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CHAPTER ONE
Seven weeks later
“Oh, Mr. Santori, back again, I see. How did your lady friend like the pink ensemble?”
Joe cringed as Dixie, the attractive, middle-aged sales manager of The Red Doors, greeted him on his arrival at the complex Monday afternoon. He’d hoped to sneak past the pickup counter in the front vestibule unnoticed. “Just fine, thanks.”
Not pausing to chat, he pushed through the interior red doors into the main downstairs area of the center. He knew this place like the back of his hand. It had become his favorite shopping spot in the past seven weeks. The fact that he shopped for a ghost woman...well, nobody else had to know that, did they?
Besides, he planned to stop. He really did. Today was it, his last visit. He had several pieces of tagged, unworn lingerie hanging in his closet at home already—lingerie he’d purchased for the woman who existed only in his mind and on the computer screens at The Red Doors. Should his mother ever come over and find them, he’d never hear the end of it.
So, today was the last time, dammit. He had to get over this wacky need to come look at his computer dream woman before every real woman in his life—and in his little black book—got tired of waiting for him to call! Valentine’s Day was four days away and phantom women didn’t make for the best hot dates on the one night of the year a guy was almost guaranteed to get laid.
With a nod to the gentleman who ran the cafe area of the center, he ducked into one of the private computer rooms, sat and began keying in his familiar list. Long, straight, light brown hair, heart-shaped face, midnight-blue eyes, tiny cleft. And this time... “White negligee” he typed.
Then, there she was...clad all in sheer, diaphanous white like the wickedest, sultriest bride ever born.
“You’re not buying this,” he told himself, knowing he was going to max out his credit card if he kept investing in expensive lingerie for a phantom woman.
Bullshit. Of course he was buying it, as he’d bought so many other things from Sheer Delights in the past seven weeks.
He sometimes thought he was single-handedly keeping the place in the black. Though, judging by the number of shoppers he generally saw both in the downstairs coffee bar and computer area, and in the upstairs mezzanine where the three boutiques were located, they’d probably do okay without him.
Before he could convince himself to get up and leave, he heard a noise from the next kiosk. Though the screening rooms offered privacy from prying eyes, with their six-foot-high walls and swinging louvered doors, they certainly weren’t soundproof.
And someone next door was making some noise.
“Ooohhh.”
His eyes widened at the woman’s long, low moan.
“Oooh, my!”
Joe’s brow shot up. The screening room door didn’t go all the way up, or down, and there wasn’t enough privacy for anyone to get frisky while using the kiosks. Apparently, though, the couple in the next room was getting carried away while doing some Valentine’s Day shopping.
“Oh, my God!”
Wow, he must have been totally engrossed by his fantasy woman if the couple next door had progressed to the “Oh, my God,” stage without him hearing anything. He had to hand it to them. Whoever the lovers were, they had to be pretty ballsy to go at it in a public, closet-sized nook in the middle of a weekday afternoon.
They definitely didn’t need an audience, and Joe sure as heck wasn’t a voyeur, so it was time to go. Before he could stop himself, though, he clicked on the order button for the white negligee, then exited the shopping system. The neatly wrapped nightie would be waiting for him at the pickup counter on the way out. He’d have to endure a knowing smile from one of the salesgirls, all of whom quite naturally assumed he was an incurable romantic since he came in so often to buy his lady friend such pretty things.
Somehow, it seemed slightly less pathetic to buy the stuff than to drift in here every week, moon over his cyber dream girl, then leave without spending a dime. He told himself he might actually find the right woman someday—way in the future—and have use for the secret stash in his bedroom closet. More likely he’d end up bringing it all back. Or, even more likely, considering how embarrassing it would be to return a bunch of unworn lingerie, he’d donate it to charity.
Grabbing his leather jacket off the back of his chair, he slipped out of the kiosk, trying to be quiet. Hopefully the amorous ones hadn’t even realized anyone had been next door. He’d stepped past the louvered doors when he heard the woman’s voice again. “Oh, please, no.”
Joe paused. If the next words were, “Don’t stop,” he’d just walk on by. If they weren’t....
He decided to stick around to make sure the woman was okay.
After a moment of silence Joe heard a tiny sound, like the plaintive whimper of a kitten. The sound grew louder, both in volume and in emotional despair. Then she began to repeat one word, over and over. “No, no, no.”
Okay, enough was enough. The lady had said no and, dammit, she’d obviously meant it. Not even hesitating, Joe turned on his heel, pushed open the doors and stepped inside.
A woman sat at the terminal. Joe cast a quick glance around the tiny room. No man, no lover. She was here alone. Had he imagined the moans? “Excuse me, miss, are you all right?”
She turned to face him, enabling him to see her clearly for the first time. Joe’s heart skipped one beat, then another.
You’re dreaming, man.
