Read Online The Real Deal by Lucy Monroe - Free Book Online Page A

meeting?”
    Another pause, longer this time. “Yes.”
    â€œCan we meet today?” The sooner she got this situation handled, the faster she could put Simon Brant and her strange reaction to him out of her mind and life.
    â€œYes.”
    That was promising. “When?”
    â€œI’ll be between timed experiments late this afternoon.”
    She took a second to go back over what she remembered of the ferry schedule. “I can be on the three o’clock ferry.”
    â€œI’ll see you about four then.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œOkay, then.”
    â€œSimon . . .” What did she want to say? She had an inexplicable urge to keep him on the phone with meaningless chatter. “Thank you for calling.”
    â€œI woke you up.”
    â€œI don’t mind, really.”
    â€œI’m going to bed. If you call me in about fifteen minutes you can repay me in kind.”
    â€œYou haven’t been to bed yet?” He must be exhausted.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI’m not into revenge.”
    â€œI’m glad. I can use some sleep.”
    â€œSweet dreams.”
    â€œI believe they will be. Until later.”
    She was foolish to think the words had special meaning, particularly directed at her. She was dynamite in the boardroom, but more like a wet sparkler in the bedroom. No fizzle at all. She stifled a sigh. “Bye.” She listened for the click on his end before she hung up.
    She wished her dreams were sweet, but too often she had the Amanda-shrinks-to-nothing nightmare or one where she relived walking into Lance’s office while he had sex with two people. Only in her dream, they realized she was there and they all laughed at her.
    She snuggled down into the covers and thought about Simon. She liked his voice. It was deep and masculine, but smooth too, like well-aged scotch. He had very sexy lips. She recalled how they moved when he talked and wondered how they would feel moving on her own.
    She was still chastising herself for her totally inappropriate, not to mention incredibly unlikely, thoughts when she slipped back into sleep.
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    This time when she arrived at Simon’s, she didn’t give Jacob a chance to harass her. She stopped her car, got out and pushed the button to call him. She barely refrained from a few choice expletives when he informed her that now they had met, a visual I.D. through the car window was sufficient.
    Jacob answered the door when she rang the bell and she was immediately concerned that Simon hadn’t come out of his lab after all.
    â€œHas he surfaced, Jacob?”
    â€œThe boss is not a submarine, Ms. Zachary.”
    That was a matter of opinion. He certainly disappeared as easily as if he were one, and a stealthy one at that. “Is he available?”
    â€œNot strictly speaking, no.”
    â€œI knew it!” She dropped her briefcase and glared in disgust at Jacob. “He woke me up before dawn this morning and then he didn’t even bother to come out of his lab when he promised he would.” She dug through her purse looking for headache medicine. She came across an antacid tablet and popped it for good measure. “No wonder the man isn’t married. If he had a wife, she would have killed him by now.”
    â€œI did not say that my employer was still in his laboratory.”
    She stopped trying to get the stupid cap off the small white bottle of pain reliever she’d found and looked up at Jacob. He was looking down his nose at her in the best tradition of a snobbish English butler.
    â€œYou play more parts than Jillian!”
    Jacob in his superior butler mode didn’t deign to answer.
    â€œIf Simon’s not tied up with his experiments, where is he?” She managed to get the cap off and tossed back two small caplets without water.
    â€œMr. Brant is on the level below.”
    Hadn’t Simon said something about having his gym down there? “Is he