Time Enough for Love Read Online Free

offered a salaried position with the company. After three years of self-employment, the thought of a steady paycheck, employer-paid benefits, and scheduled vacations was tempting.
    The Data Tech headquarters was an easy commute from her house. The company was a fairly affluent one, and it showed in the design of the building. Tasteful Southwestern decor graced the spacious three-story lobby, allowing office workers, clients, and guests three different views of the magnificent metal sculpture of a flock of birds taking flight that seemed to lift off from the lobby floor.
    As Maggie joined the small crowd of people waiting for the elevator going down, she turned to look back at the sculpture. The people she’d met here were friendly and happy. She’d been told about a workout room in the basement, and that the food in the cafeteria was near gourmet quality. And salary raises were regular and generous. No, she wouldn’t mind working here at all.
    The elevator door slid open, and she turned to see that it was already crowded. Only a few people got on—there was no room for her.
    The crowd shifted slightly, and then she saw him.
    Chuck Della Croce. The gorgeous madman.
    He was standing in the elevator, fully dressed in arespectable-looking business suit. His hair was shorter, his mouth less tight and grim, but it was him, wasn’t it? He was facing her, and as she stared at him he briefly met her gaze.
    There was nothing there. No flicker of awareness, no sign of recognition. Nothing.
    Because it wasn’t Chuck Della Croce. It was his “younger self,” Charles. And this younger man hadn’t met her yet.
    The door closed, and he disappeared from view.
    Of all the ridiculous, silly thoughts! Of
course
it wasn’t Chuck Della Croce or even
Charles
Della Croce. It was simply someone who looked a lot like him.
    She was losing it, big time. As if time travel really existed. As if she actually believed Chuck’s delusional ravings.
    Still, Maggie moved quickly to the railing and looked down into the lobby. As she watched, the tall dark-haired man who may or may not have been Charles Della Croce came out of the elevator and walked across the tile floor, past the flying birds, talking to another man.
    Both men were pulling off their ties, and Chuck … Charles—whoever he was—shrugged out of his jacket in preparation for heading out into the late-afternoon sunshine.
    From this angle, this height, the top of his head sure looked familiar. Too bad he wasn’t naked—that would have clinched it. If he hadn’t been wearing his clothes, she would have known without a doubt whether or not this was the same man who’d pounded on her door the afternoon before.
    And then he laughed at something the other man said. Maggie caught only the briefest profile of his face, but it was enough to make her heart nearly stop beating. Whoever he was, when he smiled like that, he was impossibly handsome.
    As she watched, the man pushed open the heavy glass doors and headed toward the parking lot.
    By the time Maggie reached the lobby herself, he was long gone, and she’d nearly succeeded in convincing herself that seeing this man was a mere coincidence. So this guy looked like her gorgeous madman. A lot of men did. The phrase
tall, dark, and handsome
hadn’t become a cliché without reason.
    Still, she couldn’t keep herself from stopping at the main reception area. “Excuse me, is there a Charles Della Croce working here?”
    The woman behind the reception desk keyed the name into her computer. “Yes,” she said. “Dr. Della Croce. He’s upstairs in research and development.Oops, I’m sorry—I see he’s just left the building. Would you like to leave a message for him?”
    But Maggie was already backing away. “No. No, thank you.”
    Okay. There had to be a reasonable explanation for this. Such as, the madman knew he looked like this scientist and had borrowed his persona. She knew nearly all there was to know about Data Tech, after