The Exception by Adriana Locke Read Free Book Online Page B

shopping. Just so you know. Hold this for me.” She handed me the dress while she dug through her Tori Burch handbag and retrieved her ringing phone.
    “Hey, Max!” She flashed me a huge grin while she listened. “I’m shopping with Jada. I had to get a dress for dinner at Object.”
    I walked over to a clothes rack, not interested in hearing her conversation. A cobalt blue dress hung on the end and I picked it up. It was strapless and beautiful … and reminded me of a certain someone’s eyes. I put it back quickly.
    “Bowling? Yeah, that sounds like fun!” Kari’s voice right next to me caused me to jump. She nudged me with her elbow. “Really?”
    I rolled my eyes, my good nature starting to wear thin. I just want to get home and into my fleece pajama pants. Maybe grab some wine and spend a little time with Tom Hardy.
    “I don’t know, but I’ll ask her,” Kari said, the coyness in her voice irritating me. Something was definitely up and I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
    “So,” she began, looking at me while obviously trying to figure out the best way to deliver her message. “Cane is with Max right now. And he said he surprisingly doesn’t have plans tonight and would be happy to take you bowling.”
    “I’m sure he can make plans with someone else at the last minute.”
    “Why don’t you want to go? I mean—you did see him, right? Tall, blond, gorgeous? Sexy as hell? Ring a bell?”
    “Yeah, I most certainly did. And that is precisely why I won’t be bowling tonight.” I turned my back to her as I pretended to look through the dresses. Cane was the epitome of what I was trying to avoid. Kari knew this.
    “She said no.” She paused. “He said to tell you that you still owe him dinner.”
    “I absolutely do not!” I laughed.
    “He said you very clearly said ‘some other time’ and he is taking that to mean tonight.” Kari smiled brightly, not even trying to hide her amusement.
    “He can take it to mean whatever he wants, but I have plans tonight.”
    Sighing, Kari went back to her phone call and I went back to flipping through the garments. I stumbled upon a cute dress. It was a simple cut that I could wear to work or out to dinner. And it was orange, my favorite color. I threw it on my arm with Kari’s green one as she ended her conversation.
    “I’ll never understand you. You turned down Cane Alexander! I’m just so disappointed—I’m not sure we are even related right now.”
    “Disappointed? Aren’t you being a little dramatic?”
    “He’s gorgeous. He wants to take you out. He has money. And I bet he is fantastic in bed, Jada! What is there to lose?”
    “Have you not heard anything I have been saying since I got here?” I took a breath as inspiration hit. “Look at it this way—how long have you known Cane?”
    Kari shrugged. “I don’t know. A few months, maybe.”
    “And have you ever seen him with a woman more than a couple of times?”
    She thought about it as she took the green dress from me. “Come to think of it, besides the booblicious chick in the restaurant, I don’t know if I have ever seen him with someone at all.”
    “Thank you for making my point for me,” I said, marching to the cash register.
    “Aren’t you going to try that on?”
    “Nope. This is how someone like me lives on the wild side.”

JADA
    Anticipation coursed through me as I made my way to Solomon Place a few days later. A prospective buyer wanted to see the property. Alice had called Alexander Industries to inform them of the appointment. We had a key, so there were no assurances I would see Cane. I wasn’t even sure I wanted him to be there. But I wasn’t sure I didn’t want him to be, either.
    I tried to push him out of my mind every day since walking out of Solomon Place five days earlier, but I couldn’t shake him. No matter how many different ways I argued with myself, nothing changed.
    He was everything I wanted and not a thing I needed.
    If he could have stayed