The Switch by Sandra Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

the shuttle, I mow some real food."
    "Space cuisine isn't that tasty?"
    "It's okay, but... it... you know..."
    She'd been involved in what he was saying, so until his voice dwindled to nothing she wasn't even aware that she had been sucking hard on the side of her index finger and licking it with her tongue. That's where his focus was. It was that he was concentrating on, not the food the astronauts ate on the space shuttle.
    Flushed and self-conscious, she lowered her hand to her lap. "Paper cut," she said gruffly. "From the sack. I think... salt... or something got..."
    Then she stopped talking, too, because he wasn't listening. He was watching her lips move, but he wasn't paying attention to the words, and frankly neither was she. She was watching him watching her mouth, and it made her tummy feel weightless despite the amount of food she had gobbled.
    Finally his eyes reconnected with hers. "What were we talking about?"
    On his way to his car, Dale Gordon tossed his unopened takeout sack of food into a trash receptacle because he was far too upset to eat.
    Verging on nausea, he got into his car and slumped in the driver's seat. Folding his hands over the steering wheel, he rested his clammy forehead against them and gulped in air through his mouth to stave off his gag reflex. Tears trickled from his eyes onto the backs of his clenched hands.
    He broke a cold sweat. It was a mild night, but not so warm as to warrant his profuse sweating. His T-shirt was soaked through with perspiration by the time Gillian Lloyd and the tall, handsome man came out of the restaurant with their order. They were chatting and laughing as they climbed into a Lexus, which she drove away.
    Dale Gordon fumbled his ignition key in his haste to start his car and follow them. It was a short drive to the fancy schmancy hotel. He'd heard of it, but he'd never been there. The tree trunks in the entry courtyard were covered with lights, even though it wasn't Christmas. The water in the tiered fountain sparkled and splashed.
    The Lexus glided into the circular driveway. Dale Gordon cruised past. He drove to the end of the block, executed a three-point turn, and doubled back. He could see them getting out of the car with the assistance of a parking valet and heading for the discreet entrance beneath the white canopy.
    Gillian Lloyd was going into a hotel with a man. A man who'd been publicly groping her as though she were his property. She had permitted his manhandling. No, she had seemed to welcome it.
    This shattered Dale Gordon's world.
    "What's it like?" Chief had finished eating and was leaning back against the sofa, one knee raised, one hand draped over it holding his highball glass.
    She was looking at his hand, at the casual way his strong fingers held the glass by the rim. Great hands. Rousing herself, she addressed his question. "What's what like?"
    "Having an identical twin."
    She gathered up the last of the paper wrappers and napkins and stuffed them into the empty sack. "You know how you feel when you're asked what it's like in space?"
    "Impossible to answer and you get tired of trying?" She smiled. "Something like that."
    "Sorry."
    "It's a common question. I forgive you."
    "Good. Because I would forgive you just about anything when you look at me like that."
    She lowered her voice to match the intimate pitch of his. "How am I looking at you?"
    "The same way you were looking at me during my speech." "I was being politely attentive."
    "You were being pointedly suggestive."
    "I wasn't looking at you in any special way."
    "Oh, yes, you were."
    "Not that I'm conceding the argument, Colonel, but how did you imagine that I was looking at you?"
    "Like you knew damn well that I could barely keep my mind on my speech for looking at your legs."
    "I was assigned that particular seat at that particular table," she retorted. "I didn't select it because it placed me in your direct line of sight."
    "But you took full advantage of it."
    She gave a noncommittal