Shannon Read Online Free Page A

soon as reached forward. But his hands suddenly encircled her wrists in a death grip right before she could touch the belt on his jeans. It hurt, the punishing grip he had on her, but in a strange way it felt good. Comforting in a way. An illusion she couldn’t afford to believe, but for just a second, she wasn’t as scared as she had been.
    Bewildered, she looked up and lost her breath. Had she believed his eyes to be cold? That was pure green fire blazing down on her now. The thick slash of his lips, which had seemed cruel to her moments before, now looked so inviting she had to bite her own bottom lip to keep from leaning forward for a kiss.
    “I changed my mind.” Damn, but the man had the male purr down to a science. Her pussy clenched as he released one wrist to trail a single finger down the side of her face. Pulling her to her feet, he turned her around and sat her on his lap. Directly on that rather impressive erection. Yep, all that was him, all right. The thin, skimpy panties she wore didn’t stop her from feeling the heat of his dick through his jeans. He’d nestled himself right in her crack, and damn if her ass didn’t cradle him as if it had been made for just that purpose. “You can assist me in the interviews. Then we can see if perhaps you might be suited for a more exclusive position.”
    The last thing she needed to do at the promise murmured low in her ear was lean back against the solid, extensive frame, but that’s exactly what she did. And since there was no disguising her shivers, she didn’t bother.
    “Cold, honey?” Fuck, no, that endearment was not sexy as shit. It did nothing. If only she could convince her body of that. She could feel her wetness leeching into the material of her underwear; soon it would reach his jeans. There was no way she could answer, but it turned out she didn’t have to. He circled her body in large arms and pulled her close. “Here, we can share body heat.” Asshole, he knew damn well she hadn’t been shaking because she was cold. But before she could work herself up to be good and pissed off, he pressed two thick fingers directly against her clit. Goddamn. “Mickey, next girl.” To her he lowered his voice and whispered into her ear, “You tell me whether or not to hire the next applicant, okay, sugar?”
    Right, like she could think with those fingers pressing down on her most sensitive bundle of nerves. And it felt so damn good! When was the last time she’d been with a man? Funny, with the chaos her life had become lately she couldn’t recall.
    The silent giant who had led her down the corridor to the office stood and gaped for a few seconds, but Shannon ignored him, taking the folder with the name she’d given when she “applied” on to the side. She had no idea what was inside, but the next one held a woman’s picture, brief bio information, age, weight and ethnicity. Bubbles, as the next woman was calling herself, had been a dancer at Bunny’s in the South End. Impressive. The woman wrote she was interested in the Ritz. As soon as the woman entered the office Shay knew that wasn’t going to happen.
    Either that picture in the file had been heavily doctored or Bubbles had run into some hard luck. Like the severe life-altering kind. It wasn’t that she was torn up exactly, but she appeared a good ten years older than twenty-five, the pale gold hair in the folder had turned brassy, almost too yellow, and there were heavy bags under her eyes. To make matters worse, the schoolgirl outfit she wore hung off her too-thin frame and was either dingy from incorrectly washing it, or not very clean.
    “Go ahead, kitten,” Shannon whispered to Shay. “Ask your questions.”
    Probably shouldn’t have asked her to do that. Without missing a beat, Shay opened her mouth and blurted, “What are you on?”
    Okay, not exactly tactful, but apparently Shannon was amused given the rumble of a chuckle she felt against her back more than heard.
    “I ain’t