Friends and Lovers Read Online Free PDF Page A

a big chunk out of the potential victim pool, and if even one perp had to suffer a little retaliation they might just reconsider targeting other easier marks later on. Let them take on ninety pound Lois in her baby blue sweat suit and matching hair. Wes laughed softly, imagining how some goon would pay dearly for that fuck up.
    “Wes?”
    He swung around and saw Lauren walking toward him. “Hey!” he said cheerfully. Smiling, he tossed his bag into his trunk. “What are you doing here?”
    “I dropped by to tell Bob you might be calling, but you were already here.”
    He closed the lid and laughed. “I know, he reeled me right in.”
    “You did a nice job in there.”
    Wes was stunned when her gaze dropped down his body to the bulge in his black sweats. Then she flushed and jerked her eyes back to his.
    “Thanks,” Wes said carefully, a hint of a smile lifting one cheek. “Hey, would you consider going to get a coffee with me?”
    “Now?”
    “No time like the present. We can catch up.”
    “Sure…that’d be nice.”
    “Let’s take my car.”
    Without giving her a chance to argue he went to his passenger door and opened it for her. When she settled into the seat he closed her in.
    Wes jingled his keys as he walked around the car, the memorable quote from Neil Armstrong running through his head. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
    He chuckled at the comparison, but in truth, falling under the spell of someone was very similar to enduring space. There was risk, weightlessness, and a strange euphoria that came with the hit of pure oxygen. It was bliss, a pure high you didn’t want to come down from. Humans had always strained for the heavens, metaphorically speaking, though their interpretations of what constituted heaven varied from individual to individual.
    Wes slid into the driver’s seat and gave Lauren a warm smile. “And we’re off,” he said.
     

Chapter 4
     
    Lauren realized the last time Wes had driven her anywhere was fifteen years earlier when he’d dropped her and Sherry off at the mall for the afternoon. It felt a hell of a lot different now. For one thing, she was sitting in the front seat, not mooning over the back of his head. For another, there wasn’t a constant stream of chatter coming from Sherry to keep her grounded.
    Wes glanced over and said, “I had dinner with Sherry and Ken yesterday.”
    Lauren jumped a bit, startled by the sound of his voice. “Ken? Is he Sherry’s husband?”
    “Yes.”
    “So what’s he like?”
    “He’s a nice guy. Worships her like a goddess, which I wholeheartedly approve of. He’d walk through a plate glass window for her.”
    “So good guys really do exist,” she murmured.
    Wes smiled. “There are a lot more out there than you probably realize. You’ve just had your nose rubbed in the garbage heap too long.”
    “You think so?”
    “I’m only speculating here.”
    “And how about you?” She risked a quick look at him, wondering how he’d characterize himself. Would he admit he was one of the nice guys?
    Wes’s smile was grim. “Me, I’m throwing them onto the garbage heap as fast as I can, hoping my back holds out.”
    Not the answer she was expecting but she couldn’t fault it either. He simply read the question differently. “Let’s hope it does,” she said softly.
    They both fell quiet after that, the turn signal finally breaking the silence five minutes later when he turned into the parking lot in front of the coffee shop. They met up at the front bumper and Lauren nearly jumped when she felt Wes’s hand on the small of her back, guiding her forward. He reached around her at the door and caught the handle before she could. Pulling it open, he followed her inside.
    Lauren was going into system overload. Nothing had plagued her more over the years than the hunger for Wes’s touch, the aching need to be near him, and now that she felt him, sensed him right behind her, she was so skittish she