Alice After Hours Read Online Free PDF

so strong and defined. Why couldn’t he have been balding and rippled with excess weight, or his skin blotchy, with a nasty sheen of sweat? Instead he was so darned good-looking it was as if the ground had shifted beneath her. She needed to reassert herself.
    â€œ I see. So this is your local?”
    He shook his head.
    â€œ Not particularly. Though I come here enough to be known to some of the staff. What about you? Any favourite haunts around where you live?”
    â€œ Not really. A wine bar close to where I work in the city, but other than that, no.”
    There was a moment of silence.
    He didn’t look like a man who enjoyed dominating women, she thought. Though exactly what such a person should look like she had no idea. What had she expected? An overpowering persona, and conversation littered with barely contained demands and innuendo?
    Instead, Archangel was relaxed, and if she were to choose one word, she would describe him as engaging.
    â€œ I almost didn’t come,” she said after a moment.
    He nodded, as if he expected nothing less. “And yet here you are. Taking a risk.”
    â€œ Am I?”
    â€œ Leaving your comfort zone to meet a man you don’t know and whom you met in a BDSM chat room? Yes, I would say you are taking a risk.”
    â€œ That’s not very reassuring.”
    â€œ It isn’t, is it? But you always have a choice.”
    â€œ And what would that be?”
    His eyes were boring into her very soul, seeking and prying and searching for whatever might be hidden there.
    â€œ Continue fighting. Or step into the unknown.”
    Alice had to look away.
    She wasn’t there to submit to any man, let alone a total stranger. In fact her aim was the complete opposite. She was there to show him that while some women—and by definition those who contributed to the website—might be weak-minded, the rest were not.
    â€œ And what makes you think I won’t leave right now,” she said, needing the distraction of reaching for her bourbon.
    â€œ Curiosity.”
    â€œ You’re right. I am curious,” she said, “though perhaps not quite in the way you imagine.”
    â€œ Are you sure?”
    â€œ Pretty certain. You see,” and she leaned back as if to give weight to her words, “I believe in equality of the sexes.”
    â€œ And you think I don’t.”
    â€œ No.”
    â€œ Ahh. Then you’re here to justify your case.”
    â€œ Only as a means to an end.” Seeing he was about to interrupt, she held up her hand. “If I may be candid, you don’t immediately come across as a chauvinist, but then I doubt that would be your public persona.”
    â€œ Chauvinist?” He laughed delightedly. “Hardly. In fact, if you insist on buying the next round, I’ll happily let you.”
    â€œ And there it is.” Alice’s eyes flashed. “You will let me. Let me . Have you any idea how patronising that sounds?”
    â€œ And if I reversed it, and asked if you would let me buy the next round, would you see that as patronising too? Or would you see it as completely acceptable?”
    Before she could reply he had picked up his empty glass.
    â€œ Either way, would you like another drink, or can I tempt you with dinner? If it helps, we can share the bill.”
    Alice glared at him. “I don’t even know your name.”
    â€œ Gabe. Short for Gabriel.”
    â€œ Ah! That explains it . ”
    â€œ It does?”
    â€œ Archangel.”
    Alice was weighing up her options. Leave now, though if she did, it would spell out defeat in vivid neon lights. Or stay a little longer.
    It didn’t need to go as far as dinner.
    Besides which, he was very attractive.
    â€œ I’m Alice.”
    â€œ Equally fitting.”
    â€œ In what way?”
    â€œ Alice. The girl who went down the rabbit hole.”

Chapter 9
    A t first Alice was dismayed by the wooden tables and