Blood and Destiny Read Online Free PDF Page A

years. When I start to age, you’ll move on to someone else. I’ll be left alone with nothing to warm my heart. There’s nothing wrong with that. It is what it is. Let’s not ruin our friendship over needs that we can’t meet for one another.”
    Tension rushed out of him in a tight breath. His hand flipped up and he wrapped his fingers around mine. It was a peace offering. I took it.
    “I will not stop trying to change your mind.”
    “As long as you’re not going to act like a child when the answer is no and don’t interfere with my own attempts to find someone else.”
    His laugh was spontaneous and the sudden joy in it was a rich undercurrent. “You always know what I’m thinking. Do you understand how rare that is?”
    We shared a smile and the tension in the car faded into comfortable silence. I didn’t resist when he tugged my hand to urge me closer. There’s something sweet about a man who will wrap you into his arms knowing he’s not going to be getting anything out of it.
    Too soon, it seemed to me, the car stopped at my front door. Marcus set me from him gently so he could step from the car ahead of me. He reached in to help me out as if I were wearing heels instead of my serviceable loafers. It was probably habit, but it still gave me a warm feeling.
    Groaning, I realized I’d left my keys at the coat check at the club. Marcus’s soft laughter made my temper flare even as I watched him remove a slim ring of keys from his pocket. With no apparent effort, he flipped to one of the keys. Amazed, I watched him stride to my door and unlock it.
    Walking through the opened door, I disarmed the alarm system before turning to glare at my companion as he pocketed the keys. I had the grace to wait until the driver closed the door to leave us in privacy before stating the obvious.
    “You have a key to my office.” A key that hadn’t come from me.
    “From before, yes. I thought it might come in handy on those rare occasions when you might be open to a little indulgence.”
    Put that way, it seemed a little obnoxious to be unhappy about it. I settled for leaning against the wall of the foyer with my arms sullenly crossed. It didn’t work. Marcus had always been immune to my less admirable character traits. He didn’t bother to respond to my ire.
    “Shall we get business taken care of so we can move on to more pleasant things?”
    Instead of reminding him of the obvious, I held out my hand. “Key.”
    Without a word, he pulled the keys from his pocket and slowly extracted the one he had used on the front door. I watched and finally spoke up.
    “Do you steal the keys for all your lovers?” It came out catty. I shouldn’t care, but it rankled to

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    see that tiny string of keys. He let me stew a moment before extending the key with his own version of clarification.
    “I have very few lovers, Destiny. But no, I don’t generally go through such effort.”
    It made me feel petty for taking the key from him. Pushing away from the wall, I stalked through the door to my office. Business first, personal garbage later.
    I walked over to pull out the center drawer of my desk. Dropping the key into it, I pulled LeCroy’s file. Moving back, I held the file out. I didn’t invite him to sit down because I knew better. Instead, I waited until he took the file and made myself comfortable in one of the armchairs arranged in front of my desk for clients. He joined me after a moment.
    The chair across from him would have given me a clearer vantage of his face, but I doubted I would be able to tell if he decided to lie to me. I was good, but he was better. Age had advantages when it came to the lying game.
    He opened the file and flipped through the pages. Picking up one of the glossy photos, he stared at it for a moment before moving on to another one. After the third, he closed the file, leaned forward and carefully placed it on my desk without