Heather Graham Read Free Page A

escort services rather than compiling dinosaur bones all day.
    “I am sorry. I forgot,” Alex admitted ruefully.
    “That’s okay. I know your mind must be working overtime. I just wanted to wish you a great trip! And I wanted to warn you to look out for those desert sheikhs.”
    “Kelly,” Alex said with a sigh, “I’ll be in Cairo and Luxor. Believe it or not, there aren’t a lot of sheikhs running around the Valley of the Kings!”
    “What about Sheriff?”
    “He lives in the United Arab Emirates, not Egypt.”
    “He lives where?”
    Alex shook her head again with a small smile. Kelly could probably rattle off full volumes on the subject of anthropology, but as to current affairs, she was woefully remiss.
    “He lives on the Arabian Peninsula, Kelly, miles and miles from Cairo! He’s financing Jim; he’s not going on the expedition.”
    “Oh.” Kelly sounded a little disappointed. “Actually I think it would be the best thing in the world for you if this sheikh were to gallop across the desert and sweep you onto his Arabian charger—”
    “Kelly,” Alex interrupted with a soft sigh. Her closest friend was a brunet beauty who loved men only next to dinosaur bones. They flocked to her by the score, and Kelly accepted and went through them as casually as she might a roll of paper towels. It was unthinkable to her that Alex, as a divorcée, could refuse even to date for a year.
    “I’ve heard from Wayne,” Alex said softly.
    Her remark was greeted by silence, and then an explosion. “Alex, you’re incredible. Most of the time, you are the strongest lady I know. You’ve got a smile cool enough to freeze a whole football team; half the men I know would give up ten years of their lives for a single date—yet you handle them like steel and turn to putty in the hands of Dr. Wayne Randall! Listen to me, kid. I’m not going to try to tell you that Wayne isn’t dynamite-looking, or that he isn’t personable. But Alex, you’re even more dynamite-looking, and more personable. And smarter, which I think is what has always bothered Wayne!”
    “Oh, come on, Kelly—”
    “It’s true, Alex. He’s jealous of you.”
    “Don’t you think he might have changed?”
    Again Kelly hesitated. “It’s possible. Are you going to see him?”
    “Yes. Just to listen.”
    “There is no fool worse than a woman in love!” Kelly said with a snort.
    “I’m not going to be a fool, Kelly. It half killed me to file for that divorce, but I did it.”
    “True. I think I’m still going to go light a few candles and pray that the desert sheikh carries you off! If you’d let yourself go a little … I mean, honey, the only man you’ve ever known is Wayne. Give another man a chance and you might discover there are more fish in the sea.”
    Alex grimaced and asked dryly, “So you suggest an Arabian sheikh, huh? They’re all Muslims, Kelly. I don’t think I’d be happy as a fourth wife or as a harem girl!”
    “Maybe not,” Kelly mused with a solemnity that made Alex bite back her laughter. “Hey—what about D’Alesio?”
    “What about him?”
    “Well, he’ll be filming the expedition. And I tell you, that is one hunk of a man. He makes me pant just watching him on TV. Dark, rough, rugged—he is raw sexuality, honey, he’s—”
    “He’s married.”
    “D’Alesio? Uh-uh. He announced once on an interview show that his life was too hectic for a family.” Kelly giggled. “What he meant was that he wasn’t about to have any strings attached to slow him down. Ummm. Have an affair, Alex, a wild fling.
    Just don’t lose your heart.”
    Alex sighed. “Kelly, it’s already lost. And I’m certainly not in the mood for an affair.”
    “I’ll bet D’Alesio could put you in the right mood.”
    An affair. Alex blinked, barely listening as Kelly droned on. She bolted upright in the bed and holding the phone between her ear and shoulder and jerked open her bedside drawer and begin delving with one hand through a