Nothing But Trouble Read Free Page A

Rebecca's natural competitive side rose
full force, but she held back the urge to stand up and fluff her
hair.
    Who was she trying to impress, anyway?
    "I need you to sign these," the woman said in
a sing-song voice, like she was a breath away from a really good
orgasm. "And I have this for you." She plopped the sack in R.J.'s
lap. "But without the cheese, because I know you don't like
that."
    "Thank you," was all R.J. said as he picked
the bag up and moved it to the desk. He nodded his head toward the
papers. "What are those?"
    She glanced at the papers. "Accounts that
need to be closed. And don't even think about putting them off
until later," the woman replied as she placed a hand on R.J.'s
shoulder. "Because you'll stick your head under a hood of one of
those cars and you'll forget all about these." She pinned Rebecca
with those clear blue eyes of hers. "He thinks a world doesn't
exist outside of a transmission. And if you think this is dirty,"
she went on, pointing to R.J.'s shirt. "You should see him at ten
o'clock at night." She ended the statement with her deep red lips
turned up in a grin, as though the sight of a dirty R.J. brought an
exceptional amount of pleasure.
    Now, Rebecca wasn't about to argue with that.
But what she really wanted to do was scratch the woman's eyes out.
Which was ridiculous because The Amazon could have been a perfectly
nice woman. Underneath all that makeup and exorbitant amount of
cleavage could beat a heart of gold.
    The familiarity between the two of them had
something twisting deep inside her. Something that Rebecca wasn't
about to name because it felt very similar to jealousy. The only
reason she knew that was from all years of practice; all those
years of R.J. going from one woman to the next and leaving Rebecca
to wonder why….
    Why what?
    She'd been nothing more than a flash in the
pan to him, which he'd acted perfectly okay with. The dark-haired
woman seemed a lot more than that to him, if the way she caressed
his shoulder was anything to go by. That hand of hers, with red
shimmery painted nails, floated back and forth over his shoulder
like he was some pet.
    Unable to stomach anymore, Rebecca gathered
her purse and stood from the chair. "Call me with the bill, and
I'll come by to drop off a deposit." She just stepped through the
doorway when R.J stopped her.
    "Wait."
    She turned, but his attention wasn't on her.
His hand flew over the papers as he scrawled his signature at the
bottom of each one.
    "Actually, we require a deposit now." The
woman's blue eyes zeroed in on Rebecca, daring her to challenge the
statement. "Ten percent."
    R.J. tossed the pen down, stacked the papers
together and held them out to The Amazon. "I'm sure we can trust
Ms. Underwood. In the meantime, I need you to start a file for
her."
    In other words,
I'm-dismissing-you-so-you-can-go-do-your-job. Ms. Amazon didn't
take well to the dismissal. Her fingers tightened on R.J.'s
shoulder before releasing him. Rebecca stood aside as the woman
took the papers and hurried out of the office.
    Lover's quarrel? That's what it seemed like
to Rebecca, but it was really none of her business. There were
surely a lot of scorned women running around this town who had a
bone to pick with R.J. Devlin. For a long time, Rebecca had been
one of them, until she'd accepted her fate as such. She and R.J.
weren't destined to be anything more than… well, she wasn't sure
what they were.
    The term "frenemies" came to mind, but even
that didn't suit.
    Even sitting in his chair, R.J. consumed so
much space that the office felt like it was about to close in on
her. She supposed that was his commanding side coming out. But when
he stood, she felt the need to back up, even though she was already
standing in the doorway.
    He removed a set of keys from his pants
pockets. "How are you getting to work?" he asked.
    She lifted her chin. "I'm walking."
    He lifted a brow in doubt and Rebecca felt
her independent streak come out in spades.
    "Why