The Fighter's Secretary by Ann Mayburn Read Free Book Online Page B

they want to hear, treat them like they matter? No wonder your girlfriends get so pissed when you dump them for the next bimbo who throws herself at you.”
    The slide of his fingers through her hair was heavenly, and she tried to keep from softening against him. “The last woman I had a relationship with was Tammy. I did date those other women, but that was it. Date, as in singular, one night only. After the number Tammy did on me I wasn’t in the mood for another relationship. Do you know why I broke up with her?”
    Though his touch was still gentle, she could easily hear the pain in his words. She remembered Tammy, the leggy redhead with the perfect runway figure and the face of a porcelain doll. He’d broken up with her around a month before Amanda had started working and there had been rumors about some infidelity, but at the time the only thing Amanda cared about was that she had a good paying job for the first time in nine months. It was only after that she’d gotten settled into her office that she had to deal with what seemed like an endless parade of beautiful women coming into and going out of Dallas’s life. The phone calls with the women pleading for Amanda to make Dallas call them back were the worst and just the memory made her stiffen in his arms.
    “You cheated on her, right?”
    He pushed away from her as if she’d slapped him and for a moment she actually felt guilty for the pain she’d no doubt put on his face. “What? You think I cheated on her?”
    Uncomfortable, she shrugged and looked at the Spanish tile beneath her bare feet. “It’s none of my business.”
    “No, I didn’t cheat on her.” His voice was cold and she looked up in surprise, realizing she’d really offended him. “I would never cheat on a woman, not after I saw what my father’s constant infidelity did to my mother. You think that after growing up, watching my mother’s heart being broken over and over again by that bastard I’d do it to any woman? You really think I’m that big of a piece of shit?”
    Blinking in shock she took a step towards him. “Dallas…I—”
    He shook his head and turned his back on her. “Save it, Amanda. I thought you knew me better than that. I would never force a woman to do something she didn’t want to do. I thought… Well it doesn’t matter what I thought. You obviously have no idea who I am and I obviously have no idea what kind of judgmental bitch you really are. Of course you’d never stoop to date someone like me. I’m not cultured and educated like you are. I don’t always have the right words to say or the right things to do. You’re perfect and I’m a fuckup. Feel free to leave. I’ll set you up two months severance pay and a job with one of my friends, but don’t bother to come into work on Monday.”
    The hard thump of her heart seemed to roar in her ears as she watched Dallas walk away from her, stunned by what had just happened.

Chapter 5
    Dallas sat on the edge of the dock looking out over glowing lights of Miami reflecting off the water with unseeing eyes, his mind wrapped up in the past. His father had been one of the most selfish people God had ever created, a man solely devoted to his own pleasure and happiness. When Dallas had been young he’d worshiped him, seeing him through the eyes of a child as a hardworking salesman who managed to make it home to his family once or twice a month. His mother had always made up excuses for his father’s absence, always reminding the boys how lucky they were to have a dad who provided for them.
    His mother, bless her heart, always wanted to believe the best in people. They’d lived in a somewhat safe section of Chicago, but as the years had gone on Dallas had realized that every time his dad returned home from a “trip” with presents and expensive gifts, he was actually bribing his mother, not giving her things because he loved her. Then, when Dallas was eleven, he’d gone through his father’s suitcase, looking