Page 60 of Crazy Thing

“Wow. I must say that I’m quite impressed,” Frank adds, his head nodding in approval. “We’ve both been searching for the owner of this property for weeks, and yet we’ve come up short. Nice work, young lady.”

“Why, thank you.” Ziggy does a little curtsey.

“If you ever want to work in a law office, let me know,” Frank goes on.

“She’s got a job,” I snap, growing annoyed by this pointless meeting.

The whole time, my lawyer and private investigator have been gushing and praising Ziggy for managing to find the waterfall property owner on her own.

Yeah, I’m impressed by her, too. But that doesn’t give them the right to keep gawking at her like a bacon-wrapped filet mignon at an upscale steakhouse.

Rivers continues to stare at Ziggy, a grin stretching acrosshis face. “You can’t blame Frank for trying. Brighton, your assistant has both beautyandbrains.”

“And a killer intuition, too!” Ziggy adds, quirking a shoulder and goddamn winking at Rivers.

Is she flirting back with him?Oh, hell no.

My annoyance skyrockets.

This meeting hasn’t lasted more than ten minutes, and I’m already done with it. I need to put an end to this nonsense immediately before I break a man’s neck.

“Okay, you two. Enough chitchat. She found the owner. You didn’t,” I bite out, staring Rivers down. “So unless you’re going to start kissing her feet now, how about we all get back to work, huh?”

Ziggy pins me with her eyes, the blue of them looking more like hot flames than the calm sky right now.What the hell is your problem?That’s what I imagine her glare is telling me.

Yeah, yeah. I deserve it. I just don’t care.

Every man who sees her, wants her. But they can’t have her. I won’t allow it.

Because she’s mine.

Thankfully, my grumpy lawyer and my flirty private investigator leave the office shortly after that. They take the files Ziggy prepared with them, voicing promises to do their due diligence on the property owner. Though at this point, I’m kind of uncertain about their skills, especially Rivers. Now that they’ve been shown up by a woman who only relied on her intuition.

Not that anything’s wrong with that. It’s just that, these so-called expertsstudiedto do what they do, and they still came up short.

When they leave, it’s just me and Ziggy alone in my office once again. She looks even more annoyed than Iam.She shakes her head at me, leveling me with one of those glares that just screams disappointment. It screams judgment.

“What’s your problem now?” I grate. I can’t even tie my shoes without her having something to say about it.

“Just because you don’t find me attractive, it doesn’t mean you have to verbally manhandle any guy who looks in my direction.”

I rear back, thrown off guard by her accusations. “He was on the clock, on my dime. He was acting unprofessionally. And inappropriately, too, in my opinion.”

Her arms fold tightly across her chest, inadvertently propping up those perky tits. “Oh, give me a break, Darius.”

Is she really going to fight me for saving her from that creep? “He doesn’t even know you,” I say. “And he’s certainly not your type.”

“How do you know he's not my type?” she challenges.

“For one, he’s shorter than you are.”

“I happen tolovea short king,” she informs me matter of factly, chin tipped upward in defiance.

Rolling my eyes, I go on. “And that grotesque beard? It probably has yesterday’s cheeseburger crumbs still in it.”

At that, she just stomps her foot and glowers.

I’m on a roll so what’s the point in shutting up now? “And let’s just back up for a minute. Once and for all, would you get it out of your head that I don’t find you attractive?”

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