With Extreme Pleasure Read Online Free PDF

cutting into her musings.
    “Good. Then you won’t be disappointed. Since this isn’t much of one.”
    “Cady?”
    “Fine,” she said, her easy surrender saying a lot about her state of mind. Alice’s beating must’ve been some sort of last straw because she hadn’t backed down after any she’d suffered in the past. “I want to know who’s home before I knock on the door. Last I knew, my father, that would be Edgar, topped off the workday with several pints. If he’s at the pub, that means I’ll only have my mother to face.”
    “You make it sound like a death sentence.”
    “You don’t know my mother.”
    “Tell me about her.”
    “I’d rather not. Besides, there’s nothing to tell. She cooks breakfast and lunch in a school cafeteria, then cooks dinner at home.”
    “Is she a good cook?”
    “Let’s just say she’s never met a canned food product she couldn’t find a use for.” Not that Cady would say no to a big plate of corned beef hash right about now.
    She popped free her seat belt and squirreled around, digging a couple of cracker packets from the box in the back. She hadn’t eaten all day.
    Behind her, King huffed. “I see cellophane’s not quite the same evil as aluminum.”
    “Sure it is. But I’m starving.” She offered him the second pack anyway.
    He shook his head. “Ferrer had a bon voyage lunch thing today. I think I ate at least three boxes of sandwiches and chips.”
    “How long have you been in the city?” she asked, grateful for the opening. A change of subject was way overdue.
    He glanced in his rearview mirror, signaled, and changed lanes to pass a slow-moving car. “I came up originally for the elopement party then stayed for the fragrance ad test shots. Three weeks, I guess.”
    “Awful long time for a party and some pictures,” she said, then popped a whole cracker into her mouth.
    “Yeah, but the biggest part of the visit was about seeing my cousin. You remember Simon?” he said, and she nodded, her mouth full. “We spent a long time out of touch, and just reconnected last year. Hanging out for a while seemed the thing to do.”
    “Why the estrangement?” She was curious to see if he’d contradict her, correct her, tell her that he and Simon hadn’t been estranged, just living their own lives, doing their own things. It was hard to imagine them being out of touch. They’d seemed close the times she’d seen them together.
    When he didn’t object to her question, she was thrilled. Not because she was right, but because her being right gave them a common ground.
    He shook his head, returned to his lane. “An old sad story from a long time ago that’s not worth me taking the time to tell you.”
    Meaning, it would be worth every gory word. “Juicy details?”
    “None.”
    “A woman?”
    He hesitated a fraction too long.
    “A-ha! There was.”
    King gave a loud, “Hmph,” as he checked traffic again, the setting sun glinting off the pricey sunglasses he pulled from the visor and put on. “Not in the way you’re thinking, but yeah. Lorna Savoy. She was there for what went down.”
    “What did go down?”
    He cocked his mouth into a half wicked smile. “You don’t need to know, boo. Hell, you don’t want to know.”
    More like he didn’t want to talk about it. She knew what that was like, steering clear of those things too personal to be kept as anything but secrets. Which, of course, had her curiosity climbing the proverbial walls.
    “Sure I do.” And she did, though the story could wait. Hearing it wasn’t the goal. “But what I really want to know is that you understand being family doesn’t guarantee sunshine and rainbows, or even open arms.”
    “Yeah, I understand,” he said, and then he shut up.
    Since there was nothing more to be said, Cady shut up, too. She dug for and found a bottle of water in her backpack, then rinsed the cracker crumbs and peanut butter from her mouth.
    After that, she would’ve closed her eyes and slept