Sheer Pleasure Read online

  “What can I do for you today, Mr. Hardy?”

  “Ah, there you are, Annie.”

  Her name vibrating from his too-thin lips and his pale gray eyes roaming over her made her shift away from him a bit. Harmless, she reminded herself. He wasn’t much bigger than she was, anyway. Maybe he had a few inches and a few pounds on her, but she could handle him if he tried anything. Not that he would, of course. While he’d demanded her personal attention, he’d always remained a gentleman.

  It was just that the uneasy climate recently—her thinking someone was following her, invading her home, was getting to her. And knowing that someone was trying to discredit her store.

  She smiled and asked, “So what can I do for you today, Mr. Hardy?”

  “I need something new and provocative for my Leslie.”

  Leslie being the name of his wife, assuming he actually had a woman at all. Gloria thought he had made up this Leslie’s existence, and as proof had pointed to the fact that no wedding ring graced his hand. And Annie had pointed out that not every married man wore a wedding ring.

  “Something provocative to wear?” Annie asked. “Or would you consider a scented massage oil? I just received a shipment of new products the other day.”

  His response, “Something to wear,” came as no surprise.

  It was always the same. He made her pull out every new item—and lots of the old as well—and tried to decide if they would look good on her. Hardy insisted his Leslie was exactly Annie’s size, had her exact coloring and her exact shade of hair. So she would be the perfect model if only she would try on the intimate apparel for him.

  While she might be willing to wait on him on demand, Annie wasn’t willing to go that far for a sale, not even a really big one.

  “We have a whole new line of animal prints,” she told him.

  “Nighties?”

  “And underwear.”

  “Crotchless panties?” he asked, licking his lips.

  Annie fought the color rising to her cheeks. “Of course.”

  “Bras with holes to accent the pretty nipples?”

  Annie blinked, and behind him Gloria was doing her best not to choke. He’d never been this frank before. Annie had never been totally comfortable with him, but today he was making her downright uneasy.

  “I’m sure we have everything you want,” she assured him.

  Even if he couldn’t have it all!

  His oily smile when he said, “Well, let us at them then,” made her stomach queasy.

  He bounded toward the back of the store where the naughtier apparel was displayed. After exchanging a look with Gloria, who indicated that she was willing to throw the man out bodily, Annie followed Hardy.

  He was already fingering the crotchless zebra panties.

  A strange light in his eyes, he asked, “Are you sure you wouldn’t care to model these for me?”

  Skin crawling, she said, “Positive.”

  The only man for whom she would consider modeling her merchandise was Nate Bishop.

  Hardy sighed. “You must wear what you sell.”

  The question threw her. The letter from her secret admirer had asked the very same question. Surely he wasn’t the one who’d sent it! She hadn’t believed it when Helen had suggested as much, but maybe her friend had been right!

  The thought depressed her, and Annie couldn’t wait to be rid of Clive Hardy as he picked out every piece of see-through, zebra-striped lingerie he could find.

  “Could you at least hold this up to yourself?” he said, holding out a nightie. “I just want to get an idea of what this will look like on my Leslie.”

  Hoping it would get rid of him faster, Annie held it up as requested. And then he gave her a second piece to hold up. And a third.

  The sudden hunger in his eyes unsettled her, giving her second and third thoughts about what she was doing. And then, thankfully, just when she’d had enough, he retreated. Hardy was pushing it, getting bolder. The day when he walked into the store and she was alone…well, suffice it to say she would lose at least one big sale.

  And big this one was. He bought several hundred dollars worth of lingerie, while Gloria’s customer spent a more typical forty dollars. That meant Clive Hardy had racked up nearly a thousand dollars in Annie’s Attic in the last month, she calculated as she counted out his change.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” he wheedled.

  “What would that be?”

  “Condoms.” He indicated the display she’d set up the other day. “I understand you’re giving freebies with each purchase. That means I get nine, right?”

  “Yes, of course. Pick out whichever ones you like.”

  “You do it for me.”

  He wanted her to handpick condoms that he would use with his wife? Or whomever? Ee-eow! Compromising, she picked up an unopened box.

  “Have a dozen, Mr. Hardy.”

  “This will do me for a night or two,” he said with a sly smile, his gaze never leaving her face, as if he were looking for a reaction to this all-important information. “See you next week.”

  “Bye.”

  The moment he was out of the shop, Gloria said, “That man creeps me out!”

  “He’s not that bad,” Annie insisted as usual, though she was rethinking her stance.

  “The hell he ain’t!”

  “All right, so he was a little too suggestive this time.”

  “That man uses you in place of a real sex life. When he leaves here, he probably goes right into the alley to jerk off!”

  “Gloria!”

  But her assistant was wound up tight. “That pervert! Maybe I oughta send Julio after him. Julio hates perverts!”

  “Leave Julio out of this!”

  Gloria waved her finger at Annie. “You make life so difficult for yourself.”

  Right. Like getting involved with gang members would make her life easier.

  Before they could argue about it further, the mailman entered the shop, followed by a couple of customers. Annie took the armful of mail and went back to the office, where she set it on her desk. It could wait. The influx of new customers couldn’t.

