Reckless by Lizbeth Dusseau Read Free Book Online Page A

admitted, taking one last lusty look at her bared breasts before she threw her bathrobe over her body and his access to Kelly London was over for good.

 

     
     
Pink Flamingo Publications

Chapter Four
     
     
    The next morning at the newspaper office, Kelly dressed in her baby blue summer suit, the demure one she wore when she had meetings with the top brass of the paper. Not that she expected that kind of meeting, but perhaps she needed to remind herself that she wasn't all tits and ass and sultry smiles.
    "How'd you do with Gray?" Tad asked, when he arrived.
    "We ended it," she said.
    "Oops." He looked chagrined.
    "No, it should have happened a long time ago. It wasn't anything more than a relationship of convenience. Like two old shoes we'd grown accustomed to each other. I guess I got a little more real with myself, and he didn't handle it very well."
    "I'm sorry anyway," Tad added. "Cutting ties is never easy."
    "Sounds like you've had experience?" she said.
    He was about to answer with something other than a cocky off-the-wall comment, but their exchange was interrupted by Liz, John, and David rushing in for the meeting.
    "I'm off tonight," Kelly told Tad when the meeting was over and they were alone in her office.
    "You never did tell me what went on last night," he said.
    "I'm getting close. The matron of the Blue Lady, Cass, confirmed the prostitution. A guy named Juno seems to have some of the girls on his tether. He was looking to get cozy with me."
    "Juno? Huh." He thought a moment. "The name sounds familiar, I'll look into it."
    "No one's actually implicated anyone in power, but Cass says the girls are protected from arrest." Kelly paused a moment. "Just not from getting killed," she added.
    "You be careful," Tad warned.
    "I have a feeling that we're still dealing with minor league players."
    "And the ones in power may not show their faces for awhile," he advised her.
    "That's what I'm worried about," she said, thinking of the weird dichotomy in her life. A respectable journalist by day, self-proclaimed slut by night.
    "We'll get you out of there as quick as we can," Tad said, as if he was reading her mind.
    She smiled. "But not yet," she said. There was a twinkle in her pale green eyes. "I haven't been nearly nasty enough."
    "Oh, you're thinking about dancing, maybe?" he asked.
    "It's crossed my mind, but it'll probably be more useful to the story to remain where I am."
    "So practical," he said sighing.
    "And smart too."
    If she'd found some common ground with Tad Stone, it was right in this place, in the midst of the tawdry investigation. He was the one man she didn't expect to throw cold water on her own desires rising from the ugly slice of life into which she'd walked.
     
    ***
     
    After a night off, Kelly had to admit she felt pretty hot walking into the Blue Lady again to show off her tits. A little renewed enthusiasm was likely what attracted the eyes of a gentleman in the corner of the place, one that she'd seen once before, though just briefly. When she served him his drink, he smiled warmly—not something laced with sexual desire, though it was clear he appreciated how she looked. He was the same age as most of the clientele they served. The Blue Lady attracting the forty and over crowd with just a sprinkling of younger men. This man was near fifty, more distinguished than most, wearing a tweed suit. His manner was as polished as Juno’s but a lot more natural.
    "Your name?" he asked, when she came back with a second drink.
    She almost said, Kelly, but then remembered. "Trish."
    "Short for Patricia," he concluded.
    "Just Trish," she said.
    "I see," he said, understanding that it was not her real name. "You have a little more class than the other girls."
    "I do?" she said. That wasn't a good sign. She'd been practicing not looking like a journalist, business woman or anything that would point to her other life. "That's kinda sweet of ya' to say," she said. "I'm earning money to go back to school.