Sex & the Single Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

chair forward to sit side by side with her, telling himself an essential part of his job was building relationships with people who might have key information on his case. His gut told him Melvin Baxter would be in touch with the ex-stepdaughter he’d always doted on, and Aidan was going to be there when it happened.
    His job—his whole badass reputation within the Bureau—demanded it.
    His decision to sit two inches from Brianne had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he wanted a better whiff of her perfume.
    He stole a glance at her in the dull blue glow radiating from the wall of monitors. Some of the televisions caught the action on the dance floor, around the bars and in the back alleyway. But Brianne stared up at the video of Daisy and Aidan, head tipped to one side as if trying to make sense of the film sequence.
    â€œYou bumbled this kiss from the beginning.” She pointed one pale pink fingernail toward the central screen. “It’s all awkward angles and bad timing.”
    â€œThat’s not my fault. I got cast with the wrong woman.”
    Brianne snorted, her gaze glued to the image of Aidan being clawed into submission by the voluptuous informant.
    Okay, maybe he hadn’t exactly fought the woman off. But she’d taken him totally by surprise.
    â€œI’m serious,” he protested, wishing his first meeting with Brianne after ten years didn’t have to take place during a fluke lip lock with an overeager coed. “I’m a foot taller than this girl. I need a leading lady with some major long legs.”
    He couldn’t help but smile as Brianne strutted her way into the video scene right on cue.
    â€œWeak excuses. You’d never make it in film, Maddock, no matter how much you flex those ripped muscles.”
    Her eyes widened, almost as if she’d said more than she’d meant to. Aidan couldn’t help the slow smile that crept across his face.
    She snatched up her remote and smashed the pause button. “Now, I think we can both agree I’ve humored you tonight. It’s time you either get to the point of your visit or you’re really going to have to leave.”
    Shit. Aidan needed more time to convince Brianne he wasn’t the devil’s spawn she seemed to think him. Then again, maybe all the time in the world wouldn’t be enough to convince her she could trust him.
    One botched encounter with her that night before she left for New York and he ruined the great connection they’d once had.
    Unfortunately, it was time to play hardball because he sure as hell couldn’t walk away from his one and only lead to Melvin Baxter.
    â€œActually, I’m going to have to carve out a spot for myself at Club Paradise for a little while, so we might as well try to work together.” He scratched an idlehand across his chest, affecting a casualness he definitely didn’t feel. He flexed his bicep for her benefit. “You really think the muscles are looking ripped?”
    He would have been golden if he could have teased another one of those killer smiles out of her. But as he met her stormy green gaze, he was pretty sure there would be no smiles forthcoming.
    In fact, he was damn certain he was about to experience the brunt of Brianne’s new hell-on-wheels attitude.
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    A COLD , CLAMMY FEAR SETTLED in her gut, but Brianne would rather be cut off from her remote for all of eternity than let Aidan know. He wanted to settle in here? To work?
    That could only mean the FBI had her under a microscope, a notion which scared her right down to the silver rings on her toes. If word got out the new club was being investigated, it would taint the place with an underworld feel she and her partners were working hard to overcome.
    Thankfully, she’d learned a thing or two about acting in her time behind the camera as a documentary producer, and it wasn’t that much of a stretch to work up some annoyance at Aidan’s