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Pritchard-Wallace out near Point Grey?”
    â€œYeah?”
    One of Joey’s filler jobs.
    â€œNot anymore.”
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked.
    â€œWell, early this morning I was taking Jules and Pompadour, Mrs. PW’s miniature poodles, for a walk along by the golf course, when this thing, this creature from Hell comes streaking out of nowhere, snatches Pompadour in its jaws then streaks away. Nothing left but Pompy’s diamond collar. It was a wolf. I’m sure it was a wolf.”
    â€œIt was probably a coyote.”
    â€œYou’re kidding me, Dinah.”
    â€œWas it sort of a yellowish color?”
    â€œYes, my God, it was. How did you know?”
    â€œDon’t you read the news?”
    â€œ Variety. I read Variety. You know that. I haven’t got time for global disaster.”
    â€œJeez, Joey. They figure there must be at least two thousand coyotes in and around town. They can’t catch them because they’re just too smart. I’d heard about them, I’d just never had a firsthand account. Wow.”
    â€œWow is right. Mrs. PW’s going to have hysterics. She doesn’t know yet. She’s out getting her facade renovated.”
    â€œHer what?”
    â€œGetting her face stripped and varnished. A peeling and a facial, darling.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œAnd I’m shaking all over. I’m going to have a Scotch right now.”
    â€œJoey. At nine forty-five in the morning?”
    â€œIt’s not every day somebody’s thousand-dollar poochie gets to be part of the urban wildlife food chain.”
    â€œGod, yeah. Listen, Joey, you don’t want to get the coyotes used to a diet of expensive house pets. It might build their expectations. You know? Like potato chips? Once you’ve had one, you just can’t stop. So don’t encourage them…careful where you walk your dogs. Listen, speaking of predators and prey, the big boss from the East just blew in driving a Ferrari and I’m really worried, I’ve heard he’s completely insensitive to people’s feelings. He decimated the last office he was in and then some. And I’m told that there may be a total massacre in this office, too…”
    It would have been better if I hadn’t looked up at all.
    â€œOoops…gotta go.” I slammed down the phone.
    He, Mr. Silent Shoe Soles, was standing in my open doorway, staring at me. The CEO. He was so luscious-looking in real life that I could hardly swallow.

Chapter Three
    I an Trutch continued to stare at me. I tried to match his stare but I couldn’t stop myself from taking inventory. My eyes went first to his face and then to the mahogany skin and black chest hair at the neck of his unbuttoned white shirt. I swallowed with difficulty. If I’d been another kind of girl, if I’d been Cleo, for example, I would have been tempted to climb down inside that crisp shirt and stay there. Maybe all day. Definitely all night. Little things, the length of his fingers, the way his cuffs circled his wrists, made me shiver.
    He had eyes the color of swimming pool tile, surrounded by long, black, almost feminine lashes, and a little set of deep thinker creases between his eyebrows, reflecting his Harvard Business School prowess. His thick, silver-black, stylishly electro-shocked hair was just waiting for some girl’s hands to give it a good running through, though I suspected he was the type who didn’t like having his hair messed up. Everything else about him was immaculate. He had a knowing, ever-so-slightly cruel mouth and a pirate’s tan.
    Sailing, sailing, sailing the bounding main…
    It was a good thing I knew where the boundaries lay and wasn’t the sort of girl who fell for that whole superficial gorgeous man thing. If I had been a real man-eater like Cleo, I would have considered pursuing him for his body alone. Like wanting a whole bottle of Grand Marnier for yourself, it