Velvet Touch Read Online Free Page A

Velvet Touch
Book: Velvet Touch Read Online Free
Author: Velvet Touch
Pages:
Go to
personal with your
guests?" she returned chillingly.
    "Only the ones who interest me," he said
smoothly.
    She
hesitated, debating about whether or not to answer the compelling look in his
eyes. Then, with a tiny shrug she decided to outline things for him. What did
it matter?
    "You needn't fret I’m not exactly on the rebound from
the divorce. It was over two years ago. Right after I'd finished paying off the
last of his medical-school bills. He married another doctor. Said he needed
someone with whom he had something in common," she explained briefly.
"And I don't think you need worry about Harold, either," she added
reflectively, openly mocking.
    He grimaced. "I'm going to hate myself for asking, but
who's Harold?"
    "Harold is a professor of psychology at the university
where I worked," she told him breezily, marveling at how easily she was
adapting to the bantering conversation. She couldn't possibly have joked about poor
Harold back in Iowa. Everyone knew him. "He asked me to marry him this
past spring. I fit the profile," she explained dramatically.
    "This is like sinking into quicksand. What
profile?"
    "The strong, earth-mother type." Lacey chuckled,
remembering Harold and his little inkblots. "Which is kind of funny when
you stop to consider that I'm not overly fond of children and his two kids
brought out the most aggressive tendencies in me. I wanted to swat them both on
more than one occasion. He's raising them very carefully according to some
advanced psychology. The day I told him they needed a good wallop instead of an
encounter session he withdrew his offer of marriage."
    She saw the smile lurking in Holt's eyes and sighed
ruefully. "Another shot at a good marriage down the tubes. I'm not sure
mom will ever forgive me. And time's running out, you know," she told him
wisely. "I have it on the best authority that after thirty a woman's
chances go down rapidly."
    "And
whose authority would that be?"
    "Aunt Selma. She turned down the traveling salesman
who came through town when she was twenty-nine. It was her last opportunity,
she told me. She's wanted to kick herself ever since."
    "So you're out here to hunt a husband along with a new
job?" Holt demanded carefully, taking another sip of his brandy.
    "Fortunately the options have widened since my aunt
was twenty-nine." Lacey's voice lost its bantering quality and rang with
soft, inner conviction. "There are other possibilities for a woman now
besides marriage. I've been offered marriage twice and I'm not terribly
impressed with the institution. The first time my hand was requested because it
represented a meal ticket I made the classic mistake of working to put my
husband through his last years of medical training and internship. He'd run out
of money the year he met me. The second opportunity for wedded bliss occurred
because I fit some stupid profile of motherhood. Thank heavens I had more
sense by then. The next time I become involved with a man, it will be strictly
a matter of romance and passion. No strings attached and no hidden
bargains!"
    The flash of surprise in the metallic eyes was barely
concealed and not before Lacey caught a glimpse of something else. Disapproval?
She bit her lip in a small, unconscious gesture of self-condemnation. What was
she doing standing here and giving this man her life's story? She'd better cut
back on the brandy!
    But it was too late to retrench now. Holt jumped in with
both feet, his censure plain.
    "What you're looking for shouldn't be too hard to
find," he gritted with deceptive gentleness. "Is Jeremy Todd the
first man slated to experience the all-new you?"
    The only thing to do was brazen out the rest of the
discussion, Lacey decided with an inner sigh. She might as well take the opportunity
of letting Holt Randolph know she hadn't come all this way just to find more of
the sort of disapproval and advice she could have gotten for free back home!
    "I haven't decided yet," she said in liquid
accents. "Jeremy and I are just
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