Irresistible You by Celeste O. Norfleet Read Free Book Online

happened I’m presuming,” Trey added.
    “Yeah, there was a blackout.”
    “New York, end of August, right,” Trey said.
    J.T. nodded.
    Trey smiled. “Let me guess, in a city of millions, you and an as yet unnamed lucky lady connected.”
    J.T. nodded again. “Traffic was crazy. I couldn’t get back uptown to the appointment, so I decided to check in at a nearby hotel. She was in line in front of me. The hotel was cash only and neither one of us had enough, so we made a deal and pooled our funds and got the last room.”
    “You shared a room together?”
    “Yeah, we did.”
    “Okay,” he said with a sly smile. “I get the picture, cut to the next morning, which one of you left first, you or her?”
    “I had to go move the car and take care of a few things. I needed to know if the blackout affected E-Corp. When I came back to the room, she was gone.” J.T. paused.
    “So what happened then?” Trey asked watching J.T. closely.
    “I looked for her when I returned to the hotel. She’d already left the room.” J.T. cleared his throat then hesitated. “I wanted to make sure that she would be okay.”
    “Of course,” Trey said not at all fooled.
    “She’d said that she was a dancer, so I went to a few Broadway and off-Broadway productions.”
    “You,” Trey asked, astonished by J.T.’s effort to find the mystery woman, “A Broadway show?”
    “Yes, me, taking in a Broadway musical,” J.T. said, with a trace of annoyance.
    “Wait a minute, is that the occurrence you mentioned?”
    “What occurrence?”
    “That’s what you called it. Apparently something happened in New York a few months back and you asked me to refer you to a local investigator.”
    J.T. instantly remembered the situation and his overly vague request. “Yeah, that’s right, she was the occurrence .”
    “Did you ever find her or see her again?” Trey asked.
    “Yeah, earlier today, right here in D.C. I found out that she’s dancing with the Capitol Dance Company in a production of Carmen .” He tossed the playbill onto Trey’s desk.
    Trey picked it up read the cover then laughed out loud at the irony. “You and Juliet Bridges shared a hotel room in the New City blackout. That must have been a hell of an occurrence.”
    J.T. sat down and sipped his coffee while eyeing his cousin sternly but the laughter continued. “Okay, you found Juliet, now what?” Trey asked when he finally stopped laughing.
    “That’s a good question.” J.T. paused for a moment as the idea dawned on him. “She’d be perfect.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I could use this.”
    “Use what?”
    “Bear with me,” J.T. said as he paused, stood, turned and laughed. He turned back to see Trey’s confused expression. “What if Juliet and I pooled our resources again? What if I offered her money in exchange for services rendered.”
    “Last I heard that kind of thing was illegal, even inside the Beltway?”
    “It says in there that she’s retiring from the stage soon. Ballet dancers can’t make but so much, surely she could use a part-time job.”
    “You’re talking about Juliet as the pawn, aren’t you?”
    J.T. nodded. “Exactly, but what would her incentive be?”
    “She could use a backer?” Trey initiated.
    “A backer?”
    “Yeah,” Trey said, “It’s widely known that Juliet is interested in starting a new dance company when she retires at the end of the season.”
    “That’s right. So if Mom can help finance a community center, surely I can do the same for Juliet’s dance company, right?” J.T. said.
    “So Juliet’s the pawn. She gets backing to help fund her dance company. You already have a working relationship with her, so to speak. You’ve joined forces for the greater good, no emotional ties no romantic baggage. It might just work.”
    J.T. frowned searching for a flaw in the plan. He sat down and looked across the desk at his cousin. “It’s too easy, too obvious.”
    “Not necessarily, sometimes simple is