Free Body Heat by Susan Fox Page A

decision, and I’m sure she had good reasons.” Gracie, as Louise’s assistant, knew about HR matters, but they were none of Nedda’s business.
    Earlier, Maura had made a spur-of-the-moment decision, when Virginia Canfield had assumed Jesse was a gardener, and hadn’t corrected her. After, Maura had thought it through. Without being able to read Jesse’s file, she couldn’t know whether the terms of his community service included confidentiality.
    “I bet Louise didn’t see him,” Nedda said darkly. “He looks like trouble.”
    It was exactly what Maura had first thought—and still believed—but for some reason she found herself saying, “He’s a hard worker, and we’re going to get a nice garden for the residents.”
    “Huh.” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t buying in.
    Maura headed back to her office. On her desk lay the blossom that had been in Jesse’s hair. She picked it up gently and lifted it to her nose. The scent was amazingly powerful for such a small, delicate thing. It contrasted with the rich musk she’d smelled when she had almost bumped into Jesse. Male sweat, earthy and not at all unpleasant. A foreign smell. The men in her life hadn’t been known for sweating. Yet, in her afternoon dream, she’d got the scent amazingly right.
    That was the reason she hadn’t been able to move, after almost plowing into him. She’d been analyzing the scent. Not fighting the urge to touch his dark skin, to tug his head down to hers, touch her tongue to his lips, and—
    Aagh! There she went again. Sexual fantasies? Why, she rarely even read the sex scenes in novels, just skimmed over them the way she did other scenes that she couldn’t relate to. What a bizarre day this had been.
    Unable to resist, she sniffed the blossom one more time, then tossed it into the wastepaper basket.
    She consulted her watch and realized she’d be late for dinner if she didn’t leave right now. Fortunately, her adoptive parents’ philosophy about clothing was to buy good quality, neutral items, and not fancy, dress-up clothes. They wouldn’t criticize her for wearing her office clothes to dinner.
    Of course if today’s streak of bad luck held, they’d be grilling her about how little she’d achieved by the ripe old age of thirty. On the career front, she’d update them on her efforts to win the promotion, but on the personal, single-at-thirty front, she had nothing to offer.
    Oh, drat! She’d never gotten around to calling Agnes to make sure it would be just the three of them.

Chapter 5
    W hen Maura walked into the dining room at her parents’ club and saw three heads at their table, she groaned. This was Jesse’s fault. If he hadn’t kept distracting her, she’d have remembered to phone.
    The host who was leading her across the room paused. “Is something wrong, ma’am?”
    Great, now she was getting “ma’am” rather than “miss.”
    “Nothing you can fix,” she muttered, forcing a smile and waving to her mother, who had seen her coming.
    As Maura reached the table, she was confronted by two men in gray suits, standing.
    “Hello, Timothy,” she said, giving the portly bald one a quick, formal hug and ignoring the younger man. Maybe if she pretended he wasn’t there, he’d go away. She leaned down and touched her cheek to her mother’s. “Hello, Agnes.” Their family had never been much for physical demonstrations of affection. Or verbal ones, for that matter.
    “Happy birthday, Maura.” Her mother smiled at her from a face that would have persuaded anyone in their right mind to never go out without sunscreen. “Your gift’s out in the car. Don’t forget to take it when you leave.”
    Far be it from her parents to create a public display as Maura squealed in delight over some dry textbook or pottery shard.
    “Maura,” Timothy said, “I’d like you to meet Professor Edward Mortimer. He’s a visiting lecturer and is considering joining our faculty next year.” Her father had