Immortal Obsession by Denise K. Rago Read Free Book Online Page A

just when it felt like her eyes would fall out of her head and she could not type or read another word. Sometimes he would translate French texts for her, and although she insisted on buying him dinner, he always refused, telling her how glad he was just to help her out.
    “How’s my favorite researcher?” A sultry male voice asked her.
    “TGIF.” She smiled to herself as she crossed over Park Avenue and headed back toward Fifth.
    “My God, Cole doesn’t have you guys working on the dinner dance yet?”
    She dared not tell him that Cole Thierry, her boss, had scheduled their first staff meeting about the infamous April dinner dance that afternoon.
    “Hey, it just started snowing, it’s so beautiful.” There was something about the snow that hypnotized her, although it reminded her of her father’s death on a March day over a decade ago.
    “I’ll take another look at that book on Monday night. I stopped by, but you were gone already.”
    Amanda had found an old French volume under some papers on her desk. It was not the first time she had inexplicably discovered a book on her desk that was useful to her current research project. Whenever she showed one of these books to Thomas, he would close his eyes and hold the book to his forehead as if he could magically discern its contents. Then she would hand him a pair of gloves and he would open it carefully, his long thin hands gently turning each page as if he were caressing a lover. No one in her department could figure out where the volumes came from, and they disappeared just a mysteriously, as if the lender knew when she was finished with them.
    Working together had brought Amanda and Thomas together professionally, and she had felt an instant attraction between them, but she was keeping her distance. They had an easy rapport, but she had been distracted, not sleeping well, and lost inside herself. Is it me , she thought, approaching the precinct. Am I just too fragile and distracted, or is it that I keep holding out for him?
    “Thanks again, Thomas.”
    “Any plans tonight?”
    She was so tired of having none, yet too honest to lie to him. “No, just thought I would take it easy. Maybe I’ll rent a movie.”
    “Listen, Amanda,” he said with a sigh, “I would love to take you out sometime. I haven’t pushed … I figured you needed time.”
    She slowed down as she turned onto 84 th Street.
    “Is it that obvious?” She felt tears well up. “I guess it would be naïve of me to think you hadn’t heard the gossip about my brother’s murder. Everyone talks, I know, but it’s …” She took a deep breath.
    “It’s not something I talk much about.”
    “I don’t want to upset you—”
    “No, it’s just so … It feels like a bad dream that I keep hoping to wake up from, but I don’t—”
    “I’m sorry for bringing it up, Amanda. The last thing I want to do is push you away from me.”
    She felt her knees buckle as his voice, with just a trace of a French accent, caressed her.
    “It’s not you, Thomas,” she said with a sigh. “I’m just so distracted.”
    “I don’t want to lose your friendship mon cherie.”
    “You won’t, Thomas. It’s just … There’s so much about my brother’s murder that’s unresolved for me, and I can’t seem to focus on much else. Call me obsessed.”
    “Even the obsessed need to go out dancing.”
    It had been so long since she had been on a date with anyone.
    Even before Ryan’s murder, she had rebuffed an intern in the legal department. Maybe if she went out and got her mind off her brother and the mysterious stranger, she might have a good time. Why can’t I stop thinking about him? She stared up at the street lamps and watched the falling snow, illuminated by the city lights.
    “Amanda, are you there?”
    She desperately needed to feel wanted, desirable. The stern face of the blond stranger loomed in her mind’s eye. Then she thought about Thomas, with his bright brown eyes and dimpled cheeks.