I am Not Your Melody: (steamy cowboy romance) by Shoshanna Evers Read Free Book Online

screwed.”
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    Allie swallowed hard, a trick she’d learned to keep from letting how upset she was show on her face. It didn’t always work. At least Bill wasn’t there to witness how freaked out she was by the apartment she now owned.
    “‘Good condition, needs TLC,’ my ass,” she muttered.
    She’d been counting on the apartment to be in at least livable condition. She didn’t need anything fancy. In fact, when Bill had told her that she could stay in the apartment above the bar once she fixed it up, she’d been under the impression that if she were willing to live in a less-than-ideal place, that she’d be fine to stay there.
    You know, now.
    Ugh. He’d even told her she’d probably want to find someplace better to stay for the first couple of weeks, until she’d made her apartment suited to her liking.
    How could she not have listened to him, or at least not been so fixated that she couldn’t hear what he meant?
    “I have nowhere to sleep tonight,” she whispered, her voice bringing some normalcy to the eerie silence in the room.
    Allie traced her steps back out of the bathroom, through the living room and took a quick look into the kitchen: a refrigerator, a tiny stove, and an empty spot where a microwave had once been. She didn’t dare open the refrigerator — there was no telling what she’d find (or smell).
    Hey, at least there’s still a fridge. Small blessings, right?
    Behind her, the floor creaked…a painful sound, as if old bones grinded against each other.
    Allie froze, all of her senses on high alert.
    There was something in the room… a presence. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end; a chill ran down her spine.
    “…Uncle Freddy?” she whispered.
    “It’s me,” Bill’s low voice said from behind her.
    She whirled around, staring at his silhouette in the living room. “I didn’t really think you were your uncle,” Allie said quickly, embarrassed. “I just got confused in the dark.”
    Confused enough to think he was a ghost, apparently.
    Bill shrugged. “You’ve been up here for a while.”
    Allie looked around the place in desperation. Tears filled her eyes, and she tilted her head back so they wouldn’t fall down her cheeks. Not in front of Bill — it was too unprofessional to let herself be so vulnerable in front of him.
    Her whole day with Bill she’d been the epitome of unprofessional.
    But she couldn’t stay here. Even with electricity and water turned on she wouldn’t be able to stay at her apartment until it was at least up to code — she could tell even with her untrained eye that it was uninhabitable.
    “There’s quite a bit of work to do up here,” she said. Understatement of the year .
    Thank goodness it was dark; hopefully he wouldn’t see the tear that rolled down her cheek — the one that got away from her. She felt helpless and stupid enough as it was.
    The flashlight app on her cell phone crashed, and the phone went dark.
    She cursed under her breath. The battery had died. Without any light, and the main window boarded over, the room was thrown into pitch black.
    “I want to go back downstairs,” she said. Something scurried past her. “I want to go downstairs now .”
    “All right,” Bill said softly. It was the most gentle thing he’d said yet, the tone of it.
    Bill reached out for her in the darkness and took her hand in his. The unexpected contact made her breath catch. His hand was large, his fingers warm.
    “I’m right here,” Bill said.
    His hand on hers was a welcome anchor in the sea of darkness. The stairs, she knew, were only a few feet in front of her, and went down quite steeply. Would she fall?
    Bill gave her hand a slight tug. “Come on,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
    Allie stumbled forward, right against Bill’s broad, muscular chest.
    “I’m sorry!” she gasped. “I’m all over the place today.”
    “Follow right behind me,” Bill said. “If you fall, you’ll fall on