Read Online CardsNeverLie by Heather Hiestand - Free Book Online

been hoping to
get an idea of the hot trends among this crowd. Maybe even run her love lotions
idea by a few people and see if it had been done too many times before. It was
just her luck to be caught by some officious jerk again and this guy wasn’t
hot, but middle-aged and looked like a low-level accountant.
    She walked back toward the elevators, stepping carefully.
These new shoes weren’t very practical. Maybe at twenty-eight she was too old
to be fashionable. In these low-rise jeans, she was afraid her butt crack would
show when she sat down. But this look was today’s sexy and she wouldn’t get any
loving without putting her goods out there in the socially approved way. She
reached out to hit the down button on the elevator.
    A hairy arm reached out to grab hers. She flinched back.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I left my badge upstairs.” Lying again and this guy
wasn’t even cute enough to warrant an excuse. Nor did he wear the puke-colored
security guard uniform.
    “Honey?” the man asked. “Honey? Is that really you? It’s me,
Harvey.”
    What a jerk! It had sounded sexy when Adonis, aka The
Whipmaster, had called her that. She had to admit, as goofy as the actual words
were that came out of his mouth, the delivery in that deep, caramel voice of
his was out of the stratosphere.
    “I’m sorry,” Melanie said with a frosty smile. “Do I know
you?” Maybe he was some guy she had dated in high school who had let himself go
so completely as to be unrecognizable. His dark hair hung greasily to his
shoulders and his plaid suit didn’t do anything to hide the sloppy bulk inside.
    “I’m Harvey?” the man repeated, turning his name into a
question. “Harvey Stein? When I was talent I was Harvey Long. I worked with
you, remember?”
    Melanie shook her head. “I think you’ve got the wrong
person.”
    “No really,” the man said urgently. “Think of me ten years
and fifty pounds ago.”
    “Ten years ago I was in college. I didn’t work.” Melanie
punched the elevator button again, as if it would come faster the more times
she pushed it.
    “It was just the one time, I know. You came out of nowhere
and vanished.” He looked at her with admiration. “It’s like ten years never
passed, Honey. You’re just as beautiful as you were then.”
    Melanie took a step back from the overeager and persistent
man. Another man was approaching and she looked to him with relief. Maybe he
would distract Harvey and she could get away. If only the elevator would come
already!
    The man coming quickly toward them across the wild
neon-floral carpet was tall and thin, his body a mere hanger for his gray and
black-toned clothing. His thin lips twisted as he spoke. “So we meet again,
Honey.”
    Did every porn person on the planet call women “honey” and
speak in cliches? “Listen, buster, I’m not your honey.” Open, open, open ,
she chanted in her head at the elevator door.
    “Don’t you sass, Honey. You owe me two grand.” The second
man pointed a long thin finger with a chewed cuticle at her. “Plus interest.”
    Bewildered, she wondered if “Honey” was someone’s name. Who
was she? “I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
    The tall man coughed in the disgusting, hacking way a
two-pack-a-day smoker does, his limp, gray hair drifting from its loose
ponytail. “Good try, you brat. But don’t think you can escape me so easy. You
came back and I’m not gonna lose track of you again until I get my money.”
    Melanie looked around her. Harvey was still gazing at her
with cow eyes. No one else loitered nearby, though a line of people started to
emerge from the ballroom. She heard a ding and her knees nearly buckled with
relief. The elevator. She turned to it with anticipation but the tall man put
his leg in front of her. Backing up, she felt a soft, squishy something give
behind her. Whipping around, she saw Harvey grinning.
    She tried to remember self-defense training. “Get away,” she
shouted.