Read Online Key to Love by Judy Ann Davis - Free Book Online Page A

sadistic secretaries.”
    “Who won?”
    They were firing conversation like bullets from a machine gun.
    “I did, of course.”
    “So what did they say?”
    “Who?”
    “Children and Youth Services.”
    “Later, I’m starved.” She pushed the door to the office open and stepped inside. “Where’d you stash the food?”
    “I picked up a pizza, but it’s cold by now.” He followed her into the office and rubbed his forehead, certain it was about to explode if they didn’t gear down to a slower speed.
    “We really are going to die if we keep eating pizza, Lucas.” She whirled and looked around. Her eyes flitted from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. “So this is it?”
    He shoved his hands into his back pockets and looked at the dirty gray concrete floor, grease-stained fly-speckled windows, and yellowed water-stained ceiling. “Yeah, not much to look at, huh?”
    “It depends on your perspective. The cracked window and broken ceiling light panels give it a bit of a worn, nostalgic feeling.”
    Like a starving dog homing in on a bone, she headed straight for a battered steel desk in a corner of the room where he had earlier deposited the pizza. A shabby vinyl-padded chair, its tears bandaged with duct tape, stood nearby. She pulled the chair close, sat on the desktop and kicked off her shoes, resting her feet on the seat cushion. The top on the pizza box flew up under her eager hands.
    Glad for the brief lull, Lucas dragged another chair from a corner and slumped down opposite her. He propped his feet on the desk.
    “Another shoe malfunction?” he asked as he reached for a piece of pizza.
    “Don’t start, Fisher,” she said through a mouthful and wiped sauce from her lip with her finger.
    “I guess when women say they’ve discovered a pair of shoes to die for, they really mean it.”
    “I’m so thrilled my feet amuse you.”
    He grinned, leaned forward, pulled some napkins from beneath the box, and handed one to her. His gaze slid over her lips to her face. She had twisted her hair into some kind of fancy knot at the back of her head, leaving wispy strands to dangle seductively over her forehead and cheeks. Tiny earlobes flashed with gold earrings and a small gold chain pendant hung between the soft folds of her white blouse crisscrossing in a V above her bra. He didn’t have to guess what was underneath it. Her bra was lace. Hell, everything beneath that sophisticated black suit was lace. Why, oh why, had he ever pawed through her suitcases at the airport?
    “You’re staring, Lucas,” she said.
    Her words startled him. “Huh? No, just thinking.” He reached into his chest pocket and withdrew a paper. “There were three messages on the answering machine when I stopped by the house. You’re supposed to call some guy named Paul Winston. Linda Cook set up an appointment for tomorrow morning at ten with a Mrs. Pedmo of Children and Youth Services. And Chuck phoned. The last guy sounded pretty desperate, like he was being held hostage by bloodthirsty aliens.”
    “He probably is,” Elise said, chuckling. “He’s doing my share of the work while I’m away.”
    Lucas leaned forward and reached for another piece of pizza. He caught the whiff of her perfume. It was delicate, almost rose-like and sensual, different from the one at the airport.
    “What’s the scent you’re wearing?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. Chuck bought it for my birthday. Do you know it takes five hundred pounds of flower petals to make a single drop of perfume?”
    “No, it must’ve been part of some trivia quiz I missed.” Lucas leaned back in his chair, eyeing her. “Tell me, is this Chuck fellow in the habit of killing flowers for you?” For some reason he didn’t like the idea.
    “Chuck always gives me expensive perfume on special occasions,” she said. “It’s kind of a tradition since I’ve been with the company. Charles is...” She paused pensively. “Chuck is a sensitive, special, comical, somewhat