Read Online Two Against the Odds by Joan Kilby - Free Book Online Page B

memory of their lovemaking.
    Four times. It was true what they said about young men.
    But she couldn’t stay. She had work to do.
    They’d fallen asleep with the lamp on so it was easy to find her top and skirt and silently pull them on. Where were her panties? She finally found them beneath the table.
    Murphy heard her and got up, stiff legged, to seewhat she was doing. She patted his wiry fur and he lay down.
    Rafe stirred in his sleep. Lexie held her breath. Her idea was loosely held. If she had to speak the fragile images dancing in her head might dissolve.
    He settled again. She found a piece of paper and scribbled a note, which she left on the table, weighed down by her house key. Quietly she tiptoed over to turn out the light. Then she opened the sliding door an inch at a time until there was enough room for her to squeeze through.
    The full moon was high overhead, illuminating the houses and gardens. Lexie walked swiftly down the middle of the empty street, listening to the sounds of the night. The bats flitted across the sky, a possum scurried along the telephone wires. She loved being out so early when everyone else was dead to the world.
    Ten minutes later she let herself into her house with the spare key she kept hidden under a rock in the garden. Still charged, she showered, changed and went out back, across the lawn in her flip-flops. The grass brushed her bare ankles, prickly on her skin and damp with dew. The door to her studio stuck until she lifted it and shoved with her shoulder.
    Humming, she assembled her paints and brushes, got a fresh canvas down from the shelf and found a clean palette and smock. Artificial light wasn’t the best so she couldn’t do more than block in the picture,but she was familar with the colors she needed and her fingers were itching to make a start. Squeezing a large blob of Cadmium Yellow onto the palette, she began.
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    R AFE STIRRED , eyes closed, unwilling to wake from the best sleep he’d had in ages. A grin spread across his face. He’d had no idea older women could be so hot.
    Thinking about Lexie was making him hard. Eyes still closed, he reached for her.
    His hand encountered only empty sheets. He opened his eyes. The pillow that bore the indentation of her head and a stray blond hair were evidence he hadn’t imagined the whole thing.
    Rafe propped himself on one elbow. Maybe she was in the bathroom? But no, the door was open. Everything was quiet. He could even see into the small private courtyard because he’d forgotten to pull the drapes. Empty.
    She was gone.
    Pushing aside a flicker of disappointment, he threw back the covers, got up and let Murphy out. Then he walked to the bathroom and set the shower on scalding. Soaping himself beneath the streaming water, he hoped he could rely on her to be discreet about the sex. He had a whole lot more to lose than she did.
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    L EXIE WORKED until six in the morning, slept for a couple of hours then was awake again by eight. She pottered around the kitchen, putting on the kettle, popping a slice of wholemeal bread in the toaster. Surely Sienna would be up by now. She gave her a call.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œHey, Sienna.” Without further preamble Lexie asked, “What are those things that the double helix of DNA is made of? The genetic building blocks or something.” She spooned vanilla yogurt into a bowl.
    â€œLexie?” Sienna said. In the background Lexie heard cutlery clinking, water running. “DNA…let’s see. You’re probably thinking of nucleotides. Each consists of a sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogen base—either a purine or a pyrimidine.”
    â€œWhoa. I don’t need the biochemistry of it, just the structure. What do they look like at a molecular level?” One-handed, she rinsed strawberries under the tap.
    â€œLet me think… Sugars form a hexagon of carbon atoms. The phosphate group would be kind of a diagonal cross and