Everything But Perfect Read Free Page A

better be perfect. Lavede Enterprises was
synonymous with superior. Everything, but perfect.
    Nonetheless, twelve of his men
quit. He wasn’t a hard ass, yet they seemed to think so. One man, God it was not
funny even in remembrance, was run over by an incompetent truck driver. The
man’s funeral took a bit longer than necessary and the investigation into the
accident even longer, but such was life. Sometimes brakes on vehicles failed.
    Mitch demanded perfection. Sometimes
it was just best to agree life sucked when things went wrong.
    His thoughts ran back to the woman
on this train. She wasn’t perfect, in fact, the exact opposite, but she could easily
be molded by the right man. His frown came quick to this. He was definitely not
the right man for such an arduous job.
    Long legs stuffed into faded blue
jeans, her hair piled high, her pink T-shirt so damn cute…had she not used him
as a pillow he might have been civil to her. She’d been a veritable sleeping
beauty in the fantasy of life. It was only after she opened her eyes, looked at
him strangely, almost reaching into his soul, that his life had gone back to a
living hell.
    No one was to get to his soul.
Not even a creative woman in a foreign country.
    He had been content enough, as
only a man can be, when able to watch such a rare beauty sleep away her day.
She’d drifted in and out of her dreams, perhaps nightmares. He wasn’t certain
which. Her innocent face alive toward the end, she had unknowingly reached into
his lap. Her warm fingers then dug sharp nails into his inner thigh, and God
help him, it was all he could do to hold it together.
    He hadn’t been touched there in
quite some time. Work, and certainly women surrounding that work, left little
room for the enjoyment of the flesh other than a few chaste kisses, and the
assorted hand jobs. Women were like oil and water, tar and feathers to him.
Separately, they had very specific uses. Together they never mixed, and
eventually backfire in his face, almost on cue.
    No matter how enchanting she was,
he was sure she would ricochet throughout his system, until something broke—something
irreparable.
    He’d been captivated by her hazel
eyes, that’s all. Work was his life, and vice versa. This more than paid off,
in a good way. He was wealthy, supposedly attractive, and certainly available.
Thirty-six, he drove too fast, ate too richly, had no ties to bind him to one
place, and never answered things he had no desire to waste his breath on…before
today.
    Hell, there was always a first to
fall the fool. On this trip alone, Mitch was finding there were many firsts,
most of those pretty awful. Like how long a dead body could wait in stifling
heat without decomposing. Or how long it took to hire back workers hell bent on
making life miserable. Equally, how many tries it took to get another to
understand his words. Had he really asked one of his employees if he should go
to work in a dress? Not, what is the address? as intended.
    He shook off another useless
daydream and sat down on the bed. He would find out her name if it was the last
thing he did, just to appease his conscience.
    Leaning back, he let the feel of
the train lull his thoughts. After all, she now owed him money for her meal,
and he always collected on a debt.
    He reached for the novel tucked
inside his suitcase and found his bookmark, intent on spending the remaining
hours reading. For the time being, he just wanted to forget he was still stuck in
Africa.

 
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
     
    Unaware of the length remaining
until Cairo, Cheyanne stood up in hopes of finding a porter. She ran smack dab
into Mitch, the last person on earth she wished to see again.
    “Looking for me?” he mockingly accused.
    “I highly doubt I would stoop
that low,” she mumbled under her breath. “I can’t seem to help myself,” she then
said smugly, giving him a toothy grin.
    The man’s hot breath suddenly caressed
her ear as he leaned near it. “Once in