The Sweetest Revenge Read Online Free Page B

she said, giving his hand a squeeze. “I’m sure you had a good time then. Is it true that you sleep with your secretary? I read about that somewhere.”
    He stared at her, not sure if he ’d heard correctly. “My personal assistant is six foot something and shaves each morning. Also, he’s married.”
    “ I was just checking,” she said. “Doesn’t every CEO employ a perky secretary to do his bidding?”
    “ Believe it or not, I’ve something like work ethics.” She still snickered, and he was hit with the idea of Suzie with her hair tied up in a knot, dark-rimmed glasses on her nose, wearing a sensible skirt and blouse, sitting on his desk. The image was almost worse than thinking about her naked. “You said you’ve finished you studies. What are you planning to do now?”
    “ I’ve just accepted an offer for a junior software engineer position. Start is next month. Can’t wait, the people there are great, and…”
    He listened, astonished to hear so much enthusiasm out of her voice, and when she mentioned the name of the company, he smiled, because she would work for his competition. So much for sitting on his desk. “Sounds fantastic,” he said, when she had run out of steam. “What do you want to do next?” He walked next to her along the strip, doing his best to hold her hand in a purely friendly, non-sexual manner.
    “ Well, I really should try my hand at luck.”
    He laughed. “Why doesn’t it surprise me that you’re a gambler?”
    “ I only gamble when the odds are on my side.”
    “ They never are,” he said, pulling her farther away from the hucksters giving out flyers. She took one anyway and studied it.
    “ Interested?” she asked with a laugh, holding the ad under his nose.
    He took the flyer. The girl on it had her legs spread, wore a red thong, and two yellow stars barely covered her nipples. “No, I'm not interested.” He tossed the flyer to the ground where already dozens of other ads had come to a rest. The girl on the flyer couldn’t compete against Suzie when it came to titillation.
    “ The odds are always on my side. I tend to have luck,” she said, pulling him along into a casino. Inside, crowds gathered around the velvet roulette tables, and thick cigarette smoke hung over the blackjack tables. She nodded to the slot machines. “I'm all for quick and cheap fun.”
    “ Wait here.” He left her in front of the slots, and went to get chips. When he returned, he pressed the bucket he got from the cashier into her hands. “Here, twenty-five one dollar token. I'll bet you, you won't win a single time.”
    She took a coin, saying, “Sure I'll win.”
    He watched her play, spin after spin, but the machine failed to show three hearts in a row. And with every loss, her smile faded a little more. When she had the last coin between her fingers, he wished with all his heart that the machine would let her win, so he could see her laugh again.
    “ I lost,” she said, sounding defeated, after the last spin showed heart, horseshoe, and bell. She looked up at him, frowning. “You were right.”
    “ Bad luck in game, good luck…somewhere else,” he said, almost wishing her luck in love, making him realize that she wasn't in Vegas with friends or a significant other, but alone. He didn’t count. Why was she all alone on her birthday? “How do you usually spend your birthdays?”
    “ Ah, at home, you know, a quiet evening. I'm not much of a party girl.”
    Something in her voice was off, as was the look from under her dark lashes at him, but he couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He had the weird feeling that she tested him, which was, well, ridiculous. “Do you still live with your brother?”
    She gave him a somewhat exasperated look out of her hazel eyes. “Sure, I'm still in my old room, playing with my dolls.” She smacked his chest. “I've a great view from my apartment downtown.”
    “ And you live alone?”
    “ Not quite. There's Pete,” she answered,