Sex & the Single Girl by Joanne Rock Page A

departed down the hallway, she was too annoyed with Aidan to think about it anymore.
    Aidan turned on her, his mask of polite good humor vanishing. His dark brows flattened into a fearsome slash across his forehead. “Care to tell me why you’re wasting our time arguing about whether or not I have your authorization to hang out on the premises when your partners have obviously already agreed on it?”
    Unwilling to be cowed by the tough-guy act, Brianne decided the time had come for a little cold, hard honesty here.
    â€œHas it ever occurred to you I might not want the object of an ancient and embarrassing crush glued to my side for two whole weeks?” She struggled to keep her tone even, level. Her work had taught her that women were more likely to be written off if they emoted too much. Men had the luxury of acting out when and if they so chose, but thanks to an age-old stereotype of the hysterical female, women had to pull the ice queen facade in order to make men take them seriously.
    Usually, she was superb in that particular role. But oddly enough, the subject of Aidan Maddock still hadthe power to get her a little more riled than she cared to admit.
    Aidan frowned. “You find an old crush on me embarrassing? You think I’ve gone downhill in the last ten years, Bri?”
    A little exasperated sigh broke free.
    After ten years of keeping her cool—even with the psycho guitar player former boyfriend—Brianne couldn’t believe Aidan was already getting under her skin.
    â€œThat’s not what I mean and you know it. I don’t appreciate having to rub elbows with a guy I once threw myself at as if I were—”
    â€œSome kind of lovelorn teenager?” he supplied.
    She glared at him. “Some kind of blind and disillusioned kid.”
    Aidan nodded. Placated her. “You’re right. I can see where the situation might be a little awkward for you.” Was he hiding a preening male smile underneath that pseudo-charm of his? “But now that we’ve established that I’m going to be welcomed here by the rest of the owners, why don’t we move on to a quick tour of the grounds and then I’ll make myself scarce.”
    â€œThen you don’t need to be in my office with all the security equipment?” If she’d known they didn’t have to be together all the time—
    â€œI meant I’d make myself as scarce as I can be in your office,” he amended quickly as he made a sweeping gesture for her to go first down the hall. “I’m pretty damn good at my job, you know. And the faster I find out where Mel is hiding, the sooner I’ll be out of your hair.”
    â€œI can’t help you there,” Brianne protested, though she knew Aidan didn’t believe her any more now than he had a decade ago. Not that it mattered any longer. “But I can give the tour of the property in less than an hour assuming you can keep up.”
    She blew by him, grateful for the distance her long legs could cover in just a few paces. And she didn’t wait to see if he followed.
    This time, Brianne would be the one leaving him in her dust.
    Â 
    A IDAN TOOK A SHALLOW BREATH as he sat shoulder to shoulder with Brianne at her master control board later that night. A deep breath would draw in too much of her scent, too much of her. And he was already edgy and restless from spending half the day glued to her side.
    They’d only been apart long enough for Brianne to change out of the sleek brown cat suit she’d been wearing and into a skirt short enough to leave him practically drooling in her wake. Apparently this new outfit was the kind of getup a woman wore when she worked in a nightclub.
    Getup being a pretty damn descriptive phrase at the moment.
    Now, she stared up at her wall of monitors and spoke softly into her headset to one of her partners. The blue digital clock on the control board turned to 4:00 a.m.—closing