Nobody's Fool by Sarah Hegger

beneath. “What do you do?”
    â€œNothing, at the moment.” He thrust down hard on the horn and she nearly leaped out of her skin. “I recently sold my business and now I’m looking for something new.”
    â€œWhat did your business do? Shit! Watch out for the . . . never mind.”
    He grinned like a pirate. “We wrote software. Financial stuff, for the most part, stock market analysis, that sort of thing.” He shrugged. “We came up with a winner, started making good money, and someone offered to take it off our hands.”
    â€œFor a sizable fee?”
    â€œYou got it.”
    â€œHmph.”
    â€œAnd you, Holly Partridge? I already know you’re not torturing some poor husband. Perhaps you’re raising a charming set of five illegitimate children or setting the corporate world of Canada on fire?”
    â€œAnd why would you assume I’m not doing all of the above?”
    â€œIf anyone could, it would be you.” Josh smiled.
    Holly got a warm little glow inside.
    He didn’t look like he was mocking her.
    There was a compliment in there, and rather a big one. It made her feel churlish because she was only sniping at him to avoid telling him what she did. Which was a good job, a stable job, but it wasn’t selling software for big bucks, living in a slick condo, and driving a vintage sports car.
    She cringed. Her job supported herself and two sisters. She was doing fine. Holly shifted in her seat. Her wet jeans slurped against the leather as she moved. “Those girls at the bar?”
    â€œUh-huh?” He stared fixedly ahead as his shoulders tensed.
    Had she hit a little chink in the Josh Hunter armor of awesome? Here was salvation and an evasion all dressed up and waiting for her to take it out. “What was that about?”
    â€œI’ve been trying to tell you.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “I thought it would piss you off. Did it?”
    He turned those big blues on her and gave her a look naughty enough to make a nun toss her coif over the windmill. The man could pack a whole lot of sex into one terrific eye meet.
    â€œMaybe.” Her tongue suddenly stuck to the roof of her mouth.
    â€œYou were looking at me like I was something left on the bottom of your shoe and . . .” He laughed. “I didn’t recognize you at first. You were giving me the stink eye and I went with the sixteen-year-old option as a reaction.”
    â€œAnd the girls were happy to play along?”
    â€œThey approached me.” He was all wounded dignity and maidenly outrage.
    Like hell.
    â€œSo.” Holly had to get this straight. A horn blared in her right ear and she nearly leaped across the central console into his lap. “Those girls came up to you and wanted to play group spit swapping?”
    He grimaced. “Yup.”
    â€œWithout you doing anything to encourage them?”
    â€œMy hand on a Bible.” He raised one hand in the air and put the other over his heart.
    â€œHold the wheel.” Holly gasped, as he depressed the accelerator and lurched forward a few feet. “Does that sort of thing happen to you a lot?”
    â€œMore than I would like.” He inched into a spot she wouldn’t try to fit a moped. “And a lot less than it used to.”
    This was freaking unbelievable. “Roving packs of strange girls randomly demand you suck face with them? What are you? Some kind of X-rated version of the Pied Piper?”
    He gave a bark of self-deprecating laughter. It was, kind of, appealing. “Well?”
    He blew out a long breath. A faint stain of color crept up over his sculpted jaw. He was blushing. “Okay, it’s kind of my fault.”
    She was totally fascinated now. “Oh, I need to hear this.”
    â€œWhen I was younger and more shallow . . .”
    Holly made a rude noise.
    He gave her a level stare.
    Holly dropped her eyes first.
    â€œWhen I was younger and