2000 Kisses Read Free Page A

smile, caught between diffidence and triumph. “Well, I bought it.”
    “You bought it?” Tess remembered the string of zeroes in the price. “You never mentioned that to me.”
    “I think I needed time for it to sink in. I'm heading off tomorrow morning, actually. Things will be dead here with the cruise finally on its way.” Richard crooked hisfinger at a waiter hovering silently nearby. “I thought we'd share a special treat for the occasion.”
    Damien's brow rose. “Not the Chiteaud'-Yquem 1825?”
    Tess watched the men as if they were speaking Swahili. Behind them, the waiter pouted three glasses and offered each with a flourish, along with a napkin of antique Belgian linen.
    “To us,” Richard said solemnly. “To working hard and playing hard. May this gift from an old century ring in a new era of joy and abundance.”
    Tess took a careful sip and was instantly seduced by a concentrated sweetness that blended intense fruit and mellow acidity. 'It's wonderful.”
    “Beyond wonderful.” Richard closed his eyes, a look of reverence on his face. He took another sip and sighed audibly. “Paradise found.” Then he looked at Tess. “As for you, I want you out of the office and out of Boston. Things will be very slow here after the holidays, and Annie and the staff can take care of anything that comes up until you return.”
    Tess crooked one brow. “Until I return from where?”
    Richard raised his glass to a passing cruise bigwig. “Wherever you want. If not Kauai, how about Morocco?”
    Damien shook his head. “Not suitable for her.”
    “Oh? Then what is suitable for me?” Tess asked, amused by the man's presumption.
    “Someplace quiet with lots of color.” Damien nodded slowly. “Someplace with history.”
    Tess refused to take their fussing seriously. She wasn^t going to be maneuvered into a vacation that someone else chose for her.
    “Why don't you try New Orleans?” Richard tapped his jaw. “You'd love the food and the energy, and the weather is fabulous this time of year. What do you think, Damien?”
    “I think mystery and ancient secrets would appeal to her more, but that is just a feeling. New Orleans is certainly exotic. You could fly down tomorrow, my dear. Indulge in beignets, shrimp etouffee, and some marvelous jazz.”
    “You might as well have a fling while you're there,” Richard added helpfully.
    “A fling?”
    Richard's gray eyes were gentle. “That thing two people do. It involves heavy breathing and general insanity for about three days before reason returns. You'll be a new woman when you come back.”
    “Maybe I don't want to be a new woman.” For some reason the suggestion irritated her, and she swirled the wine in her glass, frowning. “But I'll consider it,” she lied. She wasn't going to have her love life arranged for her, and a fling was definitely
not
on her agenda.
    Not that she planned to dwindle away into middle age, successful, driven, and unhappy. Something would come up. The Frenchman might even be right in his predictions.
    A yacht cut through the channel, adrift in lights that sparkled and broke in the churning waves.
    “Twenty minutes until midnight.” A waiter made the grand announcement as the first chocolate dessert course was brought in with full fanfare.
    Damien mised his glass, then went very still. “Heat. I definitely see heat. Walls of stone the color of the sunset, and a city that rises to meet the sky.”
    “Are you picking up something, Damien?” Richardasked gravely. “I can always use a good stock tip. Something to do with urban utilities would be nice.”
    The man's voice was low. “Heat and color. I heard a sound clearly, almost like drums.”
    “You mean oil drums?” Richard looked confused.
    Tess frowned. “It has to do with me, not the stock market.”
    “Then you'd better believe him. Damien's never wrong.” Richard reached out to shake hands with a prominent senator with white hair and a ruddy face. Soon the two were