CHAPTER ONE

The law offices of Adam Cady were dark-paneled, smelling of lemon polish and leather with the hint of cigar smoke in the air.

“You say your name is Leslie Ann?” Adam asked the girl with the wispy platinum-white hair.

“Yes, yes, that’s what I said,” she replied, nervously fingering an old-fashioned cotton handkerchief with a purple lace-trimmed border.

He was thinking otherwise about her name. But it wasn’t wise to confront a fibbing client too soon. He stared at her hands, the nails polished with lavender, long and slender like her fingers, dainty like her small form cowering in the leather chair before him. Her legs were tucked up under her bottom. One minute she was relaxed and casual, the next there was a look of fear in her expression. She had a wide-open face and eyes too blue to be real. Though she’d been crying so there was no way there were colored contacts in her eyes. This blue must be authentic. It was hard to figure her wearing a black long-sleeve, turtle-neck T-shirt dress on a late spring afternoon. It was still too cool for the air-conditioner so the ceiling fan in the office loped around in a circle at an easy gait, giving the room a fresh breath of air. That suited him in shirt-sleeves. But she must be blazing hot underneath that dress. His mind leapt into his imagination to picture her body, a habit he had with women because he was so thoroughly impressed with the female form. He guessed she was slight, slender with small sensuous breasts, detecting a nipple through the fabric of the dress. She’d have a gracious curve inward to her waist and a gentle flare to womanly hips and strong thighs. He could already see that she had tiny feet inside the ballet slippers she wore. The way she cocked her head, he was seduced.

The white in her hair was from bleach, her roots dark—in fashion with the times perhaps, but it was more than that. She wasn’t a twenty year old nymph, but nearly thirty with some substance to her that belied the trendy attire. There was silver dangling from her ears, several piercings in each and silver rings on her fingers. She looked morose dressed in black, except for the flirtatious sparkle in her eyes when she spoke to him, and the smile that was only the hint of a smile. It was meant to tease him, something he knew she did naturally, totally without thinking. But then, bein