Page 52 of Nothing to Win

Not what her mother would think—the volume in her hair was all hairspray and Roxie’s hands.

“Oh my God,” she said as Roxie caught her wrist to cart her through the apartment at pace, snatching her purse as they passed.“I can’t go out like this.”

“Honey…” Roxie leaped into the elevator and hit the foyer button.“You can be pissed at me if you want, but Brogan is more to blame than I am.”

“Brogan?”

She hadn’t seen him since before he left that morning.

“Yeah, baby, ‘cause I guarantee he’ll be ruffling more than your hair in the back of that car.You’ll be riding more than the limo.”

“Rox!No!Brogan does business in the car.”

“Not tonight he doesn’t.”

“Rox!”

The breeze outside signaled they were on the sidewalk.A car waited there, by a driver with the back door open.

Throwing her arms around her, Roxie gave her a squeeze.“Go knock him dead.”

“We can give you a ride—”

“No need.There’s an angry man standing over there waiting for me.”

Roxie gestured and sure enough, there was a tall, scowling guy propped against the side of the car behind hers.

“If he’s mad at you—”

“He’s not mad at me, that man loves me to pieces.He always looks like that.Ballard!Come say hey to Gia!Spurn’s new squeeze,” Roxie called out, but laughed as the guy just growled.“Ignore him.Go have fun, honey, and call me tomorrow.Mwah.”

One air kiss later, her friend scampered away.

“Miss Sear,” the closest driver said.

“Thank you.”

She slipped into the car and, on the phone, Brogan’s voice stopped mid-sentence.Smoothing her dress, instead of reaching for her own seatbelt, she checked Brogan’s and wasn’t surprised to see it missing.How many times did she have to tell him?Leaning across him to snag his seatbelt, she was thwarted by his mouth capturing hers as he drove his hand into her hair.

What happened to the car and the call?

“Wow,” she managed to release the word on an exhale.“Roxie was right.”

“Let’s stop at a hotel.”

She laughed, laying a hand on his torso to put space between them.“We just left your apartment.”

“If I’d been up there, we wouldn’t have left.”

“You didn’t put your seatbelt on,” she said, trying to lean over him again.

He caught her jaw and angled it upward.Capturing her mouth with his, he tasted her like a man starved, in need, dangerously tempted to—

“Hey,” she said on another laugh, this time pushing herself away until she hit the door.“No kissing me like that.We can’t have sex in the car.”

“Why not?”

Such a calm query, like it was a real question.