I am Not Your Melody: (steamy cowboy romance) Read Online Free

own, while Bill would put in one hundred percent of the money to get it open again. Then they would split the profits fifty-fifty on an ongoing basis.
    Seeing as how she’d drained her savings to buy half of the bar, she had nothing left to do any fixes or even to buy liquor. The situation was really the only one she could’ve done. It was the only way to run her own bar, to have her own stake in it.
    And now she’d just made her life-time, ongoing business partner hate her.
    “Don’t just stand there,” he said roughly. “Let’s go.”
    ***
    Allie closed the door of his farmhouse office behind her, and stood, waiting for an invitation to seat herself. It never came.
    Bill leaned against the edge of his desk and looked down at her from his considerable height. His cool gray eyes studied her. Allie held her breath and stared back.
    Damn, he’s good-looking . And intimidating.
    “You’re really Allie, huh?” Bill said. “Thought you’d be…older.”
    “I thought the same of you,” she said, and shrugged.
    “How do ya like the middle of nowhere?”
    It didn’t matter whether she liked the location or not. It was the only bar she could afford — the only one with the unusual deal terms Bill offered — and the perfect excuse to get the heck out of Miami, but she wasn’t going to say that.
    Allie put on a big smile. “Your uncle’s bar is in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited,” she said. It was true, even if it wasn’t her main reason for wanting the bar. “I’m very excited, and based on the pictures you sent —”
    “— Zach Walker took those pictures,” he interrupted. “Back when my uncle was still running the bar.”
    Allie nodded. So the pictures were old. She kind of already knew that, or did she? Had she looked past that little tidbit when they were exchanging info online?
    “Your assistant took great photos,” she offered.
    “Zach ain’t my assistant,” he said. “Those ranchhands pretty much run the place now.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said. Stop apologizing . A man wouldn’t apologize.
    “It’s better for me that way,” he replied, mistaking her apology for calling Zach an ‘assistant’ as sympathy. “I don’t have any time to do what I used to do ‘round here on the ranch. May as well get this straight right now — all that emailin’, I don’t have time for that much involvement in real life. Runnin’ that bar is all on you. “
    If he didn’t run the ranch, and he couldn’t run the bar, what exactly did he do all day?
    “Of course,” she said, and smoothed her slacks, which had taken a beating from the stallion incident. “I understand completely. You don’t want to be…involved.”
    Bill looked at her, concern showing in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Did you hurt yourself when you fell?”
    “I only hurt my pride,” she admitted, “and my one chance at meeting you on a good note.”
    He shook his head. “You talk jus’ like you write. It’s strange hearin’ the words come outta your mouth.”
    “Right?” Allie laughed. “Maybe it would be easier for us both if we just pulled out our phones and started emailing each other instead. Just pretend we never met and immediately started screaming at each other.”
    Bill smiled, finally, his first smile at her since she’d finally laid eyes on him. His whole face brightened, his straight white teeth contrasting handsomely with the dark scruff on his jaw.
    Well, her phone was missing, but it was a good a plan.
    “I’d like to get started fixing up the bar right away,” she added. “You don’t have to do anything.”
    “Have at it,” he said, and tossed a set of keys to her.
    They dropped to the floor by her feet, since she wasn’t expecting the cowboy to just randomly throw things at her.
    “Oops…thank you,” she muttered, and picked them up. “Do you have a checkbook you can throw at me too?” Allie jingled the keys to the bar as if it would distract him from