Falling for Love by Marie Force Read Free Book Online Page B

seeming slightly fearful. What was that all about?
    “Hey.” Standing so fast her chair toppled over behind her, she got busy scooping up the papers. “What’re you doing here?”
    “I thought you might like to go to the party at Mac’s.”
    “Oh. Um.” Her gaze darted to the stack of papers. “I have stuff to do here.”
    “What’s all that?”
    She shifted ever so slightly, as if she were trying to put herself between him and the papers. “Nothing. Just some work.”
    Grant closed the small distance between them and leaned over her shoulder, startled to settle his gaze on what looked to be a legal document of some sort. “Are you in trouble?”
    “No! Of course not. It’s nothing.” With a hand to his chest, she fended him off. “It’s none of your business.”
    Grant couldn’t help but laugh at that, even though he had never seen her so nervous. “Isn’t that rich coming from someone who’s planted herself knee-deep in my business since the day we met.”
    “That’s because you needed my help. I don’t. Need yours, that is.”
    Taking a chair and turning it around backward, Grant straddled it. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
    “What’re you doing? You can’t just plunk yourself down…”
    He arched a brow. “Like I own the place?” Part of him wanted to cringe as the words left his mouth, since it wasn’t like him to play that card, but he was too proud of the zinger to take it back. Let’s face it, he owed her a few from earlier.
    All the starch seemed to leave her when he said that, and she sagged, which made him feel like an ass for poking at her when she clearly didn’t want him to. The Stephanie he knew didn’t sag.
    “Please, Grant. Leave it alone. I’m asking you as a friend.”
    “So we’re friends now?” He rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “Is that so?”
    “It’s easier to think of you as a friend than to think of myself as a slut because of what happened last night.”
    He hated to hear her use that word to describe herself. “So we had sex. Big whoop. People do it all the time.”
    “I don’t.”
    Something about the way she said the two little words conveyed a world of loneliness that touched him in places he didn’t want her touching him. Those places belonged to Abby, and he’d do well to remember that. “So what is all this?”
    “I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “And I told you earlier I didn’t want to talk about Abby. Did you listen to me? Nope.”
    “This is different.”
    “Because we’re minding your business instead of mine?”
    Glowering at him, she let out a deep sigh. “You are
so
aggravating.”
    “Likewise.” He felt sort of bad for pushing her, but why should she be able to dig into his crap if he couldn’t dig into hers? Not that he cared about her crap, but it was fun to provoke her for some reason.
    “If you must know, I’m doing some research.”
    “What kind of research?”
    “The kind you do when you want to know more about something.”
    That’s when he realized she was humoring him and had no intention of actually leveling with him. Grant snatched one of the pages off the table. The top line said, “The People v. Charles Grandchamp.” The name was familiar to him, but he couldn’t say why.
    “Give that to me!” She grabbed the paper from him and clutched it to her chest.
    Grant glanced up at her and was shocked to find tears forming in her expressive eyes. “Stephanie…” He felt like a total creep for pushing the issue, even if he’d only been intending to give her a bit of her own medicine. “I’m sorry.”
    With her jaw set in that mulish expression she did so well, she looked away from him.
    “I was just fooling around. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Berating himself for going too far, he reached for her chin and forced her to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry, okay?”
    She shrugged him off and returned the paper he’d taken to her stack.
    “Tell me,” he said, not sure