Brooklyn Heat by Locklyn Marx Read Free Book Online Page A

neglected to mention that they also had very pushy waitresses who were getting annoyed that Kenley was sitting there, taking forever to finish her BLT and ordering coffee after coffee. It wasn’t like Kenley was going to stiff on the tip or anything – she’d leave an amount that was appropriate for the time she’d spent in the booth. Besides, the waitress should just be glad she actually had a job. Some people weren’t as lucky.
    “Actually, I’ll have a Diet Coke,” Kenley said. Maybe this would make the waitress happy. Two drinks would equal a higher bill. The waitress sighed and then pulled out her notepad, writing Kenley’s order down as she walked back toward the kitchen. Obviously it was all for show. Who needed to write down Diet Coke? It was just one drink.
    Kenley turned back to her laptop. She was on monster.com, trying to figure out what kind of job she should be applying for. The financial sector was dead, and she didn’t really know what else she was interested in. Maybe she should go back to school, become a teacher. She loved kids, and kids loved her. It was one of the things that she’d suspected would have eventually become a big point of contention between her and her ex-boyfriend, Jeremy. She’d wanted kids, and he hadn’t.
    Of course, teachers had really hard jobs and worked tons of hours. Yeah, they had summers off, but that didn’t really count because usually they had to get other, crappier jobs working retail or tutoring some snot-nosed brat that they probably couldn’t stand during the school year. Still. Teaching would be fulfilling. She wouldn’t get rich.
    But she didn’t need to get rich. She just needed to be able to pay her rent.
    She went back to google so that she could try to figure out what the requirements were for getting your teaching certificate in the state of Connecticut. They probably involved something ridiculous, like having to go back to school for five years and then take all kinds of standardized tests. Kenley hated standardized tests. You always ended up getting all nervous and the questions were so random, like about how –
    “Hello.”
    She looked up. Chad Parnell was standing in front of her, and Kenley’s breath caught in her chest. She’d been spending all morning trying to keep herself from thinking about him, and now here he was.
    He looked amazing. His broad shoulders were encased in a black pinstriped suit, the kind of suit that was perfectly tailored and showed off every muscle. She remembered how hard his chest was, how it had felt last night when he pulled her close to him. She remembered the heat of his mouth against hers, how his kiss had changed from forceful to gentle and then back again. Warmth flooded through her body, and she took a sip of her coffee, hoping he couldn’t see how flustered she was.
    “What are you doing here?” she blurted, and then instantly regretted it. It was a stupid thing to say. ‘What are you doing here’ sounded like she wanted him there, like she was just expecting him to walk in, like she was happy to see him. What she should have said was ‘Leave me alone, asshole’ or, better yet, thrown a drink in his face. She’d always wanted to do that to someone, ever since she saw Samantha do it on an episode of Sex and the City. If she’d had her Diet Coke, it would have been perfect. She looked around for the waitress, who, of course, was nowhere to be found. Kenley returned her gaze to Chad and glared.
    “That’s not a very friendly look,” Chad said, and slid into the booth across from her. His legs were so long that they brushed against hers. He smiled, like he could tell he was getting to her.
    “So?” Again, not the best comeback, but she turned back to her computer screen, hoping he’d get the message that she wanted to be left alone.
    “So you were a lot more friendly last night.”
    Again, images from last night flooded her head. How small she’d felt when he’d wrapped his arms around her and