"Not again!"
Clarissa tossed the pen onto the long yellow legal pad and stood as the roar of a motorcycle filtered upward through the floors of her office. Her eyes narrowed and her hands clenched.
That jerk downstairs, that guy who'd somehow decided it was a great idea to put a bike shop right on the first floor of the building her office occupied, was down there making way too much noise and thoroughly crushing her concentration.
Irritated by that Clarissa stalked to the door and then went out it then down the stairs.
The shop had a separate entrance from the one her clients used to reach the second floor but even so she was mad as a hornet. How dare he crank and throttle those chrome and steel machines like that? She could die of carbon monoxide poisoning or something for all he knew!
She came out on the sidewalk, and the heat immediately pressed down, flattening her mood even further and causing her curly brown hair, which had just gotten a very expensive blow out and straightening done to it just the day before, to start to frizz.
That frizzing of her hair made her even madder and by the time she snatched open the door to the shop she was ready to fight.
The big bay doors in the back of the shop were open, letting in a tremendous amount of sunlight and heat. There went her carbon monoxide death argument, Clarissa thought as she stormed toward the back of the shop and those doors and the man bent over a motorcycle.
Her footsteps slowed.
Jesus. The jeans he wore were, as usual, indecently tight. The faded denim clung to his well-rounded ass, highlighting just how high and firm it was. The jeans also limned the length of his legs and the narrowness of his hips and the waistband of the jeans tucked around a tight waist to boot.
Unbidden heat surged through Clarissa, irritating her even more.
She stepped forward yet again, her hands curling into balls, and her nails scraping against her palms.
She yelled, "Hey! Hey goddammit!"
Blake Miller stood up and turned with a grin on his handsome face. His bright blue eyes, a striking contrast to the messy black hair that swept over his high forehead, latched right onto her face then swept downward in a cocky and arrogant way that not only ticked off the last box that held her anger in check but made Clarissa suddenly and painfully aware that the thin silk blouse and bra she wore had been no match for her nipples, which had not just stiffened but were protruding hard, chafing against that thin fabric with real force.
He purred, "Can I help you?"
Clarissa's full lips went flat. His eyes landed right on her tits when he said that too! Fuming now she said, "I'm preparing for a large case. I need you to stop being an asshole right now.'
He cut the bike off. Silence echoed through the large bays and the shop. He leaned against the bike and his sweaty tee shirt clung to the washboard abs and broad shoulders below it.
He lifted an eyebrow. "How am I being an asshole?"
"I can't hear myself think up there!"
"I see."
Clarissa's teeth ground together so hard she heard her molars squeaking. "I am sure that you do. Now how about you keep it quiet for a little while?"
Blake laughed. "You do know that I have to run these bikes in order to make sure that they run?'
Her eyes narrowed to slits. "You do know that I'm a defense attorney and so people's lives are at actual stake here?"
Blake pushed away from the bike in one long and lither motion that sent her heart crashing around her chest. Her tongue licked across her lips. Her legs went liquid as he walked toward her, his body moving with a feline grace that made her wonder if he moved like that in bed too.
Goddammit! The man had been the bane of her existence since he had moved into the shop three weeks before and now here she was, dealing with him all over again when she damn sure had too much to handle as it was that day.
Not just that, now her concentration would be shot for at least an hour even if she did get the stubborn jerk to stop making all that racket!
"I'll make you a deal."
Clarissa gaped at him. "A deal?'
"Yes, a deal. Surely an attorney understands the art of making a deal."
The man was infuriating! Sexy, and totally infuriating! "I absolutely understand deals," she said stiffly. "I try to never make them because someone always ends up on the losing end of something."
He chuckled. That chuckle was low and rumbling, it sent little streaks of fire running along her skin.
Blake pushed a lock of his dark hair off his forehead. His blue eyes swept over her again. He said, in that throaty growl of his, "Oh I doubt either of us would lose anything at all in this deal."
Her foot tapped into the concrete of the floor. Her eyes narrowed. The last thing she wanted to do was make a deal with him. Hell just coming down there and even bothering with him was a huge waste of her time and she knew it.
"What is it?" the sharpness in her voice didn't make his cocky grim diminish a single bit. He tucked a thumb into a belt loop. His finger pointed downward, and naturally her eyes had to follow that pointing finger to the barely visible but there bulge in the front of his jeans.
She jerked her eyes back up and glared at him. Blake's smile not only got wider, it held a wicked edge that made her pulse careen upward into a hard and fast rhythm.
He said, "I'll keep it down if you agree to dinner with me tonight."
Was he nuts?
He had to be!
No way was she going to agree to have dinner with him!
Her arms came up and crossed over her chest, cutting off the sight of her erect nipples. "No."
"Suit yourself but I have to warn you, I really need to get this bike finished and I'm going to need a damn good reason not to."
"You're blackmailing me?" The incredulity on her voice was real.
"I call it bargaining."
Her cheeks went scarlet as anger and a thrill she did not want to admit to feeling coursed through her. "I call it illegal."
Blake roared laughter. "I'll keep that in mind, so are you in or out?'
"You're serious? I mean, you're really serious here! You honestly think I am going to agree to go to dinner with you just because you promised to do the right thing, the thing you should be doing anyway?'
Blake dusted his long slender hands off. "Yup."
"Go to Hell."
Clarissa stormed out and back to her office, muttering the whole way.
The nerve of that man! Top think she would go out with him just because he would keep down the level of noise, which he should be doing anyway?
Her shoulders tensed as she got back into her office and sat back down at her desk. Prior to Blake's arrival the downstairs had been a showroom for classic and restored cars. No loud mufflers or banging or any of that as the cars were repaired elsewhere and just shown and test driven from that location.
Then, when that business had moved further out to the Northside she had had most of the building to herself for several months.
So, ok, she was spoiled by that. But her damn landlord was about to get an earful from her over this situation!
The files beckoned and to her relief it stayed quiet downstairs as she began going over the files yet again.
The man was impossible—but not unreasonable. Or so it seemed.