Balance of Force: Toujours Ici by Ali Vali

Author:Ali Vali [Vali, Ali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Lesbian, Paranormal
ISBN: 9781602825673
Google: egdMYgEACAAJ
Amazon: 160282567X
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2011-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

Balance of forces: Toujours IcI

• 147 •

around her desk. Kendal Richoux might have perfected the art of corporate raiding, but she had impeccable manners. “Please come in and sit.” Her words pried Kendal’s feet off the floor. “And breakfast sounds good.”

“I thought if we talk without our original barriers, we could actually share a meal and not have it end in a food fight.”

“The last few months haven’t brought out the best in me, so I apologize again.”

“I understand difficult positions, so you’ve nothing to be sorry for.

Shall we?” Kendal asked, pointing to the door.

Piper guided her down the street to the café where she and Mac ate often. It wasn’t fancy, but the woman who’d run it for years took pride in preparing simple homestyle foods. Once they’d ordered, Piper held her coffee cup with both hands to keep them still. Kendal had a way of looking at her that made her feel stripped bare.

“Can I ask you something?”

Kendal nodded. “What would you like to know?”

“Please believe I’m not asking to make you mad—I’m only curious.” Kendal smiled, she guessed at her hesitation, and when she did it brought out the unique color of her eyes. They made her think of blue ice. “Why do you do this for a living?”

“You might get upset with me if I’m totally honest,” Kendal said, stopping to take a sip of her coffee. “Would you like me to be?”

“If you say you do it for the hell of it, then no, not today.” She shook her head for emphasis, and Kendal’s smile helped lift her mood.

As contentious a start as they’d had, Kendal hadn’t taken too many shots at her.

“The strategy required to be successful at this challenges me. No two projects are ever the same, so they all teach me something. I’d never do anything just for the hell of it, unless you’re interested in an afternoon of skinny-dipping. For that I might utter those words.”

She laughed and couldn’t look Kendal in the eye. “I’d admire you at any other time, but being on this end of things paints you in a different light, as they say.”

“Actually da Vinci coined the phrase.”

“He did? I’ve never read that,” Piper said, lapsing into silence as the food arrived.

“You’ll have to take my word for it, then,” Kendal said as she covered her waffles in maple syrup, using almost the entire carafe.

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