Free The Girl With Diamonds (Midtown Brotherhood Book 2) by Savannah Blevins Page B

of silky black hair. Magnolia pushed her glasses back up her nose with the tip of her finger. A deliberate move. Like she knew those little fuck-me glasses drove him bat shit crazy.
    What was he supposed to do?
    Magnolia stepped onto the podium, and murmurs erupted around him. Well, he was sure what he wasn’t going to do. He would absolutely not sit here and watch her drop that damn sheet, and let these people watch him fall flat on his ass. He showed up here to accomplish two goals. First, he needed to convince Magnolia the easiest way to avoid another feature in The Whisperer was to interview him again. A plain, boring, no thrills interview. Then, he needed to convince her to be friends. At least, friends in the sense that he got to flirt with her every day and play the back and forth limbo to keep his mind busy and off his own much more problematic Ferocia problem.
    Callen glanced over his shoulder. “This was an awesome idea,” he said, and then the bastard winked.
    Yeah. This was not happening. Not like this. Not right now. Not with a fucking audience. He stood up. His feet moved without instruction.
    Henrik laughed behind him. “And that is exactly what I thought would happen.”
    It didn’t matter. Austin stalked up the aisle, pulling his shirt over his head as he went. He was on the podium within seconds. He shot Magnolia a glare before shoving his shirt over her head and down to her waist. Then he grabbed the sheet, holding it in place over her legs before pulling her around in his arms.
    She didn’t say a word, but her fingers pressed against his chest. She wasn’t angry. It was something else. He felt it too. Something he didn’t recognize. He jumped down from the podium and made a beeline for the back room, or wherever the hell she’d put her clothes. He needed to find those damn clothes.
    “Don’t worry,” her friend announced to the crowd behind them. “This isn’t the first time she’s talked him out of his shirt.”
    The hallway was dark, but his choppy breaths were loud. His heart sounded like a freaking drum line. She heard it, or rather she felt it. The tips of her fingers touched the pounding point in his chest. “The bathroom is the third door on the right.”
    He found it in silence and set her down just inside the door. He opened his mouth, but she gently pushed him back. “Give me a second.” Then she smiled. It was weak, but it was there. The harsh edges suddenly stripped away. “At least let me find my panties.”
    Positive this conversation would go a lot better if she had clothes, Austin stepped back and let her shut the door. He paced in front of it. He stomped back and forth until finally he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He placed his hands on either side of the doorframe. “What the hell were you thinking?” The door didn’t answer, so he continued. “You were mad that Ferocia put one interview on her site, but you weren’t worried that someone might have taken pictures of you naked out there?”
    Again, nothing. Damn it, she was good at this. “You realize all my friends are out there. You would have been naked in front of all of them.”
    “Is that jealousy in your voice?”
    He glared at the closed door. “I’m not jealous.”
    “You sound jealous.”
    He tried the handle, but it was locked. “This is so not about jealously. This is about me not embarrassing myself in a room full of people, and then getting arrested because I punch Callen Copley in the nose when he can’t resist opening his stupid, filthy mouth.”
    The other side of the door went quiet.
    “Did you want me to get arrested? Was that your plan? Just to embarrass me?”
    There was a sound. A giggle. She was fucking laughing at him.
    “Do not make me open this door, Magnolia Cross, because I will.”
    The door creaked open anyway. She stood there, fully clothed, grinning in her short tuft of a dress. There was cleavage and legs for days, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her face. It was