by Linda Wisdom
"Hello, Debra. And you must be Lisa," she greeted them warmly. "Please come in."
Lisa entered hesitantly, looking around the tiny living room. A round table stood in one corner, a large crystal ball in its center.
"Who wants to be first?" Xenia asked.
"I, will," Lisa volunteered, anxious to get it over with.
The older woman indicated where they should sit. First she asked Lisa her birthday and time of birth and wrote down the information.
"An Aries." Xenia smiled. "Impulsive, aggressive, but your personality tends to hold you back. You try to do too many things at once, don't you? You lead with your emotions, not with your head."
She handed Lisa a deck of cards, instructing her to shuffle them before she laid them one by one on a cloth marked with squares, whose outlines she was to follow.
"There's a man in your life now who expects something from you," Xenia told Lisa. "More, perhaps, than you know. He's quite a bit older than you are, and he is inflexible. Does that someone sound familiar to you?"
Stunned, Lisa could only nod. For the next hour she became even more surprised as the woman talked accurately about her work and friends. Xenia smiled when she reached a particular card. "Your love card." She tapped the pasteboard with a forefinger. "This man I like. He seems like a lot of fun, sincere, down-to-earth. He'll seem uncaring, but it isn't true. He's a man of action, but only when he's ready. Hold on to him. He's good for you. Be cautious of jealousy and harsh words, though, or you will lose him. Oh, and you may not think so, but his eyes are on you a great deal."
Lisa's mind whirled with this revelation. She .knew Mark had to be the first man Xenia mentioned. But who could the second man be? Had she even met him yet?
When the two cousins traded places, Lisa used shorthand to take down every word of Debra's prediction, as Xenia spoke of her work and the man in her future. Lisa wondered if people specifically came to someone like Xenia to find out their romantic future. Personally, she preferred to find out on her own, in due time.
"Hm, I wonder who the two men in your life are," Debra mused, shooting Lisa a sly glance as they drove home. "One sounds like Mark. Think number two could be Dan Nolan?"
"I should hope not," Lisa said sharply. "He already has a harem to fill his lunch hours. I don't intend to become a groupie at this late date."
"I have to meet this man. You haven't been the same since you began working for him."
"What do you mean?" Lisa demanded.
"Let's just say that you take much more time with your appearance than you did when you were working for Mark," Debra said smugly. "Need I say more?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Lisa replied tightly, staring straight ahead.
Debra hid a smile as she shifted gears and turned down the street to their apartment house.
Lisa searched frantically through the file drawers, muttering under her breath.
"What on earth are you doing?" demanded a deep male voice from behind.
"Trying to find the file on the Stuart case," she replied clenching her teeth.
"Do you mean to say the ever-efficient Miss Winters has misfiled something?" Dan Nolan perched himself on the edge of Lisa's desk and flashed her a mocking smile.
"It isn't misfiled!" she snapped. "I'm just afraid it may have gotten stuck inside another folder, that's all."
"Did you happen to look on my desk?" he asked reasonably.
Lisa sighed an angry breath. "There was no reason for me to look on your desk."
"There is if I was looking through that file this morning and didn't get a chance to put it back," he said evenly. Then his attention was caught by several typewritten sheets lying on Lisa's desk. He reached down and picked them up, then began to read.
"I typed those on my own time," Lisa said hastily, recognizing the sheets as the notes she had taken for Debra the previous evening.
"You believe in this stuff?"
"My roommate conned me into going with her to a psychic. Since she can't read shorthand I typed them up during my lunch hour."
"Don't be so defensive," Dan chided. "It doesn't matter to me when you typed them up. You've put in a lot of overtime the past few weeks." He straightened up. "I'll be working late again tonight, but there's no need for you to stay. Why don't you even leave early, say around three?"
Lisa looked up with surprise. She hadn't realized he had appreciated the evenings when she had stayed late to catch up on the heavy workload.
"Does that surprise you, Miss Winters? I can be human after all." His voice mocked her as he walked into his office. "Oh, Miss Winters, don't forget the Stuart file."
