Free Always Right by Mindy Klasky

out his wallet and dropped the money on the table before he pushed back his chair. He was ready to move behind Amanda, to do the gentlemanly thing, holding her chair and helping her stand, but she was way ahead of him. In fact, she took the lead, striding across the dining room and out the front door. She marched down the porch steps, not wasting any time crossing to her car, an ancient dirt-brown Honda that huddled in the shadows on the very edge of the lot.
    He followed, worry tightening his belly. She was fitting her key in the lock by the time he caught up. He put his hand on her shoulder, but he drew back when he felt her flinch.
    “Easy,” he breathed as she whirled to face him.
    And there it was again, the same vulnerability he’d seen on her face when he’d kissed her outside her apartment building. She looked open , soft, like all her legal training had crumbled away. This wasn’t the brainy girl who’d kicked guys’ asses playing chess. This wasn’t the lawyer who could argue rings around opponents in a courtroom.
    This was a woman, unsure of herself, uncertain about… something. He started to back off, to let her go, but he saw quick emotions flash across her face. Frustration. Longing. Need.
    So he didn’t pull away. Instead, he closed the distance between them.
    He had to feel his mouth on hers. After a heartbeat, she responded, relaxing the tight muscles of her neck, opening her lips to give him better access.
    His tongue found hers, and he tasted vanilla. The flavor made him a little drunk. He pushed her back against the car, sheltering her neck with the curve of one arm. With his other hand, he traced the row of buttons on her blouse. When she arched toward him, he slipped his hand inside, cupping the warmth of her breast. He felt the hard button of a nipple, pressing, demanding, and he slipped his hand past lace and wire, ready to explode from the heat of her flesh.
    She moaned then, a vibrating sound of need that he drank down like the wine she’d nursed through dinner. It wasn’t enough just to kiss her; it wasn’t enough to feel her lips. He traced along the corner of her mouth, tickling her jaw, scraping his beard against her throat as she twisted, as she turned, like she couldn’t get enough of him. He found the soft spot below her ear, the hollow at the edge of her jaw, and he tongued it, hard and demanding.
    And she froze.
    One moment, she was melting beneath him. The next, she was a statue, every muscle still as stone, hard as ice.
    “Amanda,” he murmured, barely moving his lips.
    But she turned her head away.
    He slipped his fingers from beneath her blouse, and he shifted back half a step back. She straightened, and he let his other arm fall to his side like a dead branch.
    “Amanda,” he said again, and this time he let some of his worry fill his voice. He didn’t know what he’d done wrong, how he’d fucked this up. She’d been hot, eager, as into all of this as he’d been. Or so he’d thought.
    She looked past him, over his shoulder, blinking hard at the warm porch light in the distance. She licked her lips, and she ran one hand through her hair. She reached up to her glasses and tilted them a little, settling them into place on the bridge of her nose.
    Whatever else was going on, she wasn’t a coward, because she shifted her gaze then. She looked him directly in the eye. And she said, “Pardon me. That was a mistake. One I won’t make again.”
    Her voice was ice. He protested, “It wasn’t—”
    “Trust me,” she said. “It was a mistake, because there’s something I didn’t tell you over dinner. And after I say this, you won’t want anything else to do with me.”
    “I don’t think that’s poss—”
    “Twenty-five thousand dollars,” she said. “I need it. Three checks, below ten thousand each.”

CHAPTER 4

    Amanda fought not to cringe as Kyle said, “What the fuck?”
    She raised her chin. “I need the money by Friday.”
    “You’re not getting