Guilty Pleasures Read Online Free

would only get in the way.
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    N ICK FOLLOWED M ARI to the industrial-looking brick building across the street. It looked like it held lofts…or those work spaces.
    Is she taking me to where she lives, then? Is that what all the grinning in the kitchen had been about?
    Not that he would have minded accompanying this particular woman home. It had been months since he’d broken up with Janelle, it hadn’t lasted long, and he really hadn’t had the time or the inclination to be with a woman since. And Mari was woman with a capital W. He could tell from the easy stride of her gait that she moved with determination and a very seductive grace.
    Still, she could move like an exotic dancer and look like a sexual goddess, he thought as he walked up the two flights of stairs that led to her place. The fact was, she’d made him “try out” to work at her dubious restaurant. Now that he’d proven how capable he was, it was her turn.
    As the movie said, she had to show him the money. And he might be available, but if he ever wanted to get his place back in the restaurant world, he wasn’t going to come cheap.
    She unlocked the door, and turned on a light. He followed her inside.
    He didn’t know what he was expecting, but the roomy loft wasn’t it. It was painted in rich autumn hues, although the ceiling still showed exposed steel beams. The main “room” was painted in a warm pumpkin tone, rich and exotic. There were colorful forest green and burgundy tapestry pillows on an over-stuffed couch. He walked to the center of the living room while she went to a large oak desk strewn with paper. There was a small but well-appointed kitchen, he noticed, and suspended over it was a “floor,” about seven feet up, with a ladder leading up to it. While someone probably had used it for storage before, from his vantage point, he could make out some gauzy type material, curtains and pillows.
    That’s where she sleeps.
    He felt the slight stirrings of an erection, not what he needed to go into a negotiation with. He turned, and looked out the huge floor-to-ceiling windows instead. The neighborhood wasn’t much to look at, but it had a view of the sign’s wink and grin.
    When he felt he had his body under control, he focused on the live model instead…and almost promptly wished he hadn’t.
    She reached up and pulled her hair from its restraining rubber band, letting it tumble across her shouldersin unruly ebony waves. The purple streak seemed to fit the room, he noted, and matched the violet-blue of her eyes.
    She was a powerfully beautiful woman.
    â€œSo.” She leaned back against the desk, her long legs crossing at the ankle. “Why won’t anybody else hire you, Nick Avery?”
    He took a deep breath. A beautiful, no-punches-pulled kind of woman.
    â€œI told you. I need a change.”
    Her eyebrow arched up. “I didn’t just come in off the bus from the country, Nick.”
    He sighed. He knew it wasn’t going to be that easy—it hadn’t been anywhere else. And with a woman this sharp, he shouldn’t have tried. “I left Le Chapeau Noir in less than ideal circumstances.”
    â€œI’d gathered,” she said dryly. She paused. “Embezzlement?”
    â€œNo.” The word was harsh, but the idea of it punched him in the gut. He thought about sitting, but didn’t want to get too comfortable. “There were no legal charges filed.”
    She narrowed her eyes now, crossing her arms. And he saw the look that he’d been getting in every other interview that he’d been in for the past month.
    â€œWhat exactly did you do?”
    I trusted my best friend. I got screwed.
    He clenched his jaw, forced himself to relax. He was at the end of the line. “I supposedly stole from the restaurant—thousands of dollars worth of food,comped meals, equipment. Somebody suggested I had my hand in the till, but