Read Her Wicked Heart for Free Online

and begin sorting through the books again. I have to stay here. That doesn’t mean I have to engage with this guy. Maybe the best solution is to ignore him and finish my work. Quickly.
    But Casanova seems to have other plans.
    “So, what’s your name?” he says after a few minutes of silence.
    I slide the first stack of books back on the shelf and pretend not to hear him. I’m not above employing the tactics of a ten-year-old.
    “I’m Ward,” he says to my silence. “Ward Brannon. Usually girls ask for that before they stick their tongue in my mouth.”
    Well, I can’t just let that slide.
    “Oh, please. Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy it,” I say. I shove the next stack of books a little harder than I mean to.
    “I did,” he admits. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a few questions.”
    Oh, boy. This could get dangerous quickly.
    “You mean like Why did you do it? ” I say. “Or What sort of girl tries to get it on with a stranger? ”
    “I’d settle for your name.”
    I don’t bother looking at him. I can tell from his voice that he’s enjoying this almost as much as he enjoyed that fight.
    “Addison,” I say finally. The name still sounds strange, no matter how many times I make myself say it. “My name is Addison.”
    “Addison,” he repeats, like he’s tasting the word. Well, he won’t find much of me in that name. “So, Addison, how did you get roped into cleaning this place up?”
    “Ask Mr. Haymore.”
    “Ah, so you’re the new assistant,” he says. “I should’ve guessed.”
    I don’t know what that means, so I ignore it.
    “So what about you?” I say, eager to turn the attention away from myself. “Why are you still here? I thought you were fired.”
    He gives a laugh that sounds like a grunt. “I guess it didn’t stick.”
    As angry as Mr. Haymore was, I’m a little surprised to hear that, but maybe my boss realized he’d need every available hand in order to get this place ready on time.
    I risk a glance over at him. He has his back to me, and he’s measuring the area around the window-shaped hole in the wall. As I watch, he leans forward and gingerly touches the splintered wood.
    “Shame,” he says, almost to himself. “This was the original casement.”
    “Maybe you should think about that next time before you break it,” I say under my breath. But he hears me.
    “Technically, Luke went through the window first,” he says.
    “And who threw him through it?”
    “Minor detail.” He reaches out and breaks off one of the larger splinters. “Anyway, I tried to walk away. The fight was over. He shouldn’t have charged me.”
    “And why, exactly, were you fighting in the first place?”
    He glances back at me. He still looks amused, but there’s something else in his eyes, too. Something more serious.
    “Gracie failed to tell me she was seeing someone,” he says simply. “So I made sure he knew she was sleeping with people behind his back.”
    “You say that like you were doing him a favor.”
    “I was. Even if he doesn’t realize it yet. Gracie’s trash.”
    Annoyance flares in my chest. “That sure didn’t stop you from sleeping with her.”
    One corner of his mouth drifts up.
    “Are you jealous?” he says. “Do I have to remind you that you grabbed me without any sort of warning? And you ran off again without even telling me your name? How was I supposed to know who you were? How do you even know I wasn’t seeing Gracie before you tried to undo my belt?”
    Oh, geez. I didn’t even realize how that sounded. But he’s not getting off the hook.
    “You can’t just call a woman ‘trash’ because she has sex with a lot of people,” I say. “Especially if you’re one of those people. It’s a little hypocritical.”
    “I don’t give a damn how many people she sleeps with as long as she’s honest about it,” he says, all humor gone. “And this has nothing to do with her being a woman. I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman