All He Wants Read Online Free Page A

a sister that you could get. No matter how badly Billy wished like hell that was how he felt about her, he didn’t. His feelings for her were nothing close to familial. He’d tried to deny his feelings. Ignore his feelings. And hell, even act on his feelings, but Maxi shut him down. None of that mattered to his heart though. She was the only woman he’d ever trusted. Ever cared about.
    And she was in trouble…

Chapter 3

    T wo hours later, as Billy sat in the high rise offices of SPC Advertising, he still hadn’t been able to slow his racing heartbeat. He was so amped with fear and stress that it was taking all of his focus to maintain an outwardly calm demeanor. Especially considering adrenaline was racing through his veins like a drug that he was overdosing on. The only upshot to his heightened emotional and physical state was that he was no longer tired. He could run a 10K and have energy to spare.
    “No. Absolutely not.” Maxi’s head spun Linda-Blair-Exorcist style. Her possessed eyes were now pointed at Billy.
    He did his damnedest to ignore the sweet floral scent that filled the air when her hair fanned out beside him, but he couldn’t help inhaling a little deeper and savoring the aroma. It was just one more piece of evidence that Maxi was here . She was okay.
    Frustration and anger rolled off of her in waves as she whipped her head back towards her boss. “I did not agree to this .”
    Pissed…but okay.
    “He doesn’t need to be here.” The flowery fragrance invaded his senses again as she pointed her stare back at him. Through clenched teeth she spoke in a controlled tone, “You don’t need to be here.”
    What was that saying about protesting too much?
    Billy couldn’t remember the exact quote but he was pretty sure it applied here. He stared straight ahead and did what he did best in life: he brushed off Maxi’s statement. Although, he had to admit her adamant insistence was a little harder not to take personally than most things he let slide.
    Jessie Sloan-Courtland, his best friend Zach’s wife and Maxi’s boss at SPC, lifted her left brow slightly, but her expression remained unreadable. “I can put in a call to Seth and ask if he has anyone else available. I know he’s stretched tight, but I will see what I can do. Until then, the arrangement stands as is.”
    Heat crawled up the side of Billy’s neck and over his left cheek from Maxi’s piercing stare still boring into the side of his face, but his gaze remained locked straight ahead. He hadn’t made eye contact with the brunette beauty since he’d stepped into the spacious high rise office about ten minutes ago. He couldn’t. Not until he got himself under—or at least in the ballpark of—control.
    That was proving to be an extremely difficult task since the incidents that he’d been briefed on were running through his head on a constant loop. His jaw tensed as his chest tightened painfully. He still couldn’t believe that all of this had been going on and she hadn’t said one word to him about it. He’d read the report, the first incident had been six weeks ago. Six weeks . Over that time he’d seen her a half dozen times at Sunday night at “family dinner,” plus a few times when he’d stopped by the gym to visit Charlie and she’d been on her way out.
    Yes, she was independent. Yes, she was headstrong. Yes, she didn’t trust easily. But he’d never pegged her for being stupid . Even though they rarely spent any time together away from Charlie or the gym, up until today, until this morning, Billy had truly believed that if she’d ever been in trouble she would call him . She had in the past and he’d shown up, no questions asked.
    So what was different now?
    “There’s no need to bother Seth.” Maxi’s voice was strained. “This entire thing is totally unnecessary. No one needs to be assigned to me.”
    “Like I said,” Jessie reiterated calmly. “I can see what Seth can do, but until then, you will not be