Wilde Heart (Wilde Women Book 2) by Suzanne Halliday

closer so they could talk without hollering. “I heard Cuntzilla shoveled a ton of it recently. She has a wild hair up her twat about you, honey. Better watch out.”
    Ya’ think, Rhi thought. Christ. No matter how hard she tried to fly under the evil blonde’s radar, not a day went by without Kim Walsh and her crew of nasty flying monkeys reminding everyone who she was. And by everyone, she meant herself.
    “This wouldn’t have anything to do with that beautiful man who stops by every day for God knows what reason—would it? H mm? ”
    Rhiann didn’t pretend to miss the bold insinuation in the taunt and shot Juan a caustic glare. It wasn’t her damn fault that Liam was everywhere.
    He jerked his head back, laughing, and made a sizzling noise. “Ooooh! Oww! Burn!”
    “Um, Rhiann,” she heard a small voice mutter.
    Spinning on her heels, she found one of their interns, a meek little country girl, smiling shyly.
    “What’s up, Shayne?” she asked, glad for the interruption.
    “Well,” the girl began hesitantly. Pointing over her shoulder, she jerked her finger back and stammered. “There’s a man over there. He wants to speak with you. When you’re . . . er, available. ”
    Rhiann didn’t even have to look to know who she was referring to. He wanted to speak to her? When she was available? Her exaggerated eye roll was inevitable.
    “Thanks, Shayne,” she muttered, reaching out to pat the girl’s arm. “I’ll take care of it.”
    Over her shoulder, she heard Juan snicker loudly and murmur, “Mmmhmm.”
    Crap.
    Rather than get into it with her assistant, she just walked away—self-consciously smoothing down the sides of her outfit. A tad shorter than what she normally preferred, the black mini-skirt she’d teamed with dark hosiery and a pair of killer heels went a long way to bolstering her confidence.
    Pushing her hair behind her ears, Rhi fussed with the soft ruffle that fell from the collar of her blouse. Employing the avoidance technique that hadn’t worked particularly well last time, Rhiann strode forward as confidently as she could but made sure not to meet his eyes. She wasn’t sure if she was avoiding his gaze or guarding hers. Still bursting with anger and bewildered by what she’d discovered about the man yanking her chain, she was sure she could light his arrogant, uptight ass on fire with one look.
    “I hope this isn’t an interruption,” he murmured politely as she approached.
    Giving her antagonizer a wide berth, Rhiann scooted behind him and made for the coffee service. Pouring the first hot beverage she could find into a cup, she glanced sideways at him with a hostile smirk. “Would it matter if it was?”
    He didn’t say anything as she finished getting her drink and could have sworn she heard him counting under his breath. She was surprised when he let her surly response go without mention.
    “Is there someplace we could speak, Rhiann?”
    There was a reason guys like him were the ones with all the control. He opened with a challenge and effortlessly but quite specifically tossed the ball into her court. Like a grenade. The next move was up to her. She could tell him to eat shit and die a horrible death or she could give in and let him have his way. He wanted to speak with her. Ugh. Prick. She was trapped, and he knew it.
    “I’m just heading back upstairs,” she told him rather snippily without looking his way. Shrugging nonchalantly she said, “My office, I suppose.”
    “Lead the way,” he replied with a gallant nod of his head as he swept his hand outward indicating she should proceed.
    Doing everything she could to pretend he wasn’t right there at her shoulder, Rhi’s heels tapped out a distinctive cadence as they marched side by side from the reception area of the big meeting room toward a bank of elevators.
    “Your team seemed in high spirits as they left. A good meeting, I take it?”
    She was tempted to throw a Yes, sir at him but decided against it. Fuck