Heart Lies & Alibis Read Online Free Page B

so that's a relief. But you look to good to be the age I need you to be in order to not feel like one of those cougars I hear about." I watched him as his face broke into a grin and he started to laugh harder.
    He took an even firmer hold of my hand and the feel of his touch sent me spinning. I was convinced my heart might just pound out of my chest at any moment, if he kept touching me that way and why did I have to keep reminding myself to breathe?
    "Well, you are correct about part of that assessment at least. I am perfectly legal. I'm 27 but I will be 28 by the end of next month." He smiled again as if that made everything alright.
    I wanted to fan myself. "Oh well that makes all the difference doesn't it? Twenty-seven, you say? Wow." My head was really spinning at this point. He was nearly thirteen years my junior which meant he wasn't even in kindergarten when I graduated high school? Oh my lord, what was I doing?
    He leaned a bit further across the table, his eyes looking deeply into mine I thought I would never want to blink again. "But as for it being a problem for us, I think you're wrong about that. I think things between us could be very nice." He brought my hand to his lips, brushing them across my knuckles, while his eyes told me exactly what he hoped could be happening between us. I just stared back at him. This boy was smooth that was for sure.
    We continued to make small talk. I gave him the usual biographical details one shares with a stranger in a bar. I told him I was a lawyer, born in Iowa, without any real family to speak of but I left out the part about my impending divorce.
    Beyond his name, I learned little about him during our conversation. He had a way of answering and steering the conversation without offering many personal details. I was about to ask him some more personal questions when someone called to him from behind the bar and he rose to go back to work.
    Leaning close enough that I could feel his breath on my ear when he spoke he said "Don't leave yet Reagan. Okay? I would really like to talk to you a bit more." Before I could I answer he turned and walked away. What the hell was I going to do now?
     

Chapter 3
     
    I needed to think for a moment. Somewhere alone where I could get my head straight. The bathroom. Yes, I could splash some cool water on my face, have a moment to collect myself. I knew I needed to think about exactly where, if anywhere, I wanted this evening to go before anything happened.
    I slipped out of the booth and bee-lined to the restroom. Thankfully the single stall room was empty and I locked the door behind me, leaning heavily against it. My head was really spinning now – from the whiskey, the emotional roller coaster my life had been on the last 24 hours but mostly from the Declan's touch. It had been almost 15 years since any man besides Thad had touched me and made me feel alive and like a desirable woman and it was intoxicating. Besides, Thad had failed epically in that arena these past few years and I was more than ready for more. But was I willing to take this step? To let whatever was or wasn't about to happen between Declan and I be realized? Though Thad had cheated first was I really ready throw my marriage away forever?
    You bet your ass I was. I was a woman who hadn't really been in love with her husband for a long time despite the lies she had tried to tell herself. As depressing as it was to finally admit, it was the truth. But crap. Was I ready to take this big of a step so fast? And with a guy this young?
    I walked to the sink and splashed some water on my face and then looked at the woman in the mirror. I knew beyond a doubt I wanted to do this, whatever this might be, more than I had wanted anything in a long time.
    Thad gave me a door out by fucking Amberly and I was going to walk through it. I was forty years old and I deserved to be happy and tonight, Declan was exactly what was going to make me happy.
    My table was still empty when I returned