For the balance of the week Lisa was continually surprised by Dan Nolan's insight into her activities. Although he still expected a great deal from her, he didn't overload her with work. Friday morning, Lisa realized she hadn't told him about the surprise baby shower planned for that afternoon. She waited until he had settled himself behind his desk before walking into the office.
"Mr. Nolan, we've planned a baby shower for Sue, Mr. Marsh's secretary, this afternoon, at about four," she began hesitantly. "If it's all right with you, Tina has offered to screen all your incoming calls."
"What's wrong, Miss Winters?" he taunted. "Afraid I'll order you to stay at your desk until five? As a matter of fact, even we stodgy old lawyers were invited, too."
Lisa hid a smile. Dan Nolan was anything but stodgy. Seated behind his desk, his suit jacket discarded and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, he was all male. And one not easily forgotten.
Sue, the young, dark-haired secretary, was duly surprised when she walked into the conference room later that afternoon to a champagne party in her honor. Under the influence of the champagne, Lisa's cheeks were soon becomingly flushed and her green eyes sparkled brightly.
"Tell me, Miss Winters, after another glass or two of champagne, would you allow me to take you home with me and have my way with you?" A man's husky voice, teasing, sounded near her.
Startled, Lisa turned around to see Dan Nolan's smiling face. She could feel her blood racing as she gazed, mesmerized, at his sturdy features. What really surprised her was that she suddenly realized she would willingly have gone anywhere with him if he had seriously suggested it.
"I… I don't really enjoy drinking." She hoped her voice sounded steadier than she felt.
"What a shame," Dan murmured before moving away.
Lisa set her glass down, afraid her trembling hand would soon drop it.
"How about dinner with an ardent admirer?" Mark's voice was low as he stood next to her.
Lisa looked across the room and saw Morgan Grant standing in the doorway. A moment later Dan was by her side, flashing her a warm smile. Lisa suddenly felt curiously flat. "That sounds like a lovely idea, Mark," she said distractedly. "Let me get my purse."
During dinner Mark studied Lisa's face. "You've changed Lee," he told her.
"For the better, I hope," she said lightly as she sipped her wine.
"It's hard to say." His eyes narrowed in thought. "You seem to have grown quieter, no longer as bubbly and outgoing as you used to be. More serious."
"There was a time when you thought I was too bubbly and outgoing," Lisa pointed out.
"Only when you acted like a child, forgetting you were an adult," Mark said stiffly.
Lisa's temper began rising at his words. Who was he to tell her how she behaved? "Perhaps it would be a good idea, then, if we called it an evening," she said tautly.
Mark sighed, realizing he had gone too far. Lisa stayed coolly silent during the drive back to the office parking lot, where her car was parked.
"Lee, I'm sorry," Mark finally said as he stopped his car alongside hers. "I didn't mean to make you angry."
"I'm not angry, Mark," she said quietly.
"Then why are you acting so childish now?" The moment the words were out, he regretted them. "Wait, Lee, that's not what I meant."
"Good night, Mark." Lisa got out of hi
s car and stiffly walked toward her own. She ignored his call for her return and got into her car, revving the engine more than necessary. Tires squealing on the pavement, she raced out of the parking lot.
There were tears in her eyes, but she knew they had nothing to do with Mark.
Arriving home, she was glad to have the apartment to herself, as Debra was out for the evening. Lisa flopped down in an easy chair, closing her eyes, feeling suddenly very weary. A picture of Dan Nolan with Morgan Grant flashed through her mind, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. Lisa covered her face with her hands, wanting to scream with frustration. Couldn't she ever get away from that man?
When Lisa arrived at work Monday morning, she was surprised to find a small stack of handwritten sheets on her desk with a list of instructions attached, evidence that her boss had been working over the weekend. Sighing, she uncovered her typewriter to begin her work.
"Good morning, Lisa, and how was your weekend?" she asked herself, as she put paper into the typewriter. "It was very nice, thank you," she mocked herself as she replied.
