Songbird by Syrie James Read Free Book Online Page A

decide to can us, try somebody else.”
    “ Sounds too precarious for my blood.”
    “ Not me. Once you’re in the business, it’s like a compulsion. Any other job would pale in comparison.”
    She watched, transfixed, as his fingers gently rubbed across the back of her knuckles. The tingling sensations that began there raced the length of her arm, down through her body. She wondered what it would feel like if his fingers were to touch her in more intimate places, in places that had been so long denied, and even now seemed to swell with—
    She tore her eyes away and looked down at the table, drawing a mental curtain over the pictures forming in her mind. To her surprise, their plates were gone, replaced by steaming cups of coffee. When had the busboy stopped by?
    “ Cream?” he asked, letting go of her hand.
    “ Y…yes,” she managed in a strangled voice. Stop thinking of him that way, she scolded herself. You’ll drive yourself crazy.
    She took the pitcher of cream from him and allowed herself a small dab. “We’ve talked far too much about me. Tell me, how’d you come to be such a power in the business world?”
    He answered her questions simply, but with enthusiasm. He seemed proud of his achievements, and showed no trace of conceit or arrogance. He studied engineering in college, he told her, worked for a while at Boeing, and eventually decided to start his own company to manufacture tooling and parts for aircraft. The business mushroomed after a few years, and he invested in other companies, including an engineering firm. Sparkle Light was his latest acquisition.
    “ Why a soft-drink company?” she asked, after a rather bemused busboy had refilled their coffee cups for the third time. “Everything else is related to aerospace. It doesn’t seem to fit in.”
    He shrugged. “It looked profitable. Keeps things interesting.”
    “ And you started the whole thing on a shoestring.” She shook her head in amazement. “I’ll bet when the other kids were playing cowboys or cops and robbers, you were out learning how to close business deals.”
    He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he gazed out the window at the midnight-blue sky, which descended toward the rippling dark water in gradually lighter shades of blue.
    “ To tell you the truth, I never intended to go into business at all,” he said in a low voice. “From the time I saw Cary Grant in Only Angels Have Wings , all I ever wanted to do was fly. As a kid I was crazy about airplanes, helicopters, spaceships—anything that flew. I made models, read every book I could find on the subject. I vowed I’d someday be a commercial pilot or join the air force.”
    “ So that’s how you knew the answer to that obscure trivia question about the helicopter. I thought for sure I had you stumped on that one.”
    He grinned and reached for her hand again across the table. “Lucky for me I got it right.”
    Why did she feel such a sizzling jolt each time he touched her hand? “Then why didn’t you become a pilot? What happened to change your mind?”
    “ I didn’t change my mind.” To her surprise and disappointment he jerked his hand away. “Circumstances prevented me from becoming a pilot. I thought designing airplanes would be a good substitute for flying them, but…” He remained silent, staring moodily into his empty coffee cup.
    She read resentment and suppressed frustration in his gaze. Her fingers ached to reach out and touch his cheek, to smooth away the lines of tension she saw there. As she debated the advisability of such a move, he abruptly pushed back his chair and stood up.
    “ Well, what do you say we go, before they start charging us rent for this table?” Kyle said as he paid the check.
    Desiree fumbled for her purse and quickly followed Kyle out of the restaurant. Conversation was strained during the twenty-minute drive back to her house.
    She sank back into the Maserati’s deep leather-cushioned seat and watched the darkened