Free This Tangled Thing Called Love: A Contemporary Romance Novel by Marie Astor Page B

package on the floor. She had rushed all this way for nothing. The least David could have done was call her.
    She picked up her cell phone and dialed David’s number. His excuse had better be good. David’s cell phone went straight to voicemail, and Claire had no choice but to hang up. Sure, she was angry at him now, but she was fairly certain that her fury would subside eventually, and she did not want to say anything to David’s answering machine that she would regret later.
    However, there was still the matter of David’s anniversary gift. There was no way she was going to drag the lithograph back to her apartment. For the first time in dating David, Claire wished she had the key to his apartment. She had thought it awkward to ask, and he never offered, but now she saw the downside of her reticence.
    Claire made her way downstairs to leave the package with the doorman. She would just have to settle for hearing David’s reaction to it instead of seeing it.
    “Good evening there, Miss Chatfield.” The doorman tipped his hat.
    “Hi, Frank.” Claire smiled. Frank was the nicest of all the doormen in David’s building. By now, she knew them all. “I was wondering if you could do me a favor.”
    “Anything within my power.” Frank puffed out his chest.
    “Could I leave this package with you to give to David? It’s his anniversary gift, so could you make sure that he gets it tonight?”
    “Yes, of course – no problem.” Frank went around his desk and took the package from Claire. “Mr. Lawson is working late again, huh?”
    Claire nodded.
    “Well, not to worry. I have the night shift, so I’ll make sure he gets it.”
    “Great. Have a good night.”
    “You too, Miss Chatfield.”
    I’ll try , Claire thought. She knew she should not be angry at David, but presently, it was hard not to be. Well, she would just have to wait for his explanation. She was certain that it was bound to be a respectable one. This was the first time David Lawson had stood her up, and she sure as hell hoped that it was not going to become a habit of his.

Chapter 9
     
     
    David zipped up his trousers and looked himself over in the mirror. His tan was beginning to fade, and he made a mental note to stop by the tanning salon. Claudia never tired of saying how much she loved his body, and the tan made his muscles look more prominent. Lately, he had doubled his workouts at the gym, even blowing off work so that he could be buff enough for Claudia.
    It had been almost two months, but David still could not believe that he was having an affair with Claudia Block. “Having an affair” felt like such a tawdry expression to describe his feelings for Claudia. He literally worshipped the woman. She was the divine dream that had sustained him through the longings of adolescence, and never in his right mind had he hoped to one day have his pubescent fantasies come true.
    He must have been about ten when he first saw Claudia as a Bond girl, her appearance on the TV screen leaving an indelible impression on David, which would make Claudia about... David refused to think about Claudia’s age . T o him, Claudia was a goddess, and goddesses were ageless. Still, David shuddered to think what his friends would say of his involvement with a woman that much older than him , not to mention his father who , of course , was the main problem. For Claudia, David would shed his social circle in a moment. He would gladly become a recluse on some remote island as long as Claudia was with him. It was, in fact, a favorite fantasy of his: him and Claudia, alone on some exotic island — perhaps in Greece or Bora Bora, making love for hours on end, without any ties to the outside world. But his father...
    David frowned. If his father ever found out about Claudia, he would cut him off in a jiffy, and David was no fool. When it came to money, he understood the value of it only too well. Having grown up wealthy, he knew that living without money would be like trying