Free By His Desire by Kate Grey

take off the blindfold after I’m gone.”
    And a minute later, he was.
     

 
    Chapter Five
    He’d managed to make it into the office today, but he’d skipped all his meetings. Now he was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands.
    He was going to call off their deal. But he couldn’t tell her the real reason.  He’d say he had to go out of the country, but since she’d honored her side of the bargain, the painting would still be hers.
    The memory of last night flashed into his mind again, and he groaned.
    The real reason he had to end it was that it mattered too much.
    She mattered too much. And it was starting to mess with his head.                
    He looked up, and his eyes fell on the reproduction of Nighthawks .
    The painting had been done in 1942. It showed a diner late at night with three customers, a man sitting on his own and a couple sitting together. The guy behind the counter was talking to the couple.
    Sarah had asked him why that painting was his favorite, and he’d hadn’t answered her.
    He’d seen the painting for the first time when he was eleven or twelve, and even back then he’d identified with the man sitting on his own. He didn’t look unhappy or lonely, or anything like that. He looked cool and solitary and complete within himself.
    He looked content.
    Now his eyes moved to the couple. They looked relaxed and easy, like they’d been together a long time. Like they belonged together.
    They looked happy.
    For the first time, he wondered what it would be like to identify with the man in the couple instead of the man sitting alone.
    At two o’clock in the afternoon, Valerie knocked on the door. Without waiting for an invitation to enter, she came in with a big brown box in her arms.
    “A messenger just dropped this off for you,” she said.
    He frowned at her. She was grinning, which was never a good sign. “Yeah? What is it?”
    In answer she set the box down on his floor, and jumping, cavorting, galumphing out of it came a Jack Russell terrier.
    His jaw dropped.
    He knew immediately who’d done this. There was only one person in the entire world who would have done this.
    Sarah Harper had gotten him a puppy.
    He couldn’t move. He just sat there, staring, as the puppy explored the office with over-the-top enthusiasm, discovering his existence after a few minutes with a frenzy of delight.
    The puppy was too small to be able to jump up on his lap, but that didn’t stop him from trying.
    After about thirty seconds of sitting there, frozen, while the small bundle of fur scrabbled at his pants and made eager, frantic puppy sounds, he gave in. He reached down and picked him up, holding him close enough that he was slathered in sloppy kisses.
    “My God,” Valerie said in hushed tones. “Who are you, and what have you done with my boss?”
    “I can’t believe she did this,” he murmured, setting the squirming puppy back down on the floor.
    “Who?”
    “Sarah Harper.”
    Valerie stared at him. “The one in the portrait?”
    “Yeah. I knew her in high school and we...uh...reconnected this week.”
    Valerie raised her eyebrows. “I see.”
    She was eloquently silent after that, and Keith frowned at her.
    “Wipe that grin off your face.”
    “I will not.”
    He looked away from her to watch the Jack Russell tear around the room. After a minute he paused to water a potted plant in the corner before charging off to attack a wastebasket.
    “Did you see that? He peed in my office. That little monster just peed in my office.”
    He realized he was grinning, too, when he met Valerie’s eyes again.
    “I’ll alert the cleaning company,” she said. “So why did Sarah Harper get you a puppy?”
    A tide of warmth rose up in him. “She wanted to make me happy.”
    “And did she?”
    He couldn’t seem to stop smiling. “Yeah, she did.” He paused for a moment. “She does.”
    * * *
    Sarah was sitting at her favorite desk in the library. Her computer was open in