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there. She cut off all those thoughts before they could take root. Before they

could make her do something. Feel something.

Even if she wanted to, it was never going to happen. Romi was

undoubtedly not a lesbian. Even if she was, Kiera knew she was probably a

good ten years older than Romi. She also had a piss pile of money, assets,

and investments to protect. In her experience, people weren’t really

interested in a person for the sake of being interested. They usually wanted

something, and in her case, that something had grown exponentially over

the past few years. She had her business to protect first and foremost. She

knew of a few times where hearts and parts led to a real mess asset wise and

she wasn’t going down that route.

Even if she could. But she wouldn’t.

With that sorted out, at least in her mind, Kiera gripped her coffee cup,

grabbed her purse, and marched into the office. She’d decided to put off

unloading the trailers until the next day, to give herself some time to

recover. She was still exhausted and her less than adequate nights of rest

didn’t help.

No, she was going to go into the store and enjoy herself. Talk with her

vendors. Make some calls. Look over the new displays. Maybe put one

together herself. And actively evade the store’s newest hire.

It seemed like a sound, fail-proof plan.

Until she walked in the big, old, solid wood door of the store and was

immediately greeted by an enthusiastically smiling, green-eyed,

exceptionally beautiful, eager and ready to please, Romi Belleview. Romi

might just have been the most annoyingly optimistic person that Kiera had

ever seen in her life.

“Hey,” Romi chirped as she stuck out her hand. “I’m Romi. We didn’t

actually really get to meet officially last time. I mean, just beyond you

popping in and staring at me and me staring back. I feel like it was kind of

awkward, so I just wanted to say that I’m really glad to meet you and tell