Slide (Black Addiction #1) Read Online Free

would be worth staying up for.” Joey leaned back into the couch and threw me a grin. The bastard was predictable if nothing else, constantly looking to me for details. I didn’t even want to know what he used them for.
    “Nothing I want to share, boys. She left with a smile and that’s all that matters.”
    “I don’t know how you do it, Rus. Honestly, all those girls? How do you not have an angry pitchfork mob of women on your lawn? You sleep with them and yet they still worship you after you show them the door. It’s like your dick has magic powers or something.” Joey wasn’t giving up.
    “Seriously, Joe. If you spent as much time concentrating on your own love life as you did worrying about mine, you’d be a lot happier. Probably getting more action as well.” Positives all around. As far as disclosure, they weren’t getting jack.
    “That’s an avoid if ever I heard one,” Max laughed.
    I could have launched on the defensive that the avoiding was being done by the two people currently taking up space on my sofa. Considering there was a perfectly good house of their own they could be chilling in. But instead I flipped them off and headed back to my room. I left them to fight over who was getting the spare room and who was getting the couch, the outcome not affecting me either way. What was important was that in few hours everyone was going to need to be razor sharp. Studio time was happening, and I wanted to make the new tracks my bitch.

My perfect life was over.
    Crushed like a forgotten Oreo at the bottom of the box.
    How could I have been so stupid?
    As the streetlights slowly peeked through my drapes, so did the realization that everything I’d worked for in the last two years was gone. The man I’d encouraged and loved for two years dumped me without a second thought.
    Our special dinner did not end up with him giving me a key. Quite the opposite in fact, he sat me down and told me we were over. Done. Finished. Through.
    While I had assumed those random acts of sweetness were leading us to the next level, they were nothing other than cowardly sidesteps to showing me the door. He’d been trying to soften the blow. It was over. I was over.
    We’d been discovered, or at the very least our fling had been, and the senior partners were not amused. Actually they were the opposite of amused. Talk of unprofessionalism and breaking of contracts was thrown about. Fraternization apparently frowned upon. I really should have read the fine print.
    Long story short, they agreed if I left quietly they would give me a letter of recommendation. A message my boyfriend hand delivered with the parting words that although he “cared for me, it was time we both moved on.”
    When it came down to the crunch, he bailed on me like a bad investment. Sorry, thanks but no thanks , my services were no longer required. Even the chance for our relationship to continue now that we no longer had to hide was also shunned. Too much trouble, too many raised eyebrows—the clean break preferred.
    Asshole.
    So, I was sent packing with four weeks severance pay under a cloud of suspicion. I had been reduced to lunchroom fodder, the gossip ranging wildly from corporate espionage to an unplanned pregnancy. The truth not anywhere near as sensational as the lies, and yet still no one suspected our indiscretion.
    “Open up, Ali.” Renee hammered at my door.
    Her visits over the last week had been a daily occurrence, her stopping by with the excuse of bringing me food. I think it had less to do with the Chinese takeout and more to do with making sure I hadn’t hung myself with my shower curtain.
    “I’m still alive. Leave the sweet and sour pork by the door and allow me to wallow in peace.” I didn’t even bother lifting my head from the pillow; I had no intention of moving from my couch.
    “I’ve got sushi and I’m not leaving it on your doorstep. Open the door.”
    She was persistent; I’d give her that. And probably more caring