Page 32 of Love That Sass

What the heck?

“Wait,” she said, turning back to Weylin. “I don’t remember tripping. How did I fall? What happened?”

“Gwen, maybe you should take the night off—” Derrick said, but Lucy clamped her hand over his mouth.

“Baby, I have a craving for a cheesesteak. Take me to Tony’s, would you?” she asked, rubbing her protruding belly and pouting at her man.

Gwendolyn felt sort of like a voyeur, watching the obvious chemistry between them. Even with her belly swollen with his baby, Derrick seemed to find her irresistible. Wasn’t that something?

“Lucy, I am in the middle of something here,” Derrick began in a growly voice that sorta scared Gwendolyn.

Lucy didn’t seem to mind. In fact, the woman swayed closer to him. Weird. But it must be nice, Gwen mused.

Oh sure, Gwen talked a good game about being fine alone. After one lousy little heartbreak, she’d been hiding behind her promise to save herself for marriage. But that imaginary future husband was just that—imaginary.

Truth was, Gwendolyn never planned on finding a guy who could measure up to her book boyfriends. How could she? Folks thought Walt Disney was responsible for unhealthy expectations of what true love was supposed to be like, but she knew better.

That man had nothing on the romance writers of the world, especially the indies. There was nothing Gwen liked more than to find a brand new favorite author pioneer in the indie publishing world.

“Fine. I will take myself,” Lucy growled, slapping her hands against the mountainous man’s chest, and pushing him back.

He moved, too. Though Gwen was certain that was only because he wanted to. No way could a tiny thing like Lucy move that giant of hers. Lucy tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Derrick before grabbing the keys off his desk.

With a sharp nod, she waved goodbye to Gwen with a wink, then stomped out of the office, big booty swaying as she went.

Uh oh.

“What? Dammit. No! Wait! Weylin, fix this!” Derrick snapped before running after Lucy. “Not the Harley, Kitten, come on. We’ll take the truck! It’s better for the cubs!”

“Did he say cubs?” she turned her head and asked Weylin.

“Um, let’s talk about what happened for a minute, then we will get into that,” Weylin said, standing up.

He started rummaging through the cabinet behind Derrick’s desk and pulled out a clean, black t-shirt with the bar’s logo on it. Gwendolyn frowned at the loss of all those tattooed muscles, but she supposed it was for the better. After all, her adult life had been all about avoiding the kind of temptation a man like him presented.

“Look, I owe you an apology,” he began, turning to face her as he pulled the shirt over his head.

Gwen gulped down a whimper as she faced his pure masculine perfection. Yeah, he had some scars on his pale skin, but they did nothing to deter from his male beauty. His tattoos were many and so intricate, the detail was just beyond anything she had ever seen. He was a living work of art, and Gwen’s heart fluttered in response to that realization.

“Why do you owe me an apology?” she asked.

“I seem to put my foot in my mouth whenever I try with you. I keep giving you the wrong impression, Gwendolyn.”

“How? When? I mean, we hardly know each other,” she murmured, but even saying that felt wrong.

Ever since she wandered intoSerious Moonlight, something about the place, the people, just seemed to call to her. Gwendolyn’s world wasn’t so big, she wasn’t so lonely when she was with them. This strange group of beautiful people had made her feel like she belonged to something, even as dumb as that sounded, she realized she was right.

“Since day one, I’ve been keeping secrets.”

“Secrets? Why?”

“All I wanted was to know you better, but you told me to stay away, and I just couldn’t, beautiful—”

“Stop,” she said, angry now that he was trying to play her. “You don’t have to say things like that to me. Sheila is beautiful. Big as she is with her baby, Lucy is beautiful. Not me. At the most, I’m cute. It’s fine though, I am happy being cute, but what does that have to do with why I woke up in here?” she asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Maybe to some people you are cute, but I called you beautiful because you are to me, dammit,” he growled, stepping forward and invading her space.

Eyes wide, she backed up instinctively. He was just so big. So much man. She could feel heat rolling off his body, warming her in the cramped office. Gwen gasped as her back met with the wall, but he’d already put his hands there, cushioning her from it.

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