Lady Be Bad Read Online Free PDF Page A

enjoy the present and dream about the future."
    "Do you think it's wise to put all your eggs
in Noah Drake's basket?" Paul countered. "He cracked them
before."
    Sylvia cleared her throat. "I hungered and
chased after my first husband," she confessed, "and ultimately got
George back from another woman." She gave Marlayna's knee a warning
squeeze. "He was an even bigger disappointment the second time
around."
    "I've been thinking a lot about that, too."
She sighed, wiping a weary hand over her face. "I wonder just how
accurate my memories are. Have my dreams and longing blown Noah all
out of proportion? Have I bestowed on him god-like qualities he
never deserved?"
    "He certainly doesn't deserve you," Paul
said rudely. "I'm sorry, Marlayna, but it seems to me you've
deliberately clung to the past and ignored everything else. I'm not
sure you rate one speck of sympathy."
    "She's not asking for sympathy, you clod,"
Sylvia snapped. "She's asking for us to understand." Her brown gaze
shifted to her friend. "I, for one, understand perfectly and I
should think with all the womanly hormones you have been blessed
with, Paulie, you would too."
    Marlayna leaned forward and pressed a damp
palm against Paul's cheek. "I'm scared, Paul. Scared and afraid of
what I'm going to hear about myself. Maybe I did fail at being a
wife, maybe I even failed at being a woman a man wants to spend the
rest of his life with. But I'm also mad. Angry that Noah has found
someone else. Was I so easy to replace? He vowed to love, honor and
cherish, and I find it offensive that another woman will hear those
same words.
    "I want justice. I want revenge. I want to
shed my guilt. No matter what some judge decreed in five minutes in
a courtroom, I am still Noah Drake's wife!" She tried to control
her trembling. "When you were a child, Paul, did you ever play with
puzzles?" His silver head nodded. "Well, that's exactly the way my
life has been," she told him, "a puzzle that has never been
completed, a puzzle that can't even be appreciated because too many
pieces are missing."
    Paul took a deep breath. "All right, kiddo,
if this is what you really want, I'll back you one hundred
percent." His fingers entwined with hers. "I'll even be here to
glue all the shattered pieces back together. When is D-Day?"
    Sylvia hunted for the engraved card that had
slid between the sofa cushions. "Next weekend and... oh, look at
this note on the back." She turned the card for Marlayna's
inspection. "King Arthur's scrawling personal message requests that
you spend the entire week at his island castle."
    "A week to recapture six years." Marlayna
looked from one to the other. "Seems like a fair trade," she said
then smiled.
    Paul shrugged his shoulders in silent
capitulation. "I'll make sure your schedule is free for the next
two weeks." At her raised brow, his mouth twisted grimly. "The
extra week's just in case Sylvia and I have to play paramedic."
    "Doesn't he have a charming way with words?"
Came Sylvia's caustic pronouncement. "I say we celebrate Marlayna's
impending prison break and relocate ourselves to Giovanni's for
some antipasto, fettuccine, and an aged Burgundy."
    "That's the most brilliant idea you've had
all week, Sylvia," Paul agreed. "Let's go, Marlayna, and I’ll even
let you pig out on the sesame breadsticks."
    "You two go and gorge," she instructed "I'd
like to be alone for a while and think." Noticing their matching
worried expressions, she released an easy laugh. "Hey, I just flew
through three time zones! My sneakers are still filled with the
California desert and I could use a long soak in a bubble-filled
tub."
    Sylvia and Paul made their good-byes last
another twenty minutes. Once inside the waiting air-conditioned
limousine, Paul continued to voice his objections. "We were fools
to leave. If we stayed perhaps we could have --"
    "Changed her mind?" The blonde inquired.
"Paulie, all we would have done was exhaust ourselves and see
absolutely no results. Look at things