Meet Me in Venice Read Online Free PDF Page B

he nodded his approval, the waiter filled the two flutes. A second waiter brought a dish of tiny biscuits and then left them alone in their screened booth under the hazy glow of the red chandelier.
    Bennett Yuan picked up his glass. He lifted it to hers and said, “Here’s to us, Mary-Lou Chen.”
    “Yes,” she said, suddenly nervous. There was an intensity about him she had never encountered in a man before. He was, she thought, a man who knew what he wanted and who knew that he would always get it. And she was a little afraid of him.
    “So, tell me about yourself.” Bennett leaned back, one arm spread along the top of the booth.
    Suddenly disconnected from her eyes, he seemed to take on adifferent persona. More casual, comfortable, a man completely at ease with himself. And so handsome Mary-Lou could see no flaw. His dark hair brushed smoothly back; those intense deep blue eyes under straight dark brows; a nose almost too perfect for a man, the square jaw and a wide firm mouth that made her wonder what it would feel like to kiss him.
    She shook her short swinging bob of black hair, took a sip of champagne and began to talk about her work and about Lily.
    “So, who is this Lily Song?” he asked, refilling her glass.
    “An old school friend. She’s always dealt in antiques but mostly she makes and sells the tourist stuff. You know, the Mao memorabilia, the warriors, Buddhas.”
    “And is that profitable?”
    She sipped the champagne and gave him a deep look. “Some of it is.
    “And which part would that be?”
    Mary-Lou laughed, shaking her head and sending her short black hair swinging again. “I can’t tell you that,” she said, peering at him from under her bangs. “Why are we talking so much about me anyway? I want to know all about you.”
    ‘There’s not much to tell that I suspect you don’t already know. I’m involved in the furniture components business.” He shrugged again, impatiently, as though he disliked what he did for a living. “I’m based here in Shanghai, but I travel a lot. Keeps me busy.” He filled up their glasses and signaled the waiter to bring a second bottle.
    “Maybe that’s a good thing,” she said, thinking about his deadwife, Ana Yuan. “Considering what happened . . . . I mean you keeping busy so you don’t have to think . . . .”
    He gave her a cold look and she stopped, conscious that she was, quite literally, getting into deep waters. She drank down the champagne.
    “And what are we going to do about your car?” Bennett said. She’d forgotten all about the car being stolen. He handed her his cell phone. “Here, better report it,” he said.
    Reporting it took longer than she’d thought, and by the time she was finished, so was the second bottle of champagne. Feeling deliciously woozy, at that moment Mary-Lou didn’t give a damn whether she saw the car again or not.
    “I live just down the road,” she said, inviting him with her eyes.
    He nodded, understanding. He paid the waiter, took her arm and walked her to the elevator. They stood apart, not talking, she with her head down staring at her red suede mules, thinking of what was to come, he gazing at the ceiling, his face expressionless.
    The guard was waiting with the Hummer and they drove a few short blocks to Mary-Lou’s building.
    Bennett eyed the modern skyscraper appreciatively. Asking the guard to have the car valet-parked, he dismissed him. “Tell me, Mary-Lou Chen,” he said, “how can a woman who sells copies of Mao and Buddha and some sort of ‘antiques’ afford to live in a place like this?”
    She smiled at him as the elevator took them up only threefloors of the skyscraper. “That’s because I’m a clever woman. Or hadn’t you noticed?” She opened the door and they went in.
    ‘“I was too busy noticing how beautiful you are,” he said, shutting the door behind him and grabbing her close.
    “ You feel like soft Chinese silk,” he murmured kissing her left ear. “And you