Debts Read Free Page B

embarrassment, though she can’t really say why meeting this person should embarrass her. Maybe it’s all that sexy-beast vibe Natasha’s giving off, like, if Miriam had entered a minute later, she’d have walked in on something hot and kinky. Reluctantly, Miriam reaches out and shakes Natasha’s hand. It’s icy cold, completely at odds with her confident, smoldering attitude. Miriam frowns. So Natasha is nervous.
    “I didn’t know you had a business partner,” she says to Emmett.
    “Natasha helped me get started,” he says, purposefully vague. “She has a tea shop in Florida, and she’s been a”—he hesitates, looking at Natasha and then back at Miriam—“an advisor and a financial backer of the shop.”
    “Oh.” This beautiful, sexy person is rich too? Miriam eyes the door, wondering the best escape. “That’s … nice. How come you never mentioned her before?”
    Natasha gives an evil glare before schooling her face to a pleasant mask. She sidles even closer to Emmett, slipping a hand casually around his waist. “Emmett always enjoys playing his cards close to his chest,” she says, somehow implying those cards include her, naked. “We go way back, you know. We dated in high school.”
    Miriam’s gaze flicks back and forth between them. They make a remarkable couple, no doubt about it. Emmett with his shaved head and thick arms covered in tattoos, Natasha with her long, gorgeous hair, amazing body and that tattoo on her back. Miriam suddenly realizes that Emmett must have done it. She knows enough about tattoos now to know that it was hours andhours of work, first to design it, then to ink it. It would have hurt a lot, so many hours under the needle. And surely, Emmett comforted her and distracted her from the pain. Something cold and sharp twists inside her at the mental image.
    Whatever is showing on Miriam’s face pleases Natasha because she smiles a satisfied smile as her hand travels familiarly down Emmett’s side to his thigh. Emmett, already stiff and uncomfortable, jerks forward as he pulls her arm off him and returns it to her side. But Emmett would do that because he would never be so rude as to fondle someone in public. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t want Natasha to do it. Just not in front of company. It’s obvious to anyone who looks at the two of them together that they have a past, a hot, sexy past that probably involved a lot of torn clothes. One could argue that he has every right to a past and a present and a possible future with Natasha; after all, it’s not like he ever said,
Miriam, I’ve never had any women in my life, and I never will, other than you
. She almost smiles at the thought. Her and Emmett’s relationship has deepened in the six months since Jason was arrested, and they’ve been steadily dating, but it doesn’t mean his life is an open book. Certainly hers holds a deep trove of secrets. Just because Miriam thinks Emmett is the most amazing person she’s ever met doesn’t mean he thinks of her as anything but a special friend, who’s always in need.
    “I should go,” Miriam says. “I didn’t know you were busy, Emmett.”
    Emmett looks frustrated. Refusing to look at Natasha to the point of rudeness, he reaches out for Miriam’s hand. “What is it, Miriam?” he asks, ignoring Natasha completely. His hand, callused and warm, envelops her cold hand. “What do you need?”
    Miriam winces. She always seems to need something, doesn’t she?
    “It can wait,” she says firmly.
    Natasha catches Miriam’s eye as she flips her hair and strolls over to check out flash.Something about the way Natasha stands with her bare back on display, and everything it stands for, reminds Miriam of the way a dog pees on a tree to mark its territory.
Lady
, Miriam thinks,
I might think you were scary if I hadn’t just met an archangel of God. You’ve got a long way to go before you’re in that league
.
    Miriam looks back at Emmett’s sweet, concerned face. Now she