Pleasure Seekers Read Free

gave him the one advantage he needed to become Enid Richards’s equal partner—in and out of bed.

CHAPTER 5
    T he waiter placed a small leather binder on the table in front of Faye. She glanced at the bill, and then reached for her handbag.
    Alana picked up one of the business cards in the binder. “What’s this?” The pale blue vellum was high-quality paper. She noted the engraved initials P.S., INC. and a telephone number with a Manhattan area code before she turned it over.
    “Is someone playing a game?”
    Faye read the message on the reverse side. “It sounds interesting.”
    “I’m going to ask the waiter who gave these to him.”
    Faye waved her hand. “Forget it, Lana.” She dropped one card into her handbag. “It’s not the first time someone has passed me their business card anonymously.”
    Alana’s waxed eyebrows lifted. “Really? I always dine out when I interview people for my magazine column, but I’ve never been the recipient of an anonymous introduction. What do you do with them?”
    “I hold on to them for at least a month, then I have myassistant call the number. It usually takes about a minute to discern whether it’s business or personal.”
    “How many times has it been business?”
    Faye slipped a credit card into the binder. “Only once. It didn’t start out that way. After I told my secret admirer that I was in advertising, he admitted to starting up a new company and needing someone to assist with a marketing campaign.”
    Resting an elbow on the table, Alana cupped her chin in her hand. Her dark eyes sparkled. She always loved listening to Faye talk about the quirky people she met as an account executive.
    “Was that an excuse to get you into bed?”
    “I’ll never know. I got his account without sleeping with him.”
    “Was he a brother?”
    “No.”
    “White?” Faye nodded. “Would you have slept with him?”
    Faye rolled her eyes at her friend. “Hell, no. The day I resort to sleeping with a man to land an account is the day I change careers.”
    “Then why did he give you his card?”
    There were times when Faye found it hard to accept Alana’s naiveté. “He was curious, Lana. He’d never dated a black woman, and going out with me under the guise that it was business related made it all right in his book.”
    “So, you never dated him?”
    “No. Whenever we met it was strictly business.” She held the other card close to her nose. “A woman wrote this. The perfume smells familiar.”
    “Oh, shit! Don’t tell me we’re being hit on by a woman,” Alana whispered, frowning.
    “Not necessarily.” Faye stared directly at Alana. “I’m going to call Mr. or Miss E and find out what they’re selling.”
    “I’m not feeling the name P.S., Inc. It sounds a little kinky to me.”
    “It could be a new magazine.”
    Snatching the card from Faye’s fingertips, Alana tore it into tiny pieces and dropped them onto her dessert plate like confetti. “Whatever.”
    Faye signed the credit card receipt then glanced at her watch. They’d been at the Four Seasons for more than two hours. “I don’t know about you, girlfriend, but I overindulged on champagne tonight. I’m taking a cab home. I’ll drop you off on the way.”
    “You don’t have to do that,” Alana protested. “Why should you ride crosstown with me when we’re already on the east side?” Her apartment overlooked Central Park and Faye’s the East River.
    “I don’t mind.”
    Alana shrugged a shoulder. “Okay. Suit yourself.” Gathering her handbag off the leather seat, she pushed to her feet and adjusted the hem of her dress. The black knit fabric hugged every curve of her full, shapely body. “I’ll take care of the taxi.”
    Following suit, Faye slipped her arms into her jacket. Smiling, she drawled, “Whatever.”
    Both women walked out of the restaurant as a pair of blue-gray eyes watched intently.

CHAPTER 6
    F aye flagged down a taxi within minutes of walking out of the