  While not as busy as the day before, they were kept hopping until two, at which time she insisted Gloria take a real lunch. Only a single customer came in during the next hour, so when Gloria returned, Annie left the shop to her and disappeared back into the office, where she was tempted to call Nate.

  Not having heard from him all day, she missed him.

  Bad, bad sign, she told herself, but the scolding wasn’t convincing. No matter that she knew better than to get too deeply involved with a man. She couldn’t help herself. Couldn’t control her emotions.

  Work. She needed to work to keep him from mind, so she finished filling the orders from the Website. Though small, the packages were stacking up. She really ought to get over to the post office.

  She checked her watch. She had a half hour until commuters would descend from the rapid transit station. Again, not enough time to leave the shop, but plenty of time to check the mail delivered earlier. She sorted the stack on her desk into piles. Catalogues, bills, junk mail…and a familiar-looking envelope.

  An envelope with no stamp, no postal markings. Just like the last time.

  Her hand trembled as she stared at the innocent-looking envelope, wondering again who had sent it. Maybe this time the author had signed the missive. Only one way to find out.

  She flicked open the seal and slipped out the single sheet of folded paper.

  Dear Annie,

  Do you like playing games? Of course you must. But what kind of games? Do you play out your own fantasies with men? Or do you prefer to rely on board games, the ones you sell in Annie’s Attic?

  I wonder if you play any kind of games when you’re alone, and if you do…do you ever think of the man I could be for you?

  An Admirer

  Annie swallowed hard. There was more than one way to interpret the letter. Playing games. What had he
meant by that? And who was he?

  Clive Hardy immediately came to mind. He’d just been there, stirring up her doubts about him. Even if Helen’s suggestion wasn’t niggling her, Hardy would have come to mind after the way he’d acted earlier. And he’d left right before the mail had arrived. Could he have bribed the mailman to deliver something a little extra? Or perhaps he had just slipped the envelope into the carrier’s bag when he’d been in another shop.

  Of course, since the missive had been at the bottom of the pile, the letter could have been on her desk already, and she simply hadn’t noticed it until now. But then how had it gotten there? she wondered, even as Harry Burdock came to mind. With his set of master keys, the security guard had access to every business in the building.

  She posed that theory later at the café after she’d closed up shop and her coffee-to-go had become a sit-down affair.

  “Maybe you ought to call the police,” Helen said.

  “Police?” Nick echoed. “It’s a letter from a secret admirer. Nothing threatening there.”

  “I’m telling you, it’s that creep Clive Hardy. Don’t let him in your shop again, Annie.”

  “He hasn’t actually done anything to give me reason to keep him out.”

  “You’re going to wait until something happens to you?” Helen demanded.

  Which only made things worse. Rather than feeling better talking things over with her friends, Annie was finding that her nerves were on edge.

  Wishing she had kept the letters to herself, she pleaded, “Can we change the subject?”

  “Great. Let’s talk about your love life. So spill.”

  From the frying pan into the flames. Was she a moron or what? Annie wondered.

  “I have nothing to report.”

  “Excuse me?” Nick said with a grin. “You mean that wasn’t you who got on the back of that motorcycle yesterday after work?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Helen demanded.

  “You might have run out there and tried to stop her.”

  “Oh, please!”

  “You want to run everyone’s life,” Nick said, “so why pretend otherwise?”

  “I just don’t want Annie making a big mistake—”

  “Uh, hello,” Annie interrupted. “In case you two haven’t noticed, I’m still sitting right here.”

  “Well, I’m serious,” Helen said, turning her back on Nick. “This Clark Kent–Superman thing Nathaniel Bishop has going is just plain weird.”

  “You think everything is weird,” Nick said. “You’re suspicious of all men. Annie, ignore her. Go ahead and give the guy a chance. Everyone has parts of themselves they don’t want to share with the world,” he said.

  Including herself. And Nick, too, Annie knew. There were dark parts that he kept to himself. Sometimes he got in a mood and did a disappearing act, only to show up a few days later as though he’d never been gone.

  “You do have a good point.”

  “You bet I do. You’re lucky Nathaniel is sharing himself up front with you.”

  Helen made a sound of exasperation. And Annie suspected she would have continued the argument, but John Riley strolled over from the counter, where he’d just gotten himself a coffee.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  Helen pulled out a chair for him, and Annie determined to bully her friend later into giving an update on her own sex life. She wanted details! Whatever Helen had going with Riley, she was keeping mum. That didn’t mean Annie was about to let her off the hook.

  “Listen, about Sunday,” Annie said.

  Helen gave her a blank look. “What about Sunday?”

  “Don’t play dumb. You’re not old enough to have given up on birthdays yet.”

  “Yeah, I have two whole years before I hit the big thirty,” Helen admitted. “When I was a kid I decided thirty was next to death. So next year I plan to celebrate my first twenty-ninth birthday, and the year after it’ll be my second twenty-ninth birthday, and—”

  Nick cut her off. “We get the idea.”

  “So what about Sunday?” Riley echoed.

