Shameless Read Online Free PDF Page A

a stuffy conference room full of desperate women, and with a lothario’s eyes on her. And there wasn’t a speck of chocolate in sight. It was enough to make her want to scream.
    Rifling through her purse for Motrin, her fingers finally closed around the plastic bottle. She shook a couple of pills into her palm and popped them into her mouth, intending to swallow them dry. The first went down easily, but the second got caught in her throat, causing her to sputter and cough. She covered her mouth with her hand, turning away when she noticed dirty looks from women nearby. A few moments later, after wiping her watery eyes, she found John Everest staring at her again. She wasn’t unused to men looking at her, but this guy was relentless. It was really starting to tick her off.
    She scribbled something on her pad, not really writing anything, but wanting to look occupied and like a reporter not a ticket holder. As if drawn like a magnet, her gaze went to Everest again. Good. He no longer paid attention to her, but listened to the emcee. He was a striking man. Broad of shoulder and chest, he filled his dark aqua shirt quite nicely. She was sure his body had a lot of women here drooling in their wine.
    But his entire demeanor was just too much for her tastes. From his dark blond hair falling over one of his eyes, to the arrogant slant of his brows that put her on guard from the first time she caught him staring at her, he was just the type of man she’d enjoy knocking down a few pegs.
    He was probably here to scout out wifey-poo number three. Unfortunately, she knew his kind all too well. Handsome or not, he had to be a jerk.
    Adele Bartholomew said something that made the audience laugh — Sam didn’t know what, she hadn’t been paying attention — and suddenly John Everest was looking her right in the eye again. He’d caught her watching him this time. He said something to the gigantic black man to his right, the former football player, and they both looked her way.
    Frat boys. She shoved the notebook into her back pocket and lifted the camera from where it dangled against her chest. She’d need her telephoto lens to get good pictures of the men, so she popped one onto the camera and peered through the viewfinder. The image was entirely out of focus. With her right hand, she adjusted the dial around the lens until her subject was focused. That subject curved his mouth into a grin and nodded at her.
    She snapped the picture, not letting him ruffle her feathers. Deliberately, she rotated the camera to shoot the other men, trying to make it obvious to Mr. Everest he was merely part of a day’s work.
    “Okay, ladies,” Adele said to the audience in a booming voice, “and gentlemen,” she nodded to the group on stage. “Now’s the time you’ve all been waiting for. In just a few more minutes, seven lucky women will be up here on stage with Seattle’s hottest bachelors!”
    The audience applauded wildly. Sam wanted to throw up.
    Adele started with the first man on the left, the baseball player. He said he wanted to choose his date from the audience rather than pick a name from the hat. Bachelor Number One ended up in the middle of the room where he tapped a pretty redhead on the shoulder. The woman blushed and followed him to the stage.
    Sam sensed another cough coming on — one of those pills felt caught in her throat — so she sneaked into the hallway to search for a water fountain.
     

     
    John watched her leave the room and narrowed his eyes. “I’m choosing her for my date,” he whispered to Alex.
    “What? Sammy Jo? You can’t do that, John-boy.”
    “Why not?”
    “Well, she’s… Sammy Jo. You don’t need to mess with that.”
    John kept his gaze on the closed doors. “I just want to see what she’s like, how she is.”
    “She looks damn fine to me.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    Alex shrugged. “It’s your life, man. But personally I think you’re nuts.”
    He might be nuts, but he liked how