I Flipping Love You (Shacking Up #3)(41)

She and Lawson snicker, Pierce coughs from my right. I glare first at her, then at Pierce, who both quickly school their expressions. Lawson’s smile is wide and his teeth are blindingly white against his tanned skin. “Oh come on, you have to admit that was funny. We’re doing business, you got the business from my brother last night.”

“Can it, Law,” Pierce mutters. “And will you please button your shirt?”

“I don’t like being confined by fabric.”

Pierce shakes his head. “You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?”

“Sure do. All right.” Lawson slaps a palm on the table. “While you two were having a lover’s quarrel and some super quiet sex in the bathroom—”

“We were not having sex in the bathroom,” I snap.

“Whatever, it’s cool either way. Just as long as there aren’t any messes to clean up, we’re golden.” He gives me the thumbs-up. “So this is how it’s going down. I received some intel that our neighbor two doors down are putting their bungalow on the market tomorrow. I want to get in there and put an offer on it before it goes public.” He points to Marley. “And I need you to work your magic to make that happen.”

“Who told you they were putting it up for sale?” Marley glances at me, a hint of potential accusation in her eyes.

I try to use facial expressions to indicate that I in no way divulged that information to Pierce last night. I was far too busy having orgasms to talk about what houses might be for sale on the beach. Besides, he didn’t even know what I do for a living until now, and I didn’t realize he wasn’t just a landlord.

“I might’ve had a conversation with their granddaughter the other day. So I’m thinking, since you owe my brother some money for damaging his car, you can get us in to see it first and give us a break on the commission. Drop it by a percent or something.”

“No. Absolutely not,” I cut in. “First of all, I’ve already given Pierce a check for the paint and that has nothing to do with the sale of the house. So no discount for anything.”

“How about half a percent?”

“Still no.”

“My brother could’ve called the police, but he didn’t,” Lawson says with an arched brow.

“And you’re breaking a contractual agreement by taking your house off the market, so don’t throw out baseless threats in a bid to cheat us out of money we’ll earn by getting you a good deal on the house.”

“Fuck, you’re hot,” Pierce says.

All three of us look at him. I’m sure my face is red again. And for the love of all things Coco Pebbles, my nipples have perked right up. So stupid. This guy is way too smooth, too good with his words and his hands and his magnificent man hammer. He’s too intense. It’s bad. Intense equals dangerous. This kind of lust dulls all the other senses, whitewashes reason, makes a person do thoughtless, senseless things; like having sex with a relative stranger on a dryer after one dinner date. And it wasn’t even a real date.

Pierce taps the counter. “I said that out loud, huh?”

“You sure did. Good job holding your cards close, dude.” Lawson shifts his attention back to me and clears his throat. “Okay. No cut on commission. Can’t blame me for trying.”

“Okay.” Marley smiles, no longer pissed off at the situation. “Now that that’s settled, you want me to see if I can get you in to see the property before it hits the open market?”

“Exactly. You think you can make that happen?” Lawson sips a seaweed green shake. It coats his mustache and makes it look like he sneezed all over his upper lip until he licks it away.

“Let me make a few calls.”

Of course Marley can make it happen. She’s the agent on the house Lawson is talking about. All she has to do is call the owner and set up a walk-through. All I need to do is draw up the paperwork. And we’ll make full commission on the sale, which could put us in an excellent position financially. It means we might finally be able to finance our own flip.

I don’t like how much it seems like a setup on both sides. It feels … dishonest not to let them know that we’re the selling agents.

But I know Marley, and she isn’t going to tell him we’re the selling agents until she absolutely has to. Not when he’s pulled his house from the market in the eleventh hour. She slips her phone out of her purse and crosses through the living room. Flipping the latch on the sliding glass door, she steps out on the deck, leaving me alone with Pierce and Lawson.

“So, kind of ironic that you’re the lawyer and he’s the one with the piercings, huh?” I gesture between them and wish my mouth and brain would work in tandem instead of independently of each other at times like these.

“Right?” Lawson grins. “And I even have the junk jewelry. Guess you already know my brother here is too straight an arrow to decorate his dick.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell Lawson it actually curves a little to the right and is fantastic without any decorations, but luckily Pierce speaks before I do.

“Really? Was that a necessary share?”

Lawson inclines his head in my direction. “She’s the one who brought it up.”

Pierce sighs. “If we’re going to look at a house, you need to change out of your hippie gear and dress like a real human.”