His Girl Friday by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online

forever in those I few minutes.
    She went home to her lonely apartment, wishing her cousin were home. But the older woman, a ravishing blonde, wasn't due back for a while. Jenny spent most of | her working life on expeditions to rustic places, and Da-1 net a knew that it occasional y became dangerous. A man 1 had followed Jenny home once and tried to trail her. Later they'd learned that he was actual y an enemy agent, of al j things, trying to get information on the geology report ! Jenny had submit ed to Eugene Rit er's company. Those 1 strategic metals she prospected for were important to a lot ' of people, and not al of the interested parties were Amer-| icans. Even now, Jenny's let ers home were full of intriguing innuendos about her job, and Danet a worried about her. She had once secretly envied Jenny that exciting, gypsy existence, but the longer she was around Cabe, the les the life-style appealed. Just lately, the thought of leaving her job was disturbing. She refused to consider why. She opened the door and there was Jenny, tanned and blond and exuberant.
    "Dina!" she exclaimed, hugging the younger woman as she used the childhood nickname she'd always given Danet a. "Oh, how good to be home again!"
    "You're not supposed to be here!" Danet a cried, her face showing her surprised pleasure. "But, oh, I'm so glad you are! You look great!" And she did, too. Her long blond hair fel in soft waves, and her white pantsuit gave her an ultrasophisticated look. Her dark blue eyes sparkled with life as she laughed. Danet a watched her and thought, if only I looked like that. She actual y sighed as she put down her purse and kicked off her shoes.
    "How long can you stay?" Danet a asked as she went into the kitchen to cook something for supper.
    "Overnight," Jenny said, laughing at Danet a's expression. "I'm sorry, love, but I'm en route to a new site. And that's al I can tel you, so don't pry. Nothing to worry about. Except the lounge lizard there." She grimaced, glancing toward the radiator where Norman had draped himself, looking like a smal green dinosaur. "Norman keeps staring at me like he wonders how I'd taste."
    "He's not a meat eater. He's a vegetarian," Danet a reminded her. She explained the same point every time Jenny came home, and had for the past two years, ever since she'd talked Jenny into let ing her bring the smal pet into the apartment. Things had been fine until Norman began to grow. But he was undemanding company, house-trained and a walking deterrent to criminals. There had been one at empted break-in, and the perpetrator had run screaming from the apartment, almost colliding with Danet a in his terror. Norman had stood in the doorway with his mouth open, presenting his whip of a tail to lash at the intruder. When he was a few years older, that tail would be a rather dangerous weapon, too. But at the time, Danet a had never been more proud of him. Despite his prowes as a. watch-lizard, he was something of a trial to poor Jenny, and he'd frightened away one of her prospective boyfriends who had a terror of saurians.
    "What happens if he takes a bite out of me and likes it? Remember Captain Hook and the crocodile?" Jenny mumbled.
    "Norman's never had a taste of you." Danet a grinned. "Anyway, he likes you!"
    "Does he?" Jenny frowned. "How can you tel ?" she mused, watching the lizard's habitual y blank expres ion.
    "I can read his mind." Danet a studied her cousin. "I know you love your job, but is it real y neces ary, al this cloak-and-dagger stuff?" Jenny laughed delightedly. "Indeed it is. I think of this as a patriotic service to my country. Maybe even to the world, who knows? Now enough about me. Tel me al about you."
    "There's nothing to tel ," Danet a said with a grin. "I'm not beautiful like you.'
    "I'm not, you know. I just make the most of what I've got. In fact—" she studied her younger cousin "—so could you. You'd be an absolute dish if you tried. What is this compulsion you have to emulate