The Harder They Fall Read Online Free Page B

Michael felt a strange need to distance himself from her, to keep the wall of antipathy firmly in place. If he didn’t, his only other option would be to stand up and walk over to her, tangle his hands in that thick fall of hair and kiss those full, sassy lips.
    He settled for the standing part, tossing his legal pad on Tom’s desk.
    “You slimy, no-good reptile,” Darcy breathed, taking a jerky step into the office. “How could you?”
    “Now, Darcy,” Tom said, scrambling to his feet. “Just relax.”
    Michael understood the concern in Tom’s voice. When agitated, Darcy Welham was a tall, blond, nuclear bomb.
    Darcy ignored him, her eyes trained murderously on Michael. “If I had a gun, I’d shoot your condescending hide from here to Baltimore,” she threatened.
    Only if you were aiming for Tom, Michael thought, but decided not to say. Something in the gleam of her wild eyes told him she was seriously upset. He had no idea what he could have done to cause it. But if whatever had upset her was indeed his fault, he knew he’d do anything to take it back, make it right.
    Females in distress were his downfall. Even females he didn’t like. It was his one major weakness, one he’d developed at the ripe old age of eight, when his old man had deserted the family, leaving Michael to care for his mother and sister.
    “Tom, would you excuse us for a minute?” he said quietly. “I think Darcy and I need to talk privately.”
    Tom almost tripped over his feet in his eagerness to comply. Michael waited until he heard the click of the door before asking, “Okay, Darcy, what’s this all about?”
    She stalked toward him. Michael resisted an overwhelming urge to shield himself behind Tom’s desk.
    Stopping mere centimeters away from trampling his Ferragamos, she plopped her hands on her hips. “As if you didn’t know, you . . . you—”
    “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about, Darcy,” he said quickly, before she could formulate a list of new names. “Tell me what’s happened.”
    Unfortunately, her eyes filled with moisture. “Everyone knows,” she choked out.
    “Don’t cry!”
    Obediently, she blinked back her tears.
    Breathing relief, he asked, “Everyone knows what?”
    “Who I am,” she whispered miserably. “You told them who I am, and now everyone hates me.”
    His heart reached out to hers. He took her shoulders. “It wasn’t me, Darcy.”
    She either didn’t hear him, or decided to ignore him. “For the first time in my life I felt accepted somewhere, like I honestly had friends. And you ruined it.”
    He squeezed her shoulders. “It wasn’t me. I haven’t discussed your connection to Welham’s with anyone here except Tom.”
    For some dumb reason, he felt desperate to make her believe him. How could she even think he’d do something that blatantly cruel? True, he had every intention of taking the restaurants from her, but that was strictly business. And she’d benefit, anyway. She’d be one rich young lady when the deal went through.
    “Who else could it have been? No one but Tom knows. And I know Tom would never tell anyone.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know, Darcy, but it wasn’t me. I swear it.”
    Her lush lips trembled. “It doesn’t matter. They h-hate me now.”
    The heartache in her eyes nearly sliced him in two. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
    Without thinking about it, he slid his hands over her collar, lost in the glistening green of her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he repeated softly.
    “What am I going to do?”
    He didn’t know if she was actually asking him, or just wondering out loud. And he didn’t have a clue how to answer her because, at the moment, he was struggling with what he was going to do. He was going to kiss those trembling lips.
    Michael cursed softly before settling his mouth over hers. He glimpsed her startled expression, heard the soft intake of breath, but that didn’t stop him. He was way beyond clear thought at the moment.