Bound With Pearls by Sidney Bristol Page B

scene, was it?”
    She shook her head.
    “Good.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Get in the car.”
    He helped her in and circled the car. It didn’t take a genius to know she was upset. There were some problems in the world a man couldn’t fix, and he was smart enough to know this situation needed more than a Band-Aid. The problems between Christine and Lucy ran deep.
    Glancing at her as he drove, he realized at some point he’d forgotten the relationship between the sisters. Lucy had faded from his memory. While he didn’t think they were anything alike, reminding himself of it helped to cool some of his caveman urges. Before he bought into this one, he needed to be sure she wasn’t hiding something from him. As much as he hated to deny himself this most intriguing woman, he needed to try her out a bit longer. Assure himself she wasn’t hiding an inner Lucy.
    He dropped her off without anything more than a long kiss and went home alone. Not that he wanted to. Everything told him to go back and claim her as his, but he erred on the side of caution. This time.

Chapter Seven
     
    Christine was ready to get out of the office. She was glad it was Friday, but even more so that the bruises on her ass were fading. Sitting at her desk for extended periods of time was somewhat uncomfortable. But that was the price she paid for spending time with Daniel. The thought of him had her reaching for her phone to check the latest text. As a rule, she never looked at the messages when they came in. Instead, she waited a few minutes, savoring the anticipation before relieving her curiosity and replying.
    Daniel was the bright spot of her week. She felt like a kid again, fluttery stomach and all. Even a stern conversation with Ginny hadn’t grounded her wayward hormones. She was quite frankly twitter-pated.
    The good thing was thinking of Daniel distracted her from Lucy. Her sister was a brat and had avoided calling her back all week. She couldn’t find it in her to believe Lucy had been out of town for one second.
    It hurt to think about how little her sister cared for her or their family. When Christine had been younger it hadn’t mattered as much to her, but the older she got, the more their father aged, the more important family became.
    She took a deep breath and dialed her sister. She was going to have to listen to the lies at some point. She might as well get it over with.
    “This is Lucy.”
    Stunned that she’d answered, Christine missed a beat before replying. “Hey, Luce, it’s Chris.”
    “Hey.” False cheer dripped from her sister’s voice. She imagined if Barbie could speak she would sound just like her sister.
    “How was your trip?”
    “The trip?” Christine could practically hear Lucy’s thoughts scrambling for traction. “Oh, it was good. Nothing special.”
    “Yeah? I saw you and Nate at the club on Tuesday. Sorry I didn’t stop to say hi.” She leaned forward and propped her elbows on the desk. How was Lucy going to try to dig her way out this time?
    “Really? What were you doing there?” Lucy’s voice was curious wrapped in happy plastic.
    “I was there with Daniel.”
    “But I thought you were meeting him Friday.”
    “I did. We had dinner on Tuesday and went to the club for a while. I should probably thank you for setting us up.” She bit her lip. Typical sisters would share guy talk, secrets. Part of her wanted a relationship the older she got, but Lucy had never reciprocated.
    “I heard he has a small dick,” Lucy said offhandedly.
    She opened her mouth. Her teeth clicked together as she closed it. “Lucy!”
    “I’m just saying if you’re going to get back into the scene you should get someone more attractive. You’re not bad-looking.” The way Lucy pronounced her not bad-looking was on par with saying taxes weren’t headache-inducing. “Anyways, Nate has some friends. I’ll ask him to set you up if you need the help.”
    “No. No thank you, Lucy.” She took a deep