"Was it?"
With a burning face, Lisa looked up to find her boss's eyes fixed on her with amusement.
"It's bad enough when you talk to yourself, Miss Winters," Dan Nolan said, as he walked into his office. "But answering yourself could get you committed."
"That only started the day I began working for you," she couldn't help answering.
"Good. I was afraid you were sick. Glad to hear you're back to your old sweet self," he rejoined, this time closing his office door behind him and leaving for court.
Lisa bent over her typewriter again, glad that Dan Nolan was going to be out of the office all day. Their truce certainly hadn't done them much good for long, or had it? It only seemed to work when she was at her desk and he was in court.
The accuracy of that thought occurred to her later that day as she walked to her car. He had called in once, during a recess in the trial, for some information, and they had managed to be perfectly pleasant to each other. So why was it so impossible for them to be nice to each other in person?
Her car was slow to start, but she hardly noticed because she was so busy pondering Dan Nolan and the strange effect he had on her.
But she had nothing on her mind but her car Friday morning, when she stood beside it in the apartment parking lot, a service station tow truck beside her.
"But I can't have a dead battery!" Lisa wailed.
"Your car has to be put on a battery charger for at least eight hours," the young mechanic told her. "I could jump-start it for you now, but it wouldn't last."
"All right, whatever." She sighed. "Do whatever needs to be done."
Lisa went back to her apartment and called the office to inform them she'd be late coming in. She was glad that her boss wasn't due in until eleven, which she thought as she explained her problem to Tina, saying she would be in as soon as possible. As it happened, it was past ten before a frustrated Lisa entered the office.
"You picked a fine day to be late, Miss Winters," Dan Nolan snapped, walking out of his office carrying a sheaf of papers. "Didn't you think to let someone know?"
"I did," she snapped back. "Tina was supposed to leave a note for you on your desk. Besides, you weren't due in until eleven, and I knew I'd be here by then."
"So, since I wasn't due in until later, you decided you could do likewise?" Dan's eyes were dark with anger.
"Rest assured that it won't happen again," Lisa said coldly. She pointedly studied the papers on her desk, until she heard his door close abruptly. Her angry expression changed to one of dismay, as she realized that he had made a great many changes in a lengthy brief she had been typing on and off all week. She had thought she was finished with that project and now it was an incomplete typing job that would easily take her more than half a day to complete, barring interruptions. Silently heaping curses on her boss's head, she got out paper and began working.
Lisa became even more vexed as the day wore on. There was no time for her to take even a short lunch break. And it seemed that every time she turned around the phone rang again, bringing her more problems to deal with. It was late afternoon when she finally finished the typing and carried the papers back into the inner office. Dan Nolan didn't even look up as she set the stack of papers down in front of him. Gritting her teeth, she walked back to her desk.
Half an hour later, while Lisa was busy catching up on her filing, Dan walked out of his office, a dark look on his face.
"It still doesn't work as it's typed," he said flatly, tossing the papers back on her desk. "These additional new changes are going to have to be incorporated into the brief, and I'll need it by tonight."
"Tonight!" Lisa wailed in dismay. "But it's Friday."
"I don't care what day it is, Miss Winters. I'm sure that, with your excellent skills, you can get this done in no time."
Lisa swallowed the bitter words that rose in her throat. Sitting down at the typewriter, she glanced through the pages and saw that Dan had made added notations in bold handwriting on each page. Sighing, she inserted a fresh piece of paper into the typewriter and began typing.
"I should know this all by heart by now," she grumbled, her fingers flying over the typewriter keys.
By the time she finished retyping the lengthy brief, her back was aching from sitting so long in one position. Glancing at the clock she was not surprised to find it was past seven o'clock. Ripping the paper out of the typewriter, she quickly scanned the sheet for errors before adding it to the small stack on her desk. Lisa then walked over to the copy machine to run off a copy for her files. "So help me, if he wants this typed again I'll tell him to type it himself," she complained to herself as she punched the button on the copy machine.
