Under Locke Read Online Free

unattractive person seemed easier to swallow than a smoking hot one.
     
    He was standing outside of the building—why, I didn't have a clue. He had a key, he could have gone in but I wasn't going to bother asking. The less interaction we had the better, it seemed.
     
    His fit frame leaned against the stonewashed walls that separated Pins from the real estate agency. He had a cigarette nestled between two fingers, taking deep drags as he faced forward. Just like the day before, his black t-shirt stretched across his chest and arms, the only light color on him was the faded denim jeans that molded to his legs.
     
    Nice legs. Thick thighs. But m ost importantly, the thighs of a jerk .
     
    “Good afternoon.” The words had barely left my mouth and I was cringing. Had I really just said good afternoon? Awkward, so friggin’ awkward, Iris . I had to shake myself out of thinking about his thighs and how uncomfortable I’d made myself feel as I pulled my purse closer to my chest and forced a tight smile on my face.
     
    The moment I was close enough to him, he flickered his gaze over in my direction and glanced at his watch. "I don't like waitin' around." Dex took another pull from the cigarette before dropping it on the ground, crushing it with the sole of his motorcycle boot.
     
    What?
     
    For a split second, I got the urge to check my watch but I didn't. I knew what time would be on the face. Three-fifty. Not four o'clock. Three-fifty. What in the heck was this psycho babbling about?
     
    "I'm ten minutes early," I told him, standing five feet away so that I wouldn't come in contact with the fumes from his smoking.
     
    Dex raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, and I've been here for ten minutes."
     
    Something mean tickled my lips, teasing me to take the bait and be as callous with him as he was with me. I couldn't do it though. I couldn't risk pissing off a man with very little patience that I needed a paycheck from. So I swallowed hard and in the blink of an eye, hoped that he'd get explosive diarrhea at some point in the near future.
     
    "Okay."
     
    God, I was such a friggin' pushover.
     
    Dipping a hand into the front pocket of his jeans, he pulled out his keys, giving me a once over before tilting his head up. "And quit wearin' that fancy shit. I know you ain’t got any ink but you don't need to look like some sorority girl either."
     
    Fancy? I bought most of my clothes from the clearance rack at Target.
     
    By the time his words—insulting my clothes—settled into my brain, Dex had already unlocked the front door and let himself in.
     
    Maybe it should have bothered me that he told me to change the casual work clothes, but it didn't. The thing was, I couldn't get that pissed off. I felt resigned and annoyed.
     
    Halfway down the hall by the time I came in, Dex called out on his path toward his office. "There's a week's worth of pictures to upload."
     
    Did I have a clue what I was doing? Nope. I connected the camera to the computer anyway and thanks to my investigative skills—and the search option on the operating system—found where I needed to dump and arrange the thirty five pictures.
     
    That's exactly what I was in the middle of doing when Blake strolled in, plopping onto the couch like they were old friends.
     
    I nodded at his question, not wondering once how he'd found out where I lived before. "Yep. Near Miami, well, really Fort Lauderdale. Miami's way too expensive." It was. It totally was. Completely out of the price range of a customer service employee. Astronomically out of the price range for two unemployed girls, which only reminded me that I should check in with Lanie at some point.
     
    He made a whistling sound. "Always wanted to go to Miami. Why the hell would you move here?"
     
    At the risk of not wanting to be rude, I didn't laugh. "My old job had a lot of cutbacks. Since I was one of the newest hires, they let me go first. I couldn't find another job, one thing led to another, and I