Sex Drive. Susan Lyons

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СКАЧАТЬ “Your mom sounds really organized. Guess you take after her?”

      “Funny you’d say that. I’ve always been a daddy’s girl, an academic. But you’re right, I’m also very organized, like Mom.” An outsider’s perspective was interesting.

      “I bet when you were little they saw you as the best of both of them. They wanted you to superachieve partly for you, but partly because you were a reflection of them.”

      “Maybe so,” I said slowly. It was another perception to tuck away in the back of my mind and mull over later. “You’re not just a pretty face, are you, Day?”

      4

      So she thought he was good looking. Damien grinned smugly. “Hold onto that thought, Prof. It may come in handy later.” When she found out his identity.

      Theresa frowned, clearly not following his train of thought, thank God. Then she stretched and fiddled with the seat controls.

      “Problem?” he asked.

      “I want to adjust the back and raise the footrest.”

      “Here.” He bent over and, as he found the control, his hand brushed her thigh. A firm, warm thigh under her cotton pants. “Give me your hand.”

      Hesitantly, she let him take it and put it on the lever, resting his hand atop to guide it. “Like this,” he told her. “You slide it this way, and use your feet to push the footrest.”

      “Thanks, I’ve got it.”

      Reluctantly, he withdrew his hand and let her get settled.

      “I’m not used to business class,” she said. “My budget doesn’t allow for it, but this time I got an upgrade.”

      “I like it for long flights.” His budget, thanks to Kalti Brown, could handle the occasional expenditure like this. So far the Kalti books had earned him enough to buy a flat in Sydney and pay the mortgage on a beachfront cottage north of Cairns. He used both for writing. A change of scene often helped reinvigorate his muse.

      As for this book tour, his first to North America, a New York publisher had bought U.S. rights to his books and was sponsoring the tour. They covered the basic expenses and Damien was chipping in to give himself a few extras such as flying business class.

      At the moment, it was looking like one damned rewarding expenditure. “You quit in the middle of the family saga, prof.”

      “You’re sure you’re interested?” She was fidgeting with her wineglass, rotating the stem back and forth.

      He reached over to brush the back of her hand. “Positive.” A storyteller himself, he liked hearing other people’s tales. And Theresa was one of the most intriguing people he’d run into in a long while.

      “Stop me when you get bored.” She swallowed the last of her wine. “In the family, I was Dad’s kid, the academic. Kat was Mom’s. Mom’s a lawyer—a very successful personal injury litigator—and has always focused on people rather than research. Kat’s bright, but no academic. She’s outgoing, has a ton of friends. That’s the area where she’s superior.”

      “And the third? Jenna, did you say?”

      “Yes. For a long time, she was the baby. She acted out a lot, but could be a real charmer. So far, she’s spent her life drifting. Never found a focus.”

      “She didn’t carve out an area where she was superior?”

      Theresa made a sound that was between a snort and a chuckle. “She excels at being eccentric. She’s a nonconformist, a flake. Mom says she’s a kook, like Goldie Hawn on a TV show from the late sixties, early seventies, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”

      Carmen came to take their empty appetizer dishes, replace them with their entrées, and refill their wine glasses. When she’d gone, he and Theresa both tasted the bugs, agreeing they were good but the sauce could have used more ginger.

      “The wine does go well with them,” she said.

      “Glad you like it. So, go on. There’s a fourth sister, the one who’s getting married?”

      “Yes, Merilee. After they had the three-pack, Mom and Dad were focused on their careers. As we girls grew up, I was into school, Kat was being Ms. Sociability, and Jenna was playing at whatever took her fancy. The five of us have pretty distinct, strong personalities.”

      “Yeah, I bet. If the rest are like you.”

      She wrinkled her cute turned-up nose at him. “We carved out our own niches, mostly respected each other’s boundaries, got our routine down pat. Then, eight years after Jenna, Mom got pregnant again. It wasn’t planned.”

      “Must have been a shock for her. For all of you.”

      “To put it mildly. Now there was a three-pack plus one, and we all had to adjust. This time Mom went back to work right after a short mat leave. Jenna lost her place as the baby, which made her act out even more. I got stuck with more older-sister responsibilities. But Merilee was an easy child. Not such a strong personality as the rest of us.”

      Must have been tough for the baby, following in the shoes of three strong and much older sisters. Theresa called them the three-pack plus one, not something like “the Fallon four.” “Sounds like the rest of you carved out your niches and didn’t leave anything special for Merilee.”

      “Well, sort of.” Her eyes began to dance with that sunlight-on-water sparkle. “She’d disagree, though.”

      “Yeah?” He put down his fork, gave her his full attention. “So, what’s your little sister superior at?”

      “According to her, it’s love. She’s the one sister who has a talent for it.”

      Love? “Oh yeah?”

      She nodded. “I’m divorced and determined never to make the same mistake. Kat wants to marry and have kids, but she always falls for losers. And Jenna, according to Mom, is a hippie who was born in the wrong decade.”

      “How so?”

      “She loves guys, loves sex, believes in the whole free-love, no-commitment thing. She says fidelity’s stupid because people aren’t hard-wired to be monogamous, so she flits from guy to guy and never intends to settle down. She has a short attention span. She’s excited about whatever new idea or man comes along, but not in a deep, real way.” Theresa raised her wineglass and slanted him a teasing glance. “Sounds like your ideal woman, right, Day?”

      “Hmm.” He tilted his head back and reflected. “Yeah, there’s a certain appeal to a woman like that. Fun with no strings.” He thought about the girls who’d come on to him in the last couple years. The succession of affairs. The sex, sometimes great and sometimes mediocre.

      The fact was, the names and faces had grown interchangeable. And he’d started to feel scummy. Like the woman didn’t really see him, just the successful, sexy author. And he didn’t see them as individuals either, just a series of hot babes.

      “But a guy grows up,” he said slowly. “Maybe he wants more. СКАЧАТЬ