Leather, Lace and Rock-n-Roll Read Online Free PDF Page B

into my office and we’ll review your plans.”
    Hawke glanced at Max then cleared his throat.
“You gonna be okay out here?”
    Max folded his arms across his chest. “I’m
not going anywhere, Hawke.”
    Convinced Max had everything under control,
Hawke turned and followed Rachel down the hall, tantalized by the
sway of her curvy hips.
    A sense of dread pooled in Max’s stomach as
he watched Hawke disappear into the back office. He shifted his
eyes to the blonde poltergeist hovering next to him.
    “So,” she said in the baited silence, “we
meet again also.”
    He moved his head about two millimeters to
the left, not offering friendly conversation.
    “You would have to be the strong silent
type,” she mumbled as she sat on the sofa. She patted the cushion
beside her. “You might as well make yourself comfortable. They’ll
be awhile.”
    Max looked from the sofa, to the front door,
and back at her.
    She rolled her baby blues. “I won’t
bite.”
    He bit back a threatened grin. Probably not.
But who said it was her he was worried about? Fully dressed in a
short business skirt that he knew from experience hid some very
biteable thighs, she still excited him. The shoes she wore today
once again added height and screamed take me. He swallowed, lost in
thought. If she were standing there naked in the high heels, a
strand of pearls hanging around her slender neck, he just might
possibly latch his mouth onto her and brand her.
    He smiled a slow, easy grin. “I might.”
    She gave him a full pouty smile. One he
wanted to kiss right off her face. “You wish.”
    She didn’t know how true her statement really
was but Max wasn’t ready to share that fact.
    “So, you’re the hired muscle.” She crossed
her tiny feet with blood-red polished toenails and propped one
elbow against the back of the couch.
    Max turned his attention to the third button
of her blouse, the one no longer fastened. The same one that
revealed a flash of red lace. Hell’s bells . What was with
this woman and her lingerie? Then again, the lingerie was just a
front. His first-hand knowledge of what rested beneath the lacey
disguise shaped his thinking at this very point in time.
    When her fingers pushed the button back
through the slot, he raised his eyes. “Yeah.”
    He waited for her to blast him for ogling
her. Instead, she continued their conversation as if she didn’t
even notice.
    “Don’t worry, this place is a fortress.”
    “Really.” Max refocused his attention.
“Security didn’t even budge when we came up.”
    She didn’t appear surprised by his
accusation. “Rachel cleared you. Besides, security makes allowances
for her clients. They assume there is a bodyguard in tow.”
    “What about cameras?”
    “We don’t have them in here, but the building
is covered.”
    “Are all the doors secured?”
    She didn’t immediately answer. Instead, she
studied her nails, as if bored with his interrogation. “You’re
obsessed.”
    “It’s my job.”
    She narrowed her eyes until they resembled a
Siamese cat on the prowl. “Is Hawke in some sort of danger?”
    Max chuckled at her suspicion. She was sharp.
“The only thing Hawke is in danger of are overzealous
groupies.”
    “You have nothing to worry about. Rachel is
definitely not a groupie.”
    “Are you?”
    “No.”
    He peered over the top of his glasses and
waited for her to answer his unvoiced request for explanation.
    Her cheeks actually pinkened but her gaze
never wavered from his. “Desperate times, desperate measures, and
all that jazz,” she mumbled.
     
    ***
     
    Rachel motioned to a chair beside her desk
then sat in her own. Hawke spun the chair around and straddled
it.
    “Would you like me to dim the lights?” she
asked, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
    He tilted his head in confusion.
    “Your sunglasses,” she explained.
    Hawke grinned at her humor and removed the
glasses. “Ms. Newberry–“
    Soft green eyes full of sincerity caressed
his when she spoke.