Passion's Promise Read Online Free PDF Page B

doorway with a small split of champagne in one hand."
    "For your wedding night Marcus."
    "George, you're beautiful." George danced down the stairs with a wave, and Mark closed the door with a burst of laughter. "Hey, Kezia! Could you dig a glass of champagne?" She returned to the room smiling and naked, her hair swinging loose down her back, the vision of champagne at La Grenouille in the Dior dress bringing laughter to her eyes now. The comparison was absurd.
    She lounged in the doorway, her head to one side, watching him open the champagne. And suddenly she felt as though she loved him, and that was absurd too. They both knew she didn't. It wasn't that kind of thing. They both understood . . . but it would have been nice not to understand, just for a moment. Not to be rational, or make sense. It would have been lovely to love him, to love someone—anyone—and why not Mark?
    "I missed you, Kezia."
    "So did I, darling. So did I. And I also wondered if you had another lady by now." She smiled and took a sip of the too-sweet, bubbly wine. "I was queasy as hell about coming up. I even stopped and had some wine at The Partridge with George."
    "Asshole. You could have come here first."
    "I was afraid to." She walked toward him and traced a finger across his chest as he looked down at her.
    "You know something weird, Kezia?"
    "What?" Her eyes filled with dreams.
    "I've got syphilis."
    "WHAT!" She stared at him, horrified, and he chuckled.
    "I just wondered what you'd say. I don't really have it." But he looked amused at his joke.
    "Jesus." She settled back into his arms with a shake of the head and a grin. "I'm not so sure about your sense of humor, kiddo." But it was the same Mark.
    He followed her into the bedroom and his voice sounded husky as he spoke from behind her. "I saw a picture of some girl in the paper the other day. She looked sort of like you, only older, and very uptight."
    There was a question in his voice. One she was not planning to answer.
    "So?"
    "Her last name was French. Not 'Miller,' but her first name was blurred. I couldn't read it. You related to anyone like that? She looked pretty fancy."
    "No, I'm not related to anyone like that. Why?" And now the lies had even begun with Mark. Not just sins of omission; now they were sins of commission too. Damn.
    "I don't know. I was just curious. She was interesting looking, in a fierce, unhappy sort of way."
    "And you fell in love with her, and decided that you had to find her and rescue her, so you could both live happily ever after. Right?" Her voice was light, but not as light as she wanted it to be. His answer was lost as he kissed her and eased her gently onto the bed. There was at least an hour of truth amid the lifetime of lies. Bodies are generally honest .

Chapter 3
    "Ready?"
    "Ready." Whit smiled at her across the last of Iheir coffee and mousse au chocolat. They were two hours late for the Marshes' party at the St. Regis, but no one would notice. The Marshes had invited more than five hundred guests.
    Kezia was resplendent in a blue-gray satin dress that circled her neck in a halter and left her back bare to show her deep summer tan. Small diamond earrings glistened at her ears, and her hair was swept into a neat knot high on her head. Whit's impeccable evening clothes set off his classic good looks. They made a very spectacular couple. By now, they took it for granted.
    The crowd at the entrance to the Maisonette at the St. Regis was enormous. Elegantly dinner-jacketed men whose names appeared regularly in Fortune; women in diamonds and Balenciagas and Givenchys and Diors whose faces and living rooms appeared constantly in Vogue. European titles, American scions of society, friends from Palm Beach and Grosse Pointe and Scottsdale and Beverly Hills. The Marshes bad outdone themselves. Waiters circulated through the ever-thickening crowd, offering Moet et Chan-don champagne and little platters boasting caviar and pate.
    There was cold lobster on a buffet