Page 146 of The Nanny and the Beefcake
Okay, that got naughty fast.
Libby met Raz’s gaze, and he leaned in toward her. “They’re talking about…”
“Yep, knocking boots,” she whispered back, stifling a giggle.
“Yeah, I can’t let my mind go there,” he whispered. “I’ll take care of this, plum,” he added, giving her that sweet, boyish smile.
She looked on as the man sauntered over to stand between the dueling women.
“Okay,” Raz said, eyeing Penny and Charlotte. “I genuinely like you, ladies. You’ve got fight in you, and I can respect that, but I can barely stomach your fiancés. These blokes are a bunch of wankers, and the thought of them…” Raz cleared his throat.
“Thought of them doing what, Raz?” Charlotte asked, sweetly observing the boxer.
“Yeah, Raz, what do you think we’re talking about?” Penny chimed.
Libby pressed her fingertips to her lips, trying to hold back the tumble of laughter. She could watch her girls take Raz to task all day long.
“Well,” her beefcake began with another nervous throat clearing. “Libby thinks you’re talking about…”
“Now you’re bringing me into this?” she teased. Libby stared down the mountain of a man as Char and Penny came to her side.
Raz tugged at his collar, then turned to Mitch and Rowen. “They’re tiny, but they’re bloody scary when they gang up like that.”
“You haven’t figured that out yet? These women are a force to be reckoned with,” Mitch answered as he mooned over Charlotte, gazing at her like she’d invented grilled cheese sandwiches.
Libby glanced at her girls, taking comfort in their presence, then felt Raz’s gaze slide back to her.
That beefy dreamboat of a smile teased the corners of his lips. “I’m starting to see that.”
And…swoon.
And hello, ethereal blue-violet aura. The color pulsed in the air. Light and flowing, it connected them. Raz’s gaze shifted, and he scanned the empty space around her. Sweet disbelief registered on his face. He saw the color shimmering in the mountain air. She wasn’t one to bet, but if she were, she’d put everything she had on that assumption.
“Good, you’re here,” Briggs grunted, lurching forward and holding his stomach. “The winner of the Spar with the Beast has arrived, and Maud and Bob are ready to start.”
“Are you feeling okay, Briggs?” she asked.
He removed a handkerchief from his pocket and blotted his forehead. “I ate something that might not be sitting well with me. It was so delicious. I couldn’t stop eating.”
“What was it, Briggsy?” Raz asked, assessing the man.
“Seafood, Rocky Mountain seafood,” the agent replied, then released a breathy burp.
Mitch cocked his head to the side. “We don’t have seafood in this part of the country.”
Briggs scratched his chin. “I don’t understand. I ate three platefuls of what Maud and Wobbly Bob called Rocky Mountain oysters. They were fried and had an odd sort of taste to them for seafood.”
Mitch sucked in an audible breath. “Buddy, that wasn’t seafood. You ate three plates of deep-fried bull testicles.”
Briggs stood there, wide-eyed. “Pardon me, but it sounded like you suggested that I consumed the testicles of a bull.”
“Yeah, you did,” Mitch replied. “Those are Rocky Mountain oysters. They’re a delicacy out here.”
“But oysters are in the sea,” Briggs whimpered, turning greener by the second.
“Not in Colorado, they’re not.”
Briggs covered his mouth and convulsed a few times. “I need to return to my room. Can you handle this event without me, Erasmus? It’s only local press—none of the heavy hitters are here.”
