Candlelight Conspiracy Read Free Page A

bad he had all this food and she was clearly hungry—he wasn’t supposed to actually like her company and she wasn’t supposed to lie about not liking his food. Her entire plate of food was nearly gone. Yup, she’d definitely been needling him for a rise.
    Her brown eyes sparkled in the dimness of his apartment. “If you don’t want people to know you, you should probably set your Facebook profile to private.” A phone appeared in her hand, and she waggled it, obviously pleased with her sleuthing skills.
    Facebook? He’d forgotten about the profile he didn’t keep up with anymore. In his haste to leave town to pursue the life he’d only dreamed about, he’d failed to keep up with what had been routine in his past.
Smart woman.
“I never said I didn’t want people to know me.”
    “Then how come you’ve lived in this building for three months and never said hello?” Her phone screen went black, and she pushed the buttons on the side. “Shoot.”
    Because you’re extremely good-looking, and I knew the smallest encounter would suck me into your obviously chaotic world.
He stared at her, unable to come up with an excuse on the fly. His past—Felicia leaving him—no longer controlled his future. So why did he sense that the path he’d laid out for his future was about to change?

CHAPTER TWO
    “I like to keep to myself,” he said as he ran a hand through his blond hair.
    “You seem pretty friendly to me.” She finished the last of her meal and laid her utensils across her plate. Marc’s cooking was amazing. She almost felt bad for not telling him just how much of his risotto she would eat in the wee hours of the morning. Almost.
    “They aren’t mutually exclusive.”
    The darkness cradled Sophie and gave her license to be bold, even brazen, in her conversation with Marc. Her multiple questions were a faint punishment for him not acknowledging her in the hallway for the past three months. She’d have had to be blind to miss his shock when she’d guessed his hometown, and it was all she could do not to laugh at his squirming.
    What perplexed her now was why an evidently determined man like Marc didn’t care to be known or let people into his life. Who moved and didn’t care if he kept in touch with anyone or make new friends? Where was his family? Focusing on a career wasn’t a bad thing at all—ambition was admirable—but to close out an entire section of life was insane, especially if that area was always the most thrilling.
    What kind of mystery are you, Marc?
    She could feel his intense blue eyes as they traveled up her arm and to her mouth, where they lingered before he met her gaze. If the food had put her into a lull, his gorgeous stare woke her right up, and the adrenaline rejuvenated her spirits. Maybe she didn’t have to cut out all hope of a future love life after all. Not with Marc, of course, he was too uptight, but she could stop dismissing potential dates just on principle from now on.
    “Hmm. What do you do for a living? You don’t look like you sit in an office all day.”
Or skip the gym.
    “I think it’s time I get to ask you questions.”
    “Okay. What do ya want to know? I’m an open book.”
    Not the truth, but what did he know? She’d smile pretty and answer like she always had—telling about her fantastic childhood, loving family, and how performing onstage made her feel alive. What she wouldn’t share was the horrific tragedy of losing her parents, her commitment issues for fear of losing another person, and that some days being alone in this world was too much to handle. Those were the days she couldn’t get out of bed.
    “What do
you
do for a living?” He sat back in the couch with ease, his white shirt clinging to his sculpted body.
    She purposely took a moment to appreciate the hardness of his chest.
Is it smooth?
Then he moved his arm to take a drink, and she noticed the strength in his lean bicep. Before she met his eyes again, she took a deep breath