Ex-Con: Bad Boy Romance by Shiloh Walker, M. S. Parker Read Free Book Online Page A

like some mythical Avalon. Bums like me, we heard about this part of town, but we never got to really see it. Lush green lawns that looked nice even in the dead of winter, windows that sparkled in the thin, wintry light. The sounds of the traffic were muted and even the air smelled better.
    This was where the money lived.
    I didn’t like it.
    “Look, this is no big deal, Bobby,” Carly said, leaning against me as we came to a stop by a glass-paned window. The wooden panes were painted white and the glass sparkled under the bright early morning sun.
    That was easy for her to say. She looked like she belonged here.
    When I slunk in behind Jake, Ryan and Carly, shoulders hunched and head tucked low, I expected to be tossed out on my ass.
    I wasn’t entirely off base. A man in a suit that probably cost more than I made in a month – no, a couple of months – came hustling toward me even as another man glided up to Carly and her two men, smiling benignly as if some piece of human dirt wasn’t all but clinging to their heels.
    “Sir, you’ll have to–”
    That was all he got out before Carly reached back and caught my arm, pulling me up beside her.
    “Hi!” she said, beaming in that way she had. I’d never seen a woman smile as much as she did. But then again, maybe she had a reason to smile. Me, I could barely find a reason to scratch my ass.
    As she tugged me closer, the man who’d been coming to rid his fine establishment of my presence froze. I could see the look he shot his cohort, confusion that quickly faded, replaced by an expression that was blank and smooth as glass. He wouldn’t react now until he knew what his rich customers were thinking.
    Carly’s smile was almost impossible to resist, and Mr. Slick in his suit wasn’t immune. His lips curved and he held out a hand. “Would you be Ms. Prince?” he asked, his voice warming.
    “I am. Jake spoke with somebody a little while ago. Did he explain the circumstances?”
    I hadn’t heard the call, but I had a pretty good feeling that I was the circumstance. I clenched my jaw and felt my face heat up. I didn’t want to deal with this.
    “He did.” The man shifted his gaze to me and took a step forward, drawing a pair of glasses from the pocket of his shirt as he did so.
    As he came closer than I liked, I backed up. “Watch it, pal.”
    He smiled. It wasn’t the same sort of smile the others got, but it wasn’t totally fake. “I’m sorry. I just need to get a good look at you. An idea of your sense of...style, if you would.”
    “My sense of style?” I bared my teeth at him as I laughed. “It’s simple. If it’s clean and covers me, I’ll take it.”
    To my surprise, the man laughed. “Well, that will do very well for you...for the life you have now, but if you will be assisting a woman like Ms. Prince, perhaps you could understand that you’ll need a bit more...versatility.”
    Carly caught my arm by hooking hers through my elbow. You could’ve put me in a room with a hundred people, and if any of those hundred people touched me – by chance or on purpose – I’d have been on red alert. You do time, you get weird about people invading your personal space.
    But Carly...well, I was figuring out fast that having her close to me wasn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, I kind of liked it. More than I should have, I knew, because I wanted more of her in my personal space, and I wanted it to be in a very personal manner, so to speak.
    Although the man now approaching me with a tape measure had a smile on his face, I could see the few other customers in the shop giving me sideways looks. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if one of them asked when the trash would be taken out.
    Fortunately, I was at least spared that.
    Determined to stick it out, I found myself in front of a three way mirror, arms out while the dude – his name was Harrison – buzzed around me, needles in his mouth like an extra row of crazy little teeth. He somehow managed