Free Untangling The Stars by Alyse Miller Page A

long bounce back, but if Guy would have answered the door with that same brooding intensity and seductive heat he’d given off the other day in her classroom, she’d probably have made a total ass out of herself right there in the hallway. She would much rather be the strong one, like always. Thinking that way helped her avoid jelly knees every time she looked at that chiseled jawline and mesmerizing eyes. Besides, she wasn’t exactly proud of the way she didn’t seem to be able to practice what she so often preached about separating the entertainment effect from reality. It was like she just dove into Guy’s spell at the mere mention of his name. Her students would be so ashamed.
    Pick the hill to die on , she thought. And Andie Foxglove was not going to give up without a flight.
     
    ***
     
    At first, she waited for Guy to reappear, but, after a few moments alone, Andie set her purse down on a small table and took a moment to survey the room around her. On the far side of the room, an entire wall was devoted to a massive picture window that showed off the beautiful lights sparkling across the skyline of downtown Denver. Far in the distance, the snow-tipped peaks of the Rockies were just visible in the twinkle of towering skyscrapers. Though Boulder and Denver were less than thirty miles apart, it had been a long time since Andie had made the trek from the foothills to the Mile High City. In fact, because she lived so close to campus and could easily get to nearly everything she needed on foot, it had been a while since she’d even taken her car out of the garage for a drive. Looking out the window, it almost felt like she’d left some small, forested village and wandered into some fantastical city of lights. The palatial suite, which was easily bigger than her entire loft apartment, didn’t do much to quell that feeling.
    Beyond the window, there was a large living room lined in overstuffed white couches that framed a fireplace burning with a pair of electronic logs so bright and crackling they could easily be mistaken for real ones. A fully stocked bar with a wide selection of stemware sparkled from the corner. There was also a pair of French doors to the left that opened, Andie guessed, into a bedroom. She could hear the sounds of water running as she pressed her ear against the glass. It was mildly tempting to open them in walk through…tempting in the same way poking at a sleeping snake was tempting.
    “Nice place,” she called through the closed doorway. No answer. The faucet turned off.
    She’d never admit it to another soul, but wandering around the expansive hotel suite, Andie almost felt liked she’d wandered into a real life set of Pretty Woman . It wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling. It awakened some of the sleeping butterflies in her belly and Andie silently begged them back to stillness. Any minute now, Guy would come walking out of that bedroom wearing an unbuttoned vest and holding a thick wad of cash as he approached to pay for “services” that Andie would be damned if she was going to render.
    Not that Guy hadn’t at least tried to butter her up a little. She wouldn’t have pegged him for a flower guy, but nevertheless a beautiful spring bouquet of peonies and tulips had arrived in her office yesterday, along with a card that said cryptically little. “The Ritz, Downtown Denver. Penthouse Suite. Ask for Dickey Valentine.” Dickey Valentine was one of Guy’s lesser-known alter egos from a low-budget gumshoe flick he’d made before he’d hit the big time and gone mainstream on prime time cable. Andie remembered it from a time she’d accidentally caught it on late night television when she’d been working on her dissertation. It was very noir, a much classier role for Guy that he’d fit perfectly into. With the flowers and the little bit of mystery, the whole thing seemed like some cute cheesy meet straight out of some dark noir, where two strangers don fake names and meet for a racy