All the Pretty Poses Read Online Free Page A

Have you
married yet?”
    “No, still not married.”
    She rubs my arm and winks as if to reassure
me. “Don’t you worry about that, my sweet. The right girl is out
there somewhere. Don’t rush it. Just wait for her.”
    “Oh, I’m not rushing anything,” I tell her
honestly.
    “Good. Some mistakes can haunt you for
the rest of your life.”
    Something in her eyes tells me she has some
personal experience with ghosts, but I have no idea what they might
be. It occurs to me that, as well as I know Tanny, I don’t really
know her at all. I make a silent resolution right here and now to
visit her more often. Provided that she still has a job when all is
said and done.
    The thought of my father firing her when he
takes over the house makes my insides roil with rage. But, for
Tanny, I hide my anger behind a pleasant smile.
    “I do my best not to make mistakes.”
    Tanny’s expression falls into one of mild
disapproval. “That sounds like something your father would
say.”
    I don’t have a chance to respond before Tanny
sees someone over my shoulder and her face lights up again.
    “Oh, it’s my beautiful girl,” she says,
moving past me, arms spread in preparation for another hug.
    I turn, ready with a pleasant smile, but it’s
wiped from my face the instant I see who Tanny is hugging.
    It’s Kennedy.
    Today, she looks more like what I remember,
like what I would’ve expected to see, even after all these years.
Her chestnut hair hangs in a smooth, gleaming sheet to the middle
of her back, her face is bare of makeup because she really doesn’t
need it, and her slender body is concealed beneath a plain black
dress that falls to just below the knee.
    But none of that can rid my mind of the way
she looked last night.
    A series of emotions flood me, desire first
and foremost. Now I have memories of her seductive dance to add to
those from my youth, ones of tasting her sweet skin on a bed of
soft grass in the forest no more than a few hundred yards from
where I’m standing. The other emotions are secondary, but no less
potent.
    Frustration because, still, I would like
nothing more than to sink between those long, long legs and lose
myself for at least a day. Anger because she is far too innocent to
be dancing at one of my clubs the way she was. More
frustration because I loved it. And more anger because other men
got to see it.
    It’s that anger that propels me forward.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the tiny dancer.” My tone is cold
and bitter even to my own ears. Just like my father’s.
    Kennedy straightens from Tanny’s arms, her
expression stung, her cheeks pink. She tucks her chin and glances
left and right, as though she’s checking to see if anyone else is
listening. Finally, she returns her attention to me. Her smile is
tight, but polite.
    “Reese, it’s been a long time.”
    “Yes, it has. Seems like a lot has changed
since I left.”
    Her smile falters. “That happens when people
leave without a word and don’t come back for almost two decades,”
she grinds out from between her gritted teeth.
    I deserved that, but I’m not in the habit of
being derailed by something as simple as guilt. That’s one reason I
decided to stop feeling it. It’s a weak feeling for weak
people.
    The perfect clone of the perfect
bastard, I think for a moment before I push the thought aside
and return to my anger.
    “I don’t have time for this,” I snap,
stepping forward to take Kennedy by the arm and tug her along with
me as I stride across the room to the door that leads to the
conservatory just off the library.
    “What the hell is the matter with you?”
Kennedy hisses when the door shuts behind us and we are out of view
of the people in the library. She wrenches her arm free.
    “I’m the one asking questions. Now would you
like to tell me what you are doing dancing in one of my clubs?”
    She raises her chin defiantly. “I didn’t know
it was your club until last night when you accosted one of
the