Operation Saving Daniel (Entangled Covet) Read Free

seeming separate even from the woman at his side.
    Could this be Sophia Forbes, a.k.a.The Evil One?
    Lissa suspected so. Mainly because she hated her on sight, just as Julia had predicted. “She’s a complete bitch,” Julia had told her. “You only have to look at her to see that.”
    “The Evil One” was the complete opposite to the type Lissa had believed Daniel would go for. This woman was no fairy-tale princess that was for sure. More like the wicked witch. She, too, wore a business suit, so fitted it appeared as if the fabric had been poured over her tall, extravagantly curved figure. Her dark red hair was pulled into a chignon, showing a long, graceful neck and a perfect oval face, flawlessly made-up. The sort of makeup that was invisible except you knew it must be there, because no one could be that perfect.
    Lissa shifted again, suddenly feeling less than adequate. Under normal circumstances, she hardly noticed what she was wearing, or what anyone else was wearing for that matter. Now, she couldn’t resist glancing down—her T-shirt was faded and bore a big red nose in the middle, a relic from a fund-raising event.
    She sank a little lower in the seat and gnawed on her bottom lip while studying Daniel surreptitiously. There was nothing left of the boy she had seduced in this tall, imposing stranger.
    As he made his way to the reception desk, the woman stuck close to his side, one hand resting on his arm, scarlet talons curled into the dark material of his jacket. After speaking briefly to Gretchen, he turned to look in Lissa’s direction, his face expressionless.
    Maybe she shouldn’t be there. She was here partly at Julia’s behest, but she’d also come looking for closure. Perhaps she was just opening old wounds.
    Too late. He was walking over, his face still blank, his hands hanging loose at his side. He should have seemed relaxed. Instead, he radiated an aura of tension, the air crackling around him.
    Had those hands really touched her? Everywhere.
    Daniel came to a halt in front of her, The Evil One still latched on to his side, and Spot scrabbled backward, until he was crouched beneath Lissa’s chair. Who could blame him? Talk about intimidating.
    Lissa pushed herself to her feet. At five foot eight, she still had to bend her neck to stare into his face.
    “Hello, Daniel.” She held out her hand.
    He glanced from it to her face, with not a glimmer of recognition. What had happened to “you never forgot your first”?
    Then she saw a glint in his silvery eyes. He knew exactly who she was. Well, two could play at that game. “You don’t remember me? Oh, Danny, I’m hurt. Let me give you a clue—”
    “I’d rather you didn’t,” he interrupted, his tone cool and clipped as he turned to the woman beside him. “Sophia, this is Melissa, an old friend of the family. She went to school with Julia.”
    “Really.” Sophia sounded uninterested, which was very bad manners. “Are we going to lunch, darling?” She put her hand back on his arm in a sign of possession and stared straight into Lissa’s face. Mine , her eyes said.
    Lissa grinned. The Evil One was welcome to him. He’d changed beyond belief, and she really wasn’t into stuffy businessmen. But at the same time, she felt the need to ruffle his feathers, see if she couldn’t break through that icy-cool composure, and find a spark of the old Daniel underneath.
    “So how long has it been?” she asked.
    He gave a casual lift of one shoulder. “I don’t remember.”
    “You don’t?” Now he was really pissing her off. So maybe he didn’t want his girlfriend to know they’d slept together—maybe Sophia was the jealous type—that didn’t mean he had to be quite so boorish. “Nearly ten years.”
    “Of course. It was my birthday. My twentieth birthday if I remember rightly.”
    “How could you forget?”
    The Evil One studied the two of them, speculation in her eyes, as though Lissa had interested her at last. There was