Read Online Sweeter Than Revenge by Ann Christopher - Free Book Online

according to the alignment of the planets andher best hair and nail days, too.
    Reminding himself that even if she was a little eccentric, she was still one of the firm’s most important clients, he kept his game smile plastered on his face. He led them back to his office where they all sat.
    “Would you like something to drink, Anastasia?” he asked, reaching for the phone.
    She brightened. “A Scotch on the rocks would be fine. Single malt, if you have it.”
    His smile faltered and his eyes darted involuntarily to his desk clock: 10:38. In the morning. For the first time in his life, he regretted the lack of liquor in the office. No doubt he’dbe the one needing a strong drink before this little appointment was over.
    “I’m so sorry. We just have coffee, tea or soda. My assistant can make espresso.” He prayed the last was true, since he’d been waiting over an hour for that espresso he’d asked Maria for, and there was still no sign of it.
    Anastasia and Uri exchanged quick, horrified looks, as though he’d offered them a shot of spinach juice. Her nostrils flared and David felt himself losing ground with every molecule of carbon dioxide she expelled through her disapproving nose.
    “Lovely,”she said.
    David pressed a button on his phone. “Jane? Any sign of Maria?”
    “I’m not sure if she’s back yet, David,” Jane answered.
    Back?
    “Oh, wait. Here she comes. Maria? Here’s David.”
    “Hello?” Maria said.
    “Uh, Maria,” David said, wondering what the heck was going on, “can you bring us three espressos, please?”
    “Happy to,” Maria answered in a sweet singsong that aroused suspicions he didn’t have time to explore right now. “One minute.”
    “Well,” David said, turning away from the phone.
    Anastasia stared at him, one heavily penciled black brow raised in an expression that clearly said that she was waiting for him to impress her, and it damn well better be good.
    David patted the cover of Blue Endearment,which sat on the edge of his desk. It depicted a grainy half picture of a running girl with braids, chickens scattering at her feet. “The art department certainly gave you a pretty cover.”
    Her nose crinkled, as if the cover stank and she meant to avoid breathing in the air around it. “It’s terrible. A cover like that wouldn’t sell toilet paper in a loo. I don’t see how those…swineat Essex House expect me to earn out my advance when they give me a cover like that.”
    “That’s why Essex House hired us,” David said, infusing his voice with a cheery confidence he didn’t remotely feel.
    A nasty, sinking sensation had squirmed to life in his gut, telling him that this perpetually dissatisfied woman could be presented with a silver platter loaded with a million dollars—tax free—and she’d wonder why she hadn’t been supplied with a Louis Vuitton briefcase with which to carry it home.
    “We’re going to schedule your book tour, and all the radio and TV interviews—”
    “Darling,” she said in her affected British accent. Leaning forward, she draped one diamond-laden hand across his desk and fixed him with her piercing glare. “See that you do. I want there to be a copy of Blue Endearmenton every nightstand in America by the end of the year. I want to be number one on the New York Timeslist for a hundred weeks. I want to make The DaVinci Codelook like a miserable failure. I want every literary award you can think of. I want Leno, Letterman and Oprah. Are we clear?”
    Oh, yeah, he was clear. He’d been saddled with a miserable tyrant who wanted world domination and wouldn’t be happy with anything short of that. No matter what he did, or how he broke his back for her, this woman would never be satisfied. She would make him jump through untold hoops in a fruitless quest to make her happy, and he’d jump.
    Why?
    Because he’d promised Ellis.
    And why, when he was young, wealthy and healthy, with a mansion in Seattle and the world by the tail,