A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [84]
“I really think we should start with—”
“You read my palm, Sabina. You must know that I don’t take no for an answer.” Alec pushed back from the table and walked to the door. “See you this evening.”
When he reached the street, he turned back and looked through the glass-paned door to find Sabina staring at him, an odd frown on her face. Alec gave her a little wave, then stepped to the curb to hail a cab. But when the cab pulled up, he hesitated, then pulled open the passenger-side door. “Can you wait a few seconds?”
The cabbie nodded and Alec strode back inside the shop. She was standing where he’d left her, toying with her necklace as she had earlier. Without hesitation, Alec reached around her waist and drew her up against his body. A moment later, he lost himself in the taste of her mouth. A tiny cry of surprise slipped from her throat, but then she softened in his arms and returned the kiss, her tongue gently teasing at his.
Alec could have stood there for the rest of the day, kissing her, letting the waves of desire wash over him. But there would be time for that later. He drew away and smiled. “I’m not sure why I did that,” he whispered. “But if you figure it out, let me know.”
With that, he turned and walked out of the shop. As he hopped into the cab, Alec chuckled to himself. So maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to mix business with pleasure. Besides, from the very moment had Sabina touched him, all thoughts of business had disappeared from his head. Right now, he had one task at hand—romancing Sabina Amanar. And that would be nothing but pleasure.
CHAPTER TWO
“HOW DO I LOOK?”
Sabina stood in the center of the shop and twirled around once. Chloe Kincaid watched her from behind the counter, a lollipop stuck in her mouth. Asking Chloe was probably not the best choice considering that the twenty-two-year-old graduate student preferred to dress like a vampire. Her lips were painted a bright red and her pink-streaked black hair stuck up in unruly shocks.
“What are you going for?” Chloe asked.
She smoothed her hands over the embroidered blue silk. “Sexy, but not too sexy. Interesting. Maybe a little aloof, but approachable. Mysterious?”
Chloe stared at her a long moment, her head tipped to the side. “I’m not sure a dress can do all that. Maybe you ought to try therapy.”
Sabina was well used to Chloe’s arid sense of humor. “Well, do I at least look pretty?”
She shrugged. “Yeah.”
Sabina’s spirits lifted. She’d designed the dress herself out of a piece of vintage silk she’d found in a store in SoHo. Body-skimming and sleeveless, with a fitted waist and skirt, the dress was Asian in influence, with a bit of Village bohemian tossed in. And the deep sapphire color was perfect. “Maybe I should wear something a bit more conservative. I have a little black cocktail dress that—”
“You are a goddess,” Chloe replied flatly, turning back to the magazine she was reading. “I do like the necklace.”
Sabina reached up, surprised to find that she still wore the love charm her grandmother had given her. She carefully tucked it beneath the mandarin collar of the dress.
“I’ve got one of those, too,” Chloe said, holding up a clay amulet nearly identical to Sabina’s. “Your grandmother gave it to me for Christmas last year, and since then my sex life has been fantastic.”
“Really?” Sabina asked. “Then you think it works?”
Chloe nodded as she blew a bubble with her gum. The bubble popped and she smiled. “Oh, yeah. Ruta knows what she’s doing. I’ve had more boys than I can handle.”
Sabina admired her grandmother’s abilities, but she had never placed much faith in the magic that Ruta practiced. Sabina had learned that telling someone’s fortune was more about reading their behaviors and attitudes, about drawing conclusions from carefully asked questions, than actually seeing into the future. As for charms, how could a simple clay disk wield any mystical power over a man?
But