Dangerous Pleasures Read Online Free PDF

just pushing up my nightie and jumping aboard.” She grinned. “After Nat died I never switched back. Never saw any reason to do it.”
    “Take a nightgown,” Lizzie said softly. “This spa experience is going to be a whole new beginning for you. Oh, better take a bathing suit or two. There’s a pool, and I’m sure they’ll have an aquacise class.”
    “Me? In a bathing suit?” Annie laughed. “I don’t think I own one anymore.”
    “Then we’ll go buy you a couple,” Lizzie told her older sister.
    “I’ll look like a whale, and all that cellulite I’m sporting these days…” Annie groaned. “Don’t make me get a bathing suit. Please!”
    “Exercising in the water is wonderful. I do two classes a week at my gym. There’s no strain on your muscles in the water. And it’s good for your heart,” Lizzie said briskly. “What size are you now?”
    “Don’t make me say it,” Annie pleaded piteously.
    Lizzie looked sternly at her sister. “Size, please!”
    “Sixteen,” Annie admitted.
    “You don’t look it,” Lizzie told her. “Get your credit card, sis! We’re off to the mall to buy you a bathing suit. They’ll all be on sale now. Oh, I just love sales!”

C HAPTER T WO
    “M rs. Miller?” the smartly uniformed man at the door asked.
    “Yes,” Annie replied.
    “I’m Karl, your chauffeur from the spa. I’ll take your bag.” Picking it up with a smile, he waited while she locked the door, and then he ushered her to the standing white limousine, opening the door so she could get in. Then he put her bag in the trunk. “It will just be a few minutes,” he told her as he slid into the driver’s seat.
    “Thank you,” Annie said. And then she sat back to enjoy her first taste of luxury. The vehicle was cool and dim. The leather seats were unbelievably soft. She was on her way, she thought as they pulled out of Parkway Drive. Had she forgotten anything? She didn’t think so. Dad knew where she was in case of emergency, and so did the camp. Wills was off with the Iaonnes. The lure of Disney World had proved too great to permit him any fear of being without his mother. Lizzie, Phyllis, and Nathaniel had called from their villa in Tuscany already. The flight had been perfect. The dog, the two cats, and the rabbit were at the vet for the week. No, she had not forgotten anything. Suddenly her time was her own, and Annie realized that she was really looking forward to it. She couldn’t wait to see what had been done to the old Gardener estate.
    The limo glided along the shore road, and then swinging right toward the water, it stopped before a pair of decorative black iron gates flanked on one side by a gatehouse and on the other by a stone pillar to which was attached a bronze plaque with gold lettering that read THE SPA AT EGRET POINTE . Her driver honked once. A man emerged from the gatehouse, peered at the limo, then went to open the gates. Her car rolled past the gatekeeper, who tipped his cap to her politely as they passed.
    The road wound down and around. There was lush old-growth greenery on both sides of it, obviously well cared-for, well trimmed. Someone must have been taking care of the estate grounds all these years, Annie thought. Maybe the man at the gate? And then they were pulling up before what looked like an ancient Greek temple. The limo came to a stop, and immediately a young man was opening the car’s door and handing her out of the limousine.
    “Mrs. Miller, I’m Devyn, your PA as long as you are with us,” he said, smiling. He was of medium height, blue-eyed, blond, and obviously fit, by the look of the arms that protruded from beneath his short-sleeved shirt. He was wearing tight white slacks and a white tee. “Karl will take your luggage inside.”
    “What’s a PA?” Annie asked.
    “Personal assistant,” Devyn said with a grin.
    “My God, just like a rock star.” Annie laughed. “What does a PA do, Devyn?”
    “I do whatever you want me to do, ma’am,”