His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) Read Free Page B

what’s going on, but I can’t figure out what happened to Jeff and nor can the police.  They found blood on something and now they assume I killed him.”  She looked frantically at her friend, desperate for Autumn to not think she could have done something like that.  “I haven’t spoken to him for over a month and that was only to tell him to leave me alone.”
    Autumn put her arms around her friend and shook her head, silently reassuring her friend.  “I told you that guy was a loser.” 
    Mia laughed but it sounded more like a cry.  “I know.  Everyone told me that but I didn’t listen.  I’ll definitely listen the next time.”  She looked around at the people milling all over the wide hallway.  “Although, I honestly can’t imagine being interested in a guy after this.  I didn’t even know that Jeff was dead until the police were handcuffing me this morning.”  She put a hand to her mouth, trying to control the emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her. 
    Autumn smiled and straightened up.  “Don’t worry.  If anyone can get to the bottom of this situation, it will be Ash.  He’s the best criminal defense attorney in the world.”
    Mia turned around, ready to thank the man who had gotten her out of that horrible holding cell.  But as soon as she turned around, she froze.  Looking up at the man while her life was being threatened was one thing. But looking up at him now, she was stunned by both his height and his breadth.  It wasn’t that the man was fat.  Quite the opposite in fact.  His stomach was flat and his legs long and apparently muscular.  But those shoulders!  She’d actually stood next to this behemoth for all that time?  Surely not!  She would have noticed those shoulders before.  He must be about six foot, four inches tall! 
    And those eyes!  They were a clear, amazing blue, but there was a ring of yellow around the iris, causing her to blink as she looked up at him. 
    “This is Ash Thorpe,” Autumn was saying.  “Ash, this is your new client, Mia Paulson.”
    Ash looked down at the woman and gritted his teeth.  Mia was not just a pretty woman.  She was stunning!  Her soft, grey eyes complimented her pale skin.  Her lips were pale right now, but he suspected that was only due to the shock she’d just endured.  And she was smiling at him!  This woman had just been arrested and accused of murder, and she was smiling warmly at him, looking up at him with admiration and joy. 
    “It is a pleasure to meet you,” Mia said, forcing her face to form a smile despite the fact that she wanted to just melt into a pool of humiliation.  This man was so sophisticated, so elegant and so amazingly gorgeous and he’d just gotten her out of jail!  Here she was in her worn out jeans and a tee-shirt that had definitely seen better days while he stood in front of her wearing a suit that probably cost more than she made in a whole month. 
    She felt like she might actually be drooling as she took in the suave, sophisticated giant of a man but then her circumstances occurred to her.  She was off men as of four o’clock this morning.  She’d made that vow while curled up in a jail cell, trying to get the black stuff off from her fingers after being fingerprinted and her mug shot taken.  Her mug shot!  How humiliating! 
    All that had occurred this morning was because she’d found one man cute and adorable.  Jeff Richardson had been sweet and charming and had the silliest grin but now he was gone, missing, and everyone thought she’d killed him.  Of all the things she did not need in her life at this moment, it was a gorgeous man who looked like he knew his way around a bedroom with his eyes closed. 
    Ash tore his eyes away from the lovely brunette and glared at his office manager.  Autumn was smiling up at Ash, then at her friend and back again, trying to gauge their reactions to each other.  That look told him that she knew exactly what was going