Turkish Delights Series by Liz Crowe Read Free Book Online Page B

orbit. If he got too close, he’d be gone. The powerful need to sweep her up, plop her on his couch and…. He shook his head to clear it. “Well?”
    She glared at him. The kettle whistled so he got busy making them tea so she wouldn’t see how his hands shook. When he turned around, she had the scarf off and stood entirely too close. He side-stepped her, but her perfume invaded his nose, making him shut his eyes briefly to regain his composure opening them again to speak to her.
    “Please, Guzelim , who can we call? We must get you home.”
    She sighed and took the tea glass he offered then looked up when a loud pounding sounded at his door. Levent frowned.
    “Levent! Brother! It’s me…let me in!” Burak rattled the doorknob and let himself in. Levent watched the other man’s smile freeze at the sight of the woman in his kitchen. He groaned. This was not good. “Well, hello, lovely lady.” Burak smiled. Vivian held out her hand, and he made a great show of kissing it. Levent rolled his eyes.
    “Back off, brother.” He stepped between them. A strange possessiveness stole over him, made him want to punch his good friend right in the eye. “We’re calling her driver. It’s not what you think.”
    Burak raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I’m quite sure that it’s not. My brother has a way with women you know. There’s always one up here, keeping him…company.”
    “Shut up, you idiot.” Levent growled. Vivian stared at him then at his friend.
    “Brother? I thought….”
    “No, no, my beautiful one.” Burak put an arm around Vivian’s shoulders, effectively shutting Levent out. “Brothers in blood. Not name.” Levent shot him a murderous look. “And never fear, he may have his finger in many pies, but his true heart will only belong to one. Ow!” Burak rubbed his head where Levent cuffed him.
    Vivian smiled over her shoulder at him, and his heart zinged. Then she turned back to Burak. “What is your name, handsome?”
    Burak grinned at her and walked her to the phone. “My name is Burak Ozdemir, and I am ever at your service. Shall I dial? Who are we calling?” Levent watched as his friend flirted and laughed with his heart’s desire. Leave it to that scoundrel to get the number out of her. She spoke softly into the phone as Burak poured himself a glass of tea. He looked at Levent, eyebrows raised. Levent shrugged.
    Vivian’s voice broke the quiet. “All right, Lillian’s driver is coming for me. He’s going to send someone to the construction site. My, um, driver is probably still there, waiting for me.”
    Levent groaned. “Dear God, Vivian, you left him there? Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Because, Levent, you grabbed me and yanked me here, remember?”
    Burak snorted into his tea glass. “Ever the knight in shining armor, our Levent.” They sat, the silence oozing awkwardly around the room. Levent wished that his friend would disappear. He watched Vivian stare out the window, worrying her lower lip with her teeth—a nervous gesture he’d come to know very well, once upon a time. Every nerve ending in his body twitched at her nearness. He had never in his life wanted anything so badly as he did her right at that moment.
     
    ***
     
    Vivian let the tears she’d been holding back trickle down her cheeks and drop onto her hands, clutched tight together in her lap. The Istanbul night whooshed by her window as Lillian’s driver spirited her home and Lillian kept talking. She tried to shut the girl’s infernal yapping out. To concentrate on Levent’s dark, handsome face.
    “Wow, that was one good looking guy.” Lillian kept insisting as she twirled her blonde curly hair around one finger. “That wasn’t the guy from the Dungeon though, was it Viv? Viv?” Vivian startled when Lillian snapped her fingers under her nose.
    “Huh? Oh, no. He’s a friend of that guy. Of Levent’s.”
    “You and your friends.” Lillian sighed and leaned her head back. “I’ll walk with you to the