Double Dippin' by Em Petrova Page A

locks off her shoulders and hoped to look professional despite Alex’s description of her early years. Their parents were friends, and summers had been filled with picnics and games of tag. Posy had played with Alex her entire life.
    Now she wanted to extend their playground to the bedroom.
    Tamping down her inappropriate thought, she lifted her pen and poised it over a notepad. “Any supplies you need? I’m going to place an order tomorrow.”
    “Oh I don’t know,” he drawled. “Let’s ask Loren.”
    No, not Loren. When the muscled cowboy was in the same room with her, she fought to breathe. Broad shoulders, thick thighs. He claimed he’d never been to a gym, but he was cut like he worked out for a living. And his blue eyes…they made her lose every thought in her head.
    Before Alex raised his voice to call for the other half of the Falls Creek Custom Saddlery team, fresh want gripped Posy low in her belly. Then Loren swaggered in, and her mouth turned into a desert.
    At least one part of me is dry.
    * * * * *
    Alex focused on the little morsel in the spinny desk chair and fought the tightness in his chest. When he and Loren had agreed to bring Posy on as their office administrator, Alex hadn’t realized what a hardship it would be.
    Staying away from her was a daily battle. He wanted to plunge his fingers into the mass of dark hair cascading down her spine.  Sometimes he had to clench his fists to keep from grabbing her tight buns in those sexy skirts she wore. And he stared too long into her dark blue eyes, trying to unravel her secrets.
    “ Whatcha need?” Loren asked, sidling up to the desk. The way he hitched his thumb in his jeans pocket sent another kind of awareness through Alex. What no one knew about them was they were more than friends and business partners.
    He shifted his weight to his other foot to ease the sudden tightness in his jeans and glanced at Posy.
    She ran her tongue over her lower lip, and Alex’s jeans grew unbearably snug.
    He uncrossed his legs.
    “I’m making a supply list. Anything you want on the order besides the usual?”
    The usual meant their weekly shipment of top-of-the-line leather and a few chemicals to treat it.
    Loren nudged up the brim of his Stetson and gave Alex a look indicating he’d noticed his bulge. “Is this the week we’re making that saddle for the rodeo queen? The one with the rhinestones?”
    Alex fished around his brain for the details of their conversation with the rodeo queen and her parents. The sixteen-year-old had grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled curlicues Loren would work into the leather and Alex would then burnish, making the edges smooth and shiny.
    But the prissy teen had also requested her name in rhinestones so they sparkled in the sun as she galloped around the arena wearing her crown.
    “Yeah, blue rhinestones,” Alex said slowly. “Was that right?”
    “ Nuh-uh.” Loren shook his head. “She wanted spring green.”
    “What the hell is spring green?” Alex asked.
    Posy looked between them, eyebrow raised. “She requested spring green?”
    Alex’s gaze roved over Posy’s face. Her features were delicate, from perfectly upturned nose to the small bow of her mouth. Her lips were tiny but full, rosebuds set on the canvas of her face like an artist had drawn them there.
    In the past two months she’d worked here, Alex had thought of at least a hundred things he wanted to do with her perfect mouth.
    Dark need sliced through his groin.
    Loren planted a hand on the desk and leaned over Posy. “Do you have a catalog of rhinestone colors?”
    “ Uhh…I think I do.” She touched a fingertip to her damp throat before rifling through her desk drawer. The inside was as tidy as the surface, everything stowed in its place. But Alex loved the personal touches she’d given her small office space.
    An antique metal pitcher held a new wildflower bouquet every few days, and she had a framed picture of her family. The photo had been