Melt For Me (Against All Odds Book 3) by Elisabeth Naughton Read Free Book Online Page B

balanced last week, doing anything she could to stay out of the bar, because Tate was still down there. She knew it was childish, but she’d thought he’d leave as soon as the highway was clear. Instead, he’d stuck around, helped Kelly straighten up the stockroom after the police had come and gone, and was still hanging around even after the electric company had restored power and Ella had told him everything was fine and that he didn’t need to stay.
    What was with the man? Why was he still here? Didn’t he have a life to get back to? People who actually liked him? It wasn’t as if she’d even been nice to him while he was here. All they’d done in that cellar was bicker. And get all hot and heavy in the dark…
    Mortification heated her cheeks, and she quickly pushed to her feet, then snapped her payroll book closed and shoved it and her laptop in the lower desk drawer. She wasn’t going to think about that. It hadn’t meant anything. It had been a moment of weakness. They’d both been half-asleep. After two years, she didn’t even know what sex was anymore anyway.
    She locked the drawer, then drew a steadying breath and headed for the hallway. What she needed to be focused on was who had sabotaged her bar. Someone was clearly messing with her. She just didn’t want to believe it was one of the buyers she’d been stringing along, as Kelly thought. Both had been disappointed she’d put off making a final decision on the sale, but both had seemed to understand. With any luck, the sheriff would catch the juvenile delinquent who’d cut her power, and the mess would be over and done with by Christmas Day.
    She pulled her apartment door open and stepped out into the hall. With any luck, Tate was also already gone. She needed to be done with him too. By now he had to have gotten the hint that she didn’t want him around. Right?
    A whisper of disappointment rushed through her as she headed for the stairs and told herself his leaving was for the best. What did she think was going to happen? That they were going to fall madly in love again? That he was going to give up his groupies and celebrity friends for her? That would never happen.
    As she moved down the curved stairs, heading toward the sounds of laughter and music and glasses clinking, she told herself she didn’t want it to happen. They led two totally different lives. She wasn’t even interested anymore. Besides—she pushed the swinging door open and stepped into the bar—she didn’t want a man, or love. The only thing she wanted was—
    Tate…
    Her heart bumped against her ribs when she spotted him standing near a table of four, an apron tied around his waist, laughing and chatting with the people in front of him. Twinkle lights around the top of the bar highlighted his thick hair and the slope of his nose, the carved angle of his shoulders in the loose gray sweater he was wearing, and the muscles in his arms and big hands as he jotted something on a piece of paper.
    He looked so different from the tabloid photos she’d seen in the grocery store. She’d noticed last night but couldn’t help thinking of it now. His hair was shorter, still shaggy and sexy and brushing his nape, but not the wild, dark mop that had hung to his shoulders in those photos. His jaw was clean shaven, void of the soul patch he’d sported the last few years. And dressed in that ridiculous red apron, standing in the middle of her pub, taking orders, he didn’t look a thing like the rock god he was. Instead, he was simply an older, sexier version of the boy she remembered.
    “Yo, Kendrick!” someone called from across the bar.
    Tate looked up and waved.
    “When are we gonna get you up on stage?”
    Tate pointed at his apron, then held his hands out and shrugged. “Too busy tonight. Sorry.” He glanced back down at the table of four, nodded, smiled, then made another note on the pad of paper in his hand.
    And as Ella watched—her heart racing the whole time—she