Read Online Black Flame by Ruby Laska - Free Book Online Page B

rip it out by the roots?” Jimmy winced. Other women had alluded to this practice, but Jimmy had dismissed it as unlikely and certainly potentially painful.
    “Yup.”
    “And your job was to perform this waxing, and you were let go for…negligence?”
    Deneen sighed. She cupped a handful of bubbles and studied them, avoiding his gaze. “I let the wax get too hot. It wasn’t my fault, another employee had left the heater on the wrong setting. And my client was the excitable type—she had a very low tolerance for discomfort. So.”
    “Is she permanently disfigured?” Jimmy asked.
    Deneen laughed, her expression turning unexpectedly sunny. “Hardly. I’ve done it to myself lots of times. It just turns your skin pink for a while. But it was a pretty upscale kind of salon. The owner had zero tolerance for flubs like mine.”
    “I see.” With one last, lingering look at the parts of Deneen that were exposed—long, creamy neck, well-shaped arms and shoulders, knees bobbing in the suds, toenails painted a fiery shade of crimson—Jimmy ducked out of the room.
    #
    When Deneen had toweled off, applied lotion (she had brought her own; she never traveled without her favorite scent), and pulled on the camisole and flannel Tinkerbelle pajama pants that Jayne had given her for her birthday, she crept quietly to her room and shut the door. A moment later she heard Jimmy’s door open and close. She listened to the water running through the pipes as she made up Regina and Chase’s bed with clean sheets she’d found in the linen closet. Then she started unpacking her travel case. By the time she was finished, the shower was turned off. Moments later, the sound of doors opening and closing again alerted her that Jimmy had turned in for the night.
    She breathed a sigh of relief, tugging her sweater back over her head. She had a few more things to do before this night was through, and the house was chilly. She pulled on fuzzy socks she’d found in her sister’s drawer, and gathered up her supplies.
    It was probably just as well that Jimmy had walked in on her with kelp masque all over her face and her hair pulled up. He’d been out to visit some girlfriend, obviously, and just wanted to get to bed, but he’d been fairly gracious about waiting for her to finish in the tub. Deneen had even forgiven him for possibly seeing more of her bubble-covered body than she’d have liked, since he was clearly unmoved by the sight.
    She had wondered about the mysterious girl he’d gone to visit, however. What sort of woman would Jimmy Mason fall for? Deneen imagined a raven-haired temptress in a lab coat, at the controls of an instrument panel, making some sort of earth-changing discovery.
    She smiled to herself, ruefully. Even her imagination was over the top and needlessly embellished—her mother’s words, which came back to haunt Deneen whenever she was short of confidence. The fact that her mother had been describing the prom dress Deneen had made herself didn’t really help; she might just as well have been describing any of the projects Deneen had undertaken.
    But that’s why you’re here, right? The little voice inside her head said. It was apparently time for a pep talk. You’re in North Dakota, and Mom isn’t. This is your big chance to be yourself.
    Well damn, sometimes the little voice had a point. Deneen squared her shoulders and picked up her cake decorating supplies. Maybe she couldn’t save the world, but she might be able to improve this small corner of it. She slipped quietly from the room with a spring in her step, like one of Santa’s elves finishing up a last-minute assignment.

CHAPTER TEN
    Jimmy’s alarm went off at precisely 5:45. The alarm clock on his bedside table synced to the atomic clock in Switzerland, which was comforting to him. Jimmy liked absolutes—things that could be proved, that could not be denied on the basis of emotion or intuition. The master clock keeping time in Switzerland was accurate