The Shepherd siblings were still making my life difficult. More than a week had passed since my weekend with Walker, and I’d left a voice message or email for each of them every day since. I still hadn’t heard a thing back. They were doing more than stalling now, and I was so over it, that I was tempted to tell Blake to take over the negotiations. Who wanted this kind of nonsense? I was starting to see that the KBBM deal was completely and utterly hopeless.

Which brought me back to Walker. I wasn’t pining away for him or wishing for more, but my body was having withdrawal from his particularly energetic and creative brand of bedroom gymnastics. It was worse at night when it was dark and quiet, and my mind couldn’t quite settle down from the day. Thoughts of his big green eyes, so dark and intense as they stared down at me while he thrust into me. Hard and fast and intense. But it’s not like I spent my days dreaming of Walker and little green eyed babies with flirtatious smirks.

I didn’t.

But I can admit that when I went to Blake’s office to ask his advice on my next course of action, and found a very pregnant Poppy leaning over his desk while he devoured her mouth, that I really wished I had someone who’d stop by for a midday make out session. With a silent groan I rolled my eyes I backed out of the office unnoticed and ran right into Lukas. “Hey.”

“Hey. They’re at it again?” He asked, nodding towards the door I’d just shut.

“Yep. Save yourself that visual.” Not that we weren’t overjoyed that our big brother, stoic and cool Blake, had fallen in love with a wonderful woman. But seeing the evidence of their love was a bit much at times.

“That’s fine because I was looking for you anyway.” Lukas looked nervous, and my self-assured twin was never nervous or uncertain. It was his least attractive feature in my opinion.

“What’s up?” Lukas rarely needed anyone’s help, not at work or in his personal life, which mostly consisted of a few nights with really beautiful but empty women. He followed me back to my office, sniffing at the deli sandwich my assistant, Lara, had left for me.

“Halfsies?”

I rolled my eyes and gave him half of the too big sandwich. “Guess I’ll stop and pick up dinner tonight,” I told him with a pointed look.

When Lukas flashed his on the prowl smile I knew I’d walked into a trap. “Funny you should mention dinner, because that’s why I wanted to find you. I asked Talia out.”

“Finally! I thought you were losing your golden whore touch.”

“Anyway, she seemed hesitant, so I told her it was dinner with a bunch of us and she agreed.” He gave me that familiar look that made unspoken communication between us easy, but always seemed to make other people uncomfortable.

“You told her I would be there.” I didn’t need him to confirm, because of course he had. Talia and I had become friends thanks to my friendship with Poppy. So my presence would have been just the carrot he needed to get her to say yes. “Snake. And I have plans.”

He sighed, but I didn’t buy the resignation on his face. “I suppose I’ll ask Walker to come and bring one of his women.”

It was meant to make me jealous, and it worked. But not enough to agree to his silly dinner game. Walker was free to see and do whomever he chose, and I had no right to get jealous. And I wasn’t jealous.

“That’s probably a better idea.”

He frowned, his protective brother shield firmly in place. “What’s going on with you two?”

“Other than a few nights of incredible sex? Absolutely nothing.”

Lukas shuddered dramatically, and leaned over the desk. “Just for putting that visual in my mind, I’m calling in a favor. Pietro’s at eight.”

I groaned because calling in a favor meant I couldn’t back out unless it was a life or death, or a Peak Adventures related emergency. Over the years we’d collected favors from one another, calling them in with no questions asked when needed.

“Get out of here before I throw myself down the stairs just to get out of it.”

Lukas laughed, but his brown eyes shone with concern. “Are things cool with you and Walker, or do I need to beat his ass?”

“You couldn’t even if you wanted to, trust me, I’ve seen him naked.” I shouldn’t delight in torturing my brother so much, it was juvenile. But as the only girl in the family it was a god given right. “And no, I don’t need you to get violent. But thanks for the offer. Neanderthal.”

He stood in the doorway, looking so much like our dad that sometimes it hurt to look at him. “Pietro’s at eight. Don’t be late.”

“Because that wouldn’t be great?” He rolled his eyes at my lame rhyme and left, leaving me with a strange anxious sensation.

Dinner tonight. With Walker. There would be no drama, but I didn’t just run into people I’ve had sex with, mostly because the only people I’d had sex with were ex-boyfriends. One from college and two as an adult for a grand total of three. And two of them had left the state while the other had gotten married. To the woman I found him banging in his office. So, I was feeling a little nervous.

Did I greet him normally with a snide remark, or did that seem like I was trying too hard? Did I play it cool ignore him all night? I had no idea how to act, and that just made me a nervous wreck, which in turn just pissed me off. Walker didn’t warrant frayed nerves. We’d had a good weekend, there was no need for things to be weird. We were adults.

