Read Online Dare To Love Series: Daring Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Avery Flynn - Free Book Online
Authors: Avery Flynn
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jack-hammering pulse.
“Five more minutes,” Sawyer mumbled as he rolled over, taking most of the blankets with him.
The pent-up breath she’d been holding whooshed out. Okay, the hard thing was the man who’d rocked her world a few hours ago, but the beeping, she still had no—the portfolio!
“Wake up.” She threw back the covers, scrambled out of bed and flipped on the light. “It’s the GPS. The thief is on the move.”
Sawyer bolted out of bed and managed to get his clothes on before she’d even found her underwear.
“How did you do that?” she asked, pulling back the covers in search of her missing panties.
He grinned as he balled up her hot pink panties and tossed them at her. “Working undercover in vice trains you to be ready to scatter at a moment’s notice.”
After that it was a mad dash to get dressed, out the door and down to the parking garage.
“You navigate and I’ll drive.” Penny unlocked her black Lexus hardtop convertible. The car was her baby, no one was driving it.
“Yes, ma’am.” Sawyer gave her a teasing salute before getting in on the passenger side. “Okay, it looks like the perp just left Daring Ink and is on North Miami Avenue headed toward downtown.”
For the next twenty minutes they drove in silence, trying to catch up to the blinking red dot on Sawyer’s cellphone. Penny followed his directions to turn left or right or continue straight ahead all while she tried to work out the puzzle of what had just happened between them. They’d had sex. Duh. But they’d done it at her condo, a huge no-no in her book. Plus, he wasn’t a guy she’d be able to avoid on a permanent basis unless she moved, and that wasn’t happening.
So what was next? She had no frickin’ clue.
“Turn right at the next light,” he said. “So what’s the deal with your no boyfriends rule?”
The conversational changeup should have made her pause, but she was beginning to realize that the unexpected was his version of normal. “I don’t believe in commitments.”
“Sounds like the beginning of a story.” He kept his eyes on his phone or the road, but some of his attention zeroed in on her.
“Not really. I found out a year ago that the man I’d grown up thinking was my father, wasn’t.” Talking about her mother’s lies usually made her stomach twist and her palms sweat, but being in the car with Sawyer as they drove around Miami after midnight gave her emotional distance and made it easier to talk about. “My real dad is a rich dude named Paul Dare who, eons ago, decided to try the straight life so his snooty family wouldn’t hate him for being gay. It sucks that he had to do that. I feel bad for the guy.”
“I’m not tracking,” he said. “How does that affect your opinion about commitments?”
“The woman Paul tried to go straight with was my mom She got knocked up with my brother and I. She was young and scared so she left Miami and went back to her small hometown in the Florida panhandle.” Responding to Sawyer’s pointing, Penny turned right. Her hands were steady on the steering wheel and her nerves were as calm as if she was telling the sad sack life of some other girl. “Mom told my brother and I that our dad was Paul Dare, a long-haul trucker who abandoned her. I don’t know why, it wasn’t like the truth was something to be ashamed of, at least for most people. For a girl from the sticks in conservative country? Maybe it was enough to lie to her children for their entire lives.”
The all too familiar bitterness of a wasted childhood spent thinking she was fatherless, when her father had been out there the whole time, welled up within her. It burned the back of her throat and turned her tongue to acid. The betrayal still hurt like a fresh wound.
“I ended up back in Miami on a fluke—or at least I thought it was,” she continued. “Turned out my mom had been collecting money from Paul for years to raise his darling secret babies. She took the
“Five more minutes,” Sawyer mumbled as he rolled over, taking most of the blankets with him.
The pent-up breath she’d been holding whooshed out. Okay, the hard thing was the man who’d rocked her world a few hours ago, but the beeping, she still had no—the portfolio!
“Wake up.” She threw back the covers, scrambled out of bed and flipped on the light. “It’s the GPS. The thief is on the move.”
Sawyer bolted out of bed and managed to get his clothes on before she’d even found her underwear.
“How did you do that?” she asked, pulling back the covers in search of her missing panties.
He grinned as he balled up her hot pink panties and tossed them at her. “Working undercover in vice trains you to be ready to scatter at a moment’s notice.”
After that it was a mad dash to get dressed, out the door and down to the parking garage.
“You navigate and I’ll drive.” Penny unlocked her black Lexus hardtop convertible. The car was her baby, no one was driving it.
“Yes, ma’am.” Sawyer gave her a teasing salute before getting in on the passenger side. “Okay, it looks like the perp just left Daring Ink and is on North Miami Avenue headed toward downtown.”
For the next twenty minutes they drove in silence, trying to catch up to the blinking red dot on Sawyer’s cellphone. Penny followed his directions to turn left or right or continue straight ahead all while she tried to work out the puzzle of what had just happened between them. They’d had sex. Duh. But they’d done it at her condo, a huge no-no in her book. Plus, he wasn’t a guy she’d be able to avoid on a permanent basis unless she moved, and that wasn’t happening.
So what was next? She had no frickin’ clue.
“Turn right at the next light,” he said. “So what’s the deal with your no boyfriends rule?”
The conversational changeup should have made her pause, but she was beginning to realize that the unexpected was his version of normal. “I don’t believe in commitments.”
“Sounds like the beginning of a story.” He kept his eyes on his phone or the road, but some of his attention zeroed in on her.
“Not really. I found out a year ago that the man I’d grown up thinking was my father, wasn’t.” Talking about her mother’s lies usually made her stomach twist and her palms sweat, but being in the car with Sawyer as they drove around Miami after midnight gave her emotional distance and made it easier to talk about. “My real dad is a rich dude named Paul Dare who, eons ago, decided to try the straight life so his snooty family wouldn’t hate him for being gay. It sucks that he had to do that. I feel bad for the guy.”
“I’m not tracking,” he said. “How does that affect your opinion about commitments?”
“The woman Paul tried to go straight with was my mom She got knocked up with my brother and I. She was young and scared so she left Miami and went back to her small hometown in the Florida panhandle.” Responding to Sawyer’s pointing, Penny turned right. Her hands were steady on the steering wheel and her nerves were as calm as if she was telling the sad sack life of some other girl. “Mom told my brother and I that our dad was Paul Dare, a long-haul trucker who abandoned her. I don’t know why, it wasn’t like the truth was something to be ashamed of, at least for most people. For a girl from the sticks in conservative country? Maybe it was enough to lie to her children for their entire lives.”
The all too familiar bitterness of a wasted childhood spent thinking she was fatherless, when her father had been out there the whole time, welled up within her. It burned the back of her throat and turned her tongue to acid. The betrayal still hurt like a fresh wound.
“I ended up back in Miami on a fluke—or at least I thought it was,” she continued. “Turned out my mom had been collecting money from Paul for years to raise his darling secret babies. She took the
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