Tarnished Steel Read Online Free PDF Page B

mostly harmless and sometimes quite useful. She doesn’t hang on men that aren’t hers. She hasn’t cheated on Derrick that I know of. She worked weekends here as a waitress for almost two years — took it seriously, worked hard, never expected an ounce of leniency because we were her friends. Consequently, she made very good tips and earned a greater level of respect from the club in general.”
     
    “Good,” Cyn said. “Good, because I really like her. She’s fun to be around and has a great sense of humor, though a little dirty.”
     
    “If I recall, you aren’t a virgin in that area of humor,” Larry told her.
     
    Cyn had laughed at that — but she wasn’t laughing about another hour going by with still no phone call from Hank.
     
    “Shit!”
     
    Then her phone rang, and she pounced on it like a tigress. “Hello?” she managed to say in a distracted, almost bored voice.
     
    “Oh, I must have the wrong number,” Hank’s voice said. “You sound much too bored. I’m looking for the woman who just dove onto her couch for the phone, nearly bounced back on the floor, and could barely answer but managed to do so under an explosion of tousled hair. Is she around?”
     
    Cyn used her hand to flip her hair back out of her face and looked wildly around. “Where the fuck are you?”
     
    “Not around, I take it,” Hank continued to tease. “That’s a shame. She and I could get along really well. Phenomenally, in fact.”
     
    “Seriously, where, the, fuck, are, you?” Cyn said, getting up and looking out her front window.
     
    “Across the street, lass.”
     
    “How the fuck did you know where I lived?” Cyn asked.
     
    “Well, because you live right across the street from me. Isn’t that a coincidence. I saw your red bike in your drive just as I was turning off the road to run up to my place. I figured I would walk down and knock on your door, but when I got to the street, I changed my mind. I decided it would be better to give you a heads up and avoid the stalker theories before I came over. But that diving lunge for the phone, that was quite unexpected.”
     
    “Saw that, did you?” She smiled.
     
    “Couldn’t miss it even if I tried,” he said. “Quite the voice actress as well. That is, if you were going for the, I don’t really care if he calls or not, since I already have a full life , performance.”
     
    Cyn bit her lip. “So are you just going to stand out there, giving the play-by-play? Or are you going to join the game, cowboy.”
     

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    She saw him now, and she watched him cross the street with that road god stride of his to the bottom of her drive, where he said, “It looks like quite a game. I think I can make a good showing of myself, though. Any particular rules involved, or is it free play?”
     
    “If it comes off, it stays off,” she told him with much more boldness than she felt. “And hesitant kissing is an extreme foul.”
     
    “A game of boldness and strong movements. Definitely where my skills lie,” Hank declared.
     
    “Passive groping is another foul which could end the game,” she warned him.
     
    “Only authentic desires displayed by clear and distinct actions. Sounds like high risk but with fantastical rewards,” he said as he came up on her porch. “Nearly there. Anything else before I throw myself to the wolves?”
     
    “If you bother to knock, the game will be called on grounds of mental incapacity,” she told him with a laugh, she and hung up in time to see him come inside, tossing his own phone toward hers on the couch. Before she could think of what to do, he swooped her up into a kiss with more ease than she had ever experienced before.
     
    She had already changed out of her lace-up leather vest and into one of the large t-shirts she wore around the house like short dresses. This was normal work attire for her, but it also meant she was only wearing the shirt and a pair of panties. With his display of