Enraptured Read Online Free PDF Page A

first-name basis with. Then he drew her toward the next group.
    Oh. Shit.
    “Brandy, I’d like you to meet Calvin and his wife Sharlene.”
    Her eyes fixed on Calvin, she kept all her shock on the
inside as she allowed him—a former client—to take her hand and press fleshy
lips to her knuckles.
    “What a pleasure,” he said with a drawling smirk, his
nostrils flaring as though he really was aware of the musky scent between her
thighs.
    Except she had a bad feeling the scent only emphasized his adverse
opinion of her. The one and same man she’d rejected when his fetish for rough,
violent sex had become apparent. He’d also been the man who’d fast-tracked her into
becoming more selective with her clients.
    “Kate? Oh my god…is that really you?”
    Even before she tugged her hand free to turn toward Calvin’s
wife, she knew who she’d face. Brandy would remember that voice anywhere.
Class-A bitch and spoiled rich kid, Sharlene’s prettiness had just happened to
be all on the outside. Her inner ugliness hadn’t stopped her from being the
most popular girl in high school.
    The same woman who’d made her life a living hell.
    “It really is you!” Sharlene looked her up and down with
frank and disbelieving envy. “You look amazing.”
    The other woman could say that now. And little wonder. Age
hadn’t done Sharlene any favors—or maybe her husband was as nasty out of bed as
he was in it, infecting those around him with his own personal brand of
ugliness?
    Sharlene’s face twitched into what should have been a frown,
if only her obviously wrinkle-free, botoxed features allowed such movement. “Why
the name change?”
    Calvin guffawed, his heavy jaw made more noticeable with his
obnoxious laugh. He lifted a shoulder that was still as broad and heavy as his
linebacker days when he’d lived in the states. His career was one thing he’d
managed to boast about in their short time together. “Sweetheart, use your
imagination. In her line of work she needs to be anonymous for her own
safety.”
    Brandy felt the blood drain right out of her face even as
Blaine stiffened beside her.
    It was a travesty that the one man she had feared the most
referred to her line of work as being dangerous.
    Sharlene’s eyes rounded with evident realization before she
clapped a hand to her mouth. “No. Way! Kate. Ah, Brandy , is that true?”
She leaned forward, clearly titillated when she hissed, “You’re a whore?”
    And just like that something within Brandy shut down. One
well-aimed hit to the solar plexus and she was the shy plain Jane with no
friends and all too many insecurities.
    Blaine put his arm around her rigid shoulders and drew her
close, shielding her from harm. She wilted against him. This once she could
only be thankful for the security he offered.
    Later…much later, she’d be strong again.
    Blaine’s gaze held Sharlene’s as he challenged softly,
“Define whore?”
    The other woman shrank a little at the clear undertone of
warning in his voice, his quelling and distasteful stare. Brandy released an
unsteady breath. How easily he’d switched all the ugliness back onto Calvin’s
wife.
    Blaine swung away from Sharlene, who was grappling for a
suitable reply. His attention was all on the man who’d forgotten the meaning of
discretion in order to settle a score. “Tell me, Calvin, how is it you know so
much about Brandy?”
    Sharlene turned to her husband with sudden uncertainty in
her eyes. “What is going on, Calvin? How do you know her?”
    Brandy leaned farther into Blaine’s strong body, feeding off
his strength just a little longer before deciding enough was enough. The time
for being strong was here and now, not later. She stepped out of his arms. “Actually
we have met.” When Sharlene threw her a glaring look of disbelief, she added,
“Except I didn’t much care for his penchant for violence.”
    If Calvin roughed up his spouse in the same way he did his
escorts, Sharlene would get her