Perfect Partners by Jayne Ann Krentz Page B

lasagne. She closed the oven door and snatched up the receiver. Her heart sank as she realized it might be Joel phoning at the last minute to tell her he couldn't make it.
    “Hello?”
    “Letty, is that you?”
    The cultivated masculine voice was unmistakable.
    Letty frowned. “Yes. Yes, it's me, Philip.”
    “It's about time,” Philip Dixon observed. “I've been trying to get through to you for days. Do you realize your secretary has been refusing my calls? I've been checking Directory Assistance every day for a week. I knew that sooner or later you'd get an apartment and your own phone. What is going on out there? Are you all right?”
    “Of course, I'm all right.” Letty struggled to follow what he was saying. “What do you want, Philip?” Another thought struck her. “And what do you mean, my secretary has been refusing your calls?”
    “What I want is to talk to you, Letty my dear. I've been trying to get hold of you since you disappeared. I called your father's mountain cabin on one occasion, and a rather rude individual named Blackstone hung up on me. Were you aware of that? He actually had the nerve to claim he was your CEO.”
    “He is.”
    “Well, you'd better start thinking about getting rid of him,” Philip said. “I can tell from the one short conversation we had that he's not the kind of man you want working for you at Thornquist Gear. Very blue-collar. Letty, my dear, what is going on out there? I was told you'd quit your job here at Vellacott without even giving notice.”
    “I did.”
    “Darling, that's so unlike you. You never used to be so rash.” Philip's voice softened. “It was because of us, wasn't it? Letty, you must believe me when I tell you I regret what happened in my office that day more than I can say. I assure you, it meant nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
    “It meant something to me.”
    “Darling, she was just a grad student. It wasn't serious.”
    “It was serious, Philip.”
    “Letty, I did not want to have to say this, but I'm afraid I must.”
    Letty cringed. Philip was moving into his lecturing mode now. “What is it you feel you have to say?”
    “That unfortunate incident in my office would never have occurred if our relationship had been normal.”
    That stung. “I didn't realize you thought our engagement was abnormal.”
    But with a flash of guilt, Letty admitted to herself that it had been abnormal and she was the one who had made it that way. The engagement had lasted only a month and a half and during the last two weeks of it, Letty had been pulling back emotionally. And as for the physical side of things, she knew only too well that she had never really given much at all.
    On the surface, Philip had all the qualities Letty had been searching for in a husband, plus a couple of extras. He was strikingly good looking, for one thing—tall, urbane, and golden-haired. More importantly, however, he was from her world. They had a great deal in common, or at least Letty had thought they had a lot in common. Philip was intelligent and well educated, and he seemed eager to undertake the responsibilities of a husband.
    He had started pressing her for sex the minute his engagement ring was on her finger. She had held him off until that point because of her deep-seated, old-fashioned need for a firm commitment. Once she had the commitment, Letty told herself she had no more excuses for resisting his requests for sex.
    With hindsight she realized that the fact that she had been searching for excuses in the first place should have been ample warning.
    A few short, unfulfilling bouts in bed with Philip Dixon had confirmed Letty's secret fears. Her limited sexual experience before Philip had made her wonder if she was truly unresponsive but she had told herself it was simply that she had not yet met the right man.
    After Philip, however, Letty had been forced to face facts. There was a growing possibility that she was not a very sensual woman.
    At twenty-nine she was old