Dangerous Ladies by Christina Dodd Read Free Book Online Page B

through and into the reception.

    The crowded room was painted a creamy gold, with one wall of bookcases rising to the tall ceiling. A log fire blazed in the immense stone fireplace on the far wall. Large, gilt-framed mirrors reflected the beautiful people who mingled, smiling, holding champagne glasses, and posing for photos. The men were in tuxedos, the women in black and sometimes a subdued blue. She was the only one in scarlet.
    Good. Let them notice her. Let them all notice her.
    As she stood in the doorway, conversations faded first nearby, then rippling out from the epicenter that was her.
    She took a long, slow breath that allowed her breasts to swell above the low neckline and eased the breathlessness that came with knowing that she stood here alone when she should have been on the arm of her fiancé. Alone because she’d been a fool. Because she had believed she could write a grocery list of the qualities she required in a man and check them off as if he were a hothouse cucumber.
    She took another long breath and smiled, a smile that glittered and beckoned, a smile she hoped would disguise her rage and project sexual readiness to all the eligible men in the room.
    And it must have worked, for a dozen tailored suits started in her direction—then halted when Uncle Charles broke free of the crowd with his hands outstretched.
    Her smile became one of genuine pleasure, and she took his hands.
    Charles McGrath was a dapper seventy years old with a shining bald head, sagging jowls, and a glorious smile. Years of criminal law hadn’t dimmed his enthusiasm for life, and the spring in his step and his frank appreciation for beauty attracted both friends and women. He was a bit of a chauvinist—he’d been amazed that Brandi could succeed so well in law school, and then that she wanted to work after marriage. But he had gamely subdued his male protective instinct and assigned her to Vivian Pelikan, one of the nation’s foremost—and most ruthless—criminal lawyers.

    Now he spread her arms wide and looked at her with a twinkle in his brown eyes. “You are stunning. Forgive me for saying so—I know no young woman should be compared to another woman—but you’ll permit an old man a little reminiscence.”
    “Of course.” She already knew what he was going to say.
    “You remind me of the first time I saw your mother. She was eighteen and the most glorious creature I had ever seen. I would have swooped in, but I was married at the time and had foolish ideas of fidelity.”
    “Good for you.” She must have been a little fierce, for he looked taken aback. She stepped forward and pressed her cheek to his. More quietly, she said, “I mean, that’s rare these days.”
    He misunderstood. Of course he did. He didn’t know about Alan.
    “Your father’s a fool. To leave a treasure like Tiffany for another woman—” He broke off. “But none of that tonight. You do look stunning. Who would have thought when I first met you at the age of three pirouetting around your father’s office in a leotard and tutu that you would grow so tall and so beautiful?”
    “Oh, yes. Ballerina Brandi.” The memories that gave Uncle Charles such pleasure made her want to writhe. “I danced up until the time the boys complained they couldn’t lift me because I was taller than them.” That wasn’t strictly the truth, but this was neither the time nor the place for her more truthful and bitter reminiscences.
    Uncle Charles threw back his head and laughed aloud. “Now you have the revenge. What happens to this magnificent dress if you let out your breath?”
    “Your party gets a lot more interesting.”
    “Breathe in,” he advised. “I’m too old to handle a stampede in my house. Now where’s your fiancé? I expected to see him.”
    She gave the response she’d been practicing, the one that said so much and so little. “You know he’s a resident.”
    “He’ll be sorry he missed you looking like this!”

    “He already is