts were firmer and didn’t show as many stretch marks?”

He yanked his gaze up to her face, the right side of his mouth twitching. “I did not know that.”

“Not wearing a bra is believed to encourage the development of the muscles under the breasts, which can lead to better posture. Plus, some women report that not wearing a bra can alleviate back pain because of the increased muscles.” Close your mouth, Tess. “The study didn’t look at women over thirty-five, though, so who knows if it was just a free-boob French doctor’s onetime results or if big corporate bra is squashing other studies to keep women’s boobs under wraps.” There. That was it. She was not going to talk about bras anymore. “I need to take off my shirt.”

Oh my God. What is wrong with me?

Cole went very still, the vein in his temple pulsing, as he kept his attention focused solely on her face. “Okay.”

The air in the sunny room went from a pleasant humidity to strip-off-your-clothes-and-run-naked hot. The image of seeing Cole in his bed the other morning, his strong, muscular chest and abs, rushed to the forefront. Her hormones let out a resounding cheer of yes-let’s-do-him-again and it took everything she had not to rush him right there and then. But she couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that. Neither of them meant to be in this situation. They could both be adults about it, and that meant safe and smart boundaries. She would not ever let this baby think for even a minute that he or she was just a means to trap a man with money.

Reality firmly acknowledged and brain back online, she said in her most boss-lady voice, “Please take the tree to Mrs. Evans out front and then carry it to her apartment two buildings down.”

“You got it, boss.” Cole grinned at her. “And don’t worry, I’ll take care of reservations for dinner tonight.”

“Dinner?” Oh shit. She’d totally forgotten about that. And really she had every reason to because it was just talk…weird flirting…competitive banter…not reality.

“Never let it be said that I welched on a bet.” He leaned in close, dipping his head down so his lips were practically touching hers. “You. Me. Dinner. It’s a date.”

Then he took a step back and with one flirty wink, he picked up the dwarf umbrella tree and carried it out front, leaving her to stare after him and that perfect ass of his. Yeah, that was the kind of view that wasn’t about to make her nipples settle down anytime soon.

Fuck, Tess, get yourself under control. Yeah, good luck to her with that because she couldn’t shake the feeling it was only going to get worse. How in the hell was she going to make it through dinner?





Chapter Nine


Tess hadn’t been hiding in her office since she’d flipped the flower shop’s sign from open to closed. She was doing very necessary paper shuffling and cleaning off her desk because a clean and tidy environment equaled a clean and tidy mind. Wasn’t that how the saying went? Or was it idle hands led to feeling up the guy in her flower shop who had knocked her up and was completely off-limits? Yeah, that second one definitely sounded more likely.

That bet had been a really stupid idea—shocker, which was exactly what she’d told Gina when her friend had texted earlier.

Gina: Ohhhh! Fingers crossed for a love connection at dinner.

Tess: Not gonna happen.

Gina: Why not?

Tess: Because we both know this whole thing was an accident and nothing is going to come of getting weddinged with Cole but a cute baby. Anyway, there’s Marti.

Gina: Maybe this is the time they don’t get back together.

Yeah, that was pretty much beyond doubtful. According to Lucy and Fallon, Cole and Marti were in an on-again, off-again loop, so Tess figured it was only a matter of time. And even without that part of it, staying with Cole was just one more temporary placement for Tess. Soon enough her apartment repairs would be finished and she’d go home and Cole would go on with his life the way it was before Lucy’s wedding. History always repeated itself and she would be smart enough to learn from it and protect herself and the baby.

“Need some help in there?” Cole asked from the front of the shop.

Her pulse went all jiggly-jaggly. “Nah, I’m good,” she said, clutching a stack of soon-to-be-due invoices to her chest. “I’m on my way out.”

She shoved the bills into her top drawer, grabbed her purse, and headed out to the front of the shop, desperate to keep her head straight. “Did you know—”

“Nope,” he interrupted her. “That’s not gonna work tonight.”

She jolted to a stop, her brain going into panic factoid override mode. “Tonight was written as two words until the eighteenth century.”

“No factoids.” He closed the distance between them, coming to a stop only a few inches from her.

They weren’t touching. Sure, she was practically bathing in his hot-guy pheromones, but there wasn’t any physical contact. Just her being her usual dork self, spouting off factoids while Cole stood close enough to make her pulse increase to the oh-my-God-kiss-me rate.

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