Let Me Be the One Read Online Free PDF Page A

the same time soft and vulnerable. Before dinner she’d been giggling with Greg. Brian would, have given anything to be the focus of that attention. To have those lips whispering in his ear. He’d been tempted to drink too much to see if she would cut him off, but he doubted she would have. He studied the picture, imagining himself in Logan’s place. Those bright eyes staring up at him. Tonight, she’d looked at Logan like that, too. Every time her gaze fell on him, her face softened into utter devotion. That’s what Brian thought he was getting when he married Bonnie. That rich, lush affection. Maybe that came with a price, too. What was Logan paying?
    The phone rang at his elbow. “Hello?”
    “Well?” Marc demanded.
    “She’s coming out to WVA in a couple weeks. Why don’t you come see for yourself?”
    “Come on, what’s she like? He did bring her, didn’t he?”
    “He brought her.” Brian set aside his guitar. “She’s kinda…” Amazing? Ethereal? Bewitching? “Ordinary in person.”
    “Come on, come on. Don’t give me that shit. She’s got wings or fangs. She doesn’t drink…vine.” Marc gave his best Bela Lugosi and failed, as usual.
    “Well, she doesn’t drink. She sounds like the Queen of England when she talks.”
    “She does?” Marc sounded horrified. “How?”
    “She said she thought Bayonet Ball was interesting overall, but ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ had lovely lyrical complexity.” Brian winced at his own bad imitation of her elegant tone.
    “Ugh. I feel like she patted me on the head and told me I was a good boy.” Marc paused. “‘Lovely lyrical complexity’?”
    “Those were her exact words.” Brian tumbled the phrase around in his mind. Lovely lyrical complexity. He recalled her tone as she’d said it. The light, musical quality of her voice. “She was looking at Jason’s books, too.”
    “What books?”
    “The books in the living room.”
    “The ones the decorator stuck there?”
    “Yeah.” After she’d refilled everyone’s drinks, except Bonnie’s, she’d wandered to the far side of the room and started leafing through one of the books. Logan had gone over and had a little chat with her. The expression on her face as he touched her cheek made Brian wish he had a camera. Before they went into the dining room to have dinner, Brian had checked to see what she was reading. Keats.
    “I’ve never looked at them. What’s he even got?”
    “Old stuff like you’d read for school. She had one open.”
    “So she’s a fruit bat intellectual? I’m not sure I want to bother with the side trip to meet her.”
    “I don’t know yet. She’s damn sexy in person, and she wasn’t even working it.”
    “I thought you said she was ordinary.”
    “Ordinary in a sexy way.”
    “What was she wearing?”
    “Just a skirt, a shirt, and some heels. Greg’s girlfriend came in all tarted up, but Ms. Bazian looked very glamorous. Enough to piss off Bonnie.”
    “Bonnie was there? Why?”
    “I don’t know. Probably to make me miserable. She just wasn’t what I expected at all.”
    “Bonnie?”
    “Ms. Bazian. She wants us to call her Suzi. Her real name is Susan Begovich.”
    “So it’s not Suzette Miranda Bazian?”
    “No, that’s just the name she writes under.”
    “Oh. But she’s hot? For an ordinary girl.”
    Hot? Tiny and thin with straight brown hair to the middle of her back, deep set exotic eyes, a voice like late summer peaches. “She’s hot. I hope she hangs around the studio just for the eye candy.” Brian smiled, considering the way she’d filled out her little blouse and skirt. “Legs to there and a lovely swing to her hips.”
    “Well, maybe we’ll have to put tape over her mouth and have her walk for us.”
    Brian laughed. It was a nice thought to dwell on, but he couldn’t imagine her doing it. She’d say, ‘Why would I do that?’” in her cultured tone, and that would be the end of it.
    “Tell me, were you actually able to talk to