The Man at Key West by Katrina Britt Read Free Book Online

offices.
    She waited for a long time for him to reappear, but as he did not she sailed in to attack the outer office leading to Bob Lilley’s inner sanctum. One of the typists at hand asked if she had an appointment and Sue nodded, deciding to be brash.
    The typist smiled and told her to take a seat as Mr. Lilley was already engaged, but she would tell him of her arrival in due course.
    Sue noticed as she sat down that the typists, four in all, all kept a north eye on the editor’s door.
    ‘Great, isn’t he?’ a pert little blonde cooed above the noise of tapping typewriters. ‘Jay Denver! Even his name sends prickles down your spine.’ Her deep sigh was almost like a groan. ‘What wouldn’t I give f or one night with him!’
    ‘He eats little typists like you for breakfast,’ chipped in an older firmer voice as an elderly woman entered, smartly dressed in a navy linen suit with white accessories. ‘You would have to be a Britt Ekland to get that one.’ She smiled at Sue, and in that moment the editor’s door opened and Jay strode out.
    Without looking to left or right, Jay took the intervening space in long economical strides and was gone. Sue turned after watching him go to see Bob Lilley crooking a finger at her from the doorway of his office.
    ‘Oh, Bob—just a minute,’ said the woman in the smart suit. ‘Have we got those pictures yet of the park?’
    Bob’s shrewd eyes looked down at Sue. ‘I’m hoping to produce them quite soon, Viv. You’re about to meet the latest offer in lifelines, Sue Blake.’
    Sue was ushered into the editor’s office and sat down nervously while he began to look through the photographs she had brought. After what seemed like hours he looked up smiling.
    ‘Got any more like these, Miss Blake?’ he asked, tossing them on his desk. Sue nodded. ‘Good. Cigarette?’ He offered a box of cigarettes from his desk and when Sue refused he took one for himself and set a lighter to it.
    ‘Don’t you like these?’ she asked, watching him.
    He blew out a line of tobacco smoke away from her. ‘Like them? They’re great! We can use them all, and more.’
    Sue left the office on air. Even the M.G. waiting at the kerb did not register for a moment.
    ‘Jay!’ she exclaimed as he lunged forward from leaning against his car.
    ‘How did it go?’ he asked lazily. ‘Did you get the job?’
    She stared up at him for a moment. ‘Now wait a minute,’ she said firmly. ‘I didn’t get it as a favour to you, did I?’
    ‘No. If your work hadn’t been up to standard you wouldn’t have been accepted.’ His face registered its usual mocking expression and the cynical look was there in his eyes. ‘What about going out with me this evening to celebrate?’
    Sue looked up at him with a frown. ‘Were you waiting for me?’
    He grinned. ‘I saw you dodge in that doorway there when I arrived,’ he told her, unabashed. ‘And I wasn’t here to see that you got the job—I didn’t know you were coming. My visit to the offices was purely business. So what about that date for this evening?’
    ‘I’m sure you have other engagements,’ she answered primly. ‘You know, I don’t think you and I have much in common. I’ve been skidding around all my life up to now trying to keep tags on a father who never stayed put two weeks together. You remind me too much of times I want to leave behind.’
    He straightened from leaning negligently against the car to tower over her. His smile was mocking.
    ‘Very well, come out with me now for a celebration drink. What’s wrong with that? Come on. You’re young and over twenty-one. Start living before it’s too late.’
    Sue lowered her gaze from his clean-shaven, well - shaped jaw-line. She felt a strong urge to run her fingers along it... to drown in the dark depths of his eyes. But for how long? Only until he had her in bed with him. She supposed there were men one could carry on an affair with and forget it when the passion had fizzled out,