Free Change by Jevenna Willow

getting your comeuppance. It’s been there for weeks, Mecenna.”
    He then pushed from the desk before Sara could fully
react. A half-second later, she found his lips settled against hers, and
somehow he was kissing her into pliable submission.
    At least Sara felt stuck in a submissive state. Her
legs went weak. Her heart raced. Her palms turned sweaty. Her spine had shivers
going down the length of it. No man had ever made her palms sweaty or her spine
tingle. Not even…
    No. No. No! She
couldn’t go near pain like that again. Boyd McCarlye was dead and buried to
her, same as her unborn.
    Casey stepped back, severing the connection of their
bodies. “See?”
    Sara shook her head, adjusting to the loss. See
what? She couldn’t see a damn thing. Her eyeballs had steamed.
    He added more. “You’re covered head to toe in goose
bumps by a mere kiss.”
    “So?”
    “So…you can’t lie to me, Mecenna—ever. I do believe
I’ve said this before.”
    It to have been smart on her part to leave the man’s
office before things got out of her control, Sara was never known for her
smarts. Her cunning nature? Sure. Her more than hot body? Of course—she’d been
told this millions of times. But her ability to see the fire through all the
smoke? Hell, no! Therefore, she was unprepared for the chuckle coming out of
him, and the complete brush off within a matter of seconds as he rounded his
desk and sat back down in his chair. He returned to making out the paychecks as
if nothing amiss.
    Sara’s eyes widened as Casey physically shut off her
presence like tap water from a faucet. Her brain screamed itself hoarse from
the depths of thick fog inside her head. Used again! Two very damaging
words, that gave her fuel to throw on the growing fire rising between them.
    “Tomorrow I work pole,” she announced abruptly, making
it sound so completely natural out of her mouth.
    His eyes rose, as did his temper. “Like hell you are!”
    Sara could not let the control she had in her hand
slip from grasp. “Lace is going to allow me one of her times in the room, too.”
    His jaw tensed, eyes narrowing. “Lace doesn’t make
those decisions for my club.”
    Sara kept going before she lost her nerve. “And she
informed me if you fought it, she would quit. Then you would be stuck with no
dancer for Friday night and a lot of unhappy customers.”
    Their biggest night for high-profile big spenders was
the Friday after payday. Griffen would lose tens of thousands if Lace quit.
    Casey rose to his feet, the fury in his eyes unhidden.
“She said this, did she?”
    He was giving her ample warning to correct her
statement, but Sara was having none of it. She nodded, calling the man’s bluff.
    “Not more than five minutes ago. Right before she
left.”
    They only way he could ask Lace would be by cell
phone. However, Sara had planned for this. She’d slipped Lace’s cell phone out
of her roommate’s purse before Lace left for home. The phone was now in Sara’s
possession. She would give it back to Lace in a few hours. For now, it was her
ace in the hole to get this man to agree to her unrealistic demands.
    While she waited for the expected explosion, Sara
thought of her past life. The bi-polar mother she’d buried in a church
cemetery; a joke in and of itself. The married lover who’d shamed her into a
regrettable disappearing act. The lost child from that man…a child she was glad
she’d lost, knowing it then had the chance to be in Heaven before its mother
given the opportunity to screw it up.
    All of this kept her gaze firm and unwavering,
determination fueling her thoughts and actions.
    Lace said nothing of the kind about sharing one of her
times, but if Sara could keep her gaze locked and steady, Casey would never
find out he was being lied to.
    Sara wanted one night where the man in front of her
would die without having her. At this point, she did not care if she knew the
man’s name. The only thing mattering was his interest and