Page 65 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

“No, not like that.” He followed her to the kitchen, carrying a tray of dirty cups. “Really, Tina. Get your head out of the gutter. The pictures are called ‘feeding the social media machine.’ Staying relevant and such so I can keep getting deals.”

“Would it kill you to call me by my name?”

“Probably.” He was so serious she laughed. “Isn’t Tina short for Athena?”

“Nobody calls me that.”

“Nobody calls me Chad. Or Chadwick.”

“Want me to stop?”

“Please don’t.” His tone was surprisingly tender.

“Okay. I won’t.” She turned to him. “Out of curiosity, though—why not?”

“I hate the name.”

“Oh, lovely,” she said drily.

“No, it’s okay when you call me that.”

“Really? Why?”

“It grounds me. Reminds me who I am.”

She blinked at him with a wryness that caused him to shrug helplessly. Adorable.

Seriously. There was no way to stay mad at this man, or even keep a barrier of any sort between him and her stupid softie of a heart.

“Is that why you call me Tina? You think it grounds me or keeps me humble?”

His smile was warm. “Maybe. You do have a pretty big ego.” There was a playful, wicked glint in his steely eyes.

“You do it because it annoys me!” She batted him with a tea towel, but he grabbed her, tucking her into his arms, holding her so close she couldn’t fight him.

It was heaven.

He dropped a light kiss on her lips. “You’re the only woman I want, Tina.”

“Who’s Tina?” Athena frowned as though upset, and to show his remorse, or maybe to make it clear who he meant, he gave her another kiss that wiped her brain clear of any argument she’d been meaning to start.

“It’s you,” he murmured, his lips trailing a tingling path down the side of her neck. “Always you.”

Mullens didn’t want to leave Athena; didn’t want to go home and have this evening end.

He was stretched out in an armchair in the middle of her shop, with her in his lap and her arms around his neck. And the kisses. The kisses were pretty amazing.

No, scratch that. Beyond amazing. It was as though everything before Athena had been nothing more than a distraction, a lie. This was the real game. The big leagues.

The real thing.

There was no turning back from Athena Gavras.

She was smart, sexy, curvy, and had one heck of a mouth—both in the way she called him out on his crap as well as in the way she kissed. She was part demanding, part tease. Keeping him guessing and always on his toes.

He never wanted to kiss anyone else ever again.

Never wanted to stop.

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