Read Knocking at Her Heart (Conover Circle #1) for Free Online Page A

waved. 
     And damn her, she almost
waved back.
    She had to get out of there. She
pushed her chair back and almost made it to the door when he suddenly fell into
step next to her.
    “What’s the hurry?” he asked.
    “You'd better take your seat,”
she urged. “They start serving dinner right away.”
    “Aren't you staying?”
    "No. I never stay for
dinner,” she lied. “Just the meetings.” She didn’t intend to court that much
danger. The man sent her system into overdrive. She'd choke on a piece of
lettuce, he’d do the Heimlich, and once he touched her, Maddie knew there would
be no turning back. 
    “I'll take you home,” he offered.
    “Oh, no. That's not a good idea.
The guest speaker can’t leave before dinner. Very bad form.”  She didn’t
bother looking for Dante on her way out. She simply shoved her way through the
restaurant’s big wooden door, stepped out onto the brick sidewalk that ran
through the entire four-block business district, and started walking. She
didn’t slow down for ten minutes. After unlocking her front door, she took the
steps up to the second floor two at a time. Once inside her apartment, she went
directly to the refrigerator, grabbed a piece of cold pizza, then flopped down
on her couch with the remote control in hand. 
    She was a busy woman, and she
didn’t intend to spend another minute thinking about Dr. Sam
Jordonson.  
    She needed to consider him minimally invasive.
    Something that she’d recover from
quickly with very little scarring.
    After thirty minutes of channel
surfing, she gave up and picked up the thriller that she’d started reading the
night she’d cut her hand. Twenty pages later, with no recollection of what
she’d read, she tossed the book aside. Across the room, Snowball lifted his
head.
    “Desperate times call for
desperate measures.”
    She went back to the kitchen,
opened the freezer door, pushed her good hand all the way to the back, and
grabbed the familiar box. Then, not wanting to break off a tooth, she nuked the
cookies in her microwave for a couple minutes. 
    She poured herself a big glass of
milk and took her stash back to the couch. She broke off a corner of a cookie
and tossed it to Snowball, who batted it around with his paws. Her cell phone
rang.
    “Hello,” she said.
    “What? My spaghetti isn’t good
enough for you?”
    “Hi, Dante. Your spaghetti makes
me weep with joy,” she said truthfully. Dante’s sweet mom still made the sauce,
and there was always a pot simmering on the big black stove. 
    “I saw you talking to Sam
Jordonson.”
    “How do you know him?” she asked.
    “He comes in once in a while.
Picks up to-go stuff fairly often. Likes Canadian bacon on his pizza.”
    “That’s helpful to know,” she
said drily, making sure that Dante could tell that she was not interested .
“Will I see you at the Auction?” she asked, wanting to change the subject.
Dante was always a big supporter of the annual Bid on a Bachelor charity event.
    “Of course. Bring your money.”
    “I don’t have a trust fund,” she
said. Dante would fetch a good price. His reputation was legendary. He loved
women and they loved him. He just didn’t keep any one of them around for too
long. But his old girlfriends never seemed to hold any grudges against him. He
was friends with all of them.
    “Look, I have to go,” she added,
staring at the box of cookies. “Talk to you later.”
    She ate the entire box, stopping
only once to refill her milk glass. After she finished the last one, she
crumbled up the flimsy cardboard and fell asleep with crumbs still on her lips.
    *
    The next morning, Maddie stood
with both hands braced on the kitchen counter, afraid that if she pulled them
away, she’d slip to the floor. She lifted her head when she heard Carol’s key
in the back door and forced up a smile.    
    Carol pulled the door shut and
sniffed the air. “You haven’t made any coffee,” she accused. “Did you
oversleep?”
    She