Page 19 of Switching Places

She studied her face in the large mirror.

She ought to tell him. Tonight, before things went any further.

They’d already gone too far. He’d be angry, but she hadn’t crossed any major lines. And it wasn’t as if she’d ever need to see him again. She could take a drive up the coast, go to Disneyland or down to Mexico until Lily returned home.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her roiling nerves. She wanted this one day. Wanted to see what it was like to be carefree and sought after. She’d keep her distance and not allow any more kisses. Tomorrow, she’d make sure she stayed busy and avoided her sister’s sexy neighbor.

First, dinner. For a few more hours she’d enjoy the fantasy, then when he brought her home, she’d say goodbye and that would end it. She wasn’t out to harm anyone, she only wanted to taste a bit of the life-style her sister enjoyed.

Logan turned into the circle drive in front of Lily’s house, his black Mercedes gleaming in the late afternoon sun. His love for his car made the drive into Hollywood bearable each day. Rubbing his eyes, he stopped and started to get out when he heard Lily close her front door. Staring, he smiled when she waved and hurried to the car. He reached across the seat and opened the door, wondering for the tenth time what game she was playing. Was it for some character in her next film?

If he didn’t know her, hadn’t known her for a couple of years, he’d swear she wasn’t Lily Rambeau. Too many things added up to almost a different person. What had happened while he’d been gone?

Lily was wearing that blue-green dress he’d seen before. The loose top revealed creamy shoulders. The flared skirt danced as she walked, displaying her shapely legs. He liked looking at her.

Tonight, there were further discrepancies to the woman he thought he knew. He was surprised to see her sling a purse the size of an attaché case over her shoulder. In the past Lily hadseemed totally unencumbered by a purse. When she’d come to his last party, she’d put her key in her shoe.

In fact, that afternoon at the office, he’d mentioned being thrown by the differences. There was a kind of sweetness about his neighbor he’d never noticed before. The hard edge he was used to was missing. She’d appeared almostshywhen they’d shared breakfast. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she were some fresh young innocent, instead of a worldly divorcée.

Yet there had been something oddly appealing about Lily that morning. That fact alone kept her in the forefront of his thoughts. Marc, one of his resident techies, had suggested alien abduction as an explanation for the changes in Lily. But then, Marc was into Star Wars and the old X-Files.

Logan’s executive assistant, Helen, had suggested amnesia, but he’d seen no signs of that. Yet, not once had Lily made reference to anything in their shared past.

And did she normally eschew that silky dressing gown for a terry-cloth one?

“Did you get everything settled?” she asked, pulling the door shut and reaching for her seat belt.

“For the most part. Pete’s still in Italy and needed some help from this end. I think he can manage the rest. I’ll have to go into work early in the morning to make sure it’s fixed.”

She turned to smile at him and Logan felt a kick low in the gut. For the moment he didn’t care what she was doing or how she was acting. She looked beautiful. Her eyes sparkled, her hair swirled around her, kissing her cheeks, and the blue-green of her dress made her skin glow. He wanted her.

He’d known her for two years yet the primal urge to mate with this woman had emerged only today. Leaning over, he breathed in the fresh sultry scent that he recognized from that morning. A new perfume? Making a show of checking her seatbelt to cover his actions, he sat back and put the car in gear. Great, he acted like a hormone-raging teenager.

“I missed you this afternoon. I took a book to read, sat beneath an umbrella on the beach.”

He headed toward the restaurant. Another inconsistency—he’d never heard Lily admitted to missing anyone. Of course he didn’t usually spend much time with her.

“I could have found much more interesting things to do than work through a software glitch this afternoon,” he agreed. “We could have spent the rest of the day together.”

“True.”

She pleated the skirt of her dress nervously. Logan reached over and took her hand, linking their fingers, resting them on his thigh. Flicking her a glance, he almost smiled. She looked shocked. Her gaze drifted to their hands. The feel of her soft palm against his notched up his interest.

If he felt this way after a good night’s sleep, he’d do something about it. She was the jaded world traveler, maybe she wanted to be chased. Maybe he should have pushed her more, not accepted her earlier refusal so easily.

He still couldn’t believe he had this overwhelming desire for his neighbor.

Logan drove competently through the winding canyon roads until he reached the flatlands. The parking lot at Garcia’s was crowded, as usual, but he found a place along the outer rim.

“Don’t want to get a ding, huh?” she teased as he opened her door.

They had the length of the parking lot to walk.

“Not on this baby.”

Garcia’s was housed in an old adobe structure with a wide courtyard surrounded by a low stucco wall. Couples gathered around the small tables in the courtyard, sipping margaritas and enjoying the mariachi band playing softly in the corner. Festivelanterns illuminated the patio and the warm Southern California evening made the setting perfect.

“Drinks first?” Logan asked as they waited for the hostess.

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