The Mane Event by Shelly Laurenston Read Free Book Online Page A

lower. How? “Come out with me tonight. Please?”
    The “please” caught her off guard. She didn’t remember Mace ever asking for anything except the salt or ketchup. And then only out of politeness. Now he wasn’t being polite. The man practically begged. She thought about that for a moment. She had someone like Mace Llewellyn begging her to go out with him? Had hell frozen over? Were pigs flying?
    She let out a shaky breath and she knew he heard it. Closing her eyes, she wondered how huge this mistake would turn out to be.
    “Okay. I’ll go out with you.”
    “Good.”
    “But just dinner. Don’t go gettin’ any wacky, adolescent ideas.”
    “Who? Me?”
    “When and where?”
    “Eight o’clock. You pick the place. Any place you want.”
    “Any place? You know, I have very expensive taste when other people are buying.”
    “ Any place.”
    “Okay. Well, I heard there’s a Van Holtz steakhouse that opened up in the Village.” Another long, rather deafening pause. “Is there a problem there, Mace? A little out of your price range, perhaps?”
    “Smart-ass, and no. That’s not an issue.”
    “You’re not a vegetarian or something, are you?”
    Mace’s almost-hysterical laughter at her offhanded remark seemed a little excessive, but she chose to ignore it. “Well then?”
    He cleared his throat. “Okay. Fine. You want Van Holtz? We’ll go to Van Holtz.”
    “Jesus, Mace. I’m not asking you to choose a political party here.”
    “Might as well be.”
    “What?”
    “Nothing. So eight, in the Village, front of Van Holtz restaurant. That work for you?”
    “Perfect. I’ve gotta do some shopping anyway. So, I’ll see you then. ’Kay?”
    “Yeah…so…are your nipples hard or not?”
    “Bye, Mace.”
    She closed the phone. This is such a mistake.
    Dez flinched when her phone rang again. She flipped it open. “I’m not telling you if my nipples are hard.”
    “That’s good. Cause I really don’t wanna know,” stated a female voice Dez didn’t recognize.
    “Who the hell is this?”
    “Is this Detective MacDermot?”
    “Who’s askin’?” She shook her head. The reappearance of Bronx-Dez. She thought she’d buried her…
    “Look, I got some information. On Alexander Petrov.” Dez sat up a little straighter. True, her removal from this case made this a slightly inappropriate conversation, but why scare off a potential lead with that unnecessary bit of information?
    “Okay.”
    “Can you meet me?”
    “Where?”
    “The Chapel. At eleven-thirty.”
    The Chapel. A hot Village club she could never hope of getting into without her badge. “Isn’t there another place we can—”
    The woman cut her off. “I’ll be there. You won’t have a problem getting in.”
    “You work there?”
    Dez received a long pause. For a moment, she thought the woman hung up. “My family owns it.”
    Dez bit the inside of her mouth to prevent herself from saying something stupid. An effective technique she learned years ago. “So, you’re a Brutale?”
    “Yeah. Gina. Gina Brutale. Meet me there at eleven-thirty. Tell the guy at the door you’re there to see me. Give him your name but don’t say detective…and try not to look like a cop.” Brutale hung up.
    Dez closed her phone and glanced at the clock on her nightstand by her .45. This would work nicely. Dinner with Mace at eight o’clock. Having to handle work at eleven-thirty kept her from doing something monumentally stupid. Like going back to Mace’s hotel room or giving him a blow job in the restaurant bathroom. You know, whatever…
     
    Mace turned over in the king-size bed and buried his face into the pillow. That woman’s voice would be the death of him. Knowing she sounded like that when she woke up turned his cock into a lead pipe. He couldn’t wait to experience that for himself. Waking up with Dez growling next to him. He would experience it, too. He’d waited too long for this. For her. She simply had no idea what she did to