He was recovering, now, and he raised his glass. “To unexpected pleasures,” he said.

She laughed. “Those are the best kinds.” She sipped the champagne.

“You are certainly full of surprises,” he said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Oh, I am,” she agreed. “You must always remember that about me. I’m very forward, too. I don’t hesitate when I want something.”

“I don’t have any trouble believing that,” he said. “But how did you know I wouldn’t jump up from the table, shocked?”

“I’m psychic about these things,” she said.

“I’m a little psychic, myself,” he said. “Would you like a reading?”

“Why not?”

He set down their glasses, then took both her hands and held them palm up, gazing at the lines. “I can see that you have very talented hands,” he said.

She laughed aloud. “That’s not very psychic,” she said.

“You were foolish when you were young, but you’re smarter, now.”

“Dino told you about my marriage, no doubt.”

“I see that you do useful work,” he said. “That you are a giving person. That you give in your work.”

She looked at him oddly. “Go on.”

“Your work is somehow connected with the arts,” he said. “But you are not an artist, exactly. No, but you help an artist—more than one, I see. Money is involved, to allow them to do their work.”

Her black eyes narrowed; she seemed puzzled. “Dino couldn’t have told you that,” she said.

“There are paintings, many paintings; they are displayed in different settings—museums, perhaps. And there is a connection with television, perhaps art on television.”

She tried to pull her hands away, but he held on to them. “I get an impression of thorns,” he said. “A name that has something to do with thorns or briars.”

She snatched her hands away. “Stop it, this is spooky.”

Stone shrugged. “Merely a gift. Nothing to be superstitious about.”

“How did you know all that?”

“I sensed it,” he said.

She laughed. “For a moment, you had me believing you.” She sipped her champagne again, leaned toward him, and kissed him. “I believe you are in my debt,” she said.

“I suppose I am, at that,” he replied.

“I am not accustomed to waiting to be paid; and I always insist on interest.”

“That seems only fair.”

She stood up, reached behind her, and unzipped her dress. It fell at her feet, and she stepped out of it. She was wearing no bra, only stockings and a garter belt, with panties over them. She shucked off the panties and walked toward him.

He began to get up, but she pushed him back into a sitting position and straddled him. She pulled his head forward, and her scent filled his nostrils.

“First installment,” she said huskily.

Stone paid up. For a moment, he wondered what he was getting himself into. Then he stopped worrying about it.

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