Read Online Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life by Mallory Monroe - Free Book Online Page A

bubbling, and pour
it all over his insecure ass.”
    Mick stared
at her.   She would have to be an
impulsive, straight-from-the-heart kind of chick to pull that off.   And she wasn’t that girl at all.   He’d eat his shoes if he was wrong.
    “But I
didn’t do it,” she said.   He was
right.   “I couldn’t.”
    Feeling
satisfied that his antenna wasn’t off after all, he wanted to know more.   “Why not?” he asked her.
    “I couldn’t
let some loser order my steps,” Roz explained.   “I wasn’t going to jail over him.   He wasn’t worth it.   My only
recourse was to sue him for blasting my image over the internet like that.   But my lawyer said those were as much his
photos as they were mine.   He didn’t think
I had a case.”
    “You had a
case,” Mick said.   “You just had a
sorry-ass lawyer.”
    Roz
smiled.   “Well, it wasn’t just him.   Nobody would take the case, and I’m not
exactly made of money to force the issue.   So I let it go.   At least he was
out of my life.”   She looked at Mick,
that anger he saw upstairs still riding her.   “That’s why I don’t let any man play me cheap,” she said.
    Mick liked
her spunk.   He liked her determination,
her drive.   She was fragile as hell and
didn’t even know it, but she had some grit about her too.   He liked this girl.
    A limousine
drove up as they were speaking.   The
driver, Deuce McCurry, a man who had been in Mick’s employ for twenty years,
drove up and stopped at the curb.   Deuce
was an African-American male pushing sixty, but he was quick on his feet and
even quicker at the wheel.   He grabbed
the umbrella and made his way to his boss.
    “This is my
ride,” Mick said.   “I’ll give you a
lift.”
    Roz should
not have been completely surprised that a man like him would get around in a limousine,
especially since even she could see he was a man of some stature.   But she was surprised.   She’d never met anybody on his level so up
close and personal.   But going anywhere
with him, after his proposition, was out of the question.   “No,” she said.   “But thanks.”
    Deuce, who
stood beside his boss with the umbrella at the ready, was surprised that she
had turned Mick down.   He looked at her.
    “How are you
going to get home?” Mick asked her.
    “I’ll get
home,” Roz said.
    “I know
you’ll get there.   How will you get there
is my question?”
    “How I get
there is my business,” Roz said, and then looked at him.   She didn’t mean to be cruel, but no man was
going to sell her cheap and then expect all to be forgiven this easily.   “Have a nice day,” she added.
    Mick wasn’t
surprised by her saltiness. Given her history, it was expected.   But his driver didn’t expect it.   He never saw his boss go on like this with
any female ever.   Or allow one to talk to
him the way this chick was talking.   What
was up with this?
    Mick wanted
to just leave.   That was his usual
way.   Fuck’em and leave.   But for some reason the idea of Roz making
her way alone in this dreadful weather bothered him.   “Don’t be foolish, Miss Graham.   My driver will have no problem taking you
home.”
    “I told you
no thank you.   I’m not going anywhere
with you.”
    Mick
frowned.   “Why not?”
    Roz frowned.
“Because I don’t know you like that.   You’re a stranger to me.”
    “I know your
name, I know your passion, and I know your brother owns a restaurant in
Brokeback, Tennessee.   What else is there
to know?”
    Roz almost
smiled.   He knew good-and-well that town
was not called Brokeback.
    “I would
hardly call myself a stranger,” Mick continued.   “Now I ask you again.   Why will
you not allow me to give you a ride home?”
    “I don’t
know what you’re capable of.   How’s
that?”
    “That’s
fine,” Mick said.   “But examples please.”
    Roz felt
silly now, but if he wanted examples she was going to give them to him.   “You might slice