Inescapable (Men of Mercy Novel, A) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Felicity. You’ve had your fun, totally objectified him, and now it’s time to take your reality pill, honey.
    She could dismiss the gorgeous angles and planes of his face, sort of, and the body (a bit more effort was required, but she could do it), but those skeptical and distrustful eyes made her heart clench.
    “Oh, crap.” Flick looked up at Sawyer’s statement and tipped her head when he scrambled to put the two takeout cups back on the counter, dropping the bag next to them. He repeated the phrase when he placed his big hands on her shoulders and peered into her face. “This won’t end well.”
    Flick just looked at him, waiting for him to explain. She’d known Sawyer all of her life. He was a close friend of her older brother Jack, so he’d been in and out of her house during her childhood. And because she considered him to be another brother, she slapped his broad chest to get him to back up. He just planted his feet and stayed where he was—in her face.
    “What won’t end well?” she demanded.
    “Do not even think about it,” Sawyer warned.
    “Think about what?”
    “Having anything to do with my partner.” Sawyer dropped his hands from her shoulders and shoved a hand into his hair. Looking around, Flick noticed that everyone around them was listening to their conversation with avid curiosity—gossip must be slow in Mercy today. Sawyer grabbed her hand and pulled her into a corner of the bakery, keeping his broad back to her curious customers.
    “Please don’t do this, Flick,” Sawyer said, his green eyes worried. He had such pretty eyes, Flick thought, but she preferred the hauntingly beautiful shade of his friend’s.
    “Do what, honey?” Flick widened her eyes, knowing how innocent it made her look.
    “That hasn’t worked on me since you were five,” Sawyer muttered. “Do not get any ideas in your head about starting something, anything, with Kai Manning!”
    Flick looked down at her hands. “I have no idea what you are talking about. I thought that he was your friend?”
    “He is my friend,” Sawyer retorted, his eyes hot. “Along with Jack and Axl, my best friend. He’s a loyal, intensely smart man who has my respect and admiration.”
    Flick lifted her hands as if to ask,
Then what’s the problem?
    “Don’t shrug your shoulders,” Sawyer said. “You know what I’m talking about!”
    Flick put her fists on her hips and tipped her head back to look up into Sawyer’s frustrated face. “As fascinating as you are when you foam at the mouth, do you have a point?”
    “You two will hook up, it will blow up, and I’ll be stuck in the middle,” Sawyer said bluntly.
    Good grief. This was getting far too serious. “You do realize that I only met him five minutes ago? And that we hardly talked?” she pointed out.
    Sawyer narrowed his eyes at her. “I saw the way you looked at him. The way he looked at you.”
    There had been a little heat, a couple of sparks, some electricity . . . but only enough to power the entire East Coast for the rest of the year.
    Telling Sawyer that would not help diffuse the situation. “He’s a great-looking guy! I’m not a nun; I like to look at hot guys. Hell, nuns like to look at hot guys!”
    “He’s not interested in commitment. He spends most of the year away from home and if you hook up, he might end up hurting you and I’ll have to break him.” Sawyer looked agitated. “We work together. We’re partners. It could get really messy.”
    Flick held up her hands. “Jeez, take a chill pill.”
    “This is going to end badly,” Sawyer muttered.
    Flick rested her thumb against her bottom lip, surprised to see the normally laid-back Sawyer so worked up. She didn’t need Sawyer’s warning, as crazy and as out of character as it was. Flick knew that Kai Manning was way out of her league. She wasn’t an idiot; she’d read between the lines of what Sawyer didn’t say. She knew, instinctively, that Manning was, at best, complicated.