But if he brought someone else, she would be tall and beautiful with perfectly done hair and she’d have on the latest fashions. That thought moved my feet into action. Even though Walker wasn’t an official ex, he was a former lover, and therefore due the same treatment as all exes.

Me looking so good that he remembered exactly what he was missing.

“I’m heading out for the day, Toni. If the Shepherds decide to reach out, send them to my cell.”

“Sure thing. The new mini-skis ads are nearly complete, do you want digital copies emailed when they’re complete?” Toni was a young woman with cocoa brown skin, a great body and the perfect demeanor for an executive assistant. I would never let her go if I could, but I already knew that in six months’ time I would have to let her go. Her just completed finance degree meant she’d be perfect for Lukas’ department, and I knew she was over qualified to be keeping my schedule. She had skills and talent our company could use elsewhere.

“Yeah, thanks Toni. Drop by to see if Lukas has anything for you to do, if not I want you gone by five. Got it?”

She smiled. “Got it.”

I left the building and made my way to Rene’s, a high end salon that catered to the rich and aimless. Luckily Toni was able to get me an appointment in thirty minutes. When I walked in to the black and white salon, the latest dance track was playing loud enough to make all the liquid in my body vibrate.

“Lacey, honey!” Rico called out to me, his blinding white smile in stark contrast to his smooth bronzed skin. “I hope you’re finally ready to let me do my thing on that wild mane of yours.”

I took a seat and laughed. Rico was determined to get rid of my curls which had proven impossible to get rid of, but he insisted he had the magic touch. I was skeptical, but as I sat there, watching socialites and executives leave the shop with sexy French twists, sleek blowouts and sexy beach waves. Not one of them left with curls like mine.

Decision made, I stood when Rico called my name and gave him the news of his life.

“Work your magic.” He gleefully pulled me to a station and pushed me into the chair where he put the protective sheet around me and dashed off to gather his magical ingredients.

“Hi.” A small voice called out beside me and drew my attention, shocking the hell out of me.

“Katelyn, what a surprise. How are you?” Clearly she was not in a coma or stranded on a tropical island.

“Fine,” she said nervously. “You?”

“I’ve been better, but that’s life right?” She nodded, still nervous and I resisted the urge to groan. “You can relax, Katelyn. I’m not in the habit of holding a grudge because someone doesn’t want to do business with me. I am curious though.”

Katelyn shrugged again, and I wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her, tell her to grow a pair. “We both know we need to sell it. We’re doing a terrible job of keeping it going, but it’s hard. Dad built this station with his father, and look what we’ve done to it.”

In a weird way, I understood. Selling Peak Adventures had never occurred to any of us, but Blake was a savvy businessman and each of us had the skills required to make it succeed. “Take your time,” I told her even though it physically hurt to say the words. “When it feels right I promise it won’t be so hard to let it go.”

Katelyn blinked, taken aback. “Seriously? That’s your advice?”

“Why not? It might cause a war if one of us wanted to sell Peak Adventures, because that’s how much it means to our family. We use to model the gear in the Peak catalogs because Dad thought it was pointless to hire models who didn’t know a damn thing about the outdoors when he had three little outdoorsmen of his own.” I could hear his gruff words as clear as if he’d said them yesterday.

“Thank you for saying that, Lacey. And really, I’m sorry we’ve been so flaky.”

Her words startled me out of my own thoughts while Rico coated my hair with some sinister goop that he insisted would keep my curls away for a few days.

“It’s okay. This is your family’s legacy, but I might have an idea that could benefit us both. If you return a phone call or two.” She blushed at my words and nodded before her stylist escorted her to the bank of hairdryers near the window.

An hour later, I had pages of notes blind typed into my tablet while Rico brushed and dried my now sleek hair, giving me six additional inches of length. “Damn girl, if I swung your way I’d throw you over my shoulder right now.” He turned me to the mirror, and all I could do was stare.

My curls were gone and with them, the little girl look that I’d blamed for my lack of credibility in the workplace. I looked like a grown woman. A beautiful grown woman who was in charge of her life, who could face her ex-lover with his newest lover without feeling inferior.

“I never should have doubted you, you Evil Genius you.”

He laughed, genuinely pleased at my reaction. “I’ll take it, because you are hot with a capital H, honey.” He handed me two bottles and a jar, along with instructions for care. “Call me if you have questions.” With a kiss to each of my cheeks, he sent me on my way with instructions to “Knock’em dead, chica.”

I didn’t think I was the type of woman to knock people dead, but the fact that Rico thought I could be had me thinking that maybe he knew something I didn’t. Hell, he’d been on more dates than me over the past year, so yeah, he knew a bit more about how to attract a man.

If I was looking to attract a man.

Which I wasn’t.