  And Annie saw her shot. “We’re having an intimate birthday party for Helen at my place. Maybe you’d like to join us?”

  “Intimate, you say? Count me in.”

  She would definitely have to get the goods from Helen. But that could wait. Rock couldn’t.

  “I’m off,” she said as she stood.

  “Before you go,” Riley said, “I want to make sure that you’re coming to my opening tomorrow night.”

  The next night being a first Friday, the traditional night for Chicago gallery openings.

  “Me?” Annie arched her eyebrows in surprise.

  “You weren’t here yesterday or I would have checked with you then.”

  She looked at her friends. “So you two are going?”

  “That’s a definite maybe for me,” Nick said. “But Helen’s planning on it.”

  Annie just bet she was. “Then I’ll probably stop by myself.” If for no other reason than to see her friend operate on the gallery owner.

  “Great.” Riley saluted her with his coffee. “I’ll count on your being there then.”

  Annie grabbed up her half-empty coffee cup. “See you guys tomorrow.”

  Nick smirked. “Don’t take any rides from strangers.”

  Helen added, “Or from some two-faced man on a motorcycle.”

  Annie rolled her eyes and headed out the door.

  Tonight Nate didn’t catch up to her on the way home. Annie tried to sell herself on not being disappointed as she unlocked her front door, where Rock awaited her.

  She roughed up the cat’s fur, picked him up and kissed his pink nose. “I know you missed me, sweetheart.”

  He yowled in agreement.

  “Okay, let’s get you something to eat.”

  A few minutes later, he was chowing down and she was stripping off her clothes, when the telephone rang. Since she hadn’t yet eaten, she let the answering machine pick up. No doubt it was a computer dialing with a salesperson ready to collar her if she dared answer.

  “We’re too busy to come to the phone right now, so leave a message at the beep.” Beep…

  “I was hoping you would be there.”

  She picked up the receiver. “It’s you.”

  “You sound breathless.”

  “I just ran in the door,” she lied.

  Nate made her breathless. No matter that she knew this was going too fast, that she was too excited over a man she barely knew, he had the power to take her breath away.

  “I miss you,” he said. “I was hoping I’d get a chance to see you today.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Work. And a little glitch in the family law business.”

  She gave a start. “I thought you didn’t do that anymore.”

  “I don’t, not usually. But there was a problem with one of my old clients, who happens to be in town checking on his properties. I needed to make nice to keep my family happy.” Nate hesitated only a moment before saying, “So I was wondering if you could help me out.”

  “With what?”

  “I need to attend a business dinner with my family members and the problem client Saturday night. It would be a lot more enjoyable if you would go with me.”

  A date? With Nathaniel? Annie couldn’t help but be disappointed.

  She’d been hoping for another date with Nate….

  “I’m not really sure it’s my kind of thing,” she told him truthfully.

  “It’s not mine, either, but you know how family demands are.”

  Everyone had different family dynamics. Her parents would never pressure her into anything she didn’t want to do, but she supposed if they tried she would cave.

  “Well…”

  “What can I say to convince you?”

  “Give me something fun to look forward to.”

  “How about tomorrow night?”

  “Gallery night,” she said. “I’m s
ure you’ve noticed Gallery R across the street. We were personally invited by the owner.”

  His tone changing subtly, Nate echoed, “We?”

  “Helen and Nick and me, though I’m not so sure Nick is planning on showing. And I think Helen’s got something going on with Riley, or maybe it’s just the flirtation stage, so I want to be there for backup.”

  “So you don’t have a date?”

  “No, no date.”

  “I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “I’ll come with you to the art gallery opening tomorrow night if you’ll come with me to dinner on Saturday.”

  “Deal,” Annie said simply, her toes curling at the thought of going out with Nate so soon. “So what should I wear on Saturday?”

  “I haven’t seen all your merchandise, but I think I noticed something with tiger stripes.”

  The thought of his knowing what underwear she might choose made Annie squirm.

  “I meant the outer garments,” she said breathlessly. “Suit or dress?”

  “I wouldn’t mind seeing you in something soft and flowing.”

  “Got it.”

  “You certainly do. Wear whatever you want on the outside. Now, about that underwear…”

  His tone was teasing, and he let his words drift off so that she could make of them what she chose.

  She couldn’t help herself. “So you like the tiger print.”

  “I would probably like anything on you. What are you wearing now?”

  “Um, jeans and a T-shirt,” she fibbed, never having had the chance to put them on.

  “And under them?”

  Annie swallowed hard. Did she want to play this game? The warmth curling in her stomach was hard to ignore.

  “Serviceable cotton,” she fibbed again.

  “I don’t believe you. I’ll bet it’s silk.”

  “Okay.”

  “What color?”

  “White.”

  “Nope.”

  “Red?”

  “Something more subtle,” he insisted.

  “Okay, peach.”

  “Like your skin. Does it feel like skin?”

  “Uh, dunno.”

  “Touch it and tell me.”

  She hesitated.

  “C’mon, no biggie,” Nate murmured. “I just want to know if it feels as nice as your skin.”