Free Public Secrets (Artificial Intelligence Book 1) by Liza O'Connor Page B

choke on her sandwich.
    “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to kill you with my rapier wit.” As she continued to cough, he patted her on her back. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded, but the tears streaming from her eyes and the continued coughing suggested she had yet to clear her windpipe. He poured her a large glass of water, which she gratefully took. Finally calmed, she eyed the remainder of the sandwich warily.
    He wiped the tears from her eyes, which now sparkled with happiness. God, it was a joy just being near her. She made him feel so alive!
    As he continued to stare at her, she turned self-conscious. “Aren’t you hungry?”
    “Very,” he replied.
    “There’s plenty to eat,” she reminded him.
    He didn’t miss the sparkle in her eye. She was fully aware of the double entendres in their conversation. “Don’t tease the lion, little girl. It might wake up.” He returned to the refrigerator to make his selection.
    “But I like to live dangerously,” she said as she continued eating her sandwich.
    “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
    After their appetites were satiated, Chad managed to create a very romantic environment in the living room with a roaring fire, soft music in the background and two large goblets of wine.
    “I should warn you, wine makes me sleepy,” Carla said.
    “That’s because it relaxes you.”
    “Yes, and then I doze off.”
    “Well, you don’t have to drive, so don’t worry about falling asleep.”
    “But I don’t want to fall asleep. I want to get to know everything about you.”
    A chill ran through Chad’s body. “Like what?” Paranoia crept into his mind.
    “Like...what’s your favorite flower?”
    “Flower?”
    “Uh-hum.” She leaned against his chest.
    “What’s yours?”
    “Well, it’s not wisteria, because the darn stuff won’t bloom. I think the angelic tulip.”
    “Not a rose?”
    “Well, the angelic tulip looks a bit like a rose, more like a peony, but it has no thorns.”
    Chad smiled. “A rose with no thorns.”
    She turned her head so she could see him better, causing her to slide into his waiting arm.
    She sighed. “You are so beautiful.”
    “I thought we had an agreement—no compliments.”
    “I wasn’t complimenting you. I was complaining.”
    “Complaining?”
    “You’re too handsome for me.”
    “And you’re too young for me.”
    “You have a mother complex?”
    “What are you really, nineteen?”
    “I told you my age. And it’s rude for you to make me repeat myself. It’s a painful topic.”
    “So you did. Let’s see...it was thirty-six, if I recall.”
    “Yep.” She released a deep sigh.
    “A little old to be a college student, isn’t it?”
    “I hope not. Dr. Wilson thinks he can teach me to sing.”
    “I’m sure he can.”
    “I mean professionally. It may be a pipe dream, but I want to try. I don’t like what I do now. I want to do something else.”
    “I’m sure you’ll do very well.”
    “Says a man who’s never heard me sing.”
    “I have too.”
    “When?”
    “On the plane. You have a beautiful voice.”
    She chuckled. “I thought you were claiming you could isolate my voice in the choir group and I was going to call you on that.”
    “Honestly, I couldn’t tell any of the choirs apart,” he admitted. “But when you sang as you left me in the plane, that I will remember always. You sounded like an angel.”
    “But would you pay money to hear me?”
    He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dime. He placed it in her hand. “Sing for me now.”
    She sang a sad little song from Evita about a young girl whose love affairs never worked out. Her voice mesmerized him.
    When she finished the last line— “So what happens now?” —she curled up in his arms and fell asleep.
    Chad watched her sleeping in his arms for several minutes. What the hell was he thinking, bringing such an innocent into the ugly public domain of his life? It would destroy her. She was much too open and honest. How would he ever