Read Online If She Dares (Contemporary Romance) by Tanya Michaels - Free Book Online Page B

her away by withdrawing faster than an agoraphobic turtle. By the time they’d said their good-nights, her expression had been pinched with regret.
Nice going, dumb ass
.
    Why hadn’t he handled his brief talk with Riley better? As much as he hated discussing his parents, mothers and fathers came up in conversation every day. Tony talked about his family constantly, and Jack managed not to turn cold and surly with him. It wasn’t as if Riley could have known his father was killed in a car accident. Or that thinking about his mother, and his inability to help her change, caused acid and anger to churn in his stomach.
    He’d meant it when he told Riley he cared about her opinion. Even though he hadn’t known her long, he valued her friendship. It ate at him that he might have torpedoed it in the early stages. The good news was, she only lived across the hallway. Inevitably, their paths would cross again. When that happened, he’d figure out how to make up for yesterday’s stilted encounter.
    At the top of the stairwell, he swung open the door, surprised to see two figures in the hall. Riley stood in her doorway with a tall, skinny man leaning toward her. Both their heads turned at the sound of the door. Riley’s eyes widened, but Jack couldn’t read the expression in them. He was, however, close enough to hear her “Well, good night, then!” at an octave higher than her normal speaking voice as she ducked into her apartment. She didn’t exactly slam the door...more like she closed it with emphasis.
    The man stood immobile, as if he wasn’t sure how to process this dismissal. Then he cast a disgruntled glance in Jack’s direction before stalking toward the elevator. Had Jack interrupted the end of a date? As close as they’d been standing, it seemed a logical conclusion that the lanky guy had been about to kiss her until Jack had destroyed the moment.
    Try as he might, he had a hard time feeling sorry about that.
    * * *
    R ILEY HAD CHANGED clothes and was washing her face when she thought she heard a knock over the running water. She turned the faucet and waited to see if the sound came again. Oh, hell. What if she’d left something in Mitch’s car?
Then he can keep it
. They’d already endured one awkward goodbye; she wasn’t suffering through a second.
    Another knock sounded, accompanied by a muffled voice. “Riley? It’s Jack.”
    Surprise coursed through her. She grabbed a robe to throw on over her high-cut shorts and thin pajama top. She’d told Jack she couldn’t go out with him tonight because she was doing a favor for her mother. She hadn’t wanted him to know it was a blind date. When he’d seen her with Mitch, had he thought she’d blown him off for another guy?
    After the way Jack had ended their last conversation, would he even have cared?
    She darted through the small living room, which was something of an obstacle course. Although she wasn’t messy, she worked in an environment of controlled chaos. Notebooks and coding manuals covered the surface of her coffee table, barely allowing room for her laptop. A second computer sat on a TV tray, and there was a whiteboard behind her couch. She’d been sticking random visual cues to it with magnets, everything from pages torn out of magazines to paint swatches, to get inspired for a color scheme for a new client. And, of course, there were at least two bras visible in the room. She had a habit of shrugging out of them if she was working late.
    “I’ll be right there,” she called, shoving the nearest bra under a sofa pillow as she passed. Before she took the chain off her door, she paused to tighten the belt of her robe. It was purple chenille and practically dragged the floor—hardly the most flattering garment she owned, but she hadn’t been dressed for company.
    She unlocked the dead bolt and opened the door. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight. Not again, anyway.” When he’d emerged from the stairwell earlier, she’d experienced