Read Online Cornered by Ariana Gael - Free Book Online Page A

Galactic-sized huge even.”
    “I don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t know all the details,” she answered quietly.
    “No, I don’t. But I’m trying to envision what kind of problems would make me let someone take my education from me. I did that once. I let other people influence me to the point that I almost ended up in jail instead of a graduation line. And I don’t let others have that kind of power over me anymore.”
    Michelle sat back against her seat, wanting desperately to get angry and to go home. She couldn’t do either of those things, though, because she knew that Lars, this man she’d met only a couple of times and had seen for a combined matter of only a few minutes, was right.
     

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    Michelle knocked loudly on the back door of the book dealership, waiting under another threatening sky for Marjorie to unlock the door and buzz her in. She went through the first door and pulled it locked behind her before pressing the buzzer on the second door, waiting again now that Marjorie knew that Michelle was safely inside the alcove and was alone.
    On her first day at work, she had wondered if the lady was possibly just a little bit crazy. Michelle lived in a decrepit walk-up over a bar, for pete’s sake, and she didn’t have nearly the security system in place that Marjorie had. But then, once Michelle started taking home some of the catalogs to proofread the descriptions, she got a firsthand look at the prices of the books that her quiet little company dealt in. It made Michelle nervous to even be in the room with the books, and made Marjorie’s strict policies of no food in the building and no pocketbooks allowed make more sense. Who knew, right?
    Marjorie had made it clear that her rules weren’t in any way a reflection of her opinion of Michelle, which was good because the first few rules were a little bit offensive. No purses in the main room? What, did she look like a thief? Once Marjorie explained that purses could easily knock a book off the counter top, or that something as tiny as a tube of lip gloss that got overheated and oozed could destroy a book’s value, the strict guidelines almost looked too lenient. After Michelle saw the market value of some of the titles, she invested in her own pair of white cotton gloves to wear while handling any of the books.
    “Good morning, Marjorie,” Michelle called to the white-haired woman in the office. “I finished proofreading these catalogs last night, I’ll just put them on the counter over here.” She placed the paperbound books on the counter then went to put her coat and purse in the closet before returning to the office.
    “You’re an absolute angel, Michelle! Now I can call the printer and the digital distributor and tell them to send those out. They wouldn’t have been ready for two more weeks if I was doing it myself, and there are three estate auctions in that time that we would have missed. What would I do without you?” The older woman looked up from her computer and beamed at the girl.
    “I’ve only been here a week, Marjorie, I hardly think that’s enough time to make me indispensable,” she said, smiling at the woman’s appreciation.
    “You’re a godsend. But let’s get to work, we have to package up a few titles today, and that has to be done with utmost care. Do you think you’re ready for your first airport run? I think you’ll find it’s actually quite thrilling.”
    Michelle bit her lip to keep from laughing. As much as she adored Marjorie and had even been impressed by the world of the rare book and antiquities trade, “thrilling” might have been a really strong word. Interesting? Sure. Curious? Maybe. But not so much with “thrilling.” She nodded her head in agreement and followed the older woman into the book room.
    “So...” Marjorie began, pausing to look at Michelle over the tops of her rectangular reading glasses.
    “Yes?” Michelle finally asked, waiting for the rest of the