Read Flash for Free Online

thought. Belatedly it occurred to her that he might be from
    the Camelot Blue publicity department come to check on progress.
    Her business instincts surged to the fore. She rallied swiftly.
    "A small problem with the fog machine," she said in her most reassuring tones.
    "Nothing to worry about. We'll have it adjusted in no time."
    Blue mist swirled around the man as he moved toward her. "I'm told there's a
    mechanical problem. The young man at the controls asked me to come in and guide
    you out. He said that by now your glasses would be fogged up."
    Perhaps because she could not make out his features, she was acutely conscious
    of his voice. It was imbued with a deep, dark resonance that vibrated along her
    nerve endings. He spoke softly, but she could hear him quite clearly through the
    ancient music.
    Instinctively she removed her glasses again. She batted impatiently at the
    seething mist. It parted just long enough to reveal a magician's enigmatic eyes and
    severe, ascetic features.
    Merlin had returned to his cave.
    "Who are you?" she demanded.
    "I'm Sloan."
    A strange shiver shot down her spine. The glowing blue vapor seemed to
    intensify. She waved her hands frantically to clear her view.
    "Darn it, I told Bolivar it was a mistake to go for the romantic atmosphere," she
    said.
    "It usually is."
    He gripped her arm with powerful fingers and led her out of the mist-filled
    cavern into the light of day.

4
    « ^ »
    He had done business with plenty of women in the past, but he knew in his gut that
    this time things would be different. This woman was different.
    Jasper paused briefly in the doorway of Olivia's small office. He barely managed
    to suppress a groan.
    The desk was piled so high with papers, notebooks, and invoices that he could
    not see the surface. There were more papers on top of the computer.
    On the other side of the room a file drawer stood open. The folders inside were
    crammed willy-nilly with documents. More folders, apparently waiting to be filed,
    were stacked perilously high on top of the cabinet. The air of busy clutter made him
    want to grind his teeth.
    Without a word he made his way through the crowded space. He went to stand
    at the glass window that looked out over the studio.
    The fact that his new business partner had no respect for order and organization
    was the least of his problems, he told himself. Of far more immediate concern was
    this intense, edgy awareness that arced through him. The office seemed very small
    with the two of them in it. He felt as if he stood in the center of a small electrical
    storm. Invisible energy crackled in the air.
    Behind him he heard Olivia close the door. He glanced over his shoulder and
    watched her circle around behind her desk. As far as he could tell, she appeared
    blithely unaware of the sizzle in the atmosphere.
    He had to fight the urge to watch every move she made. Something about her
    fascinated him. Probably the fact that she owned forty-nine percent of his new
    company, he thought grimly. This is business, not sex. Get the right message to the
    hormones before they do something really, really stupid here .
    It had been sheer curiosity as much as his innate desire for information that had
    led him to stop at the Seattle Public Library before making his way to Light
    Fantastic today. He had found the year-old edition of West Coast Neo magazine
    and read the piece Crawford Lee Wilder had written about Logan Dane and his
    so-called Dark Muse.
    Wilder had got it all wrong, Jasper decided. Olivia Chantry was not an arrogant,
    imperious, ball-busting Amazon with predatory marketing instincts. She was a
    sharp, intelligent, vital woman who gave off sexual sparks.
    He swiftly reviewed the facts in the magazine article and compared them with
    the flesh-and-blood woman in front of him. He concluded immediately that
    Crawford Lee Wilder had probably been secretly intimidated by Olivia. The
    strength in her had obviously been more of a challenge than