Secret Desires Read Online Free PDF Page A

coming along? Here, let me help you with those shoes," he offered as she wiggled her legs out from beneath her.
    "Thanks." She stretched her legs out over his lap and leaned back against the couch cushions, food in hand, as he undid the buckle on each. "It's fine. Though sometimes it feels like I'm back in school giving class presentations. The hardest part is having to explain things that make complete sense to me to a client who has no idea what I'm talking about."
    "Like when you tried explaining Twitter to Audra?" he chuckled. He slipped her shoes off her feet and set them down on the floor beside them, then took her feet in his hands and began to rub.
    "Yes! She kept referring to a hashtag as a pound sign."
    James chuckled again and continued rubbing, focusing his thumbs on the pads of her feet. "She's old school. But she really likes you."
    Natalie raised a dubious eyebrow. Audra Robertson was indeed old school. She was an old soul. Sometimes Natalie wondered what the Fitson Entertainment Groupe COO must have been like as a college student. Natalie couldn't picture her as a party girl or rushing a sorority. She was classy. Sophisticated. Her sister, on the other hand - Celine Robertson-(soon-to-be-ex)Fitzgerald must have been the party girl. The shared the same sophistication but it was Celine who looked like she not only rushed the sorority, but eventually ran it and everyone who belonged to it.
    "I can't imagine what her sister must think of me," Natalie muttered to herself.
    James moved his palms up Natalie's ankles to her calves and kept rubbing in circular motions. "What does it matter?" he asked.
    Natalie shrugged. "It shouldn't. But the way she looked at me at the hotel the other night..." She could see Celine's face clearly. At first glance she looked at Natalie with vague interest. But it was her eyes that gave her away, razor sharp and intuitive. "There's no way in hell that woman likes me. But she'll smile and pretend to be civil." She shook her head as if to shake her mind free of some trance she'd slipped into, lost in the memory of Celine's icy stare.
    James made long strokes up and down the lower half of her legs, pressing gently with the pads of his fingers into her skin. "You didn't have to leave," he said quietly, his eyes on his hands as they caressed her.
    "You only say that because you don't understand."
    "I think I do." He stopped his massage and looked up at her. "You've expressed reservations about being with someone who is still technically married. But I think I've been more than clear that my marriage is over. I have very little desire to even talk to her on the phone, let alone be in the same room with her."
    It was Natalie's turn to chuckle. "It's not about that. Maybe it's just a female thing. When guys compete for a girl it's testosterone-fueled posturing. You hit each other and then it's over and you drink a beer. Women are brain ninjas, complex beyond your understanding." She paused to let the point settle. "You and I are - at the most - dating. At the very least, hooking up." James opened his mouth to protest but Natalie sat up and put her hand in the space between them to stop him before he could utter so much as a syllable. "You have history with her. You dated her. Fell in love with her. Proposed to her. Married her. Were prepared to have children with her. That she kept secret from you the fact that you are not the father of her child is despicable, but indicative of a desire to still be with you. Otherwise she could have just split. And since finding out about me - about us - she's been dragging her feet with the divorce. So when she sees me come along..." Natalie couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her. "I mean... I'm younger. I look completely different from her. And you chose me. Given the little that I know of the woman, I'd say she's rather annoyed at losing to someone so different from her."
    James scrubbed his fingers through his hair, something Natalie knew he did