Dan Nolan's office was dark, except for the lamp burning on his desk, when Lisa walked in. She felt a moment's compassion for him as she noted the visible signs of strain on his face, then she quickly squelched the feeling. "Finished," she said stiffly, laying the sheets in front of him.
He looked up, tiredly rubbing his hand over his face before he began leafing through the pages, concentrating on the paragraphs he had made the changes in. "Very good. Thank you."
"If that's all, then I'll leave now." Lisa's voice was cool and distant as she turned to leave the office.
"Tell me something personal, Miss Winters, if you don't mind. Why do you persist in dating Mark Connors when you must know very well that he'll never marry you?" her boss asked suddenly.
Startled by his question, Lisa could only turn to stare ; at him with angry eyes. "I don't believe that's any of your business," she said coldly.
Dan's face creased in a crooked grin. "Hit a sore spot, did I? He'll always put the firm first and his women second. Besides, his archaic mind would never accept marriage to a mere secretary. An affair with her, yes. Marriage, no."
"Why, Mr. Nolan, I had no idea you had such strong feelings about morals and marriage," Lisa said sarcastically. "Your concern for my welfare is overwhelming."
"It's hard to believe that you obviously enjoy being the bridesmaid and not the bride," he said cruelly.
Lisa clenched her fists, feeling the tensions of the day build up to a raging tide. "My private life is none of your business."
"Do you plan on becoming Connors' mistress?" Dan persisted, his eyes narrowed in speculation. "Or, are you already?"
"Why don't you just worry about your own love life?" Lisa refused to let her threatening tears fall. "You should concentrate more on Morgan Grant. I'm sure she'd appreciate it." She turned, all but stumbling. But she had barely taken three steps when two strong hands gripped her shoulders and spun her around.
"You're crying," Dan said with quiet astonishment.
"No, I'm not." She resisted the urge to sniff loudly.
His forefinger tenderly touched her damp cheek. "I didn't intend to make you cry, Lisa," he said gently, using her first name as easily as if he had always used it. "I just don't want
to see you hurt. Connors isn't worth it."
"Why don't you just leave me alone?" she begged.
"Where's the growling Miss Winters I know?" Dan coaxed with a soft chuckle. Looking down at her tear-stained face, his eyes darkened and his head lowered. Seeing his intent, Lisa struggled in his grasp.
"No!" she protested, as Dan's mouth descended firmly to hers.
Dan's arms tightened, pulling Lisa against his hard body. His mouth moved over hers, causing tingling sensations to run up and down her spine. Then it moved upward, as his tongue licked the salty dampness from her cheeks. As if under a spell, Lisa moved her face, now wanting Dan's lips on hers. A low laugh of triumph sounded in his throat as he claimed her lips again. Her arms crept up around his neck, and she let her fingers tangle in his thick hair. Lisa's body felt alive under his caresses. She hadn't dreamed that a man's touch could cause her pulse to race so madly.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with you yet," Dan murmured cryptically. "But then, how can I, when I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself?" Groaning, he pushed her away with evident reluctance. "Come on, I'm taking you to dinner and then home, before I get any more ideas."
"What makes you think I need to be taken home?" Lisa asked breathlessly.
Dan's lazy grin appeared, melting her insides. "I happened to pick up the phone when the garage called about your car, a fact that you didn't bother to mention to me this morning. And since I happen to know that the garage closed over an hour ago, it stands to reason that you need a ride home. So go get your things."
Lisa was still in a daze as she took her purse out of her desk, while Dan turned off his desk lamp and picked up his suit jacket and briefcase. In the confines of the elevator, Lisa's senses were keenly aware of the tall man standing beside her.
They were silent as they walked out into the dimly lit parking lot. Dan led her toward a tan Buick, holding the door for her before walking around to the driver's side. Sliding behind the wheel, he flipped on the ignition.
"Since it's Friday night I doubt we'll be able to get a table right away, no matter where we go. So I hope you're not in any hurry," he commented.
