It’s been two weeks since I’ve seen or spoken to Poppy, and I was starting to take it personally. She didn’t take my calls, during the day at work or later when she was at home. She didn’t even pretend to respond to my text messages and when I stopped by her house she never seemed to be home. The last time I saw her, I had my tongue down her throat and my hands held her ass in a death grip.

And now she was avoiding me.

I didn’t know why and I planned to find out by ambushing her at the OAA offices. Maybe even sneak in a few more kisses.

But when I entered the shiny lobby I knew my plans would have to wait because Victoria stood with her arms crossed, glowering at the tall, built black man in the security uniform. “What do you mean I am no longer allowed on the premises? Do you know who I am?”

The man looked bored of the conversation and completely unaffected by her condescending tone. “Victoria Sanchez, former shareholder. Are you here to see someone specific?” She sucked in a breath, and she seemed to choke on at the question.

I stepped in before she said something that might end with her in handcuffs. “Victoria, what’s going on?”

She turned to me with a pinched expression and sighed dramatically. “Blake! You won’t believe it, that dreadful woman thinks she can bar me from a company I helped get off the ground. If it wasn’t for me there would be no company for her to inherit!”

“Look ma’am, if you’re here to see someone, I can call them and they can come down and escort you up. If not, you need to leave.” The man held his bored expression but he didn’t seem moved by her words.

She tried to move past him but the man took one step to the left and then the right, effectively blocking her path. “Move, please.”

The large man, his nametag said Nathan, looked over at a much younger redheaded kid. “Riley, call the police.”

“Oh that won’t be necessary,” she said, practically spitting the words out. “This isn’t the end of me, young man.”

Nathan’s lips twitched. “I never imagined it would be, ma’am.”

With as much dignity as she could muster after such an embarrassing message, Victoria walked out with her head held high. I shook my head and turned to Nathan. “Blake Sayers,” I told him and offered my hand. “I’m here to see Poppy Masters.”

He gave a curt nod and picked up the phone behind the large silver desk that made up the security station. He spoke in a low voice before handing me the phone. “Come back here to get a visitor’s badge,” he said and turned back to the next person entering the building.

“Poppy, sweetheart, I’m here to see you,” I told her, my voice low and laced with seduction.

The voice that answered me however, was not Poppy’s, but her friend and assistant Talia. “Once the grace period has cleared on the purchase of your shares, you will be allowed access to the business. Until then you need an appointment as well as an escort.” She gave an exasperated sigh. “You will receive notification by email and standard email when the grace period is over.” Without another word, she ended the call.

“Dammit!” My outburst drew the attention of a few employees waiting at the bank of elevators but I didn’t give a damn. I couldn’t believe she was acting this way because she found out about the shares. I hadn’t made it a secret what my goals were.

I guess it’s my fault for thinking she understood the difference between business and pleasure.

* * *

“What’s crawled up your butt and died?” Lacey’s flair for words pulled me from my own dark musings and earned her a scowl.

“Women. You included,” I grumbled. Hours had passed since I visited OAA and I was still fuming about her refusal to see me. Her rejection.

Lacey’s eyes lit with excitement as her body practically vibrated with energy. She closed the door and took a seat across from me, cradling her chin in her hands with a sympathetic smile. “What did you do?”

“You can’t possibly think I’m going to talk to you about this.” She might be a grown woman with a mortgage and in charge of the creative department, but to me she’d always be the little baby I held in my arms and promised to protect forever.

“Why not?” She shrugged and sat back in her seat, leaning to the point of being nearly asleep. “I’m an adult woman and I know about love and sex and relationships.”

“As far as I’m concerned you’re a virgin and will remain so until you get pregnant.” I winked and she flashed an affectionate eyeroll. But she only stared, the weight of those damn golden brown eyes made it hard to ignore her. “Fine. Brat.” She laughed and I gave her a brief rundown of my last few encounters with Poppy. Minus the kissing and touching.

“Are you on drugs? And not the good party drugs, but the kind that make you eat people’s faces?”

I frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m just trying to figure out if you need a brain scan, an asylum or just a good hard shake.” She looked at me like there was something wrong with me. “You’re going behind her back to buy up a company she already said she doesn’t want to sell to you, and you’re surprised she doesn’t want to get naked with you?” The eyeroll and head shake said it all.

Was I being unreasonable to think she could set aside our business dealings while we pursued the physical attraction between us? There were plenty of women who could separate business and pleasure and I mistakenly assumed that Poppy’s tough girl exterior meant she could handle it. “I guess I was wrong about her.”

Lacey shook her head. “Oh no, big brother. There is no about her in this scenario. You are just plain wrong. Any woman who isn’t upset by that, wants something from you.”

Shit. “I hate it when you make sense. It fucks up my whole world view.”

The sound of my sister’s laugh always brought a smile to my face. “That’s just a bonus, Blake. Seriously though, just leave her alone.”

I should, but as certain as I was of that, I was equally certain that I wouldn’t leave her alone. I couldn’t. Poppy Masters intrigued me and I was hungry to know more. “That’s not going to happen, Lace.”

“Fine. Then can we talk about Greta the Great and her take on modern outdoor gear?” When she got all excited and going like this, there was just one thing to do, sit back and wait for the hurricane to blow over. “If you had any fashion sense at all, you’d fire her. Barring that, it would be helpful if you told her how butt ass ugly this is,” she said, tossing out glossy photos of everything from ski gear, sunglasses and thermal clothing. But they were all in brown, orange and yellow.

“Mustard yellow?” She gave me a knowing look.

“Exactly. It looks like a seventies key party went to Mt. Everest, killed itself and came back as this shit.” She was so disgusted her face twisted into a scowl that was hard to ignore.

“It’s not that bad.” It wasn’t. Not really. The colors were bland and kind of outdated. “I’ll talk to her.”

“You always say that and we both know you won’t.” She shook her head, blond curls tumbling around her shoulders giving her a youthful look I knew she hated. “I had to try, but I know when I’m beat. Catch you later.”

“Are we still on for dinner on Wednesday?”

She shrugged. “I’ll let you know.”

So far I was batting zero for two when it came to the women in my life today. The good news was that things could only go up.