A Little Harmless Lie 4 by Melissa Schroeder Read Free Book Online Page B

chance she’d never be completely whole again once she walked away.
    “You can. At least think about it. If you really like those books— and I’ve seen you download three in less than two days and devour them, so don’t think to lie to me about that— maybe you can explore this with him. One thing about Micah is you can trust him.”
    “That’s true.”
    She gave Dee a quick hard hug. “Just don’t let the opportunity pass you by. That man wants you, and I can guarantee that he will make it worth your while.”

    Monday afternoon, Dee dragged her butt into work. She wasn’t in the mood. Not today, probably not ever. For the first time in her adult life, she had thought about calling in sick. It was the coward’s way, she knew that. But as she parked her car in the lot for the Rough ’n Ready employees, she truly hated her need to prove she wasn’t a weakling.
    It would be the death of her.
    She shivered and looked around. The lot was deserted, which was normal this time of day. She’d come early to exercise as usual, although she wouldn’t have time to run home to clean up. With a sigh, she grabbed her bag and walked to the club. Mondays were slow days with long boring nights, and she wasn’t in the mood for that. She wanted the night to go by fast, but she knew it wouldn’t.
    She pulled out her keys as she approached the door. Once she stepped in and shut and locked the door, she knew she wasn’t alone. The lights to Micah’s office filtered over the open bar area. Shit. Well, she knew she couldn’t escape, but she could hide for a little bit. She needed to work off steam and well, sexual tension.
    She turned and headed for the gym. One of the best benefits of this job was the gym they had. It was private, just for the employees. It allowed her to train without worrying. It only took her a few minutes to store her gear and pick the music she wanted to hear. Eminem’s voice filtered over the speakers and she slipped on the boxing gloves.
    She had a lot of aggression to release.

    “Damn.”
    Micah looked up at Evan and noticed his friend’s gaze was on one of the screens. He looked at the monitor and felt everything in him tighten.
    “She’s freaking talented.”
    Micah nodded. He couldn’t do anything but stare as she went through the same kind of routine he’d watched her do earlier that week.
    “You said she had some kind of dancing in her background?”
    “Yeah. Jazz, she said.”
    “I tell you, she might’ve trained as a dancer at one time, but that definitely is one lethal woman now.”
    As if to prove his point, she did a pirouette and connected with the bag. The strength behind the kick would definitely hurt. “Shit, she could fight professionally.”
    Micah snorted. “Like I would allow that.”
    Evan’s head whipped around, his eyes wide. “What did you just say?”
    “I didn’t say anything.” Micah pulled up another set of numbers. This one for new memberships. “I think we’re okay with membership levels now, but we might have to have a cutoff next month. We are dangerously close to having too many members. If they all showed up one night, we would break some fire codes.”
    When Evan said nothing, didn’t even make a joke about him being a pain in the ass for worrying too much, he looked up at him.
    “You didn’t just snort. You said something about allowing it.”
    Dammit. Did he say that out loud?
    “I didn’t.”
    Evan shook his head and laughed. “Oh, shit, this is going to be too much fun. And don’t worry about memberships. If we get too many, we can look into getting another club, maybe on the other side of the island. Near the North Shore.”
    Which meant that Evan had been thinking about it too. “You see a property you like, let me know. Moving on— ”
    “I want to get back the lethal little prize fighter down there.” He nodded toward the screen. Micah tried not to look, because he knew what would happen. He couldn’t help but stare at her,