All About Charming Alice Read Online Free PDF

this is beautiful, what does your home in Chicago look like?”
    He laughed. “
Touché
. You’re right. It’s nothing like this. My condo in Chicago is in the center of the city. It’s filled with modern furniture, and there’s contemporary art on the walls.”
    “So this is just a quaint bit of slumming for you.”
    His smile vanished and the green eyes met hers. “No. That’s unfair. Being here is not slumming. This is something else altogether.”
    It was. She knew it was.
    The smile came crinkling back. “But that’s something we can talk about this evening. Over a glass of wine.”
    Never! Not as long as she could prevent it. She stepped back into the corridor. “The bathroom’s down the hall.” Her tone was impersonal again. The tone of an efficient landlady. “Or perhaps you didn’t think there was one.”
    “The outside of this building doesn’t give you the faintest hint of what’s inside. Besides, we’re in the desert and … ”
    She didn’t let him finish. “This is Nevada, USA, Mr. Constant. Not the surface of the moon.”
    “Jace, please. Not Mr. Constant. Just Jace. Jace and Alice, okay?”
    She swallowed. No. That was not okay. First names indicated intimacy, opened the door to vulnerability. Her body responded all too readily to him; all she wanted was to step in closer, into his warmth. Touch him — his cheek, the errant lock of hair, the tightness of his chest.
    “I’ll just let you get settled in. I’ll leave a key for you in the lock on the front door. Don’t forget to take it with you when you go out.” Getting away as quickly as she could.
    “What time is dinner?”
    The question stopped her flight. Dinner! She’d forgotten about that. “You’re sure it’s room and board you want?”
    He nodded, no doubt imagining cozy get-togethers in the yellow kitchen.
    “What time is convenient for you?” She said it as coolly as possible, wanting to show him exactly what their relationship was going to be. She hadn’t wanted his presence here. He’d practically forced his way in. As for thoughts of intimacy, he’d better forget them.
    “I usually meet up with a team of historians and geologists out at the Winterback Mine every day. I should be back here at around six every evening.”
    Alice hesitated, as if she wanted to add something. But what? Then she turned away, headed quickly down the stairs, and rushed out of this turmoil and on to safety.
    • • •
    If Alice hoped to find refuge in Rose Badger’s secondhand clothes shop, she was sadly mistaken. The shop itself was a mad jumble of hats, shoes, evening clothes, silks, and elegant suits from another era, all displayed with an insouciant disorder. Normally Alice loved coming here, making herself comfortable in the faded plush armchair and listening to stories of Rose’s latest male conquests. But not today. Her life had changed; her territory had been invaded. This evening, she’d have to face Jace Constant again. What an impossible situation!
    There was only one thing to do: discourage him, make it perfectly clear he wasn’t really welcome.
    “I hear you’ve got a lodger.”
    Alice groaned with irritation. “Out of the frying pan and into the fire!” Having Jace Constant in her house as a guest — even for the few days before she finally managed to get rid of him — was going to be a hell of a lot more difficult than she’d imagined.
    “Rose,” Alice’s voice expressed infinite fatigue, and forced patience. “I’ve had a lodger for about an hour and a half. How did word get around so fast?”
    Rose Badger opened her large blue eyes even wider. “What else is there to talk about in Blake’s Folly? The last piece of gossip anyone heard around here was that Tom Fletcher’s car ran out of gas on the highway near Tonopah, and that was over two years ago.”
    “You’ve got a short memory. Didn’t Lucy Hawkins overcook a chicken dinner last May?”
    “What does he look like? Lucy Farley told Jane