The Trouble with Sexy by Codi Gary

long purple sweater dress with black leggings and boots. He could see the confidence vibrating from her, and wished she wouldn’t stand so close to the guy. Jealousy was a relatively new experience for him, but his whole gut burned with it as he opened the door and marched inside.
    Her eyes strayed behind the guy’s shoulder and her whole face brightened like a hundred watt light bulb, making him feel better. “Gregg! This is Chase Trepasso! He moved here from Elko a few weeks ago and is renting the store next to us. He just bought the Sandersons’ place.”
    Chase turned to him with cool gray eyes, and Gregg recognized him as the guy with the earrings who had been hitting on Ryan at Buck’s on Friday. Gregg resisted the urge to plant his fist in his pretty face.
    Chase held his hand out. “Good to meet you, Gregg.”
    Gregg took his hand reluctantly. “Yeah, likewise. Why’d you move to Rock Canyon?”
    He shrugged. “Seemed like as good a place as any. I like small towns and the scenery is nice to look at.”
    Gregg noticed that Chase looked toward Ryan when he said the last, and he stiffened. “Yeah, the area is beautiful, but there are still dangers,” he said. “You should probably ask around to see which areas to steer clear of.”
    Chase gave him an assessing look. “I’ll be sure to do that before venturing out. I’m actually here to see about hiring Ryan to take some pictures for me.”
    Ryan gave Gregg a wide smile. “Chase is a tattoo artist. He wants us to take some artistic pictures of his work to hang in his shop.”
    Gregg nodded. “Sure, we can do that. You have some models already?”
    Chase shook his head. “Right now I just have a few, but I’m sure to have more in a couple of weeks. I just wanted to get an estimate and take a look at your work.”
    â€œChase was very impressed with my outdoor shots and was thinking about going for a sexy feel to it.” Ryan looked so twinkly and bright, Gregg felt his irritation mounting, and held back a sarcastic, I’ll bet .
    He nodded his head instead, and replied, “That would definitely bring people in. Aren’t you worried you won’t get a lot of business out here? We’re kind of small town conservative.”
    Chase shrugged. “Not really. I’m far away enough from any other tattoo parlor and my work is excellent. I also illustrate and write comic books in my spare time, so I figure I’ll be okay.”
    Gregg didn’t like the interested light in Ryan’s eyes as she said, “Oh really? I love comic books! What have you done? I’d love to read them.”
    â€œI’ll bring you over a copy of my first comic, Destructo Boy . It’s a little rough but they get better.”
    Gregg took a step closer to Ryan and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She shot a surprised look up at him, but Gregg just ignored her as he said, “Well I’m sure you’ve got lots of unpacking to do. Just give us a call when you’re ready to shoot those photos. You can’t do better than Ryan for a photographer. She’s got a keen eye for detail.”
    Chase’s gaze flicked back and forth between them. “Well that’s good to know. It was nice to meet you, Gregg. I’ll call you a little later to set something up, Ryan.”
    Ryan smiled at Chase brightly, her best customer expression on. “It was nice to see you again, Chase.”
    R YAN LOOKED UP at Gregg from under his arm and said clearly and sarcastically, “Well that was better than you peeing on me, I guess.”
    He dropped his arm from her shoulders. “What are you talking about?”
    She let out a bark of mocking laughter. “The arm thing and you glaring at Chase all puffed up like an angry bear.”
    He scowled at her. “I wasn’t glaring at him.”
    She shook her head as she walked away from him, not