Read Online Heidi and the Kaiser by Selena Kitt - Free Book Online Page B

coffee.” Heidi swept past a stunned Kaiser, not glancing up to even meet his eyes. She knew they were angry and disapproving underneath his surprise and she couldn’t bear to look.
    “What the hell?” Kaiser’s voice was soft, incredulous, and disappearing behind her as Heidi slipped her heels off and sprinted for her desk. She grabbed her purse and shopping bag and didn’t even wait for the elevator. She straight-armed the door to the stairwell and ran down them, shredding the feet of her stockings on the cement stairs after just the first flight.
    “Heidi!?” It was Kaiser’s voice, calling from far above her, but she ran faster, heart hammering, a stitch growing in her side. She opened the door three flights down, surprising someone with a cart from the mailroom and making him drop a package.
    She apologized reflexively, poking the “down” button on the elevator again and again until the doors opened, ignoring the puzzled looks on the secretaries’ faces and the whispers back and forth behind her as she slipped in and pressed the “door close”
    button—hard.
    She leaned back against the wall, her legs trembling, closing her eyes and drawing long, deep, ragged breaths. What had she done? Oh my god, what had she done? The feeling was unbearable. She wanted to sink into the floor, crawl under a desk, hide her shame in some palpable darkness.
    The elevator slowed and stopped and she opened her eyes, slipping her shoes back on, noting her ruined stockings, straightening her dress as the doors of the elevator opened. A man in the business suit gave her an appraising look, smiling as he stepped in and pressed the number thirty.
    “Hi, I’m Brian,” he said, giving her a sidelong glance. “Haven’t seen you around.”
    “I’m new.” She sounded like she was apologizing—and she was.
    “You sure brighten up the place.” Brian gave her a wider smile, his eyes dipping quickly to her hemline and back up again.
    Heidi stared at him. Was he hitting on her? Men never hit on her. She was like a glass of lukewarm water in a wine cellar of women in this industry. No one ever noticed her.
    “I—” Heidi started to reply—she had no idea what she was going to say—when her cell phone vibrated in her purse. She wasn’t allowed to set it to ring. “Excuse me,”
    she murmured, turning away and digging through her purse in search of her phone. She flipped it open when she found it to see who was calling, sure it would be Kaiser insisting she come back and take her punishment. Part of her, in fact, was hoping it was Kaiser, because what if…what if he didn’t call? What would she do then?
    “Lenny?” Heidi sounded genuinely surprised when she answered, and she was.
    “Hey girl!” He laughed—he had such a warm laugh, and it made her instantly nostalgic for her other, easier, job. “You miss me yet?”
    “Hi, Lenny,” she said, smiling, sounding happy and realizing it was true, for the moment. She’d never been happier to hear his voice. “How are you?”
    “I’m fantastic, still keeping my head down and my mouth shut. You?”
    She swallowed, closing her eyes. “Me, too.”
    Well…mostly…
    The door behind her opened and the guy—Brian—got off. She didn’t turn around as the doors closed again and the elevator began to move.
    “So, I was calling to see if you wanted to do dinner and a video. Me and takeout and a chick flick. How could you resist?”
    Heidi laughed. “Lenny, are you sure you aren’t gay?”
    “How many times do I have to tell you?” Lenny feigned offense. “I’ve just been in this business so long, I’m very in touch with my inner feminine.”
    “I’d love to.” She smiled, surprised her face would oblige while the heavy leaden feeling still lingered in her belly.
    “Say seven?”
    “Seven,” she agreed, and she managed to exchange a few more casual-seeming pleasantries before hanging up. Anxiously, Heidi flipped through her missed calls—none of them Kaiser. He