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skin and her tendency to blush. Well, the secret was out now, no sense denying it.
 Yes, um, Douglas stayed. And he s, um, coming back tonight. She frowned.  Or
at least he said he was. I hope his word is good.
 Oh, his word is good. Suzanne s voice held something. What? Some odd inflection
as if she was trying to tell Allegra something without saying the words.  There s no
doubt about that. Douglas is a thousand percent a man of his word. If he said he s
coming back, count on it he ll be back. I don t think grenades or machine-gun fire
could stop him. It s just that& 
 What? Allegra leaned forward, suddenly anxious and scared. Had she missed out
on something? Not recognized something? What if Douglas wasn t as wonderful as she
thought? What if he was hiding something, like
 Heavens! He isn t married is he? He said he wasn t. Or rather, she frowned,  he
implied he was single. It would be just too awful if he was married with a dozen kids.
She clapped her hands to her still-red cheeks in horror. Oh God, she simply couldn t
stand it if her time with Douglas had been a lie. He seemed so steady and
 No, sweetie, Douglas is definitely not married, never has been. There are no kids
anywhere, I can assure you of that.
Allegra sat back in her chair, relieved. Wow. Maybe she should stop thinking in
such catastrophic terms all the time. Not everything was destined to turn out for the
worst. Maybe.
 Well, this is a real surprise. Suzanne touched the back of her hand lightly, letting
her know she was there, listening.  I want you to tell me everything. What happened?
He accompanied you home and then just walked right in?
136
Midnight Angel
 Mmm, not quite. We had a little& interlude at the Foundation.
 What? This was actually fun. Allegra was enjoying the shock and surprise in
Suzanne s voice. Not much knocked Suzanne off course.  At the Foundation? Between
the concert and the bad guys? No wait, you were singing when they broke in! Just when
did you have time to carry on a romance? This is incredible.
It was so romantic, Allegra wanted to tell the tale. For just a second, she allowed
herself a flash of thought of the future. And since it was in the privacy of her own head,
she could think what she wanted. She imagined telling her grandchildren the story.
And since it was her head and her daydream, there were lot of kids listening.
Ah, me darlings, gather  round and listen to when your grandfather started seducing yer
grandmother under the podium while bad guys were shootin their guns.
 Well, you and Claire weren t around, so Douglas accompanied me up onto the
podium. She shushed Suzanne, who d groaned.  And don t you dare apologize for not
being there because if you had, I wouldn t have had a chance to connect with Douglas.
Anyway, he walked me to Dagda and said he d wait for me to finish, so he was close
by. I was halfway through the set when I heard noises from the audience. It was only
later that I found out the lights went out. And then and then there was a huge
explosion. Only just as the noise of the explosion hit me, something else hit me
Douglas, flying off the podium with me in his arms. Amazing. He rolled us right under
the concert podium. He was on top of me. And we, um, stayed there& for a while.
Long enough to almost have an orgasm, she thought, and blushed bright red again.
 It was so wonderful, Suzanne, she said dreamily.  I just can t tell you how how
wonderful and exciting and thrilling it s been. Just amazing. I mean, I know perfectly
well that there are huge differences between us. Don t think I don t realize that.
 Well, Suzanne said, her voice kind.  What does that matter? After all, looks aren t
every 
 I mean, Allegra interrupted,  I ll just bet you anything he s a Republican.
Suzanne laughed.
 What?
 Oh, yes, I think you can safely say that Douglas is a Republican. And definitely
John and probably Bud, too. It s okay, your vote can cancel his out. Who cares about
politics? There are more important things. Are you are you happy with him?
 Absolutely. With all her doubts about herself and what she could offer, that was a
question Allegra could answer without hesitation.  It s been wonderful so far, at least.
I feel incredibly safe, with him, you know?
 Yes, Suzanne said softly, putting her hand over Allegra s and squeezing lightly.
 I can imagine. I know how I feel with John, like nothing bad can happen as long as he s
around. I m only sorry that on Saturday night I insisted that he and Douglas be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]