The Taming of the Bastard Read Online Free

sideshow alley. Even Miranda Kerr couldn’t
make them look good.
    “What’s your problem?” Chantelle hissed.
    I concentrated
on the bubbles in the sink.
    “Are you
jealous ‘cause he’s talking to Alex?”
    I couldn’t
speak. I couldn’t even nod. I didn’t know why I was behaving this
way. It might have been disgust that Alex was being sucked in by
Sam’s flirting or worse still, maybe I was annoyed that he wasn’t
giving me that attention. Either way, I hated not being sure. And I
hated him more.
    “That fluff
round the edge sets it off, doesn’t it?” Sam continued. He fingered
the frills Alex wore at her already over exposed breast and I held
my breath. I was afraid he would be lost forever if he leant any
closer into her cleavage. She’d been known to lose coins down
there. And probably a mascara wand or two.
    “You think so?”
Alex preened.
    “Definitely.”
    I glanced at
them out the corner of my eye. Sam’s attention was fully on
Alex.
    Oh for Pete’s
sake, I thought, this is the final straw. He’s doing this purposely
to get at me. He’s trying to make me react.
    And, deciding
someone had to do some work I pulled of my gloves and went off to
deliver an order of apple strudel. Chantelle and Alex were no use.
They were behaving like strudel.
    About an hour
later, I was clearing away after the shift when I felt a presence
in front of me. Thinking it was Bob about to give me the ‘don’t
come back tomorrow’ talk after I’d dropped another tray of glasses,
I waited to the last possible moment to raise my eyes over the
servery counter.
    There he was.
Sam. He was looking at me and, damn it, smiling. Just like in my
dream. I wanted to tell him to nick off but I was dumbstruck.
    “You must be
Millie,” he said.
    I could feel my
head beginning to swim. I looked from side to side. He was clearly
addressing me, as I was the only one there called Millie. “Um,
yes.”
    What else could
I say? I hadn’t changed my name and ‘duh,’ though appropriate for a
thirteen year old, didn’t quite fit the bill. I was agog. Sam
didn’t converse with me, except to ask for his fish. He was the
centre of my horrendous fantasies, not someone I spoke to.
    “We’ve never
been properly introduced, so I thought I'd better do it.” The smile
grew wider. His teeth gleamed and it was like he put a little spell
on me.
    If it hadn’t
been on me already.
    “I’m Sam.”
    “I know.”
    “I work in the
bar.”
    “Is that the
job description ‘chatting up customers’ falls under? ‘Cause that’s
the only work I’ve ever seen you do.”
    “Well played.
But you can never take PR lightly.”
    “Is that your
job? PR?”
    Ha. I totally
had him if it was. Being a PR genius and all.
    “Among other
things.”
    “Please don’t
list them. I have a pretty fair idea already.”
    Sam began to
laugh. It was a deep, guttural and very sexy laugh and that was
when it had happened. The spell was broken. In the moment that
conversed like two normal individuals I was no longer
Millie-Queen-of-the-Klutzes, I had returned to my usual self, the
girl who could give as good as she got, the one who could see
straight through people like Sam.
    At least I
thought I could. His chest was sort of getting in the way.
    “Guess I’m
sprung.”
    “Guess so.”
    Next to me,
Alex kicked my shin. This was not Sam’s usual flirting style. It
was almost, well, sincere.
    “So,” Sam
continued, “It’s my mate’s birthday tomorrow and we’re having
drinks. I was wondering if you’d like to come.” His sea green eyes
crinkled as he said the word come and, beside me, I sensed
Alex’s breath quicken. She sounded like she was going to do just
that, all over the counter.
    I grinned to
myself. I bet he was used to girls accepting his proposals, but I'd
met men like him before and I wasn’t about to give in. Not even if
he did have fantastic shoulders.
    “We kick off at
seven. I can pick you up if you like.”
    “That sounds
lovely,