Free Bosom Buddies by Holly Jacobs Page A

cultivate this cool exterior. Before I managed it, I was sort of a hood, the type of man who enjoyed a good fight. But as a businessman, I use my wits instead of my fists. Though, a part of me misses the old days when any difficulty could be solved by planting my fist in someone’s face.” He looked closer, as if seeing Dr. Neighbors’s face for the first time.
    “And it would be a shame to mess up such a pretty-boy face. So, here are our choices as I see them. The hood part of me, the one I’ve worked so hard to get rid of, would like nothing better than to beat the pretty boy right out of you. The more civilized part prefers to negotiate.”
    “How?” the man squeaked.
    “You will go to the hospital and you will see to it that everyone knows you pursued Allie and that she had no idea you were married. I’m there often enough and have seen how people treat her, so I’ll know if you’ve done a good job. I don’t want her to be the subject of any more murmured innuendoes or outright insults. If you don’t take care of it, then not only will I come back and let that grittier side of me out, I’ll make a little call to those brothers who Allie is so proud of.”
    The man visibly swallowed hard. “You wouldn’t.”
    Ian smiled a smile that was known to make his business associates nervous. “Oh, I would. And I’m betting you don’t know that Dr. Sawyer’s son-in-law is a client of mine. We just played eighteen holes a couple weeks ago. I wonder what the good doctor would have to say about someone on his staff carrying on the way you have?”
    “I-I,” the man stuttered.
    Ian turned and walked to the door. “I’ll expect the information to be duly spread by the end of the week. After that, one more look, one more comment, one more insult made in Allie’s direction, and I’ll be making another appointment. And after I’ve kept it, you might want to consider making an appointment of your own. You also might want to consider sending out your résumé.”
    “See here, you can’t walk into my office and threaten me,” Dr. Neighbors yelled.
    Ian turned at the door and smiled. “It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise,” he said and walked down the hall. He whistled tonelessly. He felt much better.
    Yes, sometimes solving things as a gentleman felt good. But he suspected plowing his fist into the little worm’s face would have felt better.
    Ian sighed.
    Sometimes being a responsible grown-up was a trial.
     
    “What did you do?” Allie’s bosom would be heaving in indignation if she had enough to heave. Her chest didn’t even jiggle when she did jumping jacks.
    She put any thoughts of her underendowed endowments away and concentrated on the man standing in front of her. “And it’s no use denying it, I know it had to be you.”
    “I’m not denying anything,” Ian said with annoying calmness. “But why don’t you tell me what you suspect I did?”
    “ You know you did something to Dr. Neighbors and I know you did it. What I need to know is what precisely it was you did.”
    “That was a sort of convoluted sentence, wasn’t it?” Ian looked at her blandly.
    Allie hated that sense of control he seemed to exercise effortlessly. “Stop stalling and answer the question.”
    “What question? It seemed more like an accusation to me.”
    She resisted the urge to rip out her hair. She used to think only her brothers inflicted this sort of annoyance, but now she was beginning to think it was men in general.
    “What did you do?” she asked again, with as much calmness as she could muster.
    “Oh, that question. Well, I needed to see a doctor, and Dr. Neighbors happened to be the one I saw.” He stopped.
    “And?” The man was exasperating. He was going to make her drag every single word from his mouth.
    “And what?” he asked, the picture of innocence.
    “And what did you say to him?”
    “You’re a very suspicious woman.” Ian shook his head. “When we first met, I thought you were a