Page 9 of The Belle and the Biker

"Nice to see you too, Scarlett O'Hair-products."

He is the rudest, most aggravating excuse for a human I've ever met. And for a Harkwell, that's saying a lot.

"So, miss me while I was gone?" His mouth curls up in an infuriatingly smug grin.

"I forgot you existed until you walked through that door," I say haughtily.

His eyes flare in anger, and he stalks off without another word.

I spend the rest of the night ignoring him harder than I've ever ignored anyone. By the end of the evening, I'm exhausted from the effort of avoiding him. Fortunately, by the night's end, he seems to have vanished from the bar.

Unfortunately, I find him in the office. Tiddlywinks has jumped onto his boots, and something is dripping off the left one. From the smell of it, she just tinkled on his boots.

"Oh, you met my dog!" I say brightly. I scoop her up and kiss her head. "Who's a good girl? Who's the most gorgeous girl in the world?" She practically has a seizure; she's wagging her tail so hard. Good thing dogs don't know when humans are lying. "Gorgeous" is a bit of a reach.

"This thing is yours?" His voice cracks in outrage. "Of course it is."

"This thing can hear you; thank you very much!"

"Of course, she can. Her ears are bigger than her head."

"Rude. Her name is Tiddlywinks. If you have a problem with her, you have a problem with me."

He narrows his eyes at me. "You already know I have a problem with you."

"Blah, blah, I'm a stuck-up princess, too delicate to work in a biker bar, and I don't belong here." I roll my eyes. "You know what? You're the one with the problem, not me. Everyone else here likes me, and I can handle myself just fine."

"Can you really?" He moves closer to me, and his scent makes my knees weak. His eyes snap with anger, but it doesn't scare me.

"I most certainly can. I beat up a mugger last week," I say proudly. It was my most New York moment yet, and I handled it like a champ. "He even had a gun, and I broke his nose."

He goes from annoyed to furious. "You what?" he shouts. "You took on an armed mugger by yourself? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"

"Relax, Crabby Hagrid. I didn't bother telling anyone here because it didn't happen in your territory. And I am capable of taking care of myself, you know." I pat my hip. "You may not like all the extra padding, but it has certain advantages. I'm harder to push around than I used to be. I head-butted the mugger, body-slammed him, and knocked him on his behind."

He shakes his head, his thick brows shooting up. "Who said I have a problem with extra padding?"

The fact that he practically ran from my bedroom after one night with me was a pretty good clue, but I don't feel like rehashing it.

"Tiddlywinks and I are going home now, thanks. It's been a long day, and we're tired."

"Tarred?"

"Tired. I'll buy you a Southern dictionary for Christmas. That and some manners. Lovely seeing you again!"

He follows me out of the office.

"You might want to clean that pee off your boots," I say, picking up my pace.

"They've had worse on 'em." He easily matches my stride. "You should have told Axl about the mugging. Anyone who attacks one of our employees is attacking all of us." Of course, the only thing he's worried about is the club's reputation.

"I already said it wasn't in your territory, and nobody would dare look at me cross-eyed in this neighborhood."

"They better not. I'm walking you and the hairball home tonight, and I don't want to hear any arguments."

I wish I could say he softened up as we walked home, insisted on holding the door open for me when we got there, and then swept me into his arms for a hungry, passionate kiss. None of that happened. We walked two blocks in silence, both glaring at the snow-spattered sidewalk, and then he stood there and watched me as I stomped into my building and slammed the door behind me.

CHAPTER4

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