Jill Shalvis: Aussie Rules

Dimi leaned close. “You and I both know, he’s the son of the very best, he’s-”

“Yeah.” Mel hopped off the desk and tossed back her shoulders and the stray strands of hair from her face. “I know what he is. Now let’s find out what he isn’t.”

“Mel.”

“Wish me luck.”

“Luck. You’re going to need it.” Dimi jumped up and hugged her hard, then pulled back, hands on Mel’s face. “We’re bad. We’re tough. We own our world.”

Mel found a smile. It was their old motto, from when they’d been young, scared, and on their own. They were still on their own, but not so young.

And maybe only a little scared.

“Do whatever you have to,” Dimi said quietly. “Just get him out of here.”

Yeah.

Whatever she had to…

At the thought of what that might entail, goose bumps rose on Mel’s skin, and not necessarily the bad kind.

Mel headed across the lobby, mind occupied by her singular mission: Get rid of Bo Black.

She passed by the café. Charlene stood behind the counter, scrubbing down the scarred tile, singing along to Metallica. “Mel!” she cried, gesturing her close, looking around them before whispering conspiratorially, “So?”

“So…what?”

“Who’s the cutie? A business meeting? New client? Old friend?” She drawled out this last word in her Southern voice, making the word ten syllables.

“Uh…yeah. Sort of.”

“Sort of which?”

“Oh, hey…” Desperate subject change. “Did Ernest get the oven going yet?”

“No, not yet.” Char bit her lip and looked at the oven, effectively sidetracked. The café was hers and Al’s livelihood, at least until he sold more paintings, and since their kids had left last year, the café was also her baby. Char would have rather put her energy into another real-live baby, but Al had talked her out of that insanity. “Ernest just left to go get a part. So, about the guy-”

“Yeah, I’ve got a call-” She began to walk. Fast.

“I need my gossip fix!” Char called after her. “You know I do!”

Mel loved Char, but telling the woman anything was the equivalent of broadcasting it to the entire world. Following the path Bo had taken, Mel entered the long hallway off the lobby.

The first office was hers. She just knew he was in there, waiting for round two. For a moment she stood outside the door, drawing in a deep, calming breath, which didn’t tame the butterflies suddenly leaping like crazy in her stomach.

So long. It’d been so long since she’d had to face any of this.

Or him.

Lifting her chin high-a habit she’d adapted to make her feel taller-she pushed open her office door.

And, yep, there he was, sprawled in her chair, boots up on her desk, hands folded behind his head as he sat there, contemplating the universe.

Her universe.

He’d asked for Sally, which made no sense. Did he really not know Sally had never come back here? Did she really have that unexpected advantage?

“G’day,” he said when she walked in, a charming smile on his lips, his eyes half-lowered, his fawn-colored hair fashionably shaggy. “Ready to talk, are you?”

She took one look at the long, lean, hard length of him and shut the door behind her. No need for everyone to hear the unavoidable argument heading her way. “Get out of my chair.”

A smile quirked about his lips. She was amusing him. “Ah, now that’s not very sweet.”

She put her hands on her hips, daring him to take a good look. “Do I look sweet to you?”

His eyes heated suggestively as he ran them over her. She was covered from head to toe, for God’s sake, but he made her feel…naked.

“Well, actually-”

“Never mind!” she said crossly. “Just get out of my office.”

“Your office?” He looked around, the leather of her chair crinkling with his weight. “That’s funny. I remember this as Sally’s office.”

Crap. “I’m using it in her absence.”

“So where is she, on vacation? Swindling or conning her latest victim out of his money?”

She couldn’t tell him Sally wasn’t around. With that deed, he might feel like taking over right here and now.

If it was legit.

She thought of Dimi, of Char and Al, Ritchie and Kellan, Danny, their mechanic…all like family to her. She couldn’t lose the reins now and let anything happen to the life they’d all built here.

Then what he said slowly sank in. “Sally never swindled or conned a soul in her life. Apparently, she left that to your father.”

Had his eyes been sleepy and sexy only a moment ago? They went cold as ice as he slowly uncoiled and rose to his full height, coming around the desk toward her, six feet plus of pure rough-and-tumble attitude. “Leave my father out of this,” he said very quietly.

She dug in her heels and refused to back up. Which put them in each other’s breathing space. He was at least a head taller than she, smelled warm and sexy, and seemed to be built entirely of perfectly toned muscle.

And yet it wasn’t any of that that stopped her, but the fierce, protective look in his eyes. This wasn’t the rangy, trouble-filled, wickedly smiling Bo who’d been caught with his hands up a woman’s skirt, but a man with passion and a deep capacity for emotion. Leave his father out of this? How was that possible? It had been Eddie Black who set in motion a chain of events they were still dealing with all these years later.

“Then let’s leave Sally out of it.”

He was already shaking his head. “No can do, darlin’.”

“That deed is fake.”

“Sally will tell you the truth.”

Oh, God. Sally wasn’t going to show up to tell her anything. Which meant he was going to hang out here forever. “How about I call you when she arrives?”

“How about I’m not budging until I talk to her?” He took one more step, putting them toe to toe. “And while we’re at it, who’s running the show without her?”

“Me.” She had to tip her head up to look into his eyes, damn him. She raised her gaze past his broad shoulders, past his throat, past his jaw, which hadn’t seen a razor today and maybe not yesterday, either, to those mesmerizing green eyes that promised he was up to no good. “I’m running the show. Why?”

“Because you’re doing a shitty job of it. Your café should be filled with locals but the oven isn’t running. Your fuel pump’s a mess, you’re lucky you haven’t been shut down by the EPA. You have bill collectors calling-”

“What? How did you-”

He put a finger over her lips, then had the balls to smile. “Let’s establish some ground rules here,” he said. “One, I’m staying until I talk to Sally. Two, I don’t expect your lovely office, but I do have a business to run so I’ll need a place to hole up and work while I’m here, with a computer, phone, and radio equipment, of course.” His eyes went steely. “And three…Don’t underestimate me. Something’s going on, Mel, and I will figure out what.”

She grabbed his wrist and tried to toss his hand aside, but the man, solid as a rock, couldn’t be budged, and she had to settle for a withering stare. “You’re not staying long enough to need an office.”

“Why, is Sally showing up today?” He cocked a brow at her silence. “Tomorrow? No? Then get used to seeing this face, Mel.”

Something popped inside her head. She was fairly certain it was her brain matter coming to a boil. “I don’t want you freaking everyone out.”

“I don’t plan to do any such thing. I just want to talk to Sally.”

“I don’t see the need for you to park yourself here,” she said. “Take your fancy plane somewhere and I’ll call you.” She spun on her heels, opening the door, but a big hand reached over her head and shut it, then held it closed.