Taming the Bad Girl by Emma Shortt Read Free Book Online Page A

anyone ever told you it’s
rude to look off into the distance when you’re talking to someone?”
    I gulped and met his eyes. Looked
at him properly. Why was this so difficult? Why did it hurt so damn
much? “Is that better?” I asked.
    He shook his head slowly, his eyes boring into
mine. “I haven’t got any junior accountants to spare. They’re all tied up. It’s
the end of the financial year soon.”
    “Right.” Maybe I would take Pam up on her offer after all then. Ignore the
fact she was so busy and just be thankful to have a friend who was willing to
put herself out for me. She’d sort things out with Gabe if she needed to, hell
she had that man wrapped around her finger. “Forget I asked.”
    Giles leaned forward on his desk, putting him
even closer to me. I gulped. “I notice you didn’t ask me for help.”
    “Well, no.”
    “Why?” he asked.
    I gulped again. It was so damn hot in here and
why the hell wasn’t my heart slowing? I’d probably end up having a heart attack
in Giles’ office. He’d have to feel something then surely? That thought gave me
some satisfaction and I spoke before thinking. “We don’t exactly work very well
together,” I said. “We never did, even before….”
    I halted, panic slithering down my spine. Why
the hell had I said that? After the night at the bar it was completely the
wrong thing to say. To bring it up again! Shit.
    Giles shot up and moved around the desk before I
even realized his intentions. I backed up, but there was only so much room
available to me. A couple of steps and my shoulder blade met the filing
cabinet.
    “Before what?” he said, and his voice was
deadly.
    I shrugged, trying to look composed, but failing
epically “Nothing. I just meant…nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
    “No, Lucy, by all means finish your sentence,”
he insisted. “Call it exactly what you think it is.”
    The night
we fucked . Wasn’t that what I’d said? I swallowed
and ran my damp palms down my skirt, wanting more than anything to push past
him and go home. Yes, home. Not to a bar or a club, but to sink into my couch,
pull a comforter around me and watch trash TV—just as I had the last few
nights.
    “Let it go, Giles,” I said. “Wasn’t that what
you were going to do?”
    He growled. “I was. Though you
don’t seem to be able to.”
    How right he was, though he didn’t really know
it. I can’t let you go…. The words
whispered through my mind and with them came anger. Wonderful,
beautiful anger, straight to my rescue, overriding the nerves and the hurt
enough that I could give him a snarky smile. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
    “Then why bring it up?”
    “A slip of the tongue.”
    “So finish the slip,” Giles demanded. “Finish
it, Lucy, once and for fucking all.”
    I glared and tossed my hair back. Loathing and
longing pulsing through me. “Before we nearly made a huge
mistake.”
    “A mistake?” He stepped even closer. “Is that what you’re calling it? I got the
impression we did make it, never mind nearly. I have some very vivid memories
of our…mistake.”
    “No, Giles,” I said “A mistake would have been
doing it more than once. That night was just….” I waved my hands, trying to
find the words to sum it up in as nasty a way as I could. “A
blip. Something that should never have happened. I realized that the moment you went mental over a stupid phone call.”
    “A phone call from another
man!”
    “Whatever. It’s done now, just like you wanted.”
    “Is that right?” I could feel tension radiating
off him— which made no sense—but maybe he was as angry
as I was. After all, no man liked to be labeled a blip and certainly not one as
masculine as Giles.
      “Yes it
is,” I insisted, eyeing the door. “Thank God I learnt my lesson in time.”
    “But you haven’t,” Giles said, practically
seething. “You’ve got a whole lot to learn yet, sweetheart.”
     
     

Chapter Ten
     
    Giles: A step, a sigh and then