Taking Something by Elizabeth Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

had never been on the table. No sense in throwing all the logs on the fire. I could save the relationship talk for when I needed to pull her in deeper. Like over the next couple of weeks when she was refusing to sing the songs I was asking her to.
    She smiled when she slept. Each slow and steady breath she took in made her lips upturn in a cute little grin. As much as I hoped that she was dreaming about my performance last night, I was pretty sure she was dreaming about rolling around in her mounds of cash.
    If I were being honest with myself, I used dreamed about the same thing. Now my dreams consisted of women I shouldn't be dreaming about. First Lila and now Gia.
    What the fuck is going on with me?
    “Leaving so soon?” Her voice startled me as I crept through the kitchen toward the front door. I hadn't even buttoned my pants yet. I turned on my heels to see Gia standing behind the kitchen counter, cutting up fresh fruit, and arranging a breakfast tray for, I assumed, her peacefully sleeping boss. “Got what you wanted so you're out the door?”
    I looked at my watch. 7:26 a.m. Too early for snarky comments, despite the fact that she looked pretty damn delicious as she delivered them. My night had been too long, and she was part of the reason I was restless. Taking over my head with her cute, little heart-shaped face. Her almond shaped brown eyes and that sweet mouth that had done nothing but give me shit since I’d met her.
    I was starting to see bits and pieces of her appeal. The few photos of her I'd seen online—the ones where she's standing behind Sadie, trying to fade into the background—didn't do her justice. She was beautiful. And not in the Hollywood glamour kind of way. The naturally pretty, girl-next-door kind of way.
    Sadie hadn't been able to send her running all over town yet. Her long brown hair was still down—freshly washed and dried—not a disheveled mess from a trying day with Sadie. And her makeup hadn't yet been rubbed from her eyes as she fought the exhaustion that came with her day job. I almost felt sorry for her, but not quite. She could have been like Sadie—rich and famous. She was the one who had given up on her dream and settled for being someone's hired help. It wasn't my fault she couldn't hack it. I knew better than anyone what achieving a goal meant. Sacrifice. Dedication. Doing things you probably didn't want to do. But judging from what I’d seen online, she’d just given up.
    “No rush on the breakfast.” I grabbed an apple from the bag in front of her. “Sadie's pretty worn out from last night,” I said with a wink. “My guess?” I paused, taking a bite, wanting her to be as annoyed with me as I was with her. “She'll be out for a few more hours.” It pissed me off that she'd written me off so quickly as the bad guy. Even if I was, she didn't know all the facts.
    “One night together and you're already an expert on Sadie Sinclair, I see.” She shook her head. “You know, after seeing you in the studio yesterday, I started to think that maybe, just maybe, you were a legit producer. Like maybe the music was what mattered to you and your arrogance was just a defense mechanism or something. Should have known better.”
    I shrugged. I had her figured out. She didn't like me. Thought I was using Sadie. Winning over Gia was going to be impossible. Especially considering that she could apparently see through my bullshit. My old tricks weren't going to work on this one. Sadie was going to have to convince her that I was the real deal, stick-around kind of guy. In my mind, Sadie owed me. She'd wanted my attention and I'd given it to her. Many times. Now, I just needed her to gush about me a little to her assistant and then she'd see that I was in this for the long haul.
    “Look, I don't know what you think, but what's going on between me and Sadie…” I was flustered, which pissed me off. I hadn't expected to be called out first thing in the morning, especially by a girl