A Date You Can't Refuse by Harley Jane Kozak Read Free Book Online

conferencetable. The table was modern, made of some alloy and topped with translucent mint-green glass. It was set for seven, but could probably seat twenty. Yuri gestured to a well-stocked bar and asked what I liked to drink.
    “Water,” I said. “With or without gas.”
    “Good girl.” He smiled and reached for a goblet.
    “Was that a test?” I asked. “What if I'd said double vodka, straight up?”
    “Then we would have a problem. And yes. Everything is a test. Now tell me,” he said. “What was it that made you change your mind and come work for me?”
    My heart stopped. I felt my face growing warm and my breath quicken. “Oh, you know. You're a persuasive man.”
    He turned and handed me the goblet, making eye contact. “But you're not easily persuaded. What was it?”
    My whole body was heating up. Could this be a hot flash, a decade or two early? I felt sweat gathering on my forehead. “I have a brother,” I said. “He lives in a kind of halfway house in Santa Barbara. It's expensive.”
    “Go on.” Yuri, I got the impression, already knew about P.B.
    “And you're paying me a very nice salary. Oh, by the way: Donatella tells me I'm to move in here. That's a little tricky.”
    “Why?”
    “For one thing, I visit my brother every week.”
    “But you're closer to Santa Barbara here than you are from your apartment.”
    “Yes, but my Uncle Theo always comes with me. I pick him up in Glendale.”
    Yuri continued to study me. I continued to sweat. I thought I'd done an okay job of changing the subject, but maybe not. “It can be worked out,” he said finally. “Kimberly my wife, deals with scheduling. Today, go home, pack what you'd need for a long weekend, and lock up your apartment. I want you here tomorrow. Have you any pets?”
    “No, and you don't have to pay my rent—”
    Yuri held up a hand. “I promised you, no expenses.”
    But money wasn't what bothered me. Living here made this whole thing less a job than a relocation, like boarding school. Or boot camp.
    A telephone rang. Yuri answered it and moved through sliding doors out onto a deck.
    I looked out after him, taking in a spectacular view of the Santa Monica Mountains, a vast expanse of wilderness and canyons that seemed incredible, existing so close to Los Angeles. Beyond the mountains was Malibu.
    I turned back to the huge room. His house appeared to be structurally identical to Donatella's, but done in pastel desert tones with black accents, a combination that, like Yuri's wardrobe, shouldn't have worked, but did. The black surface of the grand piano was covered in silver-framed family photos, including several of a yellow dog.
    The sliding glass opened, and Yuri came back in. “Sorry for the interruption. Ah, here's your male counterpart. This is Alik. My son.” He gestured behind me, and I turned.
    “Delighted to have you on the team,” Alik said, shaking my hand. I recognized him from Yuri's trial. The whole jury had noticed him, but especially the women. Alik Milos had his father's vitality and a lot more hair. He wore glasses, which made him look intelligent, in a dashing sort of way. I guessed him to be twenty-five, a decade or so older than Parashie, who was coming into the room now too. Did they have the same mother?
    “I'm happy to be here,” I said. “How many Milos children are there, by the way?”
    Yuri answered. “Only two. So far.”
    “That we know of,” Alik added, under his breath.
    “Unless you count Olive Oyl,” Kimberly said, entering the room and heading for the deck. “Hello, Wollie. Let's eat outside.”
    “My father should've been a Mormon,” Alik said, taking my arm and escorting me onto the deck. “Hundreds of children, dozens of wives. That would've made him happy.”
    “I am happy,” Yuri said.
    “Wollie, Alik's field is psychology,” Kimberly said. “He can't help himself, he psychoanalyzes everything that moves. Damn, there goes my visor.” She leaned over the deck, watching her