LITMIR.BIZ

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he was. But all he saw was the usual crowd milling around the dark-paneled, richly appointed, sumptuously decorated room. Bernie Stegman was, as usual, sitting in an oxblood leather wingback near the fireplace, chatting up Lucas Whidmore, who sat in an identical chair on the other side. Delores and Marion Hagemann were having a late dinner with Edith and Lawrence Byck at their usual table in the corner, the quartet framed by heavy velvet drapes the color of old money. Cynthia Harrison was doing her usual flirting with Stu, the usual Saturday bartender, who was sidestepping her advances with his usual aplomb. He would lose his job if he were caught canoodling with the patrons.

      Thoughts of canoodling brought Marcus’s ruminations back to the mysterious lady in red. Not that that was entirely surprising, since the minute he’d seen her sitting opposite him at Palumbo’s, canoodling had been at the forefront of his brain. She’d simply been that stunning. What was really strange, though, was that once he’d started talking to her at the Lyric, canoodling had fallen by the wayside, and what he’d really wanted to do with her was talk more about opera. And not only because she shared his unconventional opinions, either. But because of the way she’d lit up while talking about it. As beautiful as she’d been, seated alone at her table in the restaurant, she’d become radiant during their conversation.

      Radiant, he repeated to himself, frowning. Now there was a word he’d never used to describe a woman before. Then again, that could be because he’d seldom moved past the stage with a woman where he found her beautiful. Meaning he’d seldom reached a stage where he actually talked to one. Once he bedded a woman—and that usually came pretty early after meeting one—he lost interest. But that was because few women were worth knowing beyond the biblical sense.

      Unbidden, a reproving voice erupted in his brain, taking him to task for his less-than-stellar commentary, but it wasn’t his own. It was Charlotte’s sandpaper rasp, made that way by too many cigarettes over the course of her eighty-two years. More than once over the past two decades since making her acquaintance, he’d let slip some politically incorrect comment about the opposite sex, only to have her haul him up by his metaphorical collar—and sometimes by his not-so-metaphorical collar—to set him straight.

      God, he missed her.

      He glanced at the pink cosmopolitan sitting opposite his single malt on the table, the glass dewy with condensation since it had been sitting there for so long. The rose, too, had begun to wilt, its petals blackening at their edges. Even the opera program looked limp and tattered already. All of them were at the end of their lives. Just as Charlotte had been the last time he’d sat at this table looking in the same direction.

      She’d died two days after closing night at the Lyric. It had been seven months since her funeral, and Marcus still felt her loss keenly. He wondered, not for the first time, what happened after a soul left this world to enter the next. Was Charlotte still able to enjoy her occasional cosmo? Did they have performances of Verdi and Bizet where she was now? And was she able to enjoy the rare prime rib she’d loved to order at Palumbo’s?

      Marcus hoped so. Charlotte deserved only the best, wherever she was. Because the best was what she had always given him.

      A flash of red caught his eye, and Marcus glanced up. But it was only Emma Stegman, heading from the bar toward her father. Marcus scanned the room again for good measure but saw only more of the usual suspects. He knew everyone here, he thought. So why was he sitting alone? Hell, Stu the bartender wasn’t the only guy Cynthia Harrison had tried canoodling with. If Marcus wanted to, he could sidle up next to her and be headed to the Ambassador Hotel, which was adjacent to the club, in no time. And he sure wouldn’t lose his job for it. All he’d lose would be the empty feeling inside that had been with him since Charlotte’s death. Of course, the feeling would come back tomorrow, when he was alone again… .

      He lifted his glass and downed what was left of his Scotch, then, for good measure, downed Charlotte’s cosmopolitan, too, in one long gulp. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he waited for the taste to leave his mouth—how had she stood those things?—then opened them again …

      … to see a vision in red seated at a table on the other side of the room. He could not believe his good fortune. Seeing her one time had been chance. Seeing her twice had been lucky. Seeing her a third time …

      That could only be fate.

      Forgetting, for now, that he didn’t believe in such a thing, and before he risked losing her again, he immediately rose and crossed to where she was seated, signaling for Stu at the same time and gesturing toward her table. Without waiting to be invited, he pulled out the chair across from hers and seated himself.

      She glanced up at his appearance, surprise etched on her features. But her lips curled into the faintest of smiles, reassuring him. That was another new experience for him. He’d never had to be reassured of anything. On the contrary, he’d taken everything in life for granted. That was what happened when you were born into one of the Gold Coast’s oldest and most illustrious families. You got everything you wanted, often without even having to ask for it. In fact, you even got the things you didn’t ask for. Usually handed to you on a silver platter. Sometimes literally.

      “We have got to stop meeting like this.”

      This time it was she, not Marcus, who spoke the words he had said to her at the Lyric.

      “On the contrary,” he replied. “I’m beginning to like meeting you like this.”

      A hint of pink bloomed on her cheeks at his remark, and delight wound through his belly at seeing her blush. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d made a woman blush. Not shyly, anyway. Not becomingly. Usually, if he made a woman blush, it was because he’d suggested they do something in the bedroom that most of society considered shameful. It was all the more reason, in his opinion, why it should be enjoyed.

      But he was getting way ahead of himself. Anything in the bedroom with this woman was still, oh … hours away.

      “Mind if I join you?” he asked. “I think you already have.”

      He feigned surprise. “So I have. Then you’ll have to let me buy you a drink.”

      She opened her mouth to reply and, for a moment, he feared she would decline his offer. Another new experience for Marcus. Not only fearing a woman would turn him down—since that almost never happened—but also feeling a knot of disappointment in his chest at the possibility. On those rare occasions when a woman did turn him down, he simply shrugged it off and moved to the next one. Because, inevitably, there was always a next one. With this woman, however …

      Well, he couldn’t imagine a next one. Not even with Cynthia Harrison falling out of her dress less than ten feet away.

      “All right,” she finally said, as Stu arrived at their table. She looked at the bartender. “I’ll have a glass of champagne, please.”

      “Bring a bottle,” Marcus instructed before the bartender had a chance to get away. “The Perrier-Jouët Cuvée Belle Epoque. 2002.”

      “Really, that’s not necessary… .” she began, her voice trailing off on the last word.

      Deciding it was because she didn’t know how to address him—and because he wanted to give her his name so that he could get hers in return—he finished for her, “Marcus. Marcus—”

      “Don’t tell me your last name.”

      He halted before revealing it, less because she asked him not to than because he found her command curious.

      “Why not?”

      “Just don’t, that’s all.”

      He started to give it to her anyway—never let it be said that Marcus Fallon ever did as he was told—but for some reason decided to honor her request. That was even stranger, since never let it be said that Marcus Fallon did the honorable thing, either. “All right.” He lifted his right hand for her to shake. “And you are …?”

      She hesitated before taking his hand, then gingerly placed her own lightly against his. Her fingers were slender

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