Read Autumn Lake for Free Online Page B

telling me of his latest disappointment.”
    “Do you mind if I ask why you decided to do this right out of the gate?” He cleared his throat, looked away, and practically tossed Sushi at her pussy.
    She rolled her eyes and released a hard breath. “I want Jake to know I’m not a tease, but more importantly, I want him to know he doesn’t scare me.”
    “You may scare him.” Cav said, standing back and looking her over once more. “You’re decked out for the party, darlin’. I’ll give you that much credit. If you want to prove you’re a ballsy chick, this should do it. As for teasin’, well I’m not sure what you mean there so I’ll just leave on that note.”
    “Thanks, Cav.” She slowly turned her head, afraid movement might jar a piece of sushi from her body.
    “Don’t mention it.”
    “If you pass him on your way out, don’t look at him. Just keep walking.”
    “I can do that.”
    “Good,” she said, taking a calming breath. Rushing through her mental checklist, she was almost certain she’d remembered everything until she considered the image she’d created for Jake. “Wait! Don’t leave yet!”
    “Yeah?” Cav stopped one step shy of exiting her apartment.
    “Come here for a second.”
    Cav went to the head of the dining room table. “What’s the matter?”
    “Spread my hair around my face so it fans out all over the place. I want to look sexy.”
    “You look like a sea monster with round flesh wounds.”
    “Gee thanks.”
    “No problem.”
    “I’m supposed to look sexy!”
    “If you say so,” Cav grumbled, lifting her head up and pulling her hair every which way but loose.
    “And remember, not a word to Dad.”
    “Autumn, your father would kill me. The mean bastard would shoot me with my own blasted gun.”
    “You’re probably right,” she muttered. “Oh and one more thing.”
    “What now?”
    In the distance, she heard the thunderous racket of Jake’s Harley as he pulled in the lower parking lot right under her front window.
    “Never mind. We’ll talk business tomorrow.”
    “If uh…” He wiggled his fingers at her body. “If this gunk doesn’t work out, give me a call and we’ll go over a few things tonight. The Mrs. will be there so don’t say anything to upset her.”
    “I thought she knew you were coming over here to help me with this.”
    “Oh she did. She just doesn’t know your dad is back in the gun business.”
    “I see.” She could’ve set Cav’s mind at ease and told him they wouldn’t be arms dealers for very long. If she could tell him to scram, she’d take him to the airport tomorrow and maybe set him up in a nice seaside pad, somewhere away from other people. Then, she’d deal with Cav in her own way, in her own time.
    Cav was her father’s most loyal friend and when all of this came to an end, his life as he’d lived it—as a hired gun, an enforcer of sorts—would be over. “Well, Jake’s here.”
    “I’ll see ya, little.”
    “See ya.” Her eyes burned when he called her by her pet name. He’d once called her brother pet names, too, but he hadn’t hesitated to put him in the grave when the order was handed down by her father.
    Blowing out a hard breath, she refused to think about the past, the people who had betrayed her, those who had been close to her family and yet turned on them when the price was high enough.
    She was in one hell of a cluster fuck of a situation. She glanced down the length of her body and then jerked when the door slammed behind her.
    Jake slowly approached the table. “Sweet fucking mercy.”
    “Hi.”
    “You pull a stunt like this and ‘hi’ is all you’ve got?” His expression was priceless. “And to think I was afraid you couldn’t prepare a good meal.”
    “You think this looks good.” She fluttered her eyelashes and admired the man staring back at her with nothing but pure lust. “Wait until you see what I have planned for dessert.”
     

Chapter Eight
     
     
    “I passed one of