Loonglow Read Online Free Page A

stepson. And you’re—”
    â€œLucky to meet you, I’m sure.” She smiled joylessly, slipping her hand from his and staring down into her drink.
    â€œYou’ll have to be more sincere, or I’ll be forced to call the bouncer.”
    â€œWhy don’t you do that,” she suggested dully, throwing back her head to swallow a sizable percentage of her drink. This seemed to rouse her. “What’s the matter?” she went on. “Afraid the minute your back is turned I’ll start going down on the clams?”
    â€œPardon?” Clay glanced around.
    â€œSilly me,” came her sly drawl, “I guess you don’t get many brash Italians in the genteel neighborhoods of Tennessee—not even Italians tasteful enough to be part French. But then you already know that, Mr. Lee, the same way you know my name and no doubt my shoe size.”
    Momentarily speechless, Clay stared into two emerald specters of anger. Who had told her that he’d wanted her to come—Wynn? Her date? “Clay,” he managed. She eyed him coldly, slicing a drink off a passing tray and downing it without missing a beat. “How’d you know I had you invited here, Mia?”
    â€œWhy’d you want me here”—her voice was steely—“ Clay? ” Her face was only slightly flushed from liquor.
    The alcohol he had drunk earlier was starting to affect him, Clay realized. She had succeeded in unnerving him completely; beauty and angry omnipotence were an unsettling combination. None of this, however, was altering the agonizing state of arousal he’d been in since he’d first laid eyes on her in that dress—when he could so clearly have used the blood elsewhere.
    The face of the girl she’d abandoned at the restaurant loomed before him for an instant. How could he explain his actions, his desire for this woman now before him? He cast about in vain for some convincing explanation. The words were out of his mouth before he realized it. “I invited you here, Mia,” he said, “to learn how you could have done it.” The slightly arched eyebrow only sped his inevitable demise. “How you could take the sweetest girl I’ve ever seen and just break her heart.”
    He would have given anything not to have said it. All that effort to get her here and now he’d blown it completely. He was an asshole. He was king of assholes. All emotion drained from Mia’s face; she stood, a perfect mannequin, staring past him out into the crowd. “Oh, I see,” she said distantly. “You’re a friend of Louey’s.” She put her glass down, her voice chillingly polite. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t stay.” Before he could respond, she strode from the apartment, leaving Clay with an open mouth and the certainty that this time he would never meet her again. The banner of her black hair against a flash of glistening white shoulder was the last thing he saw before the door closed behind her.

Monday, 5:48, Louey spotted Mia making her way through the crowd on the Seventh Avenue uptown express. She called her name.
    Mia kept walking, and Louey called out “Mia!” again, louder, blushing. This time Mia had to have heard her, but she didn’t answer, continuing to make her way through to the next car. The other passengers eyed Louey impassively as she hurried to catch up, her face contorted, an advertisement for stupidity and shame. All the same, she forged ahead, entering the next car just as Mia reached the halfway mark ahead of her. Despite the fact that it was both fully lit and air-conditioned, Mia continued through it, side-stepping assorted white-haired women and dark-eyed boys at the peak of their sexual potency.
    A little hoarsely Louey said her name again. This time Mia was at the end of the car; she stepped into the next one, closing the door behind her. It seemed to Louey that Mia was moving even