Hideaway Read Free Page A

in ten years, and it was not in Florida.
    “I’d like to live abroad. I want to decorate international offices, restored châteux, villas, and castles.”
    “I take it the company you work for has an overseas branch?”
    She nodded the affirmative, giving him the name of the firm, and he whistled softly. Parris worked for the most prestigious architectural and design firm in the country.
    “I think you’d better eat your filet mignon before the waiters serve the next course,” she suggested in a low throaty tone.
    She spent the next three-quarters of an hour exchanging pleasantries with both Martin and the man on her right. The silent, efficient waiters cleared the tables once again before coffee and dessert were offered. Cordials and liqueurs were passed around, and again she refused their offer.
    She and the other guests sighed and murmured approval as Brittany opened boxes and cards. Most of the gifts were purchased from Nieman Marcus where Brittany was listed with their bridal registry.
    Everyone’s attention was directed to Martin after Brittany opened an envelope and read the printed card. He had offered to pay all of the expenses for Jon’s and Brittany’s honeymoon anywhere in the world.
    Parris watched as Martin’s expression never changed. He merely nodded his thanks, his dark eyes moving from Brittany’s to Jon’s smiling faces.
    Glancing down at her watch, Parris noted the time. She had to leave. It was almost eight-thirty. The car service was scheduled to pick her up in ten minutes.
    Placing her napkin on the table beside her plate, she whispereda “nice meeting you” to the dining partners flanking her and walked out of the room.
    The restaurant’s lobby overflowed with elegant men and women in formal dress. The precious stones hanging from scented pampered necks and wrists competed with the many shimmering lights on the massive overhead chandeliers.
    Parris saw him before he saw her, but still she could not escape. Standing by the entrance to the restaurant was Owen Lawson, her ex-husband. There was no way she could get past him without him seeing her.
    Then without warning, he turned away and she walked quickly through the door and out to the restaurant’s parking lot.
    Her heart pounded uncontrollably as she paced back and forth in the lot, smiling nervously at the young men who wore the short red bolero jackets of the valet parking staff.
    Glancing down at her watch, Parris prayed silently for her driver to appear. She did not want a confrontation with Owen. Her trying to secure an annulment to their short-lived marriage had been too stressful and their last face-to-face confrontation too volatile to risk another encounter with him.
    She felt the fingers snake around her upper arm before she heard the voice.
    “Do you need a ride?”
    “Don’t scream, Parris,” he warned. “And please don’t make a scene.”
    She ignored the runaway pumping of her heart in her chest as she faced down Owen Lawson. “What the hell do you want?” she spat out.
    “You still have a tongue that cuts like a whip.” He managed a smile but it looked more like a sneer. “Roll it up, Parris.”
    “Let go of me.”
    “Not yet. Not until we talk.”
    She stared up at the man she thought she had loved beyond reason. The tall gaunt man with the most beautiful ebony-colored skin she had ever seen. The man whose intense dark eyes hadhad the power to read her thoughts. The man she loved until she married him.
    “There’s nothing to talk about, Owen.” She wanted to scream at him whatever they’d shared had died. There was truly nothing left to discuss.
    Owen’s dark eyes behind the lenses of his equally dark glasses swept over his ex-wife’s face and body. She was more beautiful than when she left him. It was as if she had grown up in only a year.
    “Just this last time, then I’ll walk away from you and never bother you again. I promise.”
    “I’m waiting for my driver.”
    “I’ll take you home,”