The Flame Read Online Free PDF Page A

Cassidy, and there are so many events here. I would hate for you to associate it with something you’d regret later.”
    She approaches Clara with her arms out. And in an instant, she’s turned her half-hug into a single, steering arm clamped around Clara’s upper back. She guides the woman toward the kitchen. “Clara, it is so sweet that you’re this concerned for me—and for Andrew, and our marriage. But we’re fine. Really. Everything’s fine. And the event tomorrow will be fine, too, if you just go home and get some rest.”
    And maybe some wine and half a Xanax too, if it’ll help you mind your own business.
    “Are you sure?”
    No. I’m not sure of anything right now except I have no plans to cheat on my husband. Unless we’re counting, you know, candles .
    “Yes. Of course.”
    At the back door, Clara gives her one last pleading look. “Text me when you get home. Just so I know you’re safe.”
    “Of course, sweetheart. Of course.”
    She shuts the door as gently as she can, but it still feels as if she’s slammed it hard enough to rattle every window in the house and seal herself inside for eternity.
     

3
    ANDREW
    We’ll get through this, Andrew Burke thinks.
    He soaps his hair frantically. The spray sends punishingly hot water sluicing down the hard ridges of his muscular back.
    A little pain is good, he thinks. A little pain will help him forget the frosty phone call with his wife. And it’s not like the water’s scalding him. It’s just hot enough to distract him from the terrifying prospect he might have destroyed his marriage.
    If we got through that mess with Joe Lambert’s secretary, we can get through this, I’m sure of it.
    After all, what could be worse for your marriage than a beautiful woman in your office who won’t take no for an answer? A woman who stops you in the parking lot and won’t let you get by without forcing her to move—which, oh, by the way, means forcing you to touch her; a woman who makes things at work uncomfortable to the point of excruciating, leaving you no choice but to tell your wife about the situation because you don’t want her finding out from someone else, and because you’re a good husband and a good husband doesn’t let a zone of secrecy grow around a beautiful young woman who can’t take no for an answer.
    All told, it was a six-month ordeal demanding constant uncomfortable conversations with Cassidy, his boss, and even a few lawyers when the woman threatened to make a false accusation against him. But at the end of the day, Andrew got through it without doing anything he might regret someday, all without having some chest-thumping meltdown over the fact that sexual harassment also happens to men and he was one of them.
    He also didn’t give in to temptation in the first place. It was easy to lose sight of that fact given how long the ordeal dragged on. It was also more than he could say for his old frat brothers, most of whom were in the process of breaking their own marriages.
    Andrew, on the other hand, was a good guy. Better yet, he was a good husband. Why should those titles be revoked just because of a few minutes of crazy at some party?
    Well, for starters, douchebag, you actually did give in to temptation this time. So what if the temptation involved your wife? It was still—
    — still what ? He tries to answer himself. Forbidden? Hot? Inevitable?
    Thirty seconds.
    That’s how long he planned to spend in the shower. Just a quick rinse to get the product out of his hair, then a nice brisk swim to get the blood pumping. But he’s been soaping his head now like a parent trying to delouse their child. Which is stupid because he barely styled his hair at all that morning.
    When he’d first started working at Chaisson & Landry, he’d been an every-day-is-casual-Friday guy. Then Cassidy suggested to him that slacks, Oxfords, and a side part would probably earn him a little more respect from his colleagues, most of who are at least five