Out of Control Read Online Free PDF Page B

like, behind your ears.” Ken looked at his watch. It was already almost 1830. “And it’s a Friday night.”

    She looked so disappointed, he felt himself cave. Maybe going to the Del wouldn’t be a bad thing. He could put on his dress uniform—some women really dug that. “If your heart’s set on it, I could try calling for a reservation,” he told her. “But I’d bet big money the place is booked solid from 1900 on.”

    “I should have made a reservation this morning.”

    Ken had to laugh. “Yeah, if only you checked your crystal ball, you would have known you were going to meet Prince Charming this afternoon.”

    She gave him the oddest look, and he kicked himself for being an ass. He’d meant it as a joke, but it came out sounding as if he was serious. Him, a prince? Yeah, right.

    “What do you say we hit the Del tomorrow for lunch, instead?” he suggested quickly, before she could run away, screaming in horror. “You know, the restaurant outside on the deck?” That would be a little easier on his wallet, too.

    “Oh.” She looked worried. “Are you busy tonight?”

    “No, it’s just . . .” Ken tried to explain. “Friday night, it’s a pain in the ba—backside to get a table for dinner just about anywhere. I’m not a fan of crowds, so I thought . . .” Oh, Christ, just say it, loser. “I thought, if it was okay with you, we could maybe have dinner at my place. I’ve got a steak I could put on the grill, and some salad, and I thought we could go for a swim, you know, I could lend you one of my bathing suits, and—”

    “That sounds great.” She was smiling at him.

    “Great,” he echoed. “Yes, it does sound very great. Extremely great.” God, he sounded like an idiot, but Savannah just kept on smiling back at him as if she liked idiots. As if she liked him.

    Holy shit, she was going to go home with him.

    He looked into her eyes, lit up the way they were from her smile and he knew.

    Forget about writing to Penthouse.

    This one was going to be a story for their grandkids.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Two

    “Tell him I’m not here, Laronda.” Alyssa Locke turned, heading back toward her office, and came within inches of slamming into Max Bhagat, the head of the FBI’s most elite counterterrorist team.

    Max Bhagat, her boss.

    “Funny,” Max said, “you don’t look like you’re not here. Who exactly are you hiding from, Locke?” He leaned over the receptionist’s desk to get a look at the rows of monitors showing the downstairs lobby. He pointed to Dwayne, who was standing there looking like Mr. Perfect in his Dockers, his shirt sleeves rolled boyishly up to his elbows. “This guy? What’s wrong with him?”

    He wasn’t Sam Starrett.

    “He’s arrogant, egotistical and insincere, he thinks he’s God’s gift to women, and he doesn’t understand that no means no.” On the other hand, when she put it that way, Dwayne sounded an awful lot like Sam. “Dwayne’s a school teacher, but he can’t seem to learn that I’m not interested in dating,” Alyssa explained. “I’ve told him, many times, that I’m focusing on my career right now.”

    “Which thrills me to no end,” Max shot back at her. “But I’m a little concerned when one of my top agents runs and hides from a teacher. What’s going to happen when you come face to face with an AK-47-toting terrorist?”

    “I shoot him,” Alyssa said flatly. “I didn’t think that that was the correct response in dealing with Dwayne, sir, and since talking to him hasn’t seemed to work, I was going with plan B. Become invisible in the hopes that he’ll get tired of chasing someone who’s never there.”

    Laronda was watching and listening with unabashed interest. It was no secret that the receptionist had a crush on Max. He may not have been extremely tall—not as tall as Sam, anyway—but he had the dark and handsome part down pat, with deep