Read Online Hard to Handle by Lori Foster - Free Book Online Page A

Anastasia’s shirt and stroked his fingers through her hair.
    It had a further calming effect on him.
    â€œYou’re a damn boulder, Harley. You can take some pressure.”
    Harley rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I suppose I can.” Arguing with his uncle was pointless. In the end, Harley would do what he wanted, and not a single thing more. Besides, although Anastasia no longer shivered so badly, she was still clinging to him, trying to get warm through and through. She needed his attention—and he’d prefer talking with her than his uncle. “Soon as I see Anastasia back to her cabin, I’ll head home and we can figure all this out.”
    â€œTonight?”
    â€œI’ll get home tonight, but it’ll be late. We can talk in the morning.”
    â€œFirst thing, then. Breakfast at eight—no later. We’ve got plans to make.”
    â€œFine. But, Uncle Satch, do not agree to a single damn thing until I get a chance to see what it is, and think about it. I mean it.”
    â€œLet me know when you get in, Harley. Drive careful. We can’t afford for anything to happen this time.”
    Didn’t he know it? “Just try to relax. Things will be okay. I feel it.”
    â€œFrom your mouth to His ears.”
    Harley hung up the phone and looped his hands at the small of Anastasia’s back. It was easier to focus on her than the upcoming issues with the SBC. “Better?”
    â€œYes. Thank you.”
    She didn’t pull away, and Harley didn’t urge her to. He liked their current position, even if it equaled a sweet torture.
    â€œWho’s Simon Evans?”
    So she had been listening? “A fighter, better known as Sublime. Real good-looking, or so the women say.”
    â€œHe shaves his head?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œI’ve seen him.” She nuzzled her face against him. “He really is gorgeous.” Then she tilted her head back. “But no more so than you.”
    Given the recent news from the SBC, Harley didn’t take her comment as a compliment. It was all bullshit. He’d win favor with fans and the SBC brass because he was the best, not because women found him attractive.
    Changing the subject, he touched her still-cold nose and said, “Time’s up, Anastasia. You obviously didn’t get this frozen from driving here, so start at the beginning and tell me exactly what happened.”

C HAPTER 4
    â€œI ’M not really sure.”
    She sounded sleepy, and that worried Harley. He put his palm to her forehead, but her skin no longer felt like ice. “Okay. So what do you think happened?”
    With her forehead again on his sternum, she said, “I lost my brakes.”
    â€œLost your brakes?”
    â€œComing down the hill to town.” Another shiver, this one likely from nerves, ran through her. “It was so icy, and the wind was enough to toss a semi off the road. I was going slow, real slow. Then I went to touch my brakes—and nothing happened.”
    Harley went rigid. “You sure you didn’t just slide a little?” The look she gave him had him verbally backing up. “I’m not insulting your intelligence, Anastasia. It’s just that the roads are shit tonight and even the best driver could lose control.”
    â€œTell me something I don’t know. After I deliberately steered into the gulley to try to slow the truck, I did a few spins and ended up facing the opposite way on the wrong side of the road. Luckily, I slammed into a snowbank.”
    Harley got an awful visual of her inside the truck. “You call that luck?”
    â€œIt’s better than crashing through a building, or God forbid, running over someone.” She snuggled tighter to him. “I had the brake to the floor, Harley, and it didn’t matter. The truck just picked up speed. I didn’t know what else to do.”
    He returned her embrace. “Given you didn’t kill yourself or