Trust in Me by Kathryn Shay Read Free Book Online Page A

an awful lot of time with this guy?
    No, she shouldn’t share any of this with Linc, though she wasn’t sure she could hide it from him. He was her best friend, her veritable Rock of Gibraltar, but she should try to keep Philip’s pass from him. Just like she kept her feelings about Linc as a man to herself, and by tacit agreement, he did the same.
    Margo shut off the lights and strode to the spacious foyer to secure the door and the alarm system for the night. Then she headed to the spare room she’d converted into an exercise area. It was connected to the guest room by an oversize bathroom with a Jacuzzi. She stretched briefly, then stepped onto the Nordic Trac, hoping to exorcise the sleep demons.
    But this room conjured other images. As she stared at the doorway, she remembered Linc standing there, two months before...
    She’d been working out while he took a whirlpool bath. He’d come to the doorway when he’d finished, clothed only in brief navy gym shorts, his skin glowing a rosy hue from the hot water. Droplets dotted his broad shoulders and chest. That boyish shock of chestnut hair fell around his always-mischievous eyes. Watching him, the desire she’d kept for years in an emotional container marked NO ACCESS had threatened to erupt. She’d gripped the exercise machine bars and picked up her speed.
    “That felt great,” he’d said.
    “Good.”
    He’d shot her a puzzled look but hadn’t said anything else....
    Angry at giving in to the temptation to wallow in the sensual images of Linc, Margo swore, purposely using words which would offend his minister morality. It helped to remind her that no matter what happened in their past, they had no future together.
    They were at opposite ends of the salvation scale. Lucifer himself might rejoice in his taunting of them with their lustful feelings but no benevolent deity was going to bless their union.
    By morning, she’d convinced herself.
    o0o
    PHILIP Hathaway’s office was a palace compared to Margo’s. Next door to the CEO—they shared a reception area which housed the executive assistant, Geraldine—it was the size of two junior executive offices, had a row of windows facing Sixth Avenue and a chrome and glass desk with a recliner like chair behind it. Bookcases lined the walls, sporting many of the awards he’d earned in his career at the company for which he was now second in command.
    As Margo entered the plush surroundings, Philip sat off to the side at the conference table, seven of the upholstered chairs occupied by him and the department heads. Since Mark Linstrom had retired, she was filling in for the engineering department. If she took his place and became VP of Engineering, she’d attend this level of meetings regularly.
    “I thought I’d shit when that bear came outta the woods,” the vice president of Sales quipped.
    “You and me both, buddy.” Philip shrugged out of his cashmere sports coat and Margo glanced down at her outfit.
    One of the few business concessions she refused to make was dressing like a man. Today she wore a light green sheath with a multicolored scarf at her waist. As with everything, she preferred heels.
    He noticed her in the doorway. “Oh, hello, Margo.”
    “Hi guys.” She entered casually and she circled around to the empty chair.
    Philip glanced pointedly at the clock. “We’re all here. I guess we can get started.”
    Eight fifty-five. “Am I late?” she asked, knowing she wasn’t.
    “No, no.” Jonathan Norton, from Research and Development, smiled. “You gave us time to rehash our Deliverance experience.”
    “Deliverance?”
    “Margo’s young, Jon. She doesn’t know the movie.”
    “I know the movie.” Margo was irritated but careful not to show it. “I just don’t know what you’re referring to.”
    “We spent some time at Philip’s cabin on Glenora Lake this weekend,” Bill Smith, the head of manufacturing, told her. “It was...an experience.” He grinned a Burt Reynolds