Mick took a breath. “I owe you an apology. You don’t owe me anything at all. I’d very much appreciate it if you’d give me a few minutes of your time.”
“Hmph.” She put her book aside and tipped her chin at a chair she was sure he’d sat in dozens of times.
“I was really rude to you. It wasn’t just inexcusable because I have better manners than that, but also because you’re with my brother. I don’t normally act like that to women.”
“What’s your problem then?”
Asa shrugged at Mick. “See? I told you.”
Ugh, all this secret brotherhood stuff might be more maddening than she’d originally considered. Had Asa debriefed Mick on her?
“Did you, Asa? Did you give him a primer on how to handle me?”
Mick tried to stifle a smile. PJ shouldn’t be that annoyed. Asa’d fucked her into a nice, calm space. She’d stolen some leisure time to read and relax. He’d even made her breakfast to coax her to his house since he’d slept at her apartment. It had been a particularly lovely morning so far.
But she was annoyed nonetheless.
“I did not.” Asa frowned. “I told him you had a temper and to watch out. From an admiration standpoint, I should add.”
“Listen, you.” She gave them both a look. “Both of you. I don’t normally have a temper if people don’t go out of their way to agitate me. You both get a motherfucking A plus. God.”
Mick burst out laughing. “Please say you forgive me so we can be best friends.”
“I have a best friend already. She saw you both in action, so if you think I’m hard to deal with, wait till you see her again.”
“My problem was that I’d been gone a long time and I came back and saw you in a place I didn’t know you deserved. But instead of listening to Asa and Duke, who told me you did, I was petty and defensive. You didn’t need that. I do want to get to know you, and I hope you’ll give me a chance to do that. I’m not an asshole. Not most of the time.”
“If you are, you’ll get a lot more of me than you did last night. You get me?”
He took her hand and kissed it. “Damn, it really is too bad Asa found you first.”
“Hands off.” Asa frowned some more. He had a line between his eyes, clearly from all the alpha-male scowling he did. Good thing for him it only made him more handsome.
“Shall I leave the two of you alone to work this out?” She lifted a brow at Asa.
He simply moved to her, picked her up, sat, and put her in his lap. Which she allowed because it was hot.
“Stop.” He kissed her.
She would have told him to make her, but he might have, and it would have been embarrassing to do in front of Mick because her vagina did not care at all that Asa was a bossy dude who’d made her very sore from all his attentions over the last twelve hours or so.
She narrowed her gaze at him and he hugged her tight. “I think we should go to lunch. Mick will pay, since he’s been an asshole.” Asa said all this smugly, like he’d neatly packaged all this silliness up and was ready to move on.
“I have a job.” PJ peered at the clock on the wall. “In three hours.”
“Perfect. We’ll go to lunch and I’ll drop you off and be back to get you later. Don’t forget we’re going out for a ride tonight.”
“We’ll go to lunch, but I’ll drive.”
He looked like he was going to argue, so she put a finger over his lips. “No. I said what I was going to do. You’re gorgeous and I adore you, but you need to hear that answer and not argue.”
He frowned at her extra hard and she kissed him quickly, getting up. “I’ll be back out in a few minutes.”
Chapter Fifteen
PJ parked her work truck and headed into the building. This was a newish contact for her. The client had actually looked her up and asked if she’d be willing to meet with him at the restoration shop where his Chevy was being worked on.
Working with new people was a hugely important thing. Sure, she had a lot of clients up in the Seattle area, but down in southwest Washington she didn’t know too many people outside the tire world.
This shop was newer, and though she’d called to ask Julie to look them up, they didn’t do any business with Colman, which could be a huge gift or a terrible problem. Either way, there was no knowing until she went inside.
The place wasn’t as magnificent as Twisted Steel, but really, she’d been in a lot of garages and shops and very few of them were. It was a good-sized operation, though, which was encouraging.
“Hi there. I’m PJ Colman. I’m supposed to meet with one of your rebuild clients today,” she said to one of the guys inside, giving him the client’s name. They didn’t seem to have a receptionist or an office manager, at least not there right then.
“The owner is right in that office there.” He pointed and she headed in that direction after thanking him.
She tapped on the door and the guy inside motioned for her to come in.
“Can I help you, sweetie?” he asked, and she shoved down her impulse to curl her lip. Sweetie? She sensed this flavor was misogynist with that tone. She bet he didn’t like icky girls in his sandbox.
But this was a job and she was a business owner now. Maybe he called everyone pet names. Maybe he’d grow on her. Maybe he was a total tool. She might as well try to make the best of this. It wasn’t the first time she’d been patronized, and it wouldn’t be the last.
Her smile went cooler as she stood taller. “I’m PJ Colman. I do custom paint. Joe asked me to come down to talk with you two about some options for his Chevy.”
He looked her up and down without speaking until she crossed her arms and glared.
“Is he here?”
He raked his gaze over her body again, lingering on her boobs. “He just called. He’s running a little late. You’re not what I expected. Or maybe exactly what I expected.”
She was still trying to remain professional and aloof, but the longer he acted this way the harder that got.
“I’ll wait until he arrives then.”
He stood, following her out into the open shop area. “Don’t you want to know what I expected?”
Sighing, PJ turned and looked him up and down slowly like he had done to her. Only she was dismissive. “Did you have something to say?” She peered at his work shirt. “Gary. I assume that’s your name, but these days, one never knows if it’s a work shirt or a fashion statement.” She gave him one last opportunity to prove he was actually a good guy, or at the very least that he wasn’t going to be a nightmare to deal with.
“Just that I expected you to be some big-titted blonde who couldn’t tie her own shoes. You appear to be basically competent and not overly whorish.”
“That’s a relief. I decided to wear my overly whorish shirt tomorrow.”
“You got this job because you’re riding Asa Barrons’s dick. Look at you.” Distaste ruled his features.
He looked upset. Him. Like he hadn’t just called her a whore. Yep, woman hater. She was done here. There was no way to deal with guys like him. You couldn’t explain anything to them or even expect that they’d remain civil and professional. He’d be a problem the whole time.
“I got this job because a customer paying you a great deal of money to restore his car saw some of my work and called to hire me. However, I won’t be working through this shop, so I’ll let him know that.”
She turned to leave and he got in front of her, his face very close. “You think you can threaten me? I don’t care who you are, little girl, you don’t have the stones to threaten me.”
That’s when the guy who had pointed her to Gary’s office when she first arrived rushed over and got between them. “Dude. Chill out.”