DEAD SEXY by Caitlin Falls Read Free Book Online Page B

first table he saw, yanking her chair out and almost tossing her into it so he could seat himself.
    They ordered salt-baked crabs, pork dim sum, steaming plates of noodles and washed it all down with pots of green tea. It was a feast and they were both starving, and not just for the food in front of them. Blake watched Jenna eat, watched the pink triangle of her tongue touch her full bottom lip—searching for a stray crumb—watched her lick at the drops of oil that spilled down her hand before remembering and grabbing her napkin. She ate like a cat, she was sensually greedy and it turned him on. He hated nothing more than sitting through a dinner with a woman who picked at everything and ate nothing.
    Over a plate filled with creamy rice pudding studded with cinnamon and raisins they began to talk about the day’s harrowing beginnings. Jenna knew she should not trust Blake but yet she did and so she said, softly, “Thank you for helping me with that detective this morning.”
    “You do realize if they name you as a suspect…”
    He did not have to finish that sentence. “Yes. I don’t know what to do. I never planned on ever having to tell anyone. I could lose everything.”
    He scanned her face carefully, “Is your job that important?”
    Jenna stared down into her cup of tea, wishing there was an answer written there. “I wish it were that easy. It isn’t the job, not for the most part. It’s having to be Kendall again that I hate, I never wanted to have to revisit that. Do you know what I mean? I somehow thought that the past was just the past and it would stay there. I never wanted anything so much in my life as to not have that past, and as far as anyone knows, I do not.
    “I don’t suppose you would understand what it’s like to make a decision and then regret it for the rest of your entire life but that is how I feel about my childhood. I made decisions based on what the people around me wanted or needed or told me to do and …ah, I cannot explain it.”
    “I know exactly what you mean.” He did. He hated to admit it but he knew exactly what she meant and along with that thought came another one. How often had he gone after someone who had had no choice in the things that they had done? Jenna had been a child, she had been at the mercy of family members and criminals and she had done whatever it took to survive in that harsh environment.
    What was his excuse? He hadn’t committed any crimes, but he had known that they were being committed and had done nothing. Even when he saw that kid’s face plastered all over the news with the headlines Gang Member Takes On Cops In deadly Shoot Out! He had not spoken up.
    An empathy he had never had before bloomed inside his heart. Jenna had every right to be afraid that people would see her as Kendall, instead of Jenna. That was how he had viewed her at first, and most of the world would not take out the time to get to know her. Furthermore Dunning had a hardcore clause in his executive’s contracts that would prevent them from collecting severance pay or benefits if they were removed from their position due to lying on their applications.
    Jenna had not lied; Jenna Holt had committed no crimes. Kendall had committed many. Dunning would never see the difference.
    “It was so weird, working in his office. I mean Tom, he was—well he was messy and disorganized and everything else. I half-expected to see dirty socks floating in the drawer where he kept his pens.”
    Blake froze with a spoonful of luscious pudding halfway to his mouth. “What did you say?”
    “I said he was messy.”
    He sat the spoon down, “The office looked clean. Did you straighten it up?”
    “Oh no, the cleaning crew must have last night.”
    The cleaning crew that left the building at a certain time because nobody was allowed overtime. The crew that would have been gone before Pitt had even come into Jenna’s office. “Jenna, who cleans your office?”
    She was perplexed by the