Brooklyn Heat by Locklyn Marx Read Free Book Online

chuckled. “Don’t play with me, man. It’s all over the papers.”
    “Then it must be true.” Chad’s tone was sharper than he intended. Sexual frustration tended to make him cranky.
    “So it’s going to be like that, huh?” The cabbie sounded pissed. He gripped the steering wheel tighter and shook his head. “You fucking celebrities are all the same.
    Think your shit don’t stink.”
    Chad wanted to ask him how many other celebrities had been in his cab. This wasn’t New York or L.A. -- it was Siesta Key, Florida, and Chad wouldn’t even be here except for the fact that Siesta Key was where Expera’s main headquarters were located.
    But getting into it with the cabbie would only extend the ride, and Chad wanted to get going. “I’m going to Camden Street,” Chad said. “Number 503.”
    The cabbie glared at Chad in the rearview mirror, then pulled the car onto the street. Chad smoothed down his suit, opened his briefcase and pulled out his iPad.
    Normally he didn’t carry a briefcase. People who carried briefcases were almost always bullshit posers, or those fashion weirdos who walked around talking about the difference between Prada and nada. But for a professional meeting, Chad thought it was a nice touch. And the fact that he could keep his iPad in it was a plus.
    He opened his ebook app and started reading his latest download, a thriller that had looked interesting. But five minutes later, he realized he’d been reading the same page over and over again. It wasn’t the book. The book was good. It was Kenley. He still couldn’t stop thinking about her. Before he could talk himself out of it, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the hotel.
    “Room 203, please,” he said. He listened while the line rang.
    “I’m sorry, sir,” the woman at the front desk said. “There’s no answer at that room. Would you care to leave a message?”
    He was about to tell her no – leaving messages wasn’t his style. But then he changed his mind. “Actually, yes,” he said. “Can you just tell her that Chad called? You can give her this number.” He rattled off his cell, being careful not to reveal his last name. The last thing he needed was some overzealous hotel room clerk plastering his phone number all over her facebook wall.
    He ended the call and sat back in the cab, satisfied. If she called him, she called him. If she didn’t, she didn’t. He was Chad fucking Parnell, on his way to one of the biggest meetings of his career. Getting all worked up over some girl he’d just met was ridiculous. He was going to go into Expera, charm the hell out of them, and land the deal. Then he was going to immediately get the hell out of here and celebrate back in New York, Brooklyn style.
    “Can you stop at McDonald’s?” Chad asked the cabbie. He was suddenly ravenous. “I haven’t had breakfast.”
    “Awww, man,” the cabbie whined. “McDonald’s is all the way back there.”
    “Thanks,” Chad said, and gave him a pat on the back. “I appreciate it.” He made a mental note from now on to scrap his no limo policy. This shit wasn’t worth it.

    ***
    Kenley had been awake since five am. It was now eleven-thirty, and she was in the clutches of a full blown panic attack. Okay, so that was being a little dramatic. Panic attacks involved sweating and throwing up and losing your mind a little. She was definitely losing her mind a little, but she didn’t think it was appropriate to really call what she was going through a panic attack. That would have been disrespectful to people who actually did have panic attacks. Kenley was a firm believer in karma and she felt professing to have a panic attack when she really wasn’t was just asking for one.
    “Do you want another coffee?”
    Kenley looked up from her computer. She was sitting in a middle booth in the back of a Friendly’s after being directed here by the front desk clerk at her hotel, who had told her that Friendly’s had free Wifi. The clerk had