Shy Town Girls by Katie Leimkuehler Read Free Book Online Page A

Bobbie?” he
asked condescendingly. “Are you going to trail that puppy around
forever?”
    I wanted to slap him, “You’re an asshole,
Charlie.”
    “That’s why you love me,” he replied, crossing his
legs.
    “And disturbed.” I hated him right now. If he wasn’t
one of our top earners at the agency, I would have fired his ass a
long time ago.
    “How’s the sorority house treating you?” he asked
not even pretending he cared. His ego was swallowing up the air in
the room. I took off my blazer.
    “Everything is good. What do you need, Charles?” I
asked professionally. I crossed my hands, leaned back in my chair,
then sat back up to rest my elbows on the desk. Quit moving. He
stood up and sat on my desk, folding his arms and looking down on
me. I watched the steam rise out of the mouth of my coffee cup.
Keep it professional. Stop fidgeting. I was about ready to stand up
and walk out.
    “I went to that hand-model casting call you sent me
to,” he said. “By god, there were some ugly people there! Anyway,
they turned me down.”
    “ Oh? Well, thanks for informing
me.” I said trying to pretend I was disappointed he’d been
rejected.
    “ I guess I don’t have pretty enough
hands,” he lifted his hands and examined them in the sunlight
blazing through my windows. I looked into his eyes for the first
time since he had walked into the room. They were ice blue. His
concrete stare caused the area from my lungs to my stomach to
quiver. He didn’t blink. He knew what he was doing, teasing my
emotions.
    I stood slowly, lightheaded from skipping breakfast,
and made my way to the window to draw the blinds, blocking the sun
that caused his eyes to glow.
    I tried to be professionally optimistic, “I’m sorry
to hear that Charlie, but you didn’t want to get into commercial
modeling anyway, remember? In my professional opinion, you should
just stick to the higher end, private sector gigs,.”
    As I often did, I looked out the window, staring
into the office that occupied the skyscraper across the street. I
had become well-acquainted with that office, even though I’d never
set foot inside it. Every time I looked over there, I briefly
wondered what was going on . It was probably a financial group
housing analysts in their cubicles, praying the markets were having
a good day.
    I felt Charlie’s breath on my neck.
    I turned and put my hand on his chest. “Stop.”
    “What? It’ll be like the old days,” he purred, his
voice soft, sweet and persuasive. “The good old days. . .” He
leaned in to kiss me.
    “Charlie, stop,” I whispered. But it was
half-hearted, and he knew it.
    He kissed my top lip, then my bottom lip. I closed
my eyes, feeling weak in my ankles, my stomach flipping, dizzy. I
should’ve eaten breakfast.
    I had spent only one night away from him, and I felt
like I was kissing him for the first time. I pulled away quickly,
but it was too late. He knew he had me. I broke away.
    I grabbed a binder from the shelf and slammed it down
on my desk.
    “I’m going to make some calls,” I said in a very
businesslike voice. “I’ll let you know when your next shoot is. I
can’t do this right now, so please go.”
    “ Good girl,” he slapped the desk. He
sauntered to the door and just before turning the handle he pulled
out an envelope from his coat pocket tossing it on my desk. “You
have yourself a wonderful day, Miss Bertucci,” he said, pointing at
me. The door slammed behind him causing me to jump. The chandelier
above my desk jangled. I touched my lips as they burned from his
kiss.
     
     

Chapter 6
     
    I opened the envelope Charlie had dropped on my
desk. Inside was a note with a key taped to the back. The note
said, The door is always open, waiting for you to come back to
me.
    Dammit! I ripped off the key and threw it across the
room. It pinged and panged against some ugly and useless decor
Wolfe’s designer had left in the corner.
    My phone buzzed, and I snatched it up. It was a