Just Like a Man by Elizabeth Bevarly Read Free Book Online Page B

me."
    The interruption came not from Hannah, but from a third person who had intruded upon their argument… ah, conversation. Not that Michael minded, quite frankly. On the contrary, he was grateful for the reprieve, since at this point he neither wanted to argue with Hannah nor converse with her. Hell, he was even beginning to reconsider the hours and hours of unbridled sex. Well, a little. But then he turned his attention to the owner of the voice, and all he could do was stare dumbfounded at the tawny-haired, green-eyed man who seemed to have sprung up from nowhere. Well, stare dumbfounded and also battle the urge to tell the man to go to hell. Because hell was the only place that could have spawned Adrian Padgett.
    "Excuse me, Hannah," he said again, adding her name to the interjection this time, his deep, rumbling voice edged with more than a little intimacy when he spoke it the way he did.
    And Michael somehow refrained from grinding his teeth into powder when Hannah did nothing to correct Adrian's use of her first name. Nor did she curdle at his obvious affection for her. No, in fact, she spun around to smile at him with a warmth and regard that was unmistakable. The prick.
    Then Adrian turned to look at Michael, presumably to introduce himself and invite him into the conversation. But Adrian didn't need an introduction, something he obviously realized, since he already knew—
    "Michael," Adrian said, his tone of voice now revealing absolutely nothing of what he might be feeling. Not that Michael couldn't have guessed. "Michael Sawyer," he further elaborated. Not that it was necessary, since there was little chance Adrian wouldn't have recognized him. Still, although Adrian might recognize him—although Adrian might know him—he had no idea who Michael really was these days.
    "Adrian," Michael replied, amazed at his ability to sound courteous, even amiable, in return.
    "You two know each other?" Hannah said, sounding surprised. Looking surprised.
    And Michael decided to take that surprise at face value and not interpret it to mean she couldn't believe he would be capable of moving in the same social circles as Adrian. Which was pretty humorous, because there had been a time when he and Adrian both had moved in circles that were anything
but
social.
    Still, yes, he did, by God, know Adrian. The SOB. So Michael forced himself to smile blandly, and although he looked at Adrian when he spoke, the words he said were intended for Hannah. "Yes, we know each other. But it's been a while. We have some catching up to do."
    And once I've caught you up, Adrian,
Michael added to himself,
then I'm going to take you down.
     
    Hannah watched the byplay between Adrian and Michael with interest. Not once in the six months she had known him had she seen Adrian caught off guard. He was normally the most unflappable person she knew—well, besides herself, of course—unaffected by everything from a smudge on his five-hundred-dollar shoes to a stock market that put many people out on a building ledge.
    But he had visibly stiffened the second he'd looked over and seen Michael, and he had yet to relax his stance. Oh, he was smiling pleasantly enough, and probably to a casual observer he seemed fine. But Hannah detected the merest bit of agitation in Adrian's posture. And she found it very curious indeed that it had resulted from the simple presence at a fourth-grade potluck of Michael Sawyer.
    "Then I don't suppose I need to introduce you?" she asked anyway.
    "No," the two men chorused as one.
    "That won't be necessary," Adrian added. He smiled again, and this time he seemed more himself.
    Himself being a man who was supremely confident—many had called him arrogant, but Hannah wasn't sure she'd go so far as that—a man who was thoroughly at ease in any situation, and who could be at varying times charming and generous, exacting and cautious. He had the capacity to be ruthless, too, Hannah knew, a quality that had surely aided him in