Blonde With a Wand Read Free Page A

fine with parting ways—no tears, no drunk dialing, no trumped-up visits to the brokerage house where he worked. He hadn’t run into her again until now. He was relieved that she’d remained at the bar and hadn’t wandered over during the meal, which might have been awkward.
    Anica’s suggestion about the chocolate mousse in a to-go box had fired his imagination, and he could hardly wait for her to get back from the bathroom. Her apartment was within walking distance, a happy coincidence that meant they could have a romantic stroll to build the anticipation.
    Weather conditions weren’t ideal for a stroll—icy March winds still blew down Chicago’s streets—but the breezes were subtly different these days, a shade warmer than they had been even a week ago. Spring was hovering, ready to swoop in and transform the city. Jasper planned on having sex with Anica tonight, but he’d thought way beyond that.
    Spring was a perfect time to start a relationship, with buds opening, sap rising . . . yeah, the sap was rising in him, all right. This time, though, sexual attraction wasn’t the only emotion driving him. He admired her body, but he also admired her intelligence and business savvy.
    She’d opened a downtown coffee shop in an area Starbucks hadn’t mined because there was nothing to draw a nighttime crowd. Anica kept Wicked Brew open weekdays only from seven to four and made a killing from the office workers who didn’t have time to walk several blocks to Starbucks.
    Admittedly, though, he hadn’t been thinking much about her business smarts tonight. Tonight he wanted to peel the clothes from her luscious, long-limbed body. He wanted to take the pins out of her blond hair.
    The image of undressing her made his cock hard. Because he’d have to wait a while before doing anything about that, he distracted himself by concentrating on the bill. As always, he gave a generous tip in honor of the nights during his college career when he’d held down this kind of job. God, had it really been ten years ago?
    As he signed his name to the credit card slip, he glanced up to check Sheila’s seat at the bar. She wasn’t there. So maybe she’d left.
    Or not. A woman was heading into the restroom. The light was dim back there, but he had a bad feeling that woman going into the door marked with a stylized W could be Sheila.
    That might not matter, though. Anica was due back any second, and besides, she’d never met Sheila. The woman in the bathroom probably wasn’t Sheila, anyway. He was getting paranoid.
    He knew why, too. Anica had given him a whole new lease on life, both sexually and mentally. He’d even imagined sharing an apartment, which was major because he’d never spent more than a long weekend with a woman. As serious as he’d thought he’d been about Sheila, he’d never created a mental picture of what their combined lives would look like, which should have told him they weren’t right for each other.
    Here he was already thinking about living with Anica, and they hadn’t even had sex. He pictured eating microwave popcorn and watching old episodes of South Park on Friday nights, flying kites over Lake Michigan on Saturday afternoons, battling for sections of the Trib on Sunday mornings. The scenes rolled in his head like a chick flick accompanied by a perky sound track.
    Of course it was only their fourth date. They had plenty to learn about each other and he wasn’t making any stupid predictions at this stage of the game. But he had a special feeling about this particular woman. He wouldn’t be surprised if . . . but that was jumping the gun. He’d let things unfold as they were supposed to.
    He sure wished she’d get back from the bathroom, though. Women did all sorts of mysterious things when they disappeared in there. One of them involved girl talk.
    That was the part bothering him at the moment. Having an ex-girlfriend talking to a current girlfriend was never a good idea. He prayed that wasn’t