Touch of Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

but I don’t think that Brad would approve. I mean , he is my fiancé and all. I know I wouldn’t approve if it was the other way around.’
    ‘No problem .’ He didn’t seem upset with her refusal. Disappointed, for sure, but he wasn’t angry. ‘I just thought that with you, I’d actually enjoy the party, Elly. We do make a great team.’
    She had to agree that they did. Maybe they hadn’t seen each other for eight years, but the connection was definitely there. Just like in those long gone days of the drama club, they could talk about pretty much anything and actually enjoy each other’s company. They had been sitting at the restaurant for less than an hour, and she’d already told him more than she’d told Brad in a week. She didn’t dare to think about it. Instead, she smiled and took his number, more so to finish it off on a pleasant note than anything else. He told her jokingly that if she changed her mind during the week, he would be happy to have her.
    She was very certain she wouldn’t be taking him up on his offer. As tempting as it was, she had a fiancé and a wedding to plan. Fancy parties and handsome men didn’t really fit into her schedule, even if she couldn’t entirely quell her sense of regret. Some things couldn’t be changed.
    She couldn’t know that she was about to find out how wrong she really was. Her carefully built house of cards was ready to collapse and bury her in its rubble.

THREE
    Things unraveled pretty quickly. Elly had to wonder if fate had suddenly decided to make up for all those uneventful years by swamping her with one disaster after another.
    The chaos started with the fire alarm in the office building. It blared loudly enough to wake up a dead person, then all the floors were evacuated as a precaution. Apparently, someone on the second floor had managed to start the fire in the office’s kitchenette, and it had spread, creating thick billowing smoke that set off the alarm and the sprinkler system.
    She stood on the sidewalk, along with the rest of her colleagues, her wet hair plastered against her forehead as rivulets of water ran down her back. Her wet blouse clung to her body like a second skin, prompting her arms to wrap around her chest. The last thing she needed was for her male colleagues to notice that her bra was very flimsy.
    ‘I guess we should take off the rest of the day,’ her manager suggested. Elly was surprised that the project manager would propose to leave early but she didn’t complain. She glanced at her watch, elated to see that it was only four in the afternoon. If she hurried home, she would have enough time to change her clothes and go to talk to the florist. She had given up on the idea of sharing the trip with Brad; his visible reluctance to be involved with that particular detail of the wedding was impossible to ignore. Flowers were flowers, he reasoned, exasperated with the options and possibilities. So she would go and decide what she liked best, and he would be happy with it.
    She should have gott en suspicious the moment she opened the door. Soft, sexy jazz was weaving its way to every corner of the small, one-bedroom apartment she and Brad had shared for just over a year. Amazingly, she didn’t think anything of it, at first. Just that it meant Brad was home, that’s all.
    She kicked off her new pumps. Her toes were killing her after being squashed into the beautiful yet totally uncomfortable shoes. She flexed her feet and listened, wondering why he was home so early. His office hours were usually even worse than hers.
    T he shower was running, drumming on the paper-thin bathroom wall. For a second, she hesitated, wondering if she should join him. They hadn’t done anything spontaneous like that in ages. She walked over to their bedroom, eager to slip out of her soggy clothes. Maybe she would pass the opportunity, opting instead to get changed and eat something. As she started to unzip her charcoal pencil skirt, she considered