Free Uncovered by Emily Snow

with me. We talked about everything from my job to
the improvements my landlord was making to my apartment, until I’d finally
stopped him and warily asked if he planned on using all my information.
    “ I wouldn’t be asking if I wanted
something from you ,” he had brazenly informed me, winking up at me as he
tightened a lug nut with the tire iron. “ I could crack your computer from my
phone. If I wanted to. ”
    To date, I was one hundred percent
certain he’d never tried, so I nodded at my best friend. “Ahhh, I see. I’ll be
in the bath if you need me.”
    She shook her head and jabbed her finger
toward the living room. “Coffee table,” she said, before snorting at something
August said and replying, “Are you kidding me? I can get it done in a week!”
    Expecting mail, I turned on my heel and
crept back toward the living room. The sight of the stunning, floral
arrangement waiting on the coffee table stopped me in my tracks. Snow-white
lilies and vivid blue-dyed roses.
    How had I missed these when I came in?
    The strange, sexy combination brought a
splash of color to the neutral room. When I blinked, an image of cornflower
blue eyes and a sinful grin slunk into my mind. I didn’t even try to fight the
intense shiver that ran through me when I let his name wrap around my thoughts.
    Oliver.
    He was the only person I could think of
who knew my address, and who might send me flowers, but I’d chalked up his
radio silence since last Thursday to disinterest.
    Swallowing hard, I stood over the coffee
table and plucked the note from the arrangement, a shock hissing through me
when the back of my fingers brushed a rose and I immediately pictured Oliver
again. I tried to remember the last time someone sent me a gift—not because
they were a client of mine, but just because . About a year ago, the man
I’d been dating gave me red roses over dinner, a week before he found out what
I did for a living and subsequently ended things. But this arrangement—they
were sadly a first for me this year. My hands trembled as I opened the
envelope.
     
    Lizzie,
    I still want to know more.
    -Oliver
     
    Wow. Two names, six words, and my mood
suddenly shifted from pensive to … Oliver —which was a confusing
combination of exasperation and desire.
    He wanted to know more .
    Even though I knew that likely had
everything to do with what was beneath my dress, and nothing to do with the
what, when, or why of Lizzie Connelly, his words set my skin on fire.
    “I just ordered a pizza, and…. Damn, Gem,
you look like you’re about to combust,” Pen spoke up, dragging my focus from the
card to where she was now standing behind the armchair.
    “Combust?” I managed unsteadily, grateful
for her intrusion. If she hadn’t said anything, I’d have probably kept
rereading the note, continued looking at the flowers.
    “Would you have preferred I asked you
about the current state of your underwear?” When I glowered at her, she smiled suggestively.
“So, you already have a suitor other than the mystery caller who dragged your
ass out here? Impressive. Very impressive.”
    I folded the note and shoved it back into
the tiny envelope. “For starters, the mystery guy who called me is definitely
not a suitor. If anything he’s the bane of my existence.” Running my fingers
through my long platinum hair, I sunk down in the leather cushions of the couch
behind me. I looked up at Pen, confusion clouding my expression. “Oliver
Manning asked me to dinner,” I confessed.
    “And I think my panties just
melted.”
    I’d successfully tiptoed around the
subject of Oliver and had even brushed off going into details about the gift
card situation last week, and the grin on my best friend’s face reminded me
why.
     “Pen,” I groaned, and she held up her
hands defensively.
    “Whatever. Okay, so he asked you to
dinner. Why not just go with him?”
    Realizing that I was still clutching his
note, I dropped it beside the flowers. “I don’t