Controlled: The Dollhouse, Part Two Read Free

couldn’t say. “Forget it. I’ll ask someone else.”

    H e put a restraining hand on my arm and the heat of his touch was practically burning. Was I reacting to him, or just desperate for a man’s touch on my skin?

    “ R elax , baby girl. I’m Zach.”

    “ G reat .” My voice dripped with sarcasm and I yanked my arm away. “The woman out there said you could get me a uniform.”

    “ Y ou mean Elsie ?” He laughed and the sound was dark and sensual. “I’m surprised she stopped yelling at her assistant long enough to even talk to you.”

    I had to laugh at that. “Yeah, I feel sorry for whoever is on the other side of that headset.”

    “ S o , you need a uniform right?”

    “ Y es , please.”

    Z ach surveyed me , his gaze lingering on my hips before moving up to my chest. I was about to say something indignant, when he spoke again. “Size four, right?”

    “ U m , yeah. How did you know that?”

    “ I t’s a gift .” Zach winked at me. “I was probably a gay fashion designer in a past life.”

    E verything about him was so overwhelmingly masculine and physically dominant that I couldn’t quite imagine that. I must have made some sort of disbelieving sound because he grinned at me.

    “ O r I just spend too much time looking at woman’s bodies.”

    “ T hat , I believe.”

    T he look he gave me was so frankly sexual that the breath caught in my throat.

    C heeks flaming , I reached around to open my backpack and searched for something to break the sensual spell he tried to cast. “I have my own pants.”

    H e stuck his hands in his pockets and gave me a crooked smile. “Changing area is behind those curtains. The shirts are on a rack to the right, just find your size. Hurry back, because we’re still prepping plates.”

    “ O kay …thanks.”

    “ O ne more thing ,” he said, before I could walk away. “A bunch of us are going out for drinks when this thing is done. You should come.”

    “ I ’ll think about it .”

    I walked away while I still had the chance, my heart beating hard.

    I t wasn’t until I was back in the dressing area and flipping hurriedly through the racks of starched tuxedo shirts, that I realized something.

    W hile talking to Zach and for the first time since I left the Dollhouse, I hadn’t been thinking about Julian.

Chapter Four
    I ’d forgotten how much easier it was to work a catering gig than to actually wait tables in a restaurant. All I had to do was say “chicken or fish” in as unobtrusive a way as possible and remember to serve from the left. I might as well have been a brain-dead monkey in a penguin suit.

    “ I s this free-range chicken ?” A socialite dripping in gaudy jewelry and makeup that was too heavy asked me.

    “ O f course , miss,” I said, though for all I knew it was the same chicken that you could buy at the Fresh Market in Englewood. “Would you like pepper?”

    O nce dinner was served , most of the waitstaff returned behind the doors with just a few staying in the ballroom to keep drinks refilled.

    Z ach appeared at my shoulder . “We have a few minutes. Come grab a smoke.”

    I didn’t smoke but I’d been working in food service long enough to recognize a free break when I saw one. I followed him out the back door, which was propped open with a brick, where a group of people were sitting on milk crates.

    “ T his is Dalea ,” Zach said, his hand touching my back in a way that was too possessive.

    I shook his hand off and stepped away a little. “Hi.”

    I f he noticed me putting additional space between us, Zach ignored it. “Dalea, this is Collette, Jason, Molly and Aeryn.”

    A eryn , a short, redheaded girl with a crooked smile, leaned forward and held out a pack of cigarettes. “Want a smoke?”

    I hesitated for a beat too long and one of the girls – Collette, I think – broke in with a cheeky grin. “We have something stronger, if you want that.”

    “ N o , thank you.” I had never done