Playing Dirty Read Free Page A

documentary comes in on time and on budget.”
    “Which somehow won’t happen, right?”
    “The bonus is a legitimate offer, Ava. I’ll email my own contracts for your attorney to look over while he’s going over yours, and you’ll see I have a lot more to lose than you.”
    Doesn’t matter. Because it’s not going to happen. But damn him. Damn him, damn him, damn him! Not only had her trust fund taken a huge hit in the economic downturn, so had the finances of many of the clients who formed the foundation of her concierge business. And as one of the gazillion mortgage holders who’d been caught up in the subprime lending disaster, she was facing a huge balloon payment on her condo that was coming due in the not-nearly-future-enough future.
    Well, too bad, so sad for her. She’d rather lose the place than spend six weeks in this bastard’s company.
    Seriously? her hardscrabble practicality demanded. She had to admit that was pretty cut-your-nose-off-to-spite-your-face idiotic. This could actually be the answer to her prayers. And hell, it wasn’t as if she were worried about falling under his spell. Been there, done that.
    “You’d be in place to make sure I do credit to your Miss Wolcott,” he said softly.
    She blew out a defeated breath. “All right. Contingent on my attorney’s evaluation of the contracts, I’ll do it—to see you do justice to Miss A’s story.” And if she was also doing it for the money, he didn’t have to know. “Do you want that tour? We can start with the dining room across the hall.”
    She turned, only to feel Cade wrap a hand around her forearm to halt her. Heat seeped through the cashmereof her coat sleeve beneath his light grasp, and she promptly swung back around, twisting her arm free.
    “Do not,” she said with hard-fought calm, “touch me.”
    Releasing her, he stepped back. “I just wanted to tell you, before we get started, how genuinely sorry I am for what happened back in high school. I was—”
    “Forget it,” she interrupted. She so did not want to rehash the ugly details of the past with him. “I have.”
    “Really?” An eloquent eyebrow rose, surprise flashing in the depths of his cobalt eyes.
    She gave him a regal nod. She had cut him off at the knees the other times he’d sought her out over the years to apologize, but if acknowledging his regret would move him along to a place where they didn’t have to discuss the past, then, fine. She’d grant him his damn redemption.
    “You forgive me then?”
    No. Hell, no. That would be a snowboarding day in hell.
    But she gave him a serene smile, knowing from this point on she had to be professional. “Let’s just agree to leave the past in the past, shall we?” Not awaiting a response, she led him to the dining room and got down to business. “As you can see, great care was taken in here to preserve the integrity of the era in which the Wolcott Mansion was built—”
     
    S HE MET J ANE AND P OPPY at Sugar Rush, her favorite neighborhood coffee shop/bakery, the next afternoon. As they took their seats at a round table by the play area, she sucked in a quick inhale, then eased it out. “I did something last night I hope you’ll be okay with,” she said to her two best friends amid the clatter of crockeryand conversations. She hesitated for a brief second, then blurted, “I agreed to rent the mansion to Cade Gallari.”
    Okay, her ripping-off-the-Band-Aid delivery was clearly a little too abrupt, for Jane’s blue eyes went round with shock. Then her friend slapped both hands onto the tabletop, came half out of her seat to shove her face closer to Ava’s own and said, “You agreed to rent it to who? ”
    Ignoring the two women at the next table whose attention was drawn by Jane’s incredulous rising voice and aggressive stance—a look at odds with her neat, shiny brown hair and dark-hued clothing that always looked so conservative at first glance—Ava focused on her friends. She knew perfectly