Dessert Read Online Free PDF Page A

here. I’m a patient guy when I really want something.
    A group of young men passed close. They didn’t notice me. Their loud conversation was raucous and excitable. Playful punches were being thrown. A couple, his arm thrown over her shoulder, stepped out of their way. I rested my foot on the wall, knee bent, and watched bouncers in the bar opposite turn away the men who’d just shaved past me. The gang weren’t impressed but when a police car crawled down the street they moved on.
    I sensed movement to my right, glanced down the alley. From the shadows a small figure appeared. Slight shoulders, narrow, elegant neck, silent footsteps.
    I pushed away from the wall, hoping it was my girl.
    A stream of amber from a streetlamp crossed her face.
    It’s her.
    “Fucking hell,” she gasped, widening her eyes as she clasped a hand to her chest.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Sorry,” I said, suddenly realizing that lurking in the darkness waiting for her hadn’t been the smartest move I’d ever made. “I, er, just wanted to say hi. See if you wanted someone to walk you home.”
    “Not some guy who jumps out of alleys at me.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said again, spreading my palms and holding them up in a gesture I hoped would show I meant her no harm. “I just was keeping out of the way, not 26
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    drawing attention to myself. It was starting to kick off over there.” I tipped my head toward the bar across the street.
    She stepped up to me, then past me. Her hair was piled on top of her head. She wore a black sweater, skintight jeans and tiny flat shoes. She looked incredibly young, incredibly vulnerable to be walking alone on the streets of Soho.
    “I really would like to walk you home, it’s not safe for a young lady to be out on her own around here—what did you say your name was?”
    “I didn’t.” She headed past the electrical shop.
    “Well, it hardly seems fair, you know my name,” I said, following just behind her.
    “I only know your name because I heard Rai use it. I didn’t ask for it.”
    “Please,” I said, “it’s just a name and after what you just…you know, we did, I think I am entitled to that.” I caught up with her and looked down at her serious little face. Her lips were tight and her focus aimed straight ahead. The top of her head came up only to my shoulder.
    “Mr. Alan.” Suddenly she stopped and turned to face me. A crease formed between her large almond-shaped eyes that were now devoid of makeup. “I am off-duty, which means I no longer have to associate with you and I can assure you, I am perfectly capable of walking myself home.”
    I tugged at my bottom lip, hugely frustrated. I was getting nowhere. “But I—”
    “English is your first language so I know you will understand this. Leave. Me.
    Alone.”
    She turned and stepped away, moving swiftly between several girls who were heading toward me, tall, giggling girls who held none of the quiet dignity or self-assurance she had.
    Damn it, the first woman to catch my attention in months, the first woman to make me come hard and fast in what felt like forever, and she didn’t want my company for even a few minutes.
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    Lily Harlem
    Double damn it.
    I thought about chasing after her as she dodged between two cars and crossed the street. Maybe I should try more of my powers of persuasion to find out her name.
    Perhaps I should just make sure, as a good citizen, that she did arrive home safely.
    No. That would make me a stalker, wouldn’t it? A creep. A perv. The last thing I wanted her to think, but what it seemed I’d already succeeded in doing.
    She turned the corner onto Dean Street and slipped from view. A hollowness carved a shape in my chest. Disappointment mixed with a knock to my confidence settled in my belly and groin. I’d never had trouble with women in the past and certainly not the simple accomplishment of finding out a name. But I guessed this wasn’t a normal situation. I didn’